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Did you know that if you don't start a 2012 Chevrolet Caprice PPV (6.0 L V-8) for three weeks, the sleeping electronics will drain the battery dead?
I know that now.
Luckily, I have an excellent battery charger.
All better now.
The car draws between 0.3 and 0.5 amps when it's sitting there waiting for you to come back.
It's the keyless entry system waiting for your signal, I am told.
And keeping a couple volatile memories alive for the clock and mileage calculator.
My road to being a gun owner ran through being a hot-rodder.
It also is the core of my hatred of greenies.
Do you know how much pollution I've saved by not getting a new car every 3-5 years like they do? They never count the pollution of making their new car and disposing of the old one.
It's a lot more than the pollution of driving a "dirty" car for 15-20 years.
It's amazing how many gun control things rhyme with car stuff.
California has a handgun roster and it is poised to have a tire roster.
Because rolling resistance is all that matters in a tire's design.
They're using the thin veil of "that's what came on the car" as cover for the decision and how much it's going to save the consumers in fuel. Never mind the OE tire is normally the most expensive one you can get for a given car and that costing the customer more in tires than they save in gas...
But why did the OE put that shitty tire on the car in the first place? Corporate Average Fuel Economy. The teeny increase in mileage from low rolling resistance can be enough to move the car's EPA efficiency to a different column and keep the OE from paying taxes, fees and fines to put it on the road.
They didn't do it because it's the best tire for the car and what the consumer wants to do with it; they did it to comply with a set of regulations that were never attached to reality and get further detached every legislative session.
By the way, this is the same government that decided we all need to have run-flat tires rather than insist we learn how to deal with a blow-out.
Just wait for when your rear view mirror gets replaced with a camera!
Took a... something to the left front on Moxie.
The 'T' part was encased in rubber that fell apart while I was pulling it out of the tire.
Update: Reader Red's Woodsman appears to have ID'd it. The metal parts of a bicycle brake pad.
Sadly, the plugs don't appear to have taken and the hole still leaks. Time to take it to the local ma & pa tire place for a patch. Update: Ma & Pa tire place charged me the princely sum of $25 to put a patch over the hole that the plug failed to seal.
The back-up camera on Moxie was a blurry mess. $25 plus tax replacement from Amazon and it's crisp and sharp! It's amazingly good now!
Got the oil and filter changed on my father in law's truck. We'd missed the scheduled window because... I was convinced he'd taken it to a shop to have the oil done.
He hadn't. But since we used the extended miles synthetic stuff, prolly no harm.
Something I noticed that's made it hard for me to watch some CarTube channels is the obvious wealth of the presenter.
Their being richer isn't the problem.
It's the conceit that they're experiencing the same problems I would have in getting the money together for the project while they casually mention dropping thousands on it.
Additionally the "old friend" from the car rags days has returned. Parts donated by a vendor and deals I won't get because a seller isn't trying to get ME to mention them on my channel.
So, no, will not be taking my $100k F350 and $20k enclosed car trailer to pick up a $3,500 car with a seized engine.
I will not be finding a 6.2l aluminum LS engine, that already has a Summit stage 4 cam, laying around for less than $5k. I will not be handed a $5k exhaust system. I will not be spending the day getting my car dyno-tuned, a $1,500 to $3,000 value.
But most of all, I will not be doing it in my forty-thousand square foot shop with 8 two-post lifts.
Because of all that, it rubs me wrong when they start complaining about how much a fucking water pump would cost. I might, by necessity, need to skip the $200 water pump if I needed to get my car back on the road after an engine swap.
But I also don't brag about "being under ten grand" on a project that has, at least, another $10k in parts donated to it.
Your project is $25 grand to the rest of us and I can't pretend otherwise.
My suspension of disbelief is no longer willing.
Isn't it amazing that parts that are warrantied for 5 years and 100,000 miles when the car was new are only good for a year and 5,000 miles when added later?
Once again, casting my eye to California, I ask, "What, exactly, is wrong with letting people decide for themselves?"
Jalopnik has a story about how California is going to start forcing people to buy a particular kind of tire over all other kinds.
Specifically shallow-tread, low rolling resistance tires. (In the article they use 8.5/32"... I think someone failed fractions and that made them decide to go into journalism because math is too hard. 17/64" is what you were looking for, Mr Hughes.)
Those tires last 27k miles instead of 40-50k.
On the plus side, that could save the average driver a whole $176 over four years!
At California prices, that's just under 40 gallons of gas.
Considering that the average driver puts 10k miles a year on their car, you need tires every 2.7 years instead of every 4-5. Tires are, at least, an $800 cost and they want you to do it, about, twice as often. Gee, thanks Mr Mx Government Man Person!
Improved gas mileage is only one consideration for what you want a tire to do, as they mention in the article.
The problem, in their minds, is people come to the wrong conclusion about what suits their needs; so they must be forced to make the CORRECT decision. They're doing it for our own good! Even worse, they're once again using Europe's already favoring such shitty tires as a justification for doing it.
If I wanted to live in a place like Europe, there's a place called "Europe" that I could move my happy ass to and get all the Europing my heart desires without sullying myself with provincial 'Mericanism.
The thing is, the invisible hand is better at making this decision. Always has been, always will be.
A YouTuber I follow for Holden content, CommodoreMan, just mentioned paying 2.89AUD for a liter of gas.
That translates to $7.889 per gallon here in the US. I'm rounding the 3rd digit to 9/10 of a cent because all US gas is PRICE + 9/10¢.
The cheapest average price that Petrolmate has for gasoline in Australia is $4.999 per gallon for E10.
I am a bit jealous that 91 octane is considered regular there, but it's $5.329 per gallon. I think this also explains why the owner's manual for the 14-17 Caprice changes the recommended octane to 91 from 87 in the 11-13's. A couple years of seeing what mild knock was doing to maintenance sheets prolly pushed the change.
The Beast, an immigrant from Australia, has been eating 93 octane Premium lately. Current price is $5.079 (1.86AUD per liter) at the nearest Exxon. Premium is 95 octane in Oz and it's averaging $5.759.
87 octane at that same station is running $4.279 per gallon; 1.57AUD per liter.
The real surprise in Aussie gas prices on Petrolmate is E85. The low price is 99.9c/l, with an average of 244.6c/l. Those translate to $2.729 per gallon low price and $6.669 for the average.
The local RaceTrac has E85 for $3.769 per gallon (138.3c/l).
I wonder at that price range, anyone on the other side of the planet have any insight?
For the first time in years I both remembered that the Indy 500 was on and was able to watch it.
Lots of memberberries with this, even though I don't recognize but three names (and those are kids and grandkids!).
I must say that the new tires are MUCH smoother than the old tires.
It'd be a shock if they weren't, to be honest.
I did a loop of the greater area which included all the various legal limits and I cruised at all of them. Even a couple of jaunts 10 over to check for vibrations.
Nada.
I am happy!
The tire guy says that I'd benefit from a set of hub-centric rings. I hadn't thought of getting a set because The Beast's hubs are 66.9mm; just like a Camaro.
The rims on her are stock Camaro rims... Yet they appear to have a center-bore of 73.1mm.
WTF?
So I ordered a set of rings that should be here tomorrow. We'll see how they work. Will they make any difference at all? Who knows?
Alice, was made in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Moxie and Noxious, like many 2nd generation Equinoxes were made in the CAMI plant Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.
The Beast, like all WM Caprice PPV's was made in the Holden Elizabeth Plant, South Australia, Australia.
The Precious, a 6th generation Corvette, was made in Bowling Green, Kentucky.Flossie, a 7th generation Honda Civic sedan was made in East Liberty, Ohio! My import was domestic!
The Biscayne SS left Willow Run Assembly in Ypsilanti, Michigan as a 4th generation Caprice Classic.
Both of Harvey's Dodge Ram D150's came from Warren, Michigan.
Her Caprice 9C1 was made in Arlington, Texas.
That's all the Florida cars.
The Camaros were from Van Nuys, California and Norwood, Ohio.
My '86 Civic hatchback came from Suzuka, Japan.
The '82 Linx was made in the USA, but I don't remember which plant.
The Passat was, obviously, made in Germany, but it wasn't an import where I owned it.
I guess I buy American more often than I remember.
First off, she's lying, they are not banning classic cars with this bill. Bad way to start.
What they are changing is the issuance and usage of cars with the special classic car license plate.
Near as I can tell, if you register your hot-rod normal like, you are not constrained by the new rules.
At the moment you pay $13.50 for a rear plate or, optionally, $15.50 for front and rear plates; plus $150 for sales tax and $25 one-time registration. It's always been the law that you can't use it for "general transportation purposes." So $178.50 and your car is registered forever in Minnesota.
General transportation purposes is not actually defined.
The proposed bill really defines, and limits, what you can do with your special, lifetime, registered car.
I am not that shocked that they went very restricted.
But you takes the tax break, you takes what restrictions come with it.
This is not going to destroy the hobby and most people who actually qualify for the plate as it was originally intended have the money to register and insure their cars with normal plates and can drive as much as they like, anywhere they like.
Betcha that there's a lot of shitboxes that are 2006 and older that have a "Collector's Vehicle, collector plate" who are doing it to avoid the 10% of original MSRP plus 1.575% of current value.
For reference a '69 Chevelle's MSRP is in the $2,600 ballpark. Current value is VERY subjective, so let's say $50k because that's what Autotempest says. So $1,047.50 a year to register your '69 Chevelle in Minnesota. That's steep.
A 2006 Toyota Corolla ran $14,725 sticker price and is worth $6,500 today. $1,574.88 a year.
See the incentive to call your shitbox a collector car?
The Rat Rod people have also made it difficult to make a, "is this a collector car?" decision on condition.
Club memberships don't really help either, there's scads of Ricer clubs that will include that Corolla.
Considering that I paid $250 total for three cars in Florida, I can see that the real problem isn't the definition of "Hot Rod" but a rapacious and greedy Democrat controlled government.
Due to our drought conditions, we're restricted from washing the cars except on one designated day of the week based on the last number of our address.
That means Friday here.
All three cars needed a wash, Moxie the worst.
Harvey and I knocked it out and waxed today.
Like gun cleaning products, car care products have improved dramatically since I first got into this.
Harvey was able to wax both Alice and Moxie in direct sunlight because Garage One GT makes a spray-on/wipe-off wax you can use that way.
It looks spectacular!
Moxie is back!
She's perky compared to how she drove before.
The problem appears to have been the VVT solenoids.
OEM solenoids die in a way that shorts them to ground and that sets off the code associated with them.
Aftermarket solenoids mostly die the same way, but occasionally will fail mechanically so the computer will think they are working and notice it's getting out of range information from other sensors.
They don't fail all the way, so you get a long time of spurious and intermittent fails.
That's our story and we're sticking to it!
The shop put 20 miles into a test drive. I just did 10 running around.
Related: All three cars have new wiper blades. My house is also out of equity from buying them...
Peddle sent me a text telling me that the driver was on the way to pick up Noxious.
"Odd," I thought, "We dropped her off at the towing company yesterday."
Moments later, they texted me that our driver, Steve, was at the location of our car.
Ah! Steve just clocked in, because Noxious is at his workplace.
Moments later, they texted me that our car had been picked up by Steve.
We're thinking these transmissions are entirely automated in nature and are required to be sent regardless of how silly circumstances have made them.
While we feared the fuel pump or the fuel pressure control module, it looks like it might be chewed wiring from a rodent's nest and bad cam timing solenoids.
The mechanic is reasonably confident this will take care of it.
Eyes crossed.
The sad thing is I'd replaced the solenoids six years and 13k miles ago. Mutter mutter mutter.
At least this time we'll have a warranty!
Peddle, the national car buyer, gave me the number of the tow place.
The reason they didn't come last night was their driver quit on them.
That sucks.
They were, however, willing to let me drive Noxious to them. So I did.
They cut a check, I signed over the title, and we're done!
But there was a surprise in our visit...
The back office of the auto-shop is a gun shop!
I noticed by the Luger hanging on the back wall and the owner and I started talking about Lugers.
He's got a 1914 artillery model with all the magazines, holster and stock... Paging Mr Fleetwood on the "I can't fucking afford that discourtesy phone!"
Apparently, the national company that's buying Noxious hires a handy, local, towing company to come seal the deal.
Also, apparently, they don't bother to check to see if that local towing company will be open during the promised pickup time.
So I sat here waiting between 3 and 8 pm for them when they closed at 5.
I'm betting they didn't even know they were supposed to come get the car.
I guess we'll see tomorrow.
The reason we couldn't find the title for Noxious was we never had it.
We bought Noxious from a local car dealer and they filed the purchase as "release of lien" instead of "paid in full" and the system expects the lein holder to then request a title for the purchaser.
Because the car was paid for in full, the fine folks at the dealer didn't realize they'd checked the wrong box and our title has been electronically held for the past 8 years.
So, instead of $76 or so for a replacement title, I paid just under $13 for a first title. Plus I took it home the same day.
Even more fun!
If you use one of the third party title services you pay between $150 and $180 depending how you want it shipped and wait one to three weeks for it. Regardless of whether it's an initial title or a replacement.
Glad I spent the 45 minutes at the motor vehicle office today.
When you sell a car, you tend to need a title.
We found the titles for Moxie, The Beast, and the bill of sale for Technomad's Bluesmobile II.
No title for Noxious.
Well, poop.
A fun filled time at the DMV tomorrow!
Noxious had relatively new tires on her.
Moxie's were definitely in need of being replaced on the front, and all four TPMS sensors were dead.
So Marv and I swapped the wheels and tires from Moxie to Noxious and now Moxie has working TPMS again!
The battery for my sensor activator was mostly dead and the spare had the same expiration date, but I got lucky and got them programmed. Every car has a sweet spot for this tool and it's against the sidewall near the stem on these sensors.
We're going to swap anything that's better on Noxious to Moxie this weekend and the off to the "we buy any car!" place.
