« first day (2830 days earlier)      last day (1968 days later) » 

12:12 AM
- If you want to see the difference, take a look at the difference between the following two Stacks:
https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges (MVM&R)
https://movies.stackexchange.com/help/privileges (Movies & TV)
 
12:40 AM
@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 wow, that's a huge gap, there would go my chances of ever getting some privileges here haha
I guess my highest rep in a SE website is less than 1k
 
12:54 AM
@IanC - Remember, I started where you're at ... I've been at this for almost 5 years now (1821 days consecutive)
 
 
8 hours later…
9:13 AM
Morning all
 
 
1 hour later…
10:33 AM
@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 But it will take a while before I get any rep, most questions I have any answers for are answered in minutes because they are easy for the folks here haha :p
 
 
2 hours later…
12:32 PM
Just shy of eight years for me!
 
I've only been here just over 1.5 years
 
Pro tip: there is a lot of rep available from asking good questions as well. Sometimes you can throw yourself a softball by letting the chat know that you’re about to ask something that you’ve experienced and would like to share with others. @Zaid has had some great ones like that.
5
I remember when I used to have time to ask and answer questions on the regular. Real life decided that I had too many spare brain cells, though, and has been really turning the screws! 🤪
 
@BobCross yep.. I'm actually an odd-duck in that regard, my highest rep site is one where I've never actually asked a question!
dammit...looks like it's going to be raining again this weekend
and I've got the bits for the car all ready to go!
 
12:56 PM
@motosubatsu what job did you have in mind?
 
@Zaid Need to do front discs + pads, oil + filter on the WRX
 
Nice. I have to the rear pads on the LR3 to look forward too
rear pads + discs
Of course, with the wheels off it would make a lot of sense to refresh the brake fluid
 
yeah I haven't done brakes on the scoob before - fortunately it's not on the road at the moment so if I f##k it up I'll still be able to get to work on Monday :D
assuming I get a dry enough chunk of time to do it in of course!
 
Oh yes, I've had to endure the outcome of a similar snafu in the past. Always have a backup means of transportation
(it's what happens when you fail to check if the replacement O2 sensor will actually fit the exhaust bung)
 
yeah.. it's why I don't generally work on $dailydriver myself!
 
1:25 PM
Heh. With the kids away at college, I have the spare Forester available as the “oh crap what did I just do” car.
 
@BobCross impressively (or possibly shamefully) only 1 of my 4 cars is currently roadworthy
at least part of my motivation in getting the scoob sorted is that I'll at least have a backup car available again
 
If only one of my cars were to be working, it had better be the wife’s car. Anything else would lead to a... discussion.
 
@BobCross and I can imagine it would be the sort of discussion that would make WWII look like a polite chat
 
In other news, engineering software is really hard. Like, all the time!
@motosubatsu redheads. They have their thoughts and they want you to know about them. Like, right now. 😉
 
@BobCross it certainly is!
@BobCross they generally see that there's two sides to every argument - their side and the wrong side
 
1:36 PM
@motosubatsu I have a super power: “You were right and I was wrong.” 😉
 
@BobCross except that can wear off after some time
 
It so doesn’t. “I’m agreeing with you. Why are we still arguing?” 😉
 
@BobCross - You haven't argued with me lately, have you ;-)
 
Say something that’s correct and I’ll fall over dead from shock. 😉
 
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No
You can't make me say something which is correct. Wouldn't work. I'm too stubborn to do something like that.
 
1:42 PM
Technically that’s true so 💀
 
RIP @BobCross
 
👻
 
@BobCross - See, we can agree on stuff.
 
@Zaid should we divide his cars between us?
 
1:48 PM
@motosubatsu you can take them all. I have enough cars to worry about ;)
 
@Zaid - And wouldn't be worth it to have them shipped to Qatar, lol!
 
@Zaid sweet.. I'll figure out where to park them later
 
2:31 PM
☠️
 
3:07 PM
@BobCross What's that Ghost!Bob? Little Timmy's stuck down the well?
 
 
2 hours later…
4:42 PM
👻
 
@BobCross it's a shame that ghosts can't hold hammers
 
It’s fun to explain to people not in the industry that writing over two hundred lines of new code in one day is a lot. 😉
 
@BobCross - I can do that in about 5 mins ... not so hard.
;-)
I can do it ... I didn't say the code would work.
 
The contest is what comes out the other end of Sonarqube. New line count with no technical debt. It’s tricky
My primary project is 48k lines of stuff, of which only 26k are code.
 
@BobCross - Sounds like you are not the average coder ... most don't write in that much as far as comments go ;-)
I'd have to get really good at writing comments in my code ... a couple weeks from now I'd be like, "Now, why did I write this code in here?"
 
4:47 PM
Question to all: is there a specific oscilloscope product/brand/model that you would highly recommend for automotive applications and if so, why?
 
I write code for Future Bob. He needs as much help as he can get.
 
@BobCross - Future Bob is my hero.
@Zaid - I have a 16ch one on my wish list for Christmas, but since I don't know much about it, I can't recommend it. It's just the right price point (read: cheap). It's the kind which attaches to your laptop and the laptop displays everything. Sounds like a good time, but who knows. I thought since it is so cheap, I'd give it a whirl and see how it works.
 
I'm not a big fan of laptop-dependent solutions
They're not very... portable
 
Well, last time I checked, a regular O-scope isn't very portable, either.
 
You have a point. But I don't have a laptop
 
4:52 PM
lol
That may be a showstopper, lol
I have a couple of older ones I could use.
 
And in this day and age, I honestly don't see the point of having buying one
 
I think I'm going to reimage one of them to take all the crap off of it, then use it strictly for car stuff (tuning, O-scope, etc)
@Zaid - My wife wants a replacement for her old one. I bought my daughter one for college.
 
I speak for myself, not everyone else
 
I get yah.
While they aren't uber expensive these days, they are still a chunk of change. A phone can do most of the stuff now we'd be using a laptop for previously.
 
If I need portability, a tablet's the way to go. If I need performance, I'd think about a full-blown desktop solution
 
4:57 PM
Sounds about right
 
@Zaid speaking of tablets.. would something like a Picoscope in combo with a LINX tablet not be a good portable o-scope solution?
 
Hmmm ... I wonder if the O-scope I'm looking at will attach to my iPad <scratches head>
 
@motosubatsu I can live with a phone or tablet
 
@Zaid something like this
 
Yeah, that'd be fine
 
4:59 PM
less than a kg, spec up there with budget laptops and cheap as chips
combine it with one of these
 
Tell me more about Picoscopes
 
see the link I just posted
I've not used one personally but I've seen them used for things like in-car diagnostic/logging rigs before
 
Any idea what "2 + MSO" channels means?
@motosubatsu I like what I'm seeing. The price isn't too bad either
MSO = Mixed Signal Oscilloscope (picotech.com/products/oscilloscope-specifications)
 
@Zaid yeah they really seem to be very well priced
one of the big pluses is that IIRC they use the same software package across the entire range - so you get a good feature set in the software
while I'm sure the overall performance of the cheaper ones isn't going to match up to your expensive desk based scopes I think it's hard to argue with the form factor if portability is key
 
Is this guy a Geordie?
I'm not good at identifying British accents beyond London Hackneys, Scousers and Mancunians
 
5:10 PM
@Zaid nope.. not a geordie
hard to be sure as I'm listening through some truly crap earbuds but he sounds fairly Midlands to me
 
That Automotive menu looks rather tasty
 
@Zaid obviously they also do various flavours of the hardware.. from the ~£100 models I linked to up to about £15k
:D
 
@motosubatsu if only you could throw money at a problem and expect to be told what the problem is
 
@Zaid so true
 
There's a saying that I've been popularizing lately: "a fool with a tool is still a fool"
 
5:21 PM
@Zaid a sentiment shared by anyone who has seen me trying to do DIY around the house :D
 
@Zaid - And then there's the foolish tool as well ...
Which, of course, has nothing to do with hardware.
 
@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 so a tool with a tool is still a tool :)
2
 
@Zaid - Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
I do wish that people would understand their scan tools better. Too many hacks out there think the error code tells you what the problem is when it isn't. It's reporting the symptom, not the problem
 
5:26 PM
@Zaid amen to that!
 
@Zaid - most of the time
You definitely need to look past the error codes to see what the problem is.
 
5:54 PM
Let’s see if I can score some Arqade points today....
 
@BobCross - Post it up here ... I'll be sure to upvote you! :o)
 
X4 foundations is definitely a big game. It’s in spaaaace!
 
6:09 PM
This reminds me of the man who was driving down the road and his car breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, "My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?"The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. A sound unlike anything he's ever heard before. The Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus into crashing his ship comes to his mind. He doesn't sleep that night.
He tosses and turns trying to figure out what could possibly be making such a seductive sound.The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk." Distraught, the man is forced to leave.Years later, after never being able to forget that sound, the man goes back to the monastery and pleads for the answer again.The monks reply,
"We can't tell you. You're not a monk."The man sa,ys, "If the only way I can find out what is making that beautiful sound is to become a monk, then please, make me a monk."The monks reply, "You must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of grains of sand. When you find these answers, you will have become a monk.
"The man sets about his task. After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired old man and knocks on the door of the monastery. A monk answers. He is taken before a gathering of all the monks."In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I traveled the earth and have found what you asked for:
By design, the world is in a state of perpetual change. Only God knows what you ask. All a man can know is himself, and only then if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip away self deception."The monks reply, "Congratulations. You have become a monk
. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of the sacred sound."The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, "The sound is beyond that door."The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone.
The man is given the key to the stone door and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. And so it went that he needed keys to doors of emerald, pearl and diamond.Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The sound has become very clear and definite. The monks say,
"This is the last key to the last door."The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish is behind that door!With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob, and slowly pushes the door open. Falling to his knees, he is utterly amazed to discover the source of that haunting and seductive sound......But, of course, I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.
This is the best thing i ever read. How are you doing today by the way did you like the story i told you? Damn imagine wasting so much time like the monk. This story reminds of all the time i spent...
@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 do u know this story
 
🙂
 
I've heard it before
 
@AsenM - Nope, but entertaining!
 
I’ve also heard the sound as well: a WRX playing on a snowy day. So pretty!
 
@BobCross - Heh ...
Headed home. Have a good one, all :-)
 
6:20 PM
Ugh. Two more hours for me. I got here early but not early enough. Well, at least it will be nearly dark when I leave.... wait. That’s not actually a good thing.
 
 
2 hours later…
8:07 PM
Hi @AsenM!
 
Bloodhound SSC failed to get that £25M and has been axed
 
hey @Martin
whats up
 
@RoryAlsop Damn! Hi @RoryAlsop
@AsenM I am fine, you?
 
sad
nobody upvotes m shit :P
 
@AsenM Cheer up a little, have some upvotes!
 
8:13 PM
Begging for upvotes ain't the point
I was hoping people appreciate my help, but meh
people don't even mark answers as the right one anymore
they just come see the answer and leave
 
@AsenM Of course it is not the point. Just some help is not going to hurt :)
 
thank you
 
@AsenM Yes, that happens. I got over it. Unfortunately in the last time I don't have the energy to write better answers.
@AsenM You are welcome.
I saw that you wrote some good answers (as far as I can judge that)
 
9:05 PM
@Martin thank you
 
@BobCross I'll definitely write a good amount of questions, my car needs some care and the input of you experienced folks will be of help :)
 
you can ask here
if you want
to discuss it
 
There's nothing particular atm, but there's a quick one: Do you guys test the thermostat before installing it? Just bought one and have seem videos of mechanics boiling water and putting the valve on the boiling water to check if it opened, then cooling it down and checking for leaks
 
i've never checked one
but im not mechanic after all :)
and in my country mechanics just install what u give them :)
they don't care if its broken they just care about the swap fee
 
I was thinking about testing it because it isn't that hard to do it (boil water, hold it there for a while, checking if valve opened, cooling and checking if valve closed), and if I was unlucky enough to get a faulty one I wouldn't burn a head gasket
 
9:21 PM
yeah would be nice
I have some oil leak that i have to worry about :(
 
9:33 PM
where's the leak?
 
i dont know
whole motor is in oil :D
everything under the car is in oil :)
ive leaked more than 4 liters already
 
damn, you've been filling the oil while it leaks so you can drive around?
going to be a bit annoying to clear the whole thing to check where it's coming from
but if the whole engine is filled with oil it's likely coming from up? (head maybe?)
 
yeah im filling around 1l every 1-2 weeks
yeah i think camshaft
 
9:52 PM
I'm thinking about making a frustrating decision
I just bought all the tools to make the timing belt replacement, also all the parts. The only one I still don't have in hand is the torque wrench, which I'd need for the camshaft and crankshaft gears, the thermostat bolts and the timing belt tensor bolt specific torques (45Nm, 95Nm, 25Nm, 20Nm respectively)
My dilemma is I'm not sure how the current timing bolt is, and I still need to drive maybe 10-20 miles to do everything for the inspection/document transfer, after that I can leave the car still until I get my hands in the torque wrench
 
damn i didnt use torque wrench on anything other than my bicycle
in fact last few engine rebuilds i did and engine swaps i tightened everything by hand
 
After the small massacre on my wallet with this transmission situation, I really don't feel like pushing luck and having a broken engine because of a part I already have in hand. So I'm considering paying the mechanic to replace it, which is going to be really sad
My last hope is to open the timing belt cover and check it, if it looks really trashed or if it looks like it can endure at least those 20 miles
 
like did you just buy the car?
when was the last change of the belt?
belts can handle pretty much up to 80 000 km
 
I just bought it, I'm not sure when the last change was
 
well most likely it will hold
a 20 mile
 
10:04 PM
but from the looks of the alternator belt, if it was changed simultaneously it's old
 
take the cover
check it out
drive the car and change it
 
that's one of those situations that "it's 90% of chance it will be fine, but if you're in the 10% you'll be completely screwed" lol
That's the plan for now, fingers crossed it won't look like a disaster
 
is the car diesel?
petrol car can handle broken timing belt pretty well
but diesel cars ... well you are fucked
 
petrol car, and I don't think they'll handle it much differently :p
isn't the timing belt failure catastrophic, valves bending, pistons possibly breaking too?
 
didn't saw broken piston from broken belt so far
bent valves yes
but they are pretty cheap to replace
10$ each
depends on the engine ofc but in most cases 10-20$ each
the most expensive thing will be like the head gasket that will cost like 30-40-50$
if you keep the car at low rpm below 2000 and break timing belt on petrol car
your repair will be around 100$ tops
last time i saw timing belt to snap it was after 120 000 km with it
and 2 valves were bent
but just take the cover off and check the belt it takes 10 minutes max
to make sure you are fine to go
then go home and change it
 
10:16 PM
@AsenM What about the valves settling and repairs in the head?
 
most of the times you wont require any additional repairs
all you have to do is take a paste 5$ and finish the valve holes :) then measure proper valves distances and maybe grind them this is also pretty cheap like 10$ for 16 valves (most of the time u will have to grind only a few)
but hey im not mechanic and maybe im wrong :)
at least from my experience it goes like this
im only a guy who killed few engines in few months
doing crazy shit
in like 3 months i had those problems
1. overheated the engine and seized it
2. ran it without oil and fucked up the bearings
3. broke crankshaft
4, fucked up my alternator 4-5 times
that's all on same engine :D
in the end i just gave up and bought new car
 
well, that sounds less catastrophic than I imagined it, but still definitely a crappy situation, since I'd spend some good money towing the car, plus having to do all the replacements or paying someone serious cash to do it
wow, that engine suffered huh? haha
 
yeah it was 80hp engine
and i was driving it always pedal to the metal :)
it was going 160km/h contantly and 200+ on straights
btw best way to destroy a piston is
water in the fuel :)
thats how u crack a piston
 
hydrolock, a friend has been through this nightmare
went through a puddle, that was more like a giant puddle
he is rebuilding the whole engine, connecting rod, pistons, rings, block was bent (but thankfully saveable)
 
exactly
 
10:47 PM
I'm thinking of building RC car that can hit 70+ km/h
 

« first day (2830 days earlier)      last day (1968 days later) »