Random Talk.

[Princess]

Yep, the weather

[JimDaddy]

So, some stuff happened today...

 

Anyway, went out for some groceries today and my speedometer started freaking out. No big deal, I driven without one before and I had planned on getting a GPS in the next few weeks anyway, which also tells me how fast I'm going. However, a few minutes after that the transmission started slipping out of gear and a mile or so after that 1st started going out. Basically, here's the deal- I will try cleaning the filter and if that fixes it, then cool. If not, then my transmission has finally gone out (not surprising consider the way it's been acting) and that would be $2k at the very least. The car is only worth about $1000 at the most. This means a new car with the money I had set aside for a new desktop and games and whatnot in the next couple weeks. Which sucks.

 

TL;DR- car hates me so much that it may have committed suicide to make me spend the money I was gonna spend on a new desktop and stuff on a it or a new car instead.

Edited May 18, 2014 by JimDaddy

[lemmingllama]

 

So, some stuff happened today...

 

Anyway, went out for some groceries today and my speedometer started freaking out. No big deal, I driven without one before and I had planned on getting a GPS in the next few weeks anyway, which also tells me how fast I'm going. However, a few minutes after that the transmission started slipping out of gear and a mile or so after that 1st started going out. Basically, here's the deal- I will try cleaning the filter and if that fixes it, then cool. If not, then my transmission has finally gone out (not surprising consider the way it's been acting) and that would be $2k at the very least. The car is only worth about $1000 at the most. This means a new car with the money I had set aside for a new desktop and games and whatnot in the next couple weeks. Which sucks.

 

TL;DR- car hates me so much that it may have committed suicide to make me spend the money I was gonna spend on a new desktop and stuff on a it or a new car instead.

 

 

Bleh... Well, at least this way you can potentially get a new car out of the deal?

 

I would recommend some solutions, but I'm really bad with car machinery. I know a dude who lives down the street who does all that stuff for me.

[JimDaddy]

Yup, with any luck the new car would be some from the early 2000s. My current one is a 99.

[HeavenlyClassic]

bleh

Edited May 21, 2014 by HeavenlyClassic

[JimDaddy]

On the bright side, we just traded my dads truck for an '02 Trailblazer. Also, I love my HDTV. I bought a little 33" Emerson from Walmart for about $170 and I love it. It won't play mkvs or mp4s, but I don't care, I stream to it anyway.

[† LimitLess]

It seriously doesn't play mkv or mp4.

[JimDaddy]

Not to my knowledge. I believe the box said jpg and mjpeg.

[Tsukumo Yuma]

Not to my knowledge. I believe the box said jpg and mjpeg.

So it only shows images, not video files, usuale they at least show MP4.

[Mizuki Himeji]

I`m no expert and i can be totally wrong but MKV files are pretty awkward file to have i know i use VLC player which seems to play quite alot of different versions but I agree Cars can be expensive when they want to be i used to have an old clapped out Vauxall corsa which i loved to bits but one morning whan i got up and in a rush because i was late it just didn`t want to start anymore which was kinda weird. 

[JimDaddy]

It's not the mkv that awkward, the the container can be if there's nothing that knows how to open it (though I think companies are slowly catching up), it can also be the file inside it. That's also the great thing about mkvs, I can have avi video and ogg audio, or mp4 video and mp3 audio. VC-1 with WMA anyone? XD

[Princess]

I didn't sleep for a entire night last night

[† LimitLess]

I'm sure you're probably sleeping now right

[JimDaddy]

I'm sure you're probably sleeping now right

 

Sleep typing?

[Mizuki Himeji]

It's not the mkv that awkward, the the container can be if there's nothing that knows how to open it (though I think companies are slowly catching up), it can also be the file inside it. That's also the great thing about mkvs, I can have avi video and ogg audio, or mp4 video and mp3 audio. VC-1 with WMA anyone? XD

Oh i see there is quite alot of different formats for audio and videos around to be truthful lol

 

I didn't sleep for a entire night last night

 

 

 

i have quite a few of those i`m pretty bad at sleeping but i`m hoping your catching up on it now.

[JimDaddy]

I have an update on my car. However, due to society and their diminishing attention span, I have two versions of this update. One is what I put on twitter (I used all 140 characters). The other is long, in-depth, and a learning experience for everyone involved.

 

Here's the twitter version, shamelessly copy/pasted:

After hours of research, I found my car's problem might actually be a $20 part that'll take about 30-60 minutes to replace. #tomorrow #hope

 

 

Here's the long in depth version, spoiler'd for long in depth-ness:

So since I am going to my car tomorrow, it's been perma-parked at work, I decided to research how to do what we had planned on doing, and ended up having an idea- why not research the exact problem itself rather than go off my pretty basic (for the most part) mechanical knowledge. So I popped open google and while searching, I decided to get very specific as to what my problem was, and to my surprise google did exactly what it normally doesn't do when I get super specific- it gave me results. INCREDIBLE results at that. So here's the problem I am having and the explanation... etc.

 

I was driving when suddenly my speedometer started freaking out. Once I came to the stoplight in town, my speedometer stopped working. Light turned green and I took off like normal, until about a block down the road when all of a sudden I seemed to have lost second gear and it was having a hard time finding first gear and going back into it. Thinking it was low on transmission fluid, this can cause this problem, I pulled into the local auto parts store (it was literally in front of me) and checked the transmission fluid. It was a little low, so I put some in it and went on my way.

 

It was fine for about a block and a half when the same issue popped up. I pulled in to the grocery store, which was where I was going anyway, and parked. Everyone went inside and I called my dad to let him know and get his advice since he was just getting off work anyway. He came to the store and looked at it and I decided that if I could force it to find second, then it would progress through the gears correctly and I could get it home. This was very much disproved as once I pulled out not only could I not force it to find second, it could find first to go back into. It was at this point we decided I would take the residential streets with the car put in first (I only have P R N OD(overdrive) D(drive) 1(fist gear)) and get it to where I work. It is slightly more regularly patrolled by the cops since it's in the "nicer" part of town and therefore I found safer to leave my poor baby until such time as I come to fix/read last rights depending on the attempt to fix it.

 

Now here's what I found on my research, and where it get's complicated-

The problem may in fact be this $20 part called a Vehicle Speed Sensor, otherwise known as a VSS. This is important because the car's computer doesn't actually know how fast the car is going and it uses the speed of the car to determine when to upshift/downshift the transmission.  Now then, the VSS uses shared input meaning that this sensor sends out the information of how fast the car is going to two different things- the computer and the speedometer. See where this is going yet? After looking up my problem very specifically, I came across a post where a person was having this very same issue. As it turns out, when the VSS stops working then the computer no longer knows how fast the car is going, the computer no longer no how fast the car is going and therefore no longer knows where to shift.  And since the speedometer no longer has it's input source, it also stops working. The timing of this transmission issue and my speedometer issue (literally minutes apart) leads me to believe that this little $20 part and 30-60 minute job to change caused all my problems.

 

I found that the autozone the next town over has the part I need in stock and for only $17.99! Tomorrow me and my dad will go to my poor car and take the part off of it, check the transmission type (making sure it's the ax4s and not ax4n, AXODE, etc) and go get the new one and replace it. If this doesn't work, we'll try Plan B and change the transmission filter. If all else fails, we'll sell it to a junker for $300-$400 (if I'm lucky) and get a new car with that plus the money I had earmarked for a new desktop and stuff plus some money my parents had earmarked for other things.

 

With any luck I'll replace this part and then all I have to worry about is the A/C compressor slowly dying as the hot ass Texas summer approaches.

Edited May 20, 2014 by JimDaddy

[lemmingllama]

I have an update on my car. However, due to society and their diminishing attention span, I have two versions of this update. One is what I put on twitter (I used all 140 characters). The other is long, in-depth, and a learning experience for everyone involved.

 

Here's the twitter version, shamelessly copy/pasted:

After hours of research, I found my car's problem might actually be a $20 part that'll take about 30-60 minutes to replace. #tomorrow #hope

 

 

Here's the long in depth version, spoiler'd for long in depth-ness:

So since I am going to my car tomorrow, it's been perma-parked at work, I decided to research how to do what we had planned on doing, and ended up having an idea- why not research the exact problem itself rather than go off my pretty basic (for the most part) mechanical knowledge. So I popped open google and while searching, I decided to get very specific as to what my problem was, and to my surprise google did exactly what it normally doesn't do when I get super specific- it gave me results. INCREDIBLE results at that. So here's the problem I am having and the explanation... etc.

 

I was driving when suddenly my speedometer started freaking out. Once I came to the stoplight in town, my speedometer stopped working. Light turned green and I took off like normal, until about a block down the road when all of a sudden I seemed to have lost second gear and it was having a hard time finding first gear and going back into it. Thinking it was low on transmission fluid, this can cause this problem, I pulled into the local auto parts store (it was literally in front of me) and checked the transmission fluid. It was a little low, so I put some in it and went on my way.

 

It was fine for about a block and a half when the same issue popped up. I pulled in to the grocery store, which was where I was going anyway, and parked. Everyone went inside and I called my dad to let him know and get his advice since he was just getting off work anyway. He came to the store and looked at it and I decided that if I could force it to find second, then it would progress through the gears correctly and I could get it home. This was very much disproved as once I pulled out not only could I not force it to find second, it could find first to go back into. It was at this point we decided I would take the residential streets with the car put in first (I only have P R N OD(overdrive) D(drive) 1(fist gear)) and get it to where I work. It is slightly more regularly patrolled by the cops since it's in the "nicer" part of town and therefore I found safer to leave my poor baby until such time as I come to fix/read last rights depending on the attempt to fix it.

 

Now here's what I found on my research, and where it get's complicated-

The problem may in fact be this $20 part called a Vehicle Speed Sensor, otherwise known as a VSS. This is important because the car's computer doesn't actually know how fast the car is going and it uses the speed of the car to determine when to upshift/downshift the transmission.  Now then, the VSS uses shared input meaning that this sensor sends out the information of how fast the car is going to two different things- the computer and the speedometer. See where this is going yet? After looking up my problem very specifically, I came across a post where a person was having this very same issue. As it turns out, when the VSS stops working then the computer no longer knows how fast the car is going, the computer no longer no how fast the car is going and therefore no longer knows where to shift.  And since the speedometer no longer has it's input source, it also stops working. The timing of this transmission issue and my speedometer issue (literally minutes apart) leads me to believe that this little $20 part and 30-60 minute job to change caused all my problems.

 

I found that the autozone the next town over has the part I need in stock and for only $17.99! Tomorrow me and my dad will go to my poor car and take the part off of it, check the transmission type (making sure it's the ax4s and not ax4n, AXODE, etc) and go get the new one and replace it. If this doesn't work, we'll try Plan B and change the transmission filter. If all else fails, we'll sell it to a junker for $300-$400 (if I'm lucky) and get a new car with that plus the money I had earmarked for a new desktop and stuff plus some money my parents had earmarked for other things.

 

With any luck I'll replace this part and then all I have to worry about is the A/C compressor slowly dying as the hot ass Texas summer approaches.

 

Good luck with that! It would be sweet if it was just a quick fix like a sensor. I had a washing machine do the same thing to me, just a small sensor died and it made the entire thing worthless until we found out what twas the problem.

[JimDaddy]

So.

 

 

I found the sensor, which was an ordeal in this heat anyway, and took it off and went to the local parts store. They had it, but it was missing a little gear thing on the end, which wouldn't normally be a bad thing, but I can't reuse the gear because it's in really] bad shape. So I go to the parts store the next town over. Same thing. Another store in the same town- nothing. It seems this little gear is non-existent in a parts database because it doesn't show up anywhere. So, no car and no answers yet. I have a friend who runs a 3D printer (professionally mind you) and we're gonna see if he can make it. If not, I'm taking the part to the dealership and saying this. "You made this- MATCH IT!"

 

----------------------------------------------------------UPDATE!!!!----------------------------------------------------------

 

I went to a scrapyard today and found the part. I put it in but....

 

Well, bad news. I couldn't drive it home. Yeah, no go.

The good news-

I COULDN'T DRIVE IT HOME BECAUSE I WAS THE ONLY ONE THERE! I CAN ONLY DRIVE ONE VEHICLE AT A TIME!

 

IT LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

This also means my odds of getting a DS or PSP went up drastically.

Edited May 22, 2014 by JimDaddy

[Reverie]

Hey everyone! How has everyone been?  

[lemmingllama]

I went to a scrapyard today and found the part. I put it in but....

 

Well, bad news. I couldn't drive it home. Yeah, no go.

The good news-

I COULDN'T DRIVE IT HOME BECAUSE I WAS THE ONLY ONE THERE! I CAN ONLY DRIVE ONE VEHICLE AT A TIME!

 

IT LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

This also means my odds of getting a DS or PSP went up drastically.

 

Its alive! Glad to hear that it was fixed nice and easily. Hopefully it stays working.

 

Hey everyone! How has everyone been?

 

Good so far, and yourself?