Vehicle Maintenace General

Any good guides out there for "so you're staring at the underside of your car"?
Every car is somewhat different but generally they mostly have the same parts. My suggestion would be to learn the basic function of the various parts, how they interact and what they do. Then you can download or buy a repair manual (Clymer, Haynes, etc) and it will identify the specific parts in your car and show you them with diagrams, as well as give instructions on doing repair operations (removal and installation of the spark plugs, changing transmission oil, etc).
 
FORscan is great, the paid license is the first thing you should buy if you have a Ford or that-vintage Mazda.
the fucking auto start/stop feature
That has to be one of the absolute worst nü-car "features". If you drive with the ASS on, especially if you do a lot of city driving, you will be replacing your starter and your battery on a regular schedule. It's amazing that people just accept these "innovations " that make our lives measurably worse, but I guess what are we supposed to do?

I occasionally get cold calls from one of the local dealerships after once taking my old rustbucket in for something I could not do myself, and I always take the opportunity to tell the hapless salesman every reason why I only buy old cars and exactly why I will never buy a car from him. Service guys will commiserate with you about how everything was better when it was just points and carburetors, but sales guys tell the Sales Manager, who tells the District Manager, who tells the VP of Sales...maybe a pipe dream, but you miss all the shots you don't take. Naturally, the federal government is to blame for a lot of these "innovations" by inflating the CAFE rating for a whole model line for stuff like the ASS and even things as stupid as not having a permanent or one-touch way to disable it. This is also the main reason muscle cars have all but disappeared: even having one "gas guzzler" in a vast range of models tanks a car company's "fleet rating" which can shut them out of the most lucrative subsidies. Inevitably, making high-powered cars is increasingly becoming the exclusive purview of foreign luxury brands that have a limited presence in the US and can afford to ignore CAFE. Either that, or they go the way of the Corvette and Mustang, and cash in on decades-old brand recognition while selling gimpy cars so crippled by emissions bullshit (PCV systems, fuel vapor recovery, catalytic converters, excessive turbocharging with tiny engines, ditching manual transmissions for 10-speed autos and CVTs, drive-by-wire throttles that limit acceleration, adaptive charging alternators, the list goes on and on and on) that they are unrecognizable apart from the logo.
 
I've ridden in a car with this and never could quite glean the actual purpose of this. Idling uses some but little fuel, certainly car companies don't care about my wallet that much so why would they bother programming this? Emission control?
People who want start/stop should just get a hybrid or an electric. It is indeed totally retarded on a gas car.
 
I've ridden in a car with this and never could quite glean the actual purpose of this. Idling uses some but little fuel, certainly car companies don't care about my wallet that much so why would they bother programming this? Emission control?
It's a way to game emissions standards, a way to get you coming in for more maintenance, and a way to make cars more disposable.
 
What about oil changes based on time? Oil bottle says 20,000 or 1 year. It's been 2 years and 2,000 miles.

Does it really go bad sitting?
 
I've ridden in a car with this and never could quite glean the actual purpose of this. Idling uses some but little fuel, certainly car companies don't care about my wallet that much so why would they bother programming this? Emission control?
ASS is encouraged by the federal government by way of CAFE fuel economy ratings. It's not so much "gaming" the system as giving the retards at CAFE exactly what they asked for, and they have a nasty habit of asking car makers to put in features that do not even exist yet (a practice they share with the NFPA, who makes the National Electrical Code). It lets the manufacturer put a counter on your screen that shows how much fuel you "saved," which adds up to several dozen gallons over the life of an average newer car...it also thrashes your starter motor by putting additional wear cycles on it and your battery by deep cycling it, sending you back to the shop more often and adding to uneducated car owners' conception that cars are only good for five years or 100k miles, whichever come first. Thus putting more cars in landfills and defeating the whole point of "eco-friendly" features.
 
What about oil changes based on time? Oil bottle says 20,000 or 1 year. It's been 2 years and 2,000 miles.

Does it really go bad sitting?
Do not perform a 20,000 mile oil change even if God himself descends from heaven to tell you it's OK...
Not when it's clean and new (ie in the bottle), but once it's cooked and used a bit it sort of starts to acidify and very slowly break down, and it gets moisture and oxidation issues when sitting in a motor. Not actually a huge issue over a period of a few months, the reason they're (usually) shorter than that is likely meant as a failsafe against the random dude who just idles his car all day. In your case I would definitely just change it. You should never follow the intervals on the bottle, they're way too long even under perfect conditions.
 
That was mainly in response to his statement that the engine coolant was boiling the engine oil. I read that as the two fluids are mixing.
I see. I think it's more likely there was just a regular leak somewhere that was significant enough to lose pressure in the cooling system and lower the boiling point of the coolant. The guy might just be mistaken that the transmission is causing it.
 
Is it ok to put 10w-20 in my car that wants 5w-30? It's a 2007 Dodge stratus with 170,000 miles.
 
If it's all you have and you're in a jam, it's fine. Rule of thumb is you can go one step higher in viscosity, but one step lower won't kill it either, just change it back to 5w-30 at your earliest convenience. Since 10w-20 is more viscous at cold temps, it might be prudent to let the engine warm up before driving really hard.
 
Hell yeah something mechanical I actually understand.

Lower viscosity won't hurt it directly, but the engine may be designed with the expectation that the oil will stick around on the components longer than it actually does.
You might get increased wear. I wouldn't keep it any longer than I had to, but in some cases its way better than really bad or low oil.
When the temp needle registers anything above C you are no longer in the winter temps regime, so warm up in idle until then.

Assuming you are north of the equator you picked a great time to do this. :P
 
New ICE cars are so user unfriendly it makes me want to get an EV instead. It's probably part of the ploy.
It definitively is part of the ploy. Making cars more expensive and complex while shortening their lifespans is perfectly in line with a push governmental push to reduce car ownership and automakers/finance companies to keep the consumer cycling through financed new cars until the grave.
 
Weird thing happened today. Parked, went to shut off the car but the dash, fans, and everything stayed on like the car was running but the engine was off, hit the button again and the engine came on but then I had a check engine light and it kept beeping at me for having the keys in the ignition as if the car was off. Third time it shut off normal and came back on fine without issue. Wondering if this is some software glitch or what.
 
Weird thing happened today. Parked, went to shut off the car but the dash, fans, and everything stayed on like the car was running but the engine was off, hit the button again and the engine came on but then I had a check engine light and it kept beeping at me for having the keys in the ignition as if the car was off. Third time it shut off normal and came back on fine without issue. Wondering if this is some software glitch or what.
Is that a push to start car? Sounds like it is but you mentioned keys in the ignition so I'm a bit confused.
 
Is that a push to start car? Sounds like it is but you mentioned keys in the ignition so I'm a bit confused.
It probably has a different name but I am not sure what else to call it. It is a push to start but the key fob is inserted in a port under the button.

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