response 48 of 184:

Jan 18 06:48 UTC 2002

There is also the Great Serpentine Belt of New South Wales, or the closer
Vermont-Quebec serpentine belt. 

response 50 of 184:

Jan 18 14:15 UTC 2002

One of the things about synthetic oil is that it is VERY
close to water-clear; there is only a very slight yellow
tinge to it when it is fresh.  This makes it quite difficult
to tell if your oil level is okay or not for the first
few hundred miles after an oil change.

But I love having an engine that is so clean that the oil
is nearly pristine.  It's got to be good for the engine, too.

Re #46:  A serpentine belt takes less depth than several
layers of V-belts, making it easier to squeeze more things
into a smaller engine compartment (or make the engine
compartment smaller, yet hold the same engine + accessories).

Electric accessory drives are coming; expect the serpentine belt
to disappear, leaving one itty-bitty belt for the water pump.

response 52 of 184:

Jan 18 17:10 UTC 2002

Re #50: And presumably one for the alternator, right?

On my Honda the water pump is driven by the timing belt; if that breaks 
you aren't going anywhere anyway.  All the other accessories are driven 
by external belts.  It's possible to limp along with any of those 
broken, though in the case of the alternator belt how far you can get 
depends on how long the battery charge holds out.


Re #51: A sufficiently old battery will go dead on its own.  Otherwise, 
it could be you have something that's draining the battery, and isn't 
shutting off when the ignition is turned off.  Sometimes a shorted wire 
will cause this.  So will leaving something that draws a lot of power 
plugged into the cigarette lighter.

response 54 of 184:

Jan 18 18:47 UTC 2002

I discovered an unexpected battery drain, which was the rear interior
light in a wagon, which came on when the back door was not fully latched
(and the latch was getting dirty and sticky).  One would not notice it in
daylight...and the battery would just be dead the next morning.

response 56 of 184:

Jan 18 20:25 UTC 2002

It could just be ashort in the battery.

response 58 of 184:

Jan 18 23:10 UTC 2002

I parked the car at night, so I'm reasonably sure I would have noticed an
interior light getting left on.  And the battery terminals don't look
particularly corroded.  I hadn't done any real highway driving for a while;
I suppose it's possible that I ran down the battery sufficiently that it
wouldn't hold its charge.  (I don't actually know how old the battery is,
since I've only had the car about 5 months.)  
I'm *very* happy with Triple A, though.  They were out to jump me about 10
minutes after I called in.

response 60 of 184:

Jan 19 13:39 UTC 2002

I had battery drain problem a few years ago.  I traced it down by putting an
ammeter between the battery and the rest of the car, and then pulling fuses
until the meter showed zero current.  Turned out to be the new alternator I*'d
put in.

response 62 of 184:

Jan 21 05:06 UTC 2002

Re #52:  Nope, because no alternator on that end of the engine any more.
The alternator will be replaced by an "integrated starter-generator"
built into the flywheel, which will be able to put out upwards of 5 KW.

This will be part of the move to 42 volt electrical systems.  Power
steering and air conditioning will be driven electrically.  If you
think about how much freedom this will offer to the designer by
getting rid of mechanical constraints, it's obvious that we'll see
some neat advances as a result.  It will also get rid of the need for
an engine at all, making the transition to electric/fuel cell easier.
Detroit finds it much easier to create new models if there's plenty
of commonality of parts (see Neon/PT Cruiser), so this gives you a
hint of where the whole industry is going.

Re #58:  If you haven't checked the water level and specific gravity
in the battery, do so; you probably are not over-charging it but you
may have a shorted or leaky cell.  Also see about load-testing it.  If
that battery is dying, you want to replace it before it strands you.

response 64 of 184:

Jan 21 15:01 UTC 2002

Re #59: Reminds me of one of the puzzlers on "Car Talk".  Every 
shipment of cars a factory turned out was arriving at dealerships with 
one car having a dead battery.  They couldn't figure out why, after 
working with the battery supplier.  Eventually they figured out that 
the last car on the upper deck of the truck was at enough of an angle 
to trigger the trunk light's mercury switch, so the trunk light was on 
for the entire trip.

Re #60: If you don't have an ammeter, sometimes touching the cable to 
the battery post and watching for a spark works.

Re #62: Great idea, except those "integrated starter/generators" are 
going to be an expensive nightmare to replace when they go bad.  The 
alternator on my Honda is bad enough, but at least you don't have to 
drop the transmission to get at it!

response 66 of 184:

Jan 23 07:48 UTC 2002

They've been fooling around with integrated "starter/generators" since
the 1920's.  I'll be quite surprised if they ever become practical, the
engineering requirements are just too different.  Hydraulic drive for
some of those accessories might make more sense, although it's awfully
hard to beat the efficiency and simplicity of direct mechanical drive.
Actually, the thing I most expect to disappear first is the cam shaft --
it's basically in the way of doing variable valve timing.

Re #53 -- what *else* draws power?  Well, if you're *using* the car,
then the ignition circuit in the engine draws power.  It's probably not
a whole lot of power, but it's awfully hard to eliminate that.  The
ignition circuit, at the very least, has to fire the spark plugs at the
right instant in time.  On newer cars, it (or similar logic) also has to
run the fuel injectors, and generally, a small microprocessor and sensor
net to compute when to do everything.  There are plenty of other things
that draw car in the modern car.  The oil pressure light, fuel sensor,
etc., are all electrically driven in nearly all cars.  The speedometer,
odometer, and random other dash board logic is often electrically driven
in today's cars, and some cars have 2 or more microprocessors just to
run all this other incidental stuff.

response 68 of 184:

Jan 23 19:11 UTC 2002

Ijust had my old pickup truck in the shop.  I'd driven it from Tecumseh 
to Ann Arbor, and it just quit.  I had AAA pay for towing it out to 
Tecumseh, and set my mechanic to work on it.  Driving it that far had 
taken about a quarter tank of gas; I was not using the truck any more 
than I had to.

The truck had a laundry list of problems.  The one I'd been most aware 
of was a radiator leak; I had to put in a gallon of radiator fluid each 
time I used it.  That meant the heater didn't work very long or very 
well.  It got 5-6 mph; tsty discovered a missing spark plug wire that 
contributed to that.  Apparently it stopped running because the 
distributor was in poor condition and the ignition coil was shot.

My mechanic gave it a tune-up, new coil, fixed the radiator leak which 
was really just a hose, and changed the oil.  It cost a little over 
$300.

Boy does it ever run differently now!  I drove it around last night, 
and it was running so well I drove it to work today.  I want to find 
out what kind of gas mileage I'm getting.  I'm sure it's at least 
doubled; on the 35 mile drive in to work, the fuel gauge hadn't even 
budged from the "F".  It runs smoothly, the radiator doesn't leak, the 
heater works...

My 5 year old son loves the truck.  It's been in an accident, then sat 
in a barnyard for 2 years; it definitely has "character".  A year or so 
ago, we fixed it up enough so it'd run.  It seemed destined to a 
lifetime of 5 mile trips at max, but now I'm thinking he and I can use 
it in the summer for camping trips and such.  I'm not going to 
regularly drive it to work; it still has problems like shaking when 
driven at 65 mph or faster.  But there's nothing wrong with it for a 
spare vehicle if the other is in the shop, or for a recreational 
weekend vehicle if the roads aren't bad.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

response 70 of 184:

Jan 24 00:41 UTC 2002

My truck ran into a vehicle which was waiting to turn; the driver just 
didn't see him.  The impact was about 35 mph.  The front end is badly 
bent; the headlights that are on there are now fog lights which are 
mounted on the frame; the hood doesn't close properly and has to be 
held with a rope and a bungee cord; the clock on the radio doesn't 
work; I think the frame might be bent which would explain the shaking 
problem.  It's fine up to about 60 mph though.

The tires were replaced a year ago so they're still good, but they 
might well need balancing.  The truck wasn't used much for the last 
year; just occasionally hauling stuff 5-10 miles, and I drove it to 
work a few times when necessary.  We might have put 1000 miles on it in 
a year, or maybe not that many.

The truck is a 1989 F-250 XLT Lariat if anyone is interested.

I know very little about cars, so if anything else comes to mind for  
it, I'll be happy to have any suggestions.

response 72 of 184:

Jan 24 04:48 UTC 2002

Yeah, I'll talk to my mechanic about it.  That's a good idea.  Thanks!