• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.
  • Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Calgary Area Meetup is set for Saturday July 12th at 10am. The signup thread is here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!

Really ?

My next ride.
1748703328107.png
 
I'll chime in on modern car things ...
the better 3/4's 2013 Dart...the brain in it that handles Bluetooth, rear camera and some other functions...randomly just stopped functioning about 3 or so years ago...first we lost connection of our phones, then the backup camera would either not work, work, display upside down, display upside down scrambled (like 80's satellite porn video's) or just scrambled...I was quoted over 500 from the dealer for it....yeah no...it can stay broken...
Then...there's this need to "improve" the guts of the engines....
This car is equipped with a 1.4L turbo fed gas miser that makes 160horsetorques...but it has oil pressure powered valvetrain, on one set of valves, the other set is mechanical. The "multiair brick" as they're known...is sensitive to dirty or contaminated oil...so much so that if you're the type of owner who forgets or misses regular service intervals...the "brick" can collect gunge and cease to function normally...this results in bent valves, no starts and general abject frustration...what REALLY pisses a guy off...is in the owners manual there is no mention of the filter screen thing that is installed in the side of the cylinder head...it also gets plugged up, resulting in lower oil flow and of course, damaged parts...

The car left my bride stranded, 70 kms outside of the destination she was heading for. No cell signal. And very light traffic...the engine lost compression in #3. And she was all by herself. Luckily she was in a spot where it was safe to pull over. Within 20 mins, some one was good enough to pull over and help.
But what a fuckaround.
Near as I could see with a scope, one of the exhaust valves let go and contacted a piston...so with 180 plus kms on a 12 year old car...we decided to just replace it.
I had intentions of doing something stupid with it...like gutting it and converting it to RWD...but we're planning on moving next year. No point dragging it with us when I don't know if we'll have the space...
 
I’m renting a Kia Sportage PHEV and touring Ireland with it.
This car needs a lobotomy to be driven. Lane keeping assist that fights you for control, beeps at you every which way if someone is too close front back or side which they always are on the roads over here. Have to disable it every time I start the car. Locks you in the car, screams at you if you take the key with you to get out and snap a picture, and is otherwise just miserable to live with in a digital way. Drives nice otherwise and gets good mileage. I’m have a full rant brewing for the integration of nice to have features with basic car functionality, but will save it for another day.
 
Don't knock heated seats and steering wheel if you haven't tried it. Now heated floor mats may be excessive... What I can definitely do without is the idiotic automatic engine shut off when waiting for the light to change!
The first time I was near a vehicle with that feature I thought they had mechanical problems. Eventually, they will when the starter wears out.
 
Well, I think that’s it for today!

wait I got another.......

On my wife's 2015 forester the hatchback hinge gap collects snow and ice that is impossible to remove!
Then once the inevitable ice-berg forms in that space you cannot open the hatch completely.
If you just unlatch and let it spring-up it only goes about 3/4 of the way open.
If you force it to go further, then you start bending sheet metal!

NOT made for our climate!

Brian
 
...in the owners manual there is no mention of the filter screen thing that is installed in the side of the cylinder head...
'07 Avalanche. Oil pressure sending unit has a screen to stop gunk from getting into the sending unit & rendering it inoperable. 'Course, every so often the screen plugs up, the warning lights & audibles on the dash power up for no pressure & you have to go buy another sending unit anyways. Twice now in the last 3 years.
 
I’m renting a Kia Sportage PHEV and touring Ireland with it.
This car needs a lobotomy to be driven. Lane keeping assist that fights you for control, beeps at you every which way if someone is too close front back or side which they always are on the roads over here. Have to disable it every time I start the car. Locks you in the car, screams at you if you take the key with you to get out and snap a picture, and is otherwise just miserable to live with in a digital way. Drives nice otherwise and gets good mileage. I’m have a full rant brewing for the integration of nice to have features with basic car functionality, but will save it for another day.

Are you sure you didn't rent a marriage simulator?
 
We’ve had automobiles for around 125 years. So a century+ of damages, injuries, and deaths caused by a simple mechanical issue common to every motor vehicle I’ve ever driven - the brake pedal is closer to your foot than the accelerator pedal.

That old guy that plows through your fence and into your living room? Typically, he looked away from the road for a second, got confused, and his car jumped the curb. When he realized what was happening, he slammed on the brakes. Except, because the brake pedal is higher than the accelerator, when his foot slipped off the brake pedal it went in the only direction possible and floored the gas. And now he’s parked on your couch.
 
We have a kettle that opens a similar way. I’ve learnt to partially pry up the lid before pressing the button.
 
'07 Avalanche. Oil pressure sending unit has a screen to stop gunk from getting into the sending unit & rendering it inoperable. 'Course, every so often the screen plugs up, the warning lights & audibles on the dash power up for no pressure & you have to go buy another sending unit anyways. Twice now in the last 3 years.
What engine does your Avalanche have? I have a 07 Sierra with the 4.8Litre and have not had that problem (yet)
 
It gets really confused when there isn’t any side of the road- 1 lane and two way traffic roads with rock walls 6” off to the sides. It oscillates between the two sides and it can get a feedback loop going between me and it, kinda like a 737-800 Max! Guess I need to read the users manual?
 
Lots of people out biking and it's wonderful to see families out together, getting exercise, heading down the street.

If I could make one of those public service announcement commercials it would go like this:

Dad, son, and daughter holding bike helmets with their names on them standing around a hospital bed that mom is laying in on life support equipment:

Son speaks, "She's never going to be able to watch me play ball again."

Daughter speaks, "She won't ever be able to help me with my homework again" Looks up at dad, "Why didn't she wear a bike helmet dad?"

Dad looks at daughter, "I don't know but I think it had something to do with it messing up her hair."

Cuts to a close-up of mom's bandaged-up head with tufts of hair sticking out.

The end.


My wife always wore a helmet. Of all the families I see biking without helmets it's almost always mom not wearing one. Really?
 
I ordered takeout the other night. I didn't use skip the dishes because I had to agree that they would provide my email to online marketers..... Really

So I ordered with Uber. They text me the cell number and name of the driver a description of his car as well as a live map. So far so good, I'm impressed.

I'm about 3km from the swarma place. He drives past my place 4 times, clearly lost. So I call him, he can't speak or understand a word of English other than hello, I mean zero, not even "stop". We live in a nice neighborhood with well manicured lawns, we have a circular driveway that can accommodate many cars. Where does he park..... all four wheels on my lawn, why would someone do that?
Really

When he came to the door, I attempted to explain that he should not park on peoples lawns, he clearly didn't understand a word I was saying.

I appreciate it must be very difficult adjusting to life in a new country ( I know I lived in Mexico for a while when a teenager), but I think when hiring that there should be some bar however low for basic communication capability and some basic do's and don'ts ....Rant over.
 
Last edited:
I ordered takeout the other night. I didn't use skip the dishes because I had to agree that they would provide my email to online marketers..... Really

So I ordered with Uber. They text me the cell number and name of the driver a description of his car as well as a live map. So far so good, I'm impressed.

I'm about 3km from the swarma place. He drives past my place 4 times, clearly lost. So I call him, he can't speak or understand a word of English other than hello, I mean zero, not even "stop". We live in a nice neighborhood with well manicured lawns, we have a circular driveway that can accommodate many cars. Where does he park..... all four wheels on my lawn, why would someone do that?
Really

When he came to the door, I attempted to explain that he should not park on peoples lawns, he clearly didn't understand a word I was saying.

I appreciate it must be very difficult adjusting to life in a new country ( I know I lived in Mexico for a while when a teenager), but I think when hiring that there should be some bar however low for basic communication capability and some basic do's and don'ts ....Rant over.
It's already a law but not enforced in the USA that truckers need to speak and understand a bare minimum of English. A couple states are pushing for bills to enforce it
 
I ordered takeout the other night. I didn't use skip the dishes because I had to agree that they would provide my email to online marketers..... Really

So I ordered with Uber. They text me the cell number and name of the driver a description of his car as well as a live map. So far so good, I'm impressed.

I'm about 3km from the swarma place. He drives past my place 4 times, clearly lost. So I call him, he can't speak or understand a word of English other than hello, I mean zero, not even "stop". We live in a nice neighborhood with well manicured lawns, we have a circular driveway that can accommodate many cars. Where does he park..... all four wheels on my lawn, why would someone do that?
Really

When he came to the door, I attempted to explain that he should not park on peoples lawns, he clearly didn't understand a word I was saying.

I appreciate it must be very difficult adjusting to life in a new country ( I know I lived in Mexico for a while when a teenager), but I think when hiring that there should be some bar however low for basic communication capability and some basic do's and don'ts ....Rant over.

The following day his cousin shows up on your doorstep offering his "turf care" business.
 
Back
Top