[ale] way OT - used car buying tips - yea or nea - PT 2

[Boris Borisov]

I would say nice toy :)

On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 9:06 AM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> Or a hose cracks at a fitting.
> I'm replacing all the vacuum lines on the toy car with thick walled silicon
> ones.  The Porsche intake system is hyper-sensitive to vacuum leaks.
> Stranded the SWMBO once and am STILL in the doghouse for it.
>
> On Dec 1, 2012 8:23 PM, "Boris Borisov" <bugyatl at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> In today cars you have engine attached to bunch of computers not
>> computer helping the engine to run.
>>
>> Just joking :)
>>
>> But sometimes this engine/computer ecosystem looks so fragile. You
>> pull one hose and nothing works :)
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 1:46 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
>> <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>> > Hi guys,
>> >
>> > I just wanted to give you a quick update about an annoying experience
>> > with my wife's car so you can avoid similar trouble.  As I mentioned before,
>> > as part of my efforts to save fuel, I was planning to install K&N high
>> > performance air filters on both vehicles.  Well, I'm no mechanic, but I
>> > figured just snap the latches off the air box, swap the filter cartridge,
>> > snap the lid back on.  Even I could handle that.  So, that's what I did.
>> > Well, this morning, my wife reports that the car is skipping and sputtering
>> > and the check engine light is on.  Oh drat!  I take a quick look at the air
>> > filter, but everything looks fine.  I swap vehicles with her and take the
>> > car to the mechanic.  Before I see him, I pull the fault codes from the car
>> > using my OBD2 interface and my Android tablet.  It was complaining about the
>> > mass air flow system.  So, I met the mechanic and told him what had
>> > happened.  It took him about 10 seconds to diagnose the problem.  In the
>> > process of changing the filte!
>>
>>  r,!
>> >   I had inadvertantly dislodged the pipe where the air leaves the filter
>> > box and enters the engine.  So, the car was getting completely unfiltered
>> > air, and the mass air flow sensor wasn't detecting any air flow, so the
>> > computer was unhappy, and it didn't know how to control the engine properly.
>> > It took him another two minutes to fix the problem and he didn't even charge
>> > me.  Afterwards, I hooked my tablet back up and cleared the check engine
>> > light and the car is happy and things are back to normal.
>> >
>> > So, the moral of the story is, if you change your air filter yourself,
>> > don't disconnect any pipes.  I'm glad we found the problem and fixed it.
>> > What's a little scary is that, the only reason it caused a problem is that
>> > the car is all computerized.  That tells me two things.  One, you ain't
>> > running if the computer is unhappy.  And two, if it had been a non
>> > computerized car like an older carburetor driven vehicle or my old Mercedes,
>> > it would have run just fine without the filter pipe attached, maybe even
>> > better.  I could have gone on for years with no air filter and potentially
>> > damaged the engine.  Well, live and learn.  Hopefully, you guys can avoid
>> > similar issues.
>> >
>> > Sincerely,
>> >
>> > Ron
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9
>> > Mail.
>> > Please excuse my potential brevity.
>> >
>> > (To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to
>> > former
>> > messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
>> > address.  Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
>> >
>> > (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
>> > call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
>> > mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
>> > quickly.)
>> >
>> > Ron Frazier
>> > 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
>> > linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Ale mailing list
>> > Ale at ale.org
>> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>