Comments by "SeanBZA" (@SeanBZA) on "Rainman Ray's Repairs"
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Was doing that this weekend, not to replace the struts, but to replace the top mount, as the one was noisy, so both spent a few minutes out of the car, and the compressors were used for the 30 second swap action required. New ones mean the springs are now at the right height, as the old ones had collapsed about 30mm on each side. no more noises now, along with the cleaning of the carburettor and adjusting mixture as well. This weekend the water pump and thermostat are going for a change, standard VW Golf service part, easier to do the lot than the parts, 4 bolts as opposed to 15.
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Especially extended warranty on things like household goods and electronics. Here there is a statutory one year warranty on all new goods, and thus the warranty company knows that, in year one, where most factory defects will show up, they will use the factory claim process, and not actually have to cover anything. Then for say the common 2 year extended warranty they know there will be little claims, all of them invariably from the owner doing something wrong, or from the manufacturer doing a recall, and thus again no payout, or only part payout. Basically the extended warranty is almost useless, because it either will not cover all parts, or will not cover labour, or will have hoops that are near impossible to jump through to get it right.
Knew a salesperson at one of these places, and half of his commission came from the selling of these, for the above reasons, they were a massive profit for the selling dealers.
Cars the same, sold used with a limited warranty, and if there is a balance of factory that will do for a lot, so the extended warranty is there as a way to make profit, because the dealership gets the sales commission up front, after the new owner has paid 3 months of premiums, and then the owner is paying off this warranty at whatever interest rate for the full period. So whatever was down on paper as the amount of the extended warranty the buyer now pays at least double that over the life of the loan, and every month as well pays a "facilitation fee" of some sort, again a profit, for the extended warranty, plus a charge for taking the payments.
If you have to loan to buy, but not the highest you can afford, and buy cheaper, and for as short a period as you can, and with as big a deposit as you can. That makes it easier to finish the loan, and have the car serviced, and keep it for as long as possible. Having a car loan for 7 years, on a vehicle already 5 years old, in say the rust belt, where the chances of the entire bottom rusting out before that 7 years are up, is very high.
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Well, Fiat is known for great mechanical design, impeccable precision in the components, and assembly by whoever was walking past the factory that morning who could not run fast. Also repair does always involve a lot of talking, shouting, and expletives in Italian, along with a lot of hand waving, and the obligatory garlic bread, a few bottles of Vino, and an afternoon siesta as well.
Best thing is the brakes are good, as Italian roads are rather well known for the designers being, unlike their Roman ancestors, completely against anything like straight lines.
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Pulley diameter not really going to do much, slightly lower RPM on the compressor, so slightly lower flow, so slightly lower cooling efficiency in traffic at idle. Belt tensioner will easily take up the extra throw with no problem.
AFAIK the variable displacement system is a bolt on, that simply bleeds back from the hot high pressure back to the input, so as to allow modulation of the flow from the compressor to allow control, so it will, with no power applied, default to full flow of the system, so putting it in and not connecting will do nothing. The lower RPM will also help, so full flow will be at higher RPM slightly, probably just off idle, and the system will then simply act as a regular unit. Variable displacement works with electronic expansion valve, allowing control of evaporator pressure so as to allow simpler orifice plate expansion, and strict control over high side pressure using a pressure transducer in the high side, so you need less power to run AC at full power when off idle, improving fuel economy.
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@bobbg9041 Not in the USA but by me there are only a few companies that recycle batteries. They take them, split out the acid for cleaning and reuse, and the same for the lead and the plastic of the case. The paste from the cells also gets reground. Then they make new cases from a blend of old reground PVC case and new, which are black. White cases are all new plastic. The lead is melted down, mixed with new, and cast into the plates and terminals, and then pasted and placed into new separators, then assembled into cells. Acid is filled, a mix of old filtered acid and new, which by me is a product from recycling mine dump waste.
Some batteries are imported, but a lot of car manufacturers buy locally made, and they also specify the quality they want, so yes they are different, even if supplied by the same manufacturer, and they are sold aftermarket as well, though at a much higher price than what the OEM price is to a vehicle manufacturer.
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The flush is needed because the bean counters wanted the least number of oil changes that would get 99.5% of engines out of warranty without them grenading, as the cost of doing those changes could be a negative factor in TCO during warranty. By me now the warranty is still enforced, even if you do not go the stealership route, so long as the service station is registered with the RMI, and stamps the book, the warranty has to be honoured. Losing stealerships the gravy of doing oil changes, charging the customer for oil, plugs, filter, fuel filter, air filter, pollen filter and a 100 point inspection (then claiming all that extra back from warranty from the OEM), while in reality only doing oil and possibly filter change, then pocketing the extra. Oil change because it is the only thing easy to check, unless you have no dipstick, in which case they might only reset the service light, and clean the car, as you cannot check without removing covers and draining the oil.
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Would add a mechanical thermostat to the radiator, and put in a thermal switch there, that allows the fan controller to only get power when radiator temperature is above 150F, which will allow them to run on for a while when the engine is turned off, allowing the engine to cool down and not heat soak. Under $10 on the river store, and with a 25A rating from Senasys, which will handle the load of controlling the temperature sensor, though probably not the fan load itself. Look for "Snap Disc Thermostat Switch - Circuit On at 120°F and Off at 105°F" and you will get them. Flange mount you put so the base is on the radiator header tank for good temperature sensing. A good extra is to add a small lamp in the cockpit, to show they are on, possibly even using an existing bulb that is otherwise unused in the speedo, that can act for this.
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EPS flexible coupling in the top of the motor is faulty. There are some bushings there that are known to fail, so look up the Hyundai parts list for the EPS, and you will find them there, as a known issue, plus the top bushes also wear. Had exactly the same on a Kia, and they use the same EPS motor and drive, so the universal was not to blame, but you need to look a little further up the shaft to the EPS unit. You need to pull the steering wheel, strip the column to get to them, but otherwise not too difficult, and all you need to do is an EPS relearn afterwards (lock to lock to get it to figure things out) to finish the job.
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