Car Thread - VROOM VROOM

[Troon_Patrol]

What VW was it? Most of the pre-80s models were extremely low-tech. Pretty sure that even Karmann Ghias used mostly Beetle parts and were just as simple to assemble/reassemble.

(sorry for the sperging, you just got me intrigued because I legit can't think of any VW that would fit that description)

It was a Vanagon IIRC. VW Vans tend to be very popular in the U.S. especially the 1970s and older models. I'm %90 certain this is the part, not expensive or hard to find but as it wraps the steering assembly I see no other way that pulling the entire steering wheel and dealing with a sheer-head bolt. The cylinder itself also not hard to find or expensive but, I don't even think they sell the tools to change the internal tumblers for this cylinder, some may come factory sealed never intended to be rekeyed to a different key. Anything older than 1995 especially non U.S. vehicles the security system gets complicated quick. Before electronic immobilizers car manufactures either relied on a large amount of work to disassemble to generate a key or required the skill to rotate the lock in a non destructive manner to remove without damage. Kind of a "chicken and egg thing" really. those of us who know what we are doing pick the lock and rotate it to the disassembly position when applicable.

 

[KittyGremlin]

It was a Vanagon IIRC. VW Vans tend to be very popular in the U.S. especially the 1970s and older models. I'm %90 certain this is the part, not expensive or hard to find but as it wraps the steering assembly I see no other way that pulling the entire steering wheel and dealing with a sheer-head bolt. The cylinder itself also not hard to find or expensive but, I don't even think they sell the tools to change the internal tumblers for this cylinder, some may come factory sealed never intended to be rekeyed to a different key. Anything older than 1995 especially non U.S. vehicles the security system gets complicated quick. Before electronic immobilizers car manufactures either relied on a large amount of work to disassemble to generate a key or required the skill to rotate the lock in a non destructive manner to remove without damage. Kind of a "chicken and egg thing" really. those of us who know what we are doing pick the lock and rotate it to the disassembly position when applicable.


View attachment 6405608

Aaaah, yeah vanagons are fuckin neat. I remember when they were all over the place here in Europe but disappeared and became classics nearly overnight. I completely feel you about the whole neglected trades thing, I've started to learn some hobby MIG welding for a car I'm restoring (I shared pics in the welding thread) and IRL people occasionally inquire if I could do some little job for them, it's crazy. And I'm from a country in the euro east where trades are supposedly not going extinct yet...

 

[anklyscr]

Here’s a daft question / observation.
What happened to Mercedes?

Saw a S63 convertible today and I wasn’t sure if it was real or a diesel with a body kit.

The rear bumper / exhausts didn’t look like they fit, the tyres and wheels looked like they were from another car but it was parked in a private space in front of an 8 million dollarydoos yacht. So I think it was real.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Here’s a daft question / observation.
What happened to Mercedes?

Saw a S63 convertible today and I wasn’t sure if it was real or a diesel with a body kit.

The rear bumper / exhausts didn’t look like they fit, the tyres and wheels looked like they were from another car but it was parked in a private space in front of an 8 million dollarydoos yacht. So I think it was real.

They've lost their way and emissions requirements have neutered their appeal.

 

[God's drunkest driver]

I decided against pulling the engine from my RX7 and rebuilding it, or using a used engine, and bought a new one. Unfortunately they've gone up in price a lot in the last few years, in the end it is over $9,000. However given the reputations of these cars it does add significantly to the value of the car to have a fresh crate engine. Now the repair will take only a weekend instead of a month and will give me a good chance to detail the engine bay to match the clean exterior. The old one will be rebuilt as a spare or sold, we'll see, and the new one will have a complete service history and premix in addition to the stock oil injection since day of first run. It should last longer than the original.

S63

The -63 AMGs are worse than you think, they are turbo 4cyl hybrids. My "old" E63 has a bellowing V8, a new C63 has a 4cyl that sounds like an ecoboost mustang engine. It doesn't matter that your muscular luxury muscle sedan can do 0-60 in 3 seconds when it sounds like some frat bro's fucking rental tier mustang.

 

[Doggo]

I think I have the oldest car I know of that has a proper graphic LCD screen in the cluster. It’s a 2004 model with them starting in 2002. It also has automatic headlights which is also very uncommon for a 20 year old car. The car is a Holden VY Commodore with a Buick 3800 series 2 and a very under-stressed 4L60-E.

You could option a supercharged 3800 or an LS1, too.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

I think I have the oldest car I know of that has a proper graphic LCD screen in the cluster. It’s a 2004 model with them starting in 2002. It also has automatic headlights which is also very uncommon for a 20 year old car. The car is a Holden VY Commodore with a Buick 3800 series 2 and a very under-stressed 4L60-E.

You could option a supercharged 3800 or an LS1, too.
View attachment 6441714

BMW E32 and E34 7 and 5 series have a proper LCD info screen in the gauge cluster too and those came out in the 80s.

 

[Doggo]

BMW E32 and E34 7 and 5 series have a proper LCD info screen in the gauge cluster too and those came out in the 80s.

I figured it’d be some eurobox and luxury cars. The Lagonda stands out to me. Ditto the Vector W8 (which uses the exact same screen out of a fighter jet. Can’t remember which.), but these are very high end cars, whereas my lowly Holden had these things as standard. You could also get automatic wipers, satnav, telematics, airbag suspension for towing, etc, if you wanted to option them up.

What blows me away with these cars, though, is that every computer module in the car talks over a single wire. Assembly Line Diagnostic Link (or ALDL) was GM’a form of OBD before it became a standard. It runs at a whole 1 kilobyte per second, and is basically identical to RS-232 just with different voltages, so you can *make* a cable for your computer that will talk to every module in the car, no scan tool required.

I could talk for days about this stuff, but I’ll leave it there for now.

 

[anklyscr]

I’ll leave it there for now.

Nope. This seems really interesting , keep going.

 

[Doggo]

Nope. This seems really interesting , keep going.

Well…

These cars have had an OBD II port since about 1995, but they didn’t speak OBD II, they spoke ALDL. Nothing bad would happen if you plugged an OBD II scan tool in, the power and ground are in the correct place, just the tool wouldn’t communicate, unless it had ALDL compatibility.

OBD II wasn't mandated in Australia until 2006—the yanks got it in 1996. But despite this, my 2004 Commodore will spit out proper OBD II-compliant codes at you, just as long as you had an ALDL tool (like a Tech 2) that spoke the language. I have a Tech 2 equivalent tool that will work. Amusingly it will also work for things like Maserati and Lamborghini, but it doesn’t have the software packages for, say, Nissan. Weird chinesium tool but it works.

But the extra weird thing was that some engines for these cars *were* OBD-II, notably the LS1 and later alloy V6. In these cases, the ECU had a supplementary module, called the powertrain interface module, or PIM. This module’s sole job was to make the OBD II engine and ALDL body control module, ABS, airbag, etc, modules, play nicely with each other, since the rest of the car still ran on ALDL.

All of this jankery stopped in 2006 with the all-new VE Commodore, which ran standard OBD II and CAN Bus, although I think they also called it GM LAN. Not sure if there were any differences though.

So yeah, that’s about it, I think! Thanks for listening!

 

[KebabShopSauce]

The -63 AMGs are worse than you think, they are turbo 4cyl hybrids. My "old" E63 has a bellowing V8, a new C63 has a 4cyl that sounds like an ecoboost mustang engine. It doesn't matter that your muscular luxury muscle sedan can do 0-60 in 3 seconds when it sounds like some frat bro's fucking rental tier mustang.

Only the lesser Mercedes classes so far. They've been a sales failure so I expect a U-turn in the next gen unless they go for the globohomo doubledown.

 

[Bassomatic]

I'm officially shopping for an Elise. I want a stripper, the Toyota BEAMS motor is fine, but I know hondas so I rather not spend a ton for better springs and a roots blower when I plan to rip the driveline out for a K series.

I also plan to run it till it dies then go NA monster. Promptly dying in a crash. BASED.

 

[Sneeds]

I thought the c63 becoming a 4 cylinder was a meme. Until I looked up a newer one and saw the engine specification. Holy fucking shitballs

 

[1994 Honda Civic]

I thought the c63 becoming a 4 cylinder was a meme. Until I looked up a newer one and saw the engine specification. Holy fucking shitballs

It is an absolute far cry from even the W204 models and they're all 10+ years old now. Not that long ago, you could get a beefy C-Class with nice torque in any spec. Name a bigger downgrade of a brand you can think of because this is one of them.

 

[CFC-12]

Been rewatching The Sopranos and it has me once again scouring Marketplace for a cleanish GMT400 Suburban.

Man these trucks are nice. They used to be everywhere when I was growing up, but 25 years of road salt and winter weather hasn't been kind to them. I gotta find a nicer one NOW before speculator retards crank the prices up to $40k.

 

[Sneeds]

It is an absolute far cry from even the W204 models and they're all 10+ years old now. Not that long ago, you could get a beefy C-Class with nice torque in any spec. Name a bigger downgrade of a brand you can think of because this is one of them.

Would you say the c63 is basically a roided out civic with that 4 cylinder

 

[Sneeds]

Been rewatching The Sopranos and it has me once again scouring Marketplace for a cleanish GMT400 Suburban.

View attachment 6493021
Man these trucks are nice. They used to be everywhere when I was growing up, but 25 years of road salt and winter weather hasn't been kind to them. I gotta find a nicer one NOW before speculator retards crank the prices up to $40k.

You still see a lot of these salting in my my area. In order to find a decently affordable GMT400. You’d have to go out west where they don’t use road salt. States like Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and the Dakotas don’t use road salt.

 

[1994 Honda Civic]

Would you say the c63 is basically a roided out civic with that 4 cylinder

For the newer models? Not really.

Unless the C-Class becomes front wheel drive, comparing those two is like doing the same for a GR Corolla and a 330i BMW. That C63 may have a souped up engine from the factory but the rest of the car is a completely different species to a simple Civic Si or a Type R even. The characteristics of the two cars are vastly opposed to one another in a way that it cannot be truly compared in a fair sense.

 

[Bassomatic]

I thought the c63 becoming a 4 cylinder was a meme. Until I looked up a newer one and saw the engine specification. Holy fucking shitballs

It's got an absolutely insane HP/L ratio, IIRC highest of any factory car. They don't even sound too bad stock, and the few around me are tuned because you just need pop and crackle noises and back firing in your 60k+ German cozy ride. Yet to drive one, but the motor is wild, I think it's also in the small crossover the gle? That could be a dope family hauler.

 

[WhatInTheActualFuck]

You still see a lot of these salting in my my area. In order to find a decently affordable GMT400. You’d have to go out west where they don’t use road salt. States like Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and the Dakotas don’t use road salt.

The other option is to look in the South or Southwest, since no snow and all that.