The Automotive Thread

[blybrook PE]

Where's Bly? I wonder if he could make this work on one of his vehicles. LOL

I KNOW that I can make it work. Theres a couple dealers up here that sell them. Wanted to do it to my plow truck until I saw the price, $5k per axle for the locally available ones. Only paid $600 for the plow & truck!

Several people have them on their 4wheelers, seem to work pretty well in the right snow conditions. Wrong conditions and u just sink till yer stuck.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Just put them on the rear drive axles, then put ski's on the front...

 

[blybrook PE]

^ thats been done too. Called snowmobile or sno-go or sled

 

[Capt Worley PE]

 

[mudpuppy]

^ thats been done too. Called snowmobile or sno-go or sled

No, THIS is a sno-go:

 

[jeb6294]

Yay, I have brakes again!!!

To be perfectly honest, I probably shouldn't have even been driving the truck. The front brakes were shot...obviously metal-on-metal...but my new rotors and pads took a little longer to get here than I thought. I had them delivered to my mom's house since she has a little more room in her garage to work. Stopped at a traffic light on the way there, but when I hit the brakes, the pedal kept going and going. Fortunately her house was all uphill from where I was, so with the help of engine braking and gravity I was able to get it there.

I had gotten new sport rotors, i.e. slotted and dimpled *bling*, and pads from EBC and also picked up some new calipers from Advance Auto Parts just in case I needed them. I really wish I had gotten a picture of the passenger side caliper before I boxed it up to return for my core exchange. The pads were beyond gone and the rotor was shredded. One of the pistons had been pushed out so far that it came out of the cylinder...that would explain the loss of pressure and that dragging I heard/felt. Everything got replaced with minimal hassles and I was on my way home after a few hours with a very spongy brake pedal, but at least I had brakes. The next day I bled everything since I could do that in the driveway. Heck, Mopar was nice enough to design the rear so you don't even have to take the wheels off. The front passenger side had so much air in the line that I kept loosening the screw because I wasn't getting any fluid. Few pedal pumps later, all is right with the world again and I can stop on a dime.

 

[blybrook PE]

Brakes are really nice thing to have. Remember loosing them in the plow truck. Just dropped the plow and downshifted when I wanted to stop.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I blew a wheel cylinder on the rear of my 66 Bug. With a single reservoir brake system, I lost all the brake fluid, and since the brake fluid oiled up the drums, the e-brake only worked on one wheel.

Drove it from downtown in 5 o'clock traffic.

I was young, stupid, and fearless.

 

[matt267 PE]

I was young, stupid, and fearless.

Thinking back to my younger years, I say the same thing. Most of us were also really lucky.

 

[Flyer_PE]

^It's a wonder I made it through high school without putting my truck in the bottom of a ravine. If my little POS Truck would have had a little more power, there's no way I would have survived.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^My first two cars were in th mid fifty hp range, and the first one I bought as a 'responsible' adult only had 108hp.

I owe my longevity to underpowered cars. You can wail the poo out of them, and just be keeping up with traffic.

I might have to look at the 3cyl Fiesta. I bet I could have a blast with it.

 

[blybrook PE]

Capt,

Similar experience on a Ford Ranger, blew out the rear line coming down the hill in Duluth, MN after visiting Best Buy. Thankfully it was a clutch and still had front brakes as I drove it back home in Michigan (UP) ~200 miles. Was a fun trip, but wouldn't recommend it to the week of heart.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^I had a Ranger. back brakes didn't do much anyway. I could always hear the RABS solenoid cycling when I hit the brakes on any moist surface.

 

[blybrook PE]

^I had a Ranger. back brakes didn't do much anyway. I could always hear the RABS solenoid cycling when I hit the brakes on any moist surface.

RABS, whats that?
I disabled mine by driving it in MI winters. Wires were shot, but the brakes worked fine otherwise.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Rear Antilock Braking System. Rangers had RABS from 1987, I think. Helps a lot cuz that is one light-hinied truck.

 

[blybrook PE]

I was kidding Capt. I knew what it was, they were light in the rear, but like I posted earlier, I had disabled it. Didn't make things any worse, thats fer sure.

 

[Supe]

Damn drive-by-wire pedal is shitting out. First 3/4 of pedal goes completely dead. Supposed to be an engine overrev safety feature, but makes me 10x more likely to stall out in traffic with a manual trans, and makes merging on the highway very dangerous...

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Wow! If you don't have a problem with buy a VW (their maintenance costs scare the heck out of me) this looks like a really good deal.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/vw-unveils-new-jetta-tdi-value-edition.html#

 

[Master slacker]

I'd love to have a TDI, but I ain't gonna pay that much on one.

 

[jglavin PE]

FNG here, just thought I'd jump in with my lowly Focus:

...And in winter trim (currently):

It's a '13 Focus ST. My fiancee and I bought it last winter, paid about $28k for the fully loaded model. Never owned a Ford before... Cross shopped with a Subaru WRX and a Dodge Dart, preferred the interior of the Ford to the WRX and the Dart was too slow for me.

The car came with 18x8 wheels stock but I recently added the narrower 16x6.5 steelies with snow tires so I could actually drive it in winter (before, I just drove my truck when it snowed). Although 16s are supposed to fit, there were some sloppy welds on the wheels I got and we had to take a grinder to them to get the wheels around the front brakes.

In the few real snow storms I've driven through here in CO, I have no problems getting around as long as the snow tires are on there. In sport mode, the car actually quite likes to get sideways which can be helpful to mitigate understeer on icy corners. Not that I would do anything irresponsible, mind you...