When you park after driving and using the AC check under the vehicle about 5 minutes later. You should see a little puddle under there if the AC drain is not clogged up. No puddle means thats your likely culprit.
I have an older Mazda 3 that runs great and very reliable but my brother just got a new car and it is fully loaded (yes I am jealous) and I am try to avoid buying a new car.
Thinking some new tech may make it feel "new" to me.
Outside of the F20/K-series, anyone here drove a car with a 9/10k+ RPM? Moto transplants?
I've been going down some reads with hill climb guys, perpetual re-builds, the sound of straight gears, and man I love that proper high rev race car sound.
I have an older Mazda 3 that runs great and very reliable but my brother just got a new car and it is fully loaded (yes I am jealous) and I am try to avoid buying a new car.
Thinking some new tech may make it feel "new" to me.
Not all new tech is amazing. For example, my car has this neat in theory automated cruise control, but bug splatter will block the sensors so often driving bc/ab highways, I'm w/o any form of cruise control.
How about an Android Auto/AppleCar Play deck?
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Not all new tech is amazing. For example, my car has this neat in theory automated cruise control, but bug splatter will block the sensors so often driving bc/ab highways, I'm w/o any form of cruise control.
How about an Android Auto/AppleCar Play deck?
I know two people with GM vehicles that will sometimes brake when driving by someone on the sidewalk. The collision avoidance needs work.
I second a AA/Carplay screen. You can get them pretty cheap and some even come with dashcam and backup camera support.
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I think Ford builds the most intriguing vehicles of the domestics but the execution isn't always there. They broke the record this year for most recalls in a single year by the halfway mark of 2025. Remember they don't sell cars (save for the Mustang) anymore so that's a lot of recalls for SUV's and pickup trucks.
Can confirm. We have 2 Fords and there have been several recalls on each. The worst part is they call them important safety recalls and then don't have a fix. I guess it's ok that the fuel pumps on both can fail and leave you with no power on a busy highway.
I have an older Mazda 3 that runs great and very reliable but my brother just got a new car and it is fully loaded (yes I am jealous) and I am try to avoid buying a new car.
Thinking some new tech may make it feel "new" to me.
I have an Apple CarPlay / Android Auto upgrade module in both my vehicles, since they are new enough to have screens but not CarPlay.
I’m also having integrated seat massagers installed in the car later this year, since the RR has them and I am spoiled on road trips by them now.
Lastly, a dashcam is a handy addition. I have the Viofo A129 Pro Duo 4K set up in both vehicles. They’ve since come out with newer versions that do 1440p rear (mine is 1080p rear) and I think the Viofo is awesome value for money.
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GO FLAMES GO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Typical dumb take.
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Can confirm. We have 2 Fords and there have been several recalls on each. The worst part is they call them important safety recalls and then don't have a fix. I guess it's ok that the fuel pumps on both can fail and leave you with no power on a busy highway.
There's been numerous Bronco owners driving on faulty Bilstein shocks with external reservoirs welds corroding/failing and just falling off. Some drivers have described the handling as pretty dangerous and unpredictable with leaking or detached reservoirs.
I have an older Mazda 3 that runs great and very reliable but my brother just got a new car and it is fully loaded (yes I am jealous) and I am try to avoid buying a new car.
Thinking some new tech may make it feel "new" to me.
I assume you have a good phone holder in a good position?
Smart screen is the easy answer. If not hard wired, make sure to get a cigarette lighter USB slot that has two slots. One for powering the smart screen, the other to power a 3-1 cable to charge basically 90% of any device that enters your vehicle. I also recommend getting the wider flatter one vs as large of a screen/tall ish screen. It'll block your view and be annoying. Even better if you can replace your rear mirror with it without disrupting other features of your vehicle.
USB jump starter. Just make sure to top up the charge before any cold snap and check basically every 4-6 months that the charge is topped up. I keep it in my car emergency kit and take it inside to check it out as needed. I rarely use this on myself. I've jump started strangers using this thing probably more times in 5-10 years than I've anticipated I may ever jump start my own vehicles. That's not including helping out friends/family. It's great.
Turbo fan. They're around $40-60 on Amazon. 110000 rpm is fine, more is bonus but most people may not notice the difference. Don't overly cheap out on a 3D printed thing on Temu or Aliexpress though. Use that thing to have a compact high powered fan on hand and use it to clean the dust off your dash, crumbs out of the cracks between the seats etc. to make the car cleaner, easier. Oh and FFS, open all the windows and/or doors so that the dust can fly out of the vehicle. So many people tell me it's annoying that the dust settled elsewhere in the car and I am kinda baffled I have to explain that wind send debris in a certain direction and it has to go somewhere. If you want, you can start off with a Swiffer 360 before the turbo fan. But IMO, don't use anything wet unless you have no chance because the water marks look awful and need extra effort to get rid of.
"Magnetic phone holder"... about <$20 on Amazon for a 2 pack. Basically a sticky base with a metal ball bearing and an attachment that is magnetic. I don't use this with my phone TBH, I use it as a magnetic clip. I use it to clip and hold parking passes, park passes etc. instead of sliding on the dash or clogging up my view by clipping to rear mirror.
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Considering trading in my truck for a newer one. Random thought that my wife and I were discussing, should you take the floor mats out or leave them with the vehicle when you trade in?
Considering trading in my truck for a newer one. Random thought that my wife and I were discussing, should you take the floor mats out or leave them with the vehicle when you trade in?
Put whatever was in it when you bought it.
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To quote the movie Suckers which was a hilarious comedy about cars salesman, "You wanna blow this deal over floor mats??"
Go to the 2.50 mark or just watch the whole clip, it's really funny.
Auto related topic. Anybody notice that some of the new vinyl/dash cleaners/shiners have an absolutely awful smell to them these days?
I bought a few Canadian Tire/Simmonz branded ones and classic Mothers and they have a smell that does not belong in a car. Used these products for years but this is unreal bad.
Considering trading in my truck for a newer one. Random thought that my wife and I were discussing, should you take the floor mats out or leave them with the vehicle when you trade in?
They add no value to your trade. Also have no value sitting in your garage.
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The only thing better then a glass of beer is tea with Ms McGill
They add no value to your trade. Also have no value sitting in your garage.
They add no value, but they can cause annoying time to sort out the trade if they were requested as part of the trade. If they're not there after the original inspection/trade in analysis, I don't think it adds value, but it can deduct it?
I did a trade in once and then swapped to winter tires on steelies. They didn't want the winter tires on steelies, so I had to drop off the OEM + all weather and let them swap it back to OEM wheels. For whatever reason, they then attempted to swap the winter tires from the steelies because the tread was better than the all weather (still 3-4 year old winters with maybe 2-3 seasons left) and they damaged 6 of 8 TPMS in the process before returning to me steelies, old all weathers with no stem because the TPMS were broken. I'd never seen that level of incompetence from a team of mechanics at a dealership before. Even the sales guy I bought from went with me to grab the tires/wheels, looked down at them and was like, "Dude, WTF did you guys do?"
The tires weren't part of the original trade in deal and were kinda old, so I have no clue why they pulled that kind of thing when some new winter tires probably would have been a great way to sell my old vehicle as a winter beast. I complained at the state they gave me back the tires (also took like 2 fricken weeks or something IIRC), so they gave me all weather mats and other swag for the new vehicle for damaging the TPMS and swapping the tires.
My dad also pulled the OEM mats and put in the generic all weather mats when my back was turned (dunno why as I was getting a vehicle in a different brand and the OEM mats were kinda trashed TBH), so I swapped those back as well when dropping off the tires and then put the all weather mats into my mom's vehicle.
Weirdest trade in situation I've ever had. I don't regret it though. As much as I loved that TL, that specific one I was unfortunate to acquire was a complete and utter lemon.
Considering trading in my truck for a newer one. Random thought that my wife and I were discussing, should you take the floor mats out or leave them with the vehicle when you trade in?
I hope you're not buying into the hype from the absolutely terrible Weathertech commercials?
"Magnetic phone holder"... about <$20 on Amazon for a 2 pack. Basically a sticky base with a metal ball bearing and an attachment that is magnetic. I don't use this with my phone TBH, I use it as a magnetic clip. I use it to clip and hold parking passes, park passes etc. instead of sliding on the dash or clogging up my view by clipping to rear mirror.
I'm not a huge fan of those ones because it requires putting something extra onto the phone unless it's a MagSafe mount, which my preferred phone case doesn't allow for anyway.
I use phone mounts that fit into the CD player tray (since who the hell uses that anymore?) and uses a spring-mounted system to hold the phone in place... not a gravity-based one, but one that applies clamping force to the phone until you press a button to release the device.
I have an Apple CarPlay / Android Auto upgrade module in both my vehicles, since they are new enough to have screens but not CarPlay.
I’m also having integrated seat massagers installed in the car later this year, since the RR has them and I am spoiled on road trips by them now.
Lastly, a dashcam is a handy addition. I have the Viofo A129 Pro Duo 4K set up in both vehicles. They’ve since come out with newer versions that do 1440p rear (mine is 1080p rear) and I think the Viofo is awesome value for money.
What do you use for an Apple CarPlay upgrade? I had a unit installed on an older vehicle and found it a bit annoying. Weirdly slow and didn’t like the interface when it wasn’t connected. I think it was a decent brand, Sony or whatever, but didn’t do it for me.
I’m now in a similar situation where my daily is new enough to have a good screen but doesn’t have CarPlay and I’m waffling on the upgrade idea.
I'm not a huge fan of those ones because it requires putting something extra onto the phone unless it's a MagSafe mount, which my preferred phone case doesn't allow for anyway.
I use phone mounts that fit into the CD player tray (since who the hell uses that anymore?) and uses a spring-mounted system to hold the phone in place... not a gravity-based one, but one that applies clamping force to the phone until you press a button to release the device.
Absolutely agree, except the point is not to use it as a magnetic phone holder. I use it as a magnetic clamp for storing things that needs to be displayed on a dash. Like a car dash grippy pad, but more useful than the pad for things like the park pass or random parking payment stubs for getting out of the parkade and whatnot.
Like, the round part of the ball bearing with the magnet is great for things I'd normally hang over the rear view mirror, but then when it's there, there might be a bigger blockier thing in my view. The magnetic part, I'll put a nickel or dime on it and use it to pinch those parking slips to exit the parkade vs fumbling around with other places to put it if the CD tray slot isn't a nice convenient location/it's windy and with the window open, stray things can blow away.
I've even considered gluing a dime on the bottom of a small toy figurine to display on that magnetic mount. Would make it relatively easy to just keep swapping to a new figurine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
What do you use for an Apple CarPlay upgrade? I had a unit installed on an older vehicle and found it a bit annoying. Weirdly slow and didn’t like the interface when it wasn’t connected. I think it was a decent brand, Sony or whatever, but didn’t do it for me.
I’m now in a similar situation where my daily is new enough to have a good screen but doesn’t have CarPlay and I’m waffling on the upgrade idea.
Not this one, but something like this replacement with wireless carplay/Android auto?
Honestly, anything other than OEM and the interface without the Carplay/Android auto will kinda look dumb. TBH, I think many OEM interfaces kinda look really unpolished and crappy too.
I mean, one of the other options is not an internal screen, but basically mounting some type of non internal smart screen on an arm or bracket over the existing screen. That way it takes the same location, but you can move it out of the way if you need to do anything on the OEM system. Like some type of articulating tablet mount done nicely/not blocking the camera.
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What do you use for an Apple CarPlay upgrade? I had a unit installed on an older vehicle and found it a bit annoying. Weirdly slow and didn’t like the interface when it wasn’t connected. I think it was a decent brand, Sony or whatever, but didn’t do it for me.
I’m now in a similar situation where my daily is new enough to have a good screen but doesn’t have CarPlay and I’m waffling on the upgrade idea.
Depends on your head unit, keeping in mind I'm using a CarPlay piggyback rather than a wholesale replacement of the infotainment. Newer vehicles tie a lot of functionality into the factory infotainment so my priority is always to make sure those features are still accessible after the upgrade.
All of the below have options for several vehicles make/models.
For the vehicles I've done the upgrade on:
2008 Range Rover Sport - NavTool - I liked that it used the factory touch screen (no auxiliary controls), and factory Bluetooth phone mic. Doesn't use factory steering wheel controls for track skip (volume only) though this is a limitation of the vehicle implementation as it uses auxiliary input for audio. Plug and play, 30-45 minute install.
Demo:
Spoiler!
2016 Range Rover SC w/ Bosch headunit - CarLinkLife - Again, used factory touch screen and factory mic for phone over CarPlay/AA. Uses factory steering wheel controls for track skip and volume. Can be set up to use aux or factory Bluetooth A2DP for audio, but both work with steering wheel controls. Plug and play, 30-45 minute install.
Demo:
Spoiler!
2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage w/ Garmin headunit - Naviks - Uses the factory joystick / inputs as the screen isn't touch due to it being far away from the driver, and connects via auxiliary audio. Steering wheel controls work for track skip. For this vehicle, it required an auxiliary microphone. This was easily the most involved install, even though it was technically 'plug and play', it required routing harnesses from the navigation computer in the hatch to the center waterfall. Their own support was kinda useless with no install documentation for this particular application, so I have to use another owner's YouTube video install guide. It took about six leisurely hours on a weekend to install.
Demo:
Spoiler!
This is Naviks' own demo; the car's menu is jumping around in their demo; they just needed to press the 'Back' button once CarPlay loaded.
