Mysterious faults on cars, as well as other car stuff (and other automotive)

[fezder]

In some cars, the AC is separate which means you have a choice between defrost or defog.

i read defrog....

At 32 F there is the possibility of "black ice". Ice on asphalt that isn't recognized as ice.

Yeah, some people don't believe in black ice which is pity, it's so unpredictable And then there's that when there's so much water on road that car ''rides'' on top of it, dunno what is it in english....waterslide?

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Never realized it's not in the normal dictionary. Hydroplaning. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hydroplaning

I have experienced it. I've been running lots of generations of the Pereilli P4 tires. (P4000, P400 and now P4) for quite a number of years. It's an all-weather tire and reasonably priced.

Every once in a while we might get 2 feet of snow. Most of the time, it's 6" or less.

"Frog Protection":

 

[atferrari]

i read defrog....

Yeah, some people don't believe in black ice which is pity, it's so unpredictable And then there's that when there's so much water on road that car ''rides'' on top of it, dunno what is it in english....waterslide?

Aquaplaning. Did it twice under rain.

The first time, in night time during the Santa Rosa storm (last days of August marking the change of season), I hit the guardrail and was rejected to pass above the opposite one. Ended driving parallel to it for about 30 m until the car stopped. The safety belt saved my life.

Next time, late in the afternoon did not see the water ahead and ended in the ditch, head on. Much to my surprise, started the car, and in reverse I could regain the road. Sheer luck.

 

[fezder]

Never realized it's not in the normal dictionary.

Well I didn't even look if it would have been in dictionary And mostly we just say ''Be careful, it's slippery out there'' But with experience tend to know and/or remember where is slippery during low-temperatures....

 

[Tony Stewart]

Now they call all-season tires ... 3 season tires and the others "Winter tires"
To make these tires appear safer they suggest the average temperature near freezing when to change and benefit from cheaper insurance.

However if above freezing and moisture over grime & dust on asphalt is much worse with winter tires and if the road condition oscillate above and below freezing they can aquaplane on the thin slick wet surface much worse than "all season tires" and wear much faster on dry pavement.

Driver testing on ice ought to be a requirement for a license in those areas affected.

Back in the 60's we had a Winnipeg Sports car club that raced on the Red River with a mile long racetrack and high end Mini Coopers raced with Porches and others with 3/4" tungsten studs. I rode in the empty rear of a mini while the driver used a plastic shell for a seat with 2 interior heaters and all the metal body replaced with sheet alum or FG for weight reduction. When he went into the hairpin corner at 50 kph, he stepped on the gas and steered towards the center of the curve. My 1st experience in the back of a front wheel drive racing car and almost dumped a load myself.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I drove on "solid ice" before. The roads were basically solid ice everywhere. I've seen it twice.

I drove on a long freeway bridge that had iced.

I drove where a short bridge had iced. People behind me didn't make it across. They hit the brakes.

The "hydroplane" incident has no issues except loss of control for a while.

Then there was a person doing "donuts" in front of a donut shop. 5 cars managed to avoid him and them and then came along another that hit every one of us. The cops said, since no one is hurt, why don't you come to us which was a couple of blocks away.

 

[spec]

Most European cars have the option of air conditioning or climate control. They also have pollen filters which suits me fine because I get bad hayfever in the summer.
The temperature here has been around 14 deg C durring the day dropping to around 4 degrees C for part of the night. I never di find out the diffence between straight air conditioning and climate control. All I do know is that climate control is more comfortable.

 

[spec]

A gang of the guys from work went on a weekend advanced driving course on an airfield. Most of the time we were on a skid pan- great fun. We learn't how to best control a car in a skid or on ice. About a month later I had dropped the kids of at a camp site on Exmore (national park) and was crusing alond withot a thought when I spotted, directly ahead, a sharp bend covered in damp leafs. There was no way to slow enough so I just sailed into the corner and, using the techniques from the driving course, got around with about an inch to spare (stone wall on edge of road). Before the course there would have been no way that I would have made it.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

AC = You fiddle with the knobs

Climate Control - The computer fiddles with the knobs.
You just set the mode and desired temperature:
Mode What dampers you want open and whether AC is enabled.
Is recirculate on?

In both cases, there is usually an idle up component when the AC is engaged.
AC icing can usually be prevented by opening part of the recirculate damper.

Climate control will modify fan speed. I can override it too.

I don't think I have control over driver/passenger relative comfort with climate control. There are cars with ducts to the back seat.

 

[spec]

AC = You fiddle with the knobs

Climate Control - The computer fiddles with the knobs.
You just set the mode and desired temperature:
Mode What dampers you want open and whether AC is enabled.
Is recirculate on?

In both cases, there is usually an idle up component when the AC is engaged.
AC icing can usually be prevented by opening part of the recirculate damper.

Climate control will modify fan speed. I can override it too.

I don't think I have control over driver/passenger relative comfort with climate control. There are cars with ducts to the back seat.

Thanks for that Keep. Is it true that cimate control keeps the humidity at a comfortable level too. On my car the aircon system heats or cools as necessary, as you say, without touching the controls. At the moment the exterior temperature sensor is open circuit so the external temperature display on the dash reads around 40 deg C, so the climate control is all over the place. Also the air concompressor needs degassing and recharging so it struggles to keep the cabin cool on hot days.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Find the leak and fix it. Likely at hose crimps. One car blew the hoses like clockwork every 8 years on the AC I installed.

Outside air temp (OAT) might mes with the recirculate damper, but I'd suspect the CC would go into a bad sensor mode.

I get to control the "mode" in my car.

In one vehicle, the Out Air Sensor was replaced 2x by dealer. After I replaced it with engineering changes, 12 years and counting. The hard part was finding it.

Basic stupidity by the car manufacturer. No wire strain relief and the sensor could 'swing'. Fixed both problems.

I doubt I have humidity conntrol.

Dewpoint calcs might help determine if defrost or defog is needed although it would be hard to know the surface temperature of the glass.

The home stat knows the AC and furnace capacities and the outdoor temp. it can control humidity somewhat with the fan speed. It CAN do auto-changeover. Not sure if it would run the AC and heat at the same time though.

The OAT and capacity allows it to predict the desired setpoint at x time. e.g. 72F at 6o am from a 65F setback.

The stat can read the furnace faults, the model #, serial #s, capacities from the AC and heater, CFM etc.

 

[spec]

The aircon system on my car hasn't been touched since 1998, 18 years ago, so as the system is still working, I doubt a leak. The system is supposed to be recharged every two years.

The outside temperature as well as cabin temperature and engine teperature all go to the air con controller, although I think the engine temperature is only used while the engine is warming up. It only costs around £40 for a recharge and £60 to have a new sensor fitted, but I have never got around to getting it done.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Here's your "Round TUIT", so no more problems, right?

The clutch could be slipping. That's what kill my AC in the 16-17 year.

As I said, the hard part with the sensor replacement was finding it. It saw air sucked up from the bottom of the car.
Easy to get to lying on the ground in the front of the car about a foot from the front edge.

 

[JoeJester]

dunno what is it in english....waterslide?

I'd call it hydroplaning. Wiki has it as aquaplaning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaplaning

either way, it's tough to control.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

they have it as both:

Aquaplaning or hydroplaning...

 

[fezder]

what about IN water? subplaning? Ah, this way they invented submarine...

 

[fezder]

Blah, first I wait about month for temperature to be pleasant enought for car maintenance....now, when I managed to actually do something without freezing, snap*, brand new spare part broken! (alternator's controller's brushes snapped....) well, after that, more coming up when re-attaching battery; noticed that negative terminal won't make good contact, no matter how tight it goes, it just spins at terminal.....oh well, gotta buy new battery connectors too. Good thing is that parts cost about 15€ total, no big deal, but frustration was quite huge, but now it's quite funny to think about afterwards So, how was your day?

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Black isn't always negative. You probably have a black cable with a positive size hole.

A few years ago, shortly before New Year's Day, a battery in a vehicle died in the driveway and mom was in the hospital. I had picked up a battery but could not replace it yet, I needed a few days to paint the bottom plate under the battery. Then it snowed. So, put the battery in after finished shoveling the driveway.

Right now I should have been sleeping. There will be 10-18" of snow to shovel supposedly soon.

 

[fezder]

I took only negative lead out of battery for maintenance, and leads are sho short it's impossible to place them wrong way either

 

[WebbRowan]

I have always believed in regular maintenance which might require consistent effort and incur steady costs, but all of that will pay off in the long run. The process as a whole will help to prevent major repair works that are often necessary if you do not perform regular car servicing which will incur a much hefty sum of money eventually.