Trouble Maker

During our big 'out west' trip back in... I think in 2015 which was one of the worst years on record for forest fires out west. We weren't near any of them, but it was hazy almost everywhere we went. Friends that live in Seoul have to regularly deal with very bad (PM) air quality due to pollution and prevailing winds from China. There's times where the basically just don't go outside. While in Japan we went to Kyushu, which is the larger island just south/west of the 'mainland'. While there we down to a town called Kumamoto and it was very hazy there, again from winds/pollution from China. I guess there's also a time of year where the weather can pickup sands from the deserts in/around China and bring it all of the way across the Korean peninsula and sometimes into Japan. The closest part of the Gobi desert to Japan for example is around 1,000 miles.

Pat, so sorry to hear everything that's happened with you and your family over the last year or so! Like Otis said, you owe us nothing. Just glad you're able to get some wrenching therapy in now. How much longer if any will you be at R&D? I'm mostly work from home, but if your still there and working in office, I could swing in one day and we could grab some lunch.

I'm going to be upset if Tahm is at C&C without a Pajero. Just kidding, of course I'll be happy to see him any way with any car... but I do need to see the Pajero sometime. Congrats on finding what you were looking for, on both parts!

Thanks Nickey, I'll give them a call! Edit: Scheduled with them this Friday.

One that's used to, comfortable with working on modern (post 2010 w/DEF, etc.) diesels. 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee w/diesel. Last night it had a really hard time starting, then when it did was running very rough. Started up later with a little difficulty, and sometimes ran ok and sometimes ran a little rough, almost like a misfire, a cylinder or two not working. But I know next to nothing about diesels. We have a trip next week, towing a camper with it, and I have little time, so if I can take this somewhere and get it fixed on relatively short notice that's what I'll do! We are on towards the North end of Columbus, so near here would be great. I can go some distance but if it's far I worry about driving it that far... should I just get it towed, etc. P.S. I live close to Northend Wrench and it would be my first go to as I trust Sean. But they are scheduling out at July 30th and said that it's not their specialty so they passed on working on this part of it.

I took it apart and back together a few times trying to diag the problem sans actually taking the strut apart. Then life, construction project got in the way. Parts availability was an issue too. Finally took it all of the way apart and so' enuf the strut (shaft) had lateral play in it. Tracked a part down in Akron and had it shipped here for more than I would have otherwise paid. But I was able to get the part, put it back together, and it drives great!

I don't think you can even get that in the regular F150 anymore right? Does anyone make that combo anymore? Ford has said the EV F150 will only be Super Crew with 5.5ft bed. The base now revealed as Pro will have the 'work' interior like. There's going to be a fleet Pro that get's the base trim w/extended battery pack and higher performance powertrain. That's probably as close as you'll get to the SCSB performance concept since it should be the lightest based on trim but the higher performance powertrain. But they say it's for 'fleets' only. https://www.autoblog.com/2021/05/24/2022-ford-f-150-lightning-pro-revealed/

But the Chevy was dry?

If you search for 'best OBD xxx' where xxx is the type of device like Bluetooth dongle you want you'll get a ton info. There were 2 or three that always come up, I can't remember the other ones but I went with OBD Llink (LX). https://www.obdlink.com/products/ It will do all of the basic stuff through it's own app like read and rest codes, check emissions readiness, and PIDs. You can also use Torque (App) with it or other dongles like it, but I didn't see the benefit of the lite (free) version over the one that came from OBD Link. There are cheaper OBD Bluetooth dongles out there, maybe they don't have apps or they suck and Torque would be better? Of course that is all engine only (emissions necessary) stuff. You may be able to get other usually paid apps to interface with other ECUs. These are often OEM specific. For the Jeep I got (paid app) Alfa OBD which can do variant and some variable coding on some ECUs, supposed to work with many FCA cars. For example my trailer lights weren't working and I thought it might be variant coding; non-trailer group equipped cars have it turned off stock. Mine should have it on already and finally it was already coded on, it was a soft set connector going into the back of the 7-pin coupler. But it was an easy thing to eliminate in the diag. process. I should also be able to calibrate the speedo and other affected ECUs due to tire size change from stock, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

The generator is a pretty awesome feature on it. I couldn't remember which engine got which generator power level, so I looked it up again. https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/a32970167/f-150-generator-pro-power-onboard/ Blue chart is nice to understand the 3 options, which engines you can get them on. Though I'd take the 'what can you do with it part' with a grain of salt, it's just marketing.

In Japan there are EV DC fast chargers at every rest stop... look up what a Michi-no-eki is, they are really nice. The average person in Japan drives a kei-car, walks or bicycles to local grocery stores and restaurants, takes the train most of the time they travel, and a good chunk of them take trains to work every day. The only new thing I've learned in this thread is that the average American drives a Taurus Sho, constantly says 'EVus and trainz are impossibure', wants to make coal great again, but also complains about our per capita emissions and doesn't know the difference between to and too. Bonus points for not understanding that the emissions other than carbon are orders of magnitude worse on that 50mpg car from 1991 compared to modern cars, not to mention it could never sell now for about 100 other reasons at least half of which are marketability. I'm also going to go out on a really short limb and say that at modern highway speeds it would get worse MPG than a modern fuel efficient car.

My mom has a V6 RAV4 that's getting up there in age/mileage. She thinks it will last much longer... I kind of doubt it will as long as she's thinking. I've been slowly steering her towards the RAV4 Prime. Hopefully by the time she needs a car, it will be more readily available. I'm not sure now, but when they first came out it seemed like the supply was pretty low.

110 miles driven per day puts you in about the top 2-3% of average miles driven per day. You're an edge-ish case.

Were they installing a whole new service to your garage?

Some people in here sound like they think people were trying to put hay in their cars fuel tanks when they first came out.

Car guys: EVs don't work for primary cars, I would still need another car, so they don't work for me. Also car guys: I'd like to introduce you to my 17th car. It's different from the first 16 because of the specific combination of exterior color, interior color and options package it has on it. Once you factor in that it was built on a Tuesday around 3pm it's 1 of 5 unique cars out of the 1,566,342 of these that were built.

Any recommendations on a good Jeep/FCA dealership for a recall on a Jeep (Grand Cherokee-Diesel)? It's for an EGR cooler replacement. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCLRPT-20V699-5290.PDF

That's a pretty novel fix and pleasant accident that they work well enough even when in fail-safe that it's useable every-day. Then again maybe almost anything is better than a full manual rack or 50-60 year old hydraulic power steering. It feels like there is a market here for either these companies or an aftermarket company to sell a tunable solution and kits for the shaft connections. Maybe it would be easy enough to put some basic info in to get a 'base' tune e.g. some basic vehicle or suspension geometry and vehicle weight.

Can those systems work outside of the car they were designed to go in by some miracle or do they require some box that spoofs the CAN signals they expect to receive?

Throwing some shade at Eric.

What's that texture on the hood in the last picture?

He has an old G20?

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