Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

ab348

Followed @stickguy 's lead and ordered two of those LED garage light spaceships from Amazon, $42 Cdn for the pair. If they last they are definitely the ticket. One is in my 12x8 shed, the other in the garage. Doing a bang-up job of illumination.

stickguy

I’m shocked still every time I go out into the garage and flip the lights on.

graphicguy

andres3 said:

Audi S4 Saga Update:

New engine installed; shop's done about 40 miles of troubleshooting because there were issues uncovered.
Low oil pressure and high oil pressure issues; with a brand new engine.

Suspect: HPFP (High Pressure Fuel Pump) gone haywire and evil. Getting fuel into the engine to mix with the oil.

Solution: New $500 HPFP installing today and the car should be on its way to my hands this evening. Everything "else" checked out good. Assuming their diagnosis is correct of course.

Verdict: Bad Evil Rotten HPFP put fuel in the motor oil to the point over 3,500 miles (last service interval oil change) that it diluted the oil enough to cause catastrophic engine failure and destruction. Even over 40 miles they were able to monitor measurable changes in oil/fuel level and record oil pressure issues with the sensors.

When they first turned on the new engine there was so much oil and junk in the exhaust they smoked out the entire shop. Then they smoked out their adjacent street too, driving it around cleaning out the exhaust at the same time. Said they even got honked at for the smoke screen.

Like I said before, think video game Spy Hunter but black instead of white smokescreen.

Not due for a smog check for 2 more years as I had to get one when I bought it.

Man-oh-man. That's just a big heap of tough luck. In all seriousness, see if you can sell it to one of those YouTubers who love getting knuckle deep in a project like that. Thinking guys like these...

https://www.youtube.com/c/Samcrac/about

https://www.youtube.com/c/LegitStreetCars/about

https://www.youtube.com/c/WatchJRGo/about

All of them have experience with the Audi brand.

venture

ab348 said:

Followed @stickguy 's lead and ordered two of those LED garage light spaceships from Amazon, $42 Cdn for the pair. If they last they are definitely the ticket. One is in my 12x8 shed, the other in the garage. Doing a bang-up job of illumination.

I took one of the GE ones from Lowes to my son's house over the weekend.

Last month, when I was there, we put in 2 regular light bulbs. He didn't have any that worked before. (He had to open the garage door a little to get any light to come on.)

He put the one new one in and it is plenty of light. Probably more than enough and it is set on the lowest brightness setting. He didn't use the motion detector either.

jmonroe1

@stickguy said:
I’m shocked still every time I go out into the garage and flip the lights on.

@stickguy said:
I’m shocked still every time I go out into the garage and flip the lights on.

You shouldn’t be shocked every time you turn the lights on. You should return it for a double insulated one.

jmonroe

explorerx4

Bam! jmonroe, Comment of the day!

We are going to get snow tomorrow, so I put some gas in the snowblower and it started first pull.
I wasn't shocked, more like tickled.

stickguy

JRgo would have just ordered up a wrecking yard engine and whipped it in. He did an A6 recently with a blown motor.

snakeweasel

@andres3 said:

When they first turned on the new engine there was so much oil and junk in the exhaust they smoked out the entire shop. Then they smoked out their adjacent street too, driving it around cleaning out the exhaust at the same time. Said they even got honked at for the smoke screen.

Like I said before, think video game Spy Hunter but black instead of white smokescreen.

Not due for a smog check for 2 more years as I had to get one when I bought it.

So it's pretty much like driving behind a diesel pickup.

driver100

explorerx4 said:

Bam! jmonroe, Comment of the day!

We are going to get snow tomorrow, so I put some gas in the snowblower and it started first pull.
I wasn't shocked, more like tickled.

That sucks! We went to the Sunset Grill in Little Harbor, Ruskin FL.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

There was a lot of handicap placard abuse here until the state issued new one's with a different color/design.
I think they change it every few years now.

When I got my wife’s placard the clerk cautioned to lock the car as they are a popular target for thieves.

venture

jmonroe1 said:

@stickguy said:

I’m shocked still every time I go out into the garage and flip the lights on.

@stickguy said:

I’m shocked still every time I go out into the garage and flip the lights on.

You shouldn’t be shocked every time you turn the lights on. You should return it for a double insulated one.

jmonroe

That reminded me. I wanted to mention to you...

A few weeks ago, Mrs. venture wanted a refrigerator put in the garage. The new refrigerator didn't work. The outlet tested more pink than red. I put the tester on it and it said "open neutral". That was a new one to me.

I had to call an electrician to find it. The outlet is on the wall, but the loose connection was in the light fixture on the ceiling. The poor guy was all over the place looking for it, but he found it.

tjc78

That loose neutral reminds me of a story with the new house. A few weeks back my Christmas lights stopped working in a rainstorm. I knew it was obviously a tripped GFCI. So I went out to the outside outlet and it was a normal device. The other 3 outside outlets were also normal outlets. Hmm… ok must be the garage outlet. Nope. Then check the breaker box, not there either. So check all the kitchen GFCIs, bathrooms, bar downstairs all not tripped. I’m really scratching my head at this point. I took a break thinking it was something worse and went into our basement storage room and sure enough there is a GFCI in there and that’s the one the outside outlets are wired from. What a stupid place for it.

graphicguy

oldfarmer50 said:

explorerx4 said:

There was a lot of handicap placard abuse here until the state issued new one's with a different color/design.
I think they change it every few years now.

When I got my wife’s placard the clerk cautioned to lock the car as they are a popular target for thieves.

Interesting you mention that. This was 10+ years ago, but right before my Mother’s passing, she was going back and forth the the Drs quite a bit. At first, she drove herself, until she couldn’t. When that was no longer feasible, my Sisters and I took turns driving her to her appointments.

We would use the handicapped placard she had in her car, and put it in ours so she wouldn’t have as far to walk, as she had had a hip, two knee replacements, and fused disks. In brief, although she stubbornly insisted on getting around on her own, sometimes she couldn’t.

Anyway, on one particular visit, I had taken her for her appointment. Parked in a handicapped spot. And, escorted her to the Dr’s front desk. Realizing I had not locked the car, I went back to do so. Wouldn’t you know it, as I went to the parking lot, I saw someone in my car. I took off after them, and am ashamed to say, the perp eluded me. I’ll save face here and note that it wasn’t a geriatric who broke into my car. What did they steal? The handicapped placard. This happened in a matter of minutes.

They ignored what was in the back seat…my $2.5K MacBook Pro.

tjc78

About 4” of the white stuff here in South Jersey.

venture

tjc78 said:

That loose neutral reminds me of a story with the new house. A few weeks back my Christmas lights stopped working in a rainstorm. I knew it was obviously a tripped GFCI. So I went out to the outside outlet and it was a normal device. The other 3 outside outlets were also normal outlets. Hmm… ok must be the garage outlet. Nope. Then check the breaker box, not there either. So check all the kitchen GFCIs, bathrooms, bar downstairs all not tripped. I’m really scratching my head at this point. I took a break thinking it was something worse and went into our basement storage room and sure enough there is a GFCI in there and that’s the one the outside outlets are wired from. What a stupid place for it.

It makes you wonder what people are thinking. Electrical gremlins can be frustrating.

One time an outlet on our front porch wasn't working. It is the one where I plug in our Christmas lights. I remembered using an extension cord from the garage the previous year because it wasn't working and didn't have time to mess with it.

Well...I couldn't find that problem either. As it turned out there is a switch near the breaker box in the basement. That switch is what I used to turn on the lights before I started using a timer. It was off. I installed the switch.

ab348

The vinyl fencing salesman had a good day there.

snakeweasel

tjc78 said:

That loose neutral reminds me of a story with the new house. A few weeks back my Christmas lights stopped working in a rainstorm. I knew it was obviously a tripped GFCI. So I went out to the outside outlet and it was a normal device. The other 3 outside outlets were also normal outlets. Hmm… ok must be the garage outlet. Nope. Then check the breaker box, not there either. So check all the kitchen GFCIs, bathrooms, bar downstairs all not tripped. I’m really scratching my head at this point. I took a break thinking it was something worse and went into our basement storage room and sure enough there is a GFCI in there and that’s the one the outside outlets are wired from. What a stupid place for it.

I'm surprised the building code allowed it or that the building inspectors missed it.

stickguy

It’s nice when neighbors natch fences.

explorerx4

Snow is still coming down here.

stickguy

White evil death on a shovel. But it is picturesque.

explorerx4

@stickguy,
Did your deck collapse?

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

White evil death on a shovel. But it is picturesque.

That’s a heck of a storm, it blew your house completely on it’s side.

We got about an inch up here in the snowy north, you almost can’t see the grass any more. Oh the humanity.

tjc78

@ab348 said:
The vinyl fencing salesman had a good day there.

Tell me about it. When we moved in we had to install 3 sides. We have a pretty large lot, set us back about 9K. I did spring for a gate on both sides of the house.

tjc78

@snakeweasel said:
I'm surprised the building code allowed it or that the building inspectors missed it.

I don’t think the code cares where it originates from as long as the circuit isn’t overloaded and it is GFCI protected. It’s just wildly inconvenient.

snakeweasel

tjc78 said:

@snakeweasel said:

I'm surprised the building code allowed it or that the building inspectors missed it.

I don’t think the code cares where it originates from as long as the circuit isn’t overloaded and it is GFCI protected. It’s just wildly inconvenient.

Here the codes require it on outside outlets and for the outlets to be covered.

snakeweasel

It's nice and sunny here but temps in the negative numbers with wind chills in the double digits of negative. I am glad I don't have to go out.

explorerx4

Took about an hour to clear the driveway and sidewalk. Also cleared some of my neighbors sidewalk and the end of the driveway on his wife's side. Her garage door was open and I thought she might be going out.
One of my kids said it's currently -9F where they live in Wisconsin.

jmonroe1

@venture said:
That reminded me. I wanted to mention to you...

A few weeks ago, Mrs. venture wanted a refrigerator put in the garage. The new refrigerator didn't work. The outlet tested more pink than red. I put the tester on it and it said "open neutral". That was a new one to me.

I had to call an electrician to find it. The outlet is on the wall, but the loose connection was in the light fixture on the ceiling. The poor guy was all over the place looking for it, but he found it.

You probably just proved why the electrical code was changed since your house was built. You used to be able to make connections by only twisting the wire nut onto the wires. Because electricians didn’t always twist the wire nuts tight enough the code was changed so that the wires now have to be twisted at least 3 turns using side cutters or pliers to make a good mechanical connection before you put the wire nut on to insulate the connection.

jmonroe

stickguy

Should use the modern push in connectors and ditch the wire nuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWiyreFFt-Q

stickguy

I also always wrap the wire nuts in electrical tape when I do use them.

tjc78

@jmonroe1 said:

@venture said:
That reminded me. I wanted to mention to you...

A few weeks ago, Mrs. venture wanted a refrigerator put in the garage. The new refrigerator didn't work. The outlet tested more pink than red. I put the tester on it and it said "open neutral". That was a new one to me.

I had to call an electrician to find it. The outlet is on the wall, but the loose connection was in the light fixture on the ceiling. The poor guy was all over the place looking for it, but he found it.

You probably just proved why the electrical code was changed since your house was built. You used to be able to make connections by only twisting the wire nut onto the wires. Because electricians didn’t always twist the wire nuts tight enough the code was chan so that the wires now have to be twisted at least 3 turns using side cutters or pliers to make a good mechanical connection before you put the wire nut on to insulate the connection.

jmonroe

Twisting the wires before the nuts was always common practice. I’m not sure at what point electricians got lazy and stopped doing it.

@stickguy
When I wired my cousin’s garage he bought the push connectors. Definitely a time saver, I’m not 100% sold that they are better than pre-twisted wire nut connections but easier!

jmonroe1

@tjc78 said:

@snakeweasel said:
I'm surprised the building code allowed it or that the building inspectors missed it.

I don’t think the code cares where it originates from as long as the circuit isn’t overloaded and it is GFCI protected. It’s just wildly inconvenient.

You’re correct, the code doesn’t care about the GFCI location as long as it exists for outdoor circuits.

I’m sure the electrician chose your storage area because it was the closest spot to get the power for the outdoor receptacle and there is nothing wrong with that.

jmonroe

roadburner

stickguy said:

Should use the modern push in connectors and ditch the wire nuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWiyreFFt-Q

You are going to blow your house up! And don't EVER open the breaker box- it's deadly!

stickguy

No, I don’t mess with the gas lines.

It will just burn down.

At least that will take care of the weeding out the junk process.

jmonroe1

@tjc78 said:

@jmonroe1 said:

@venture said:
That reminded me. I wanted to mention to you...

A few weeks ago, Mrs. venture wanted a refrigerator put in the garage. The new refrigerator didn't work. The outlet tested more pink than red. I put the tester on it and it said "open neutral". That was a new one to me.

I had to call an electrician to find it. The outlet is on the wall, but the loose connection was in the light fixture on the ceiling. The poor guy was all over the place looking for it, but he found it.

You probably just proved why the electrical code was changed since your house was built. You used to be able to make connections by only twisting the wire nut onto the wires. Because electricians didn’t always twist the wire nuts tight enough the code was chan so that the wires now have to be twisted at least 3 turns using side cutters or pliers to make a good mechanical connection before you put the wire nut on to insulate the connection.

jmonroe

Twisting the wires before the nuts was always common practice. I’m not sure at what point electricians got lazy and stopped doing it.

@stickguy
When I wired my cousin’s garage he bought the push connectors. Definitely a time saver, I’m not 100% sold that they are better than pre-twisted wire nut connections but easier!

Twisting the wires might have been common practice where you come from but it was definitely not common practice where I live.

Pretwisting is always better and because of poor workmanship by too many electricians it is now required by code.

jmonroe

imidazol97

@jmonroe or @jmonroe1 or @jmonroe2
already said that the basement outlet was likely closest to the box
and therefore has the GF unit on it, which then protects the
other outlets downline in the series. I don't like the way the
outlets in some houses are wired in series.

People who put heavy loads on a wall outlet, outdoors or indoors,
may not realize there already is another fairly heavy load on
an outlet earlier in the series.

To wit, our house from 1976 had the OTR microwave and the
refrigerator (Frigidaire by GM in rich red for 1976 bicentennial)
on the same line they they would occasionally pop the breaker.
I realized if the microwave was
on and the refrigerator was starting the compressor with a higher
power draw for that short time the breaker popped.

When I redid the kitchen relocating things, the refrigerator got its own
direct power line and the microwave got its own direct power line
from the breaker box, which I believe was the then new code requirement.

And the electric range got its own new copper 220 line replacing
the aluminum wires used by the builder--thanks to the guy at Lowes
who was actually an electrician working in the electrical department.
Lowes doesn't have tradesfolk in the departments anymore, but
they were a big help to me.

jmonroe1

@stickguy said:
Should use the modern push in connectors and ditch the wire nuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWiyreFFt-Q

Those quick connectors are nice but they shouldn’t be used for high current draw circuits. They’re fine for lights but not for every application. That’s why that guy doesn’t like the push in feature on the back of receptacles.

And I disagree with him about using the solid wire as the lead wire when connecting a twisted wire with a solid wire. That is EXACTLY opposite of the way I was taught. Think about it, with the twisted wire being the shorter wire, it will almost always be pushed back towards the insulation as you start twisting the wire nut. I don’t like joining solid and twisted wire but you will almost always have to join them when wiring a light fixture. By having the twisted wire being the lead wire, it has the best chance of starting to twist around the solid wire as you start twisting on the wire nut.

Once again you can’t believe everything you see on the internet.

jmonroe

tjc78

Guys I should have mentioned. The room that the GFCI for the outside outlets is in couldn’t be physically further away from the panel unless it was in another house. It makes zero sense as to why they would run a circuit clear across the home, junction into a box and then branch out to four outside outlets.

What I’m not sure is what else may be on that line before the GFCI. It could be some other outlets in the basement.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

And the electric range got its own new copper 220 line replacing
the aluminum wires used by the builder--thanks to the guy at Lowes
who was actually an electrician working in the electrical department.
Lowes doesn't have tradesfolk in the departments anymore, but
they were a big help to me.

My first apartment was in a largish (12 floors) apartment building built in the early '70s. I remember looking out the windows of my first-year university classrooms and watching it going up in '73. I moved there in 1983. A couple of years in I decided the dining area light needed a dimmer switch, one of my early DIY jobs. I was astounded to find the wiring was aluminum. Made me uneasy as there were already the stories on the news about it being unsafe. I wonder if they ever replaced it.

qbrozen

You guys and your fancy connectors. Just lick them, scotch tape them together, and shove them back in the wall. Easy peasy.

fintail

I bet that kind of thing is common in areas with unrenovated older housing stock, and contributes to disasters now and then.

When I was a kid, one house we lived in was a fairly unrenovated 1910 build ("dad's house", we moved a few times when I was young due to my dad's job, and this was the one he was into), and it still had a fuse box, and I assume knob and tube wiring. This freaked my mom out, but my dad didn't seem to have any worries, and I only recall it blowing a fuse once or twice. My mom's prior house, a 1928 build, had bedrooms with one outlet per room, but at least had a reasonably modern electrical panel. The inspector for my house found a few outlets with reverse polarity (prior owners went nuts with outlets in a renovation, master bedroom has 8 I think), I just don't use those ones.

ab348 said:

imidazol97 said:

And the electric range got its own new copper 220 line replacing
the aluminum wires used by the builder--thanks to the guy at Lowes
who was actually an electrician working in the electrical department.
Lowes doesn't have tradesfolk in the departments anymore, but
they were a big help to me.

My first apartment was in a largish (12 floors) apartment building built in the early '70s. I remember looking out the windows of my first-year university classrooms and watching it going up in '73. I moved there in 1983. A couple of years in I decided the dining area light needed a dimmer switch, one of my early DIY jobs. I was astounded to find the wiring was aluminum. Made me uneasy as there were already the stories on the news about it being unsafe. I wonder if they ever replaced it.

jmonroe1

@tjc78 said:
Guys I should have mentioned. The room that the GFCI for the outside outlets is in couldn’t be physically further away from the panel unless it was in another house. It makes zero sense as to why they would run a circuit clear across the home, junction into a box and then branch out to four outside outlets.

What I’m not sure is what else may be on that line before the GFCI. It could be some other outlets in the basement.

Turn the breaker off and you’ll know what else may be on that circuit. If you don’t know what breaker it is you can always resort to the brute force method of finding it like I do. You don’t think I’m going to go down to the garage countless times from the second floor to find the circuit I’m working on if I don’t want to work it hot, do you? Nope, I ain’t doing that. I just purposely short the hot wire to the neural or to the ground wire. Sure, you’ll get a spark but you’ll trip the breaker and then you’ll know what that breaker controls.

I know a few of you guys wouldn’t dare do that but it beats the hell out of running up and down steps from the second floor to the garage/basement to find the circuit you’re working on.

jmonroe

stickguy

That’s what my wife is for. I flip switches, she tells me when I got the right one.

jmonroe1

@stickguy said:
That’s what my wife is for. I flip switches, she tells me when I got the right one.

Yep, I’ve done that but she isn’t always around and is never around when I’m working at the flip.

I’ve also done it with a radio blasting so once you don’t hear it you found your circuit. But, that requires going to the panel and start the breaker flipping process. I’ve grown too lazy to even do that. A piece of wire to cause the short and I never have to leave the work area.

Not for everyone but it works for me.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

Took about an hour to clear the driveway and sidewalk. Also cleared some of my neighbors sidewalk and the end of the driveway on his wife's side. Her garage door was open and I thought she might be going out.
One of my kids said it's currently -9F where they live in Wisconsin.

My plow guy got so bored with the lack of business that he was going around plowing 1 inch off his client’s driveways. I asked him if he was practicing for the real thing.

explorerx4

Our town plow drivers were really milking it by the late morning.
The first two times some real road clearing happened, the last 3 basically nothing.

imidazol97

Many areas here have what looks like an inch of snow based on the whiteness on roads especially intersections. But it's only the salt they've piled on, just-in-case. Here in Dayton area snow flakes
were scarce. Flurries had occurred farther south and east as snow went south and east of the
area.

oldfarmer50

imidazol97 said:

Many areas here have what looks like an inch of snow based on the whiteness on roads especially intersections. But it's only the salt they've piled on, just-in-case. Here in Dayton area snow flakes
were scarce. Flurries had occurred farther south and east as snow went south and east of the
area.

That’s the pattern around here, one inch of snow, two inches of salt.

venture

jmonroe1 said:

@stickguy said:

That’s what my wife is for. I flip switches, she tells me when I got the right one.

Yep, I’ve done that but she isn’t always around and is never around when I’m working at the flip.

I’ve also done it with a radio blasting so once you don’t hear it you found your circuit. But, that requires going to the panel and start the breaker flipping process. I’ve grown too lazy to even do that. A piece of wire to cause the short and I never have to leave the work area.

Not for everyone but it works for me.

jmonroe

I remember the time when I was working in a junction box in the basement. I tripped the breaker and tested the circuit to make sure it was dead.

While in there I kept getting scratched on the back of my hand. I figured one of the wires was scratching me. Here it ended up being another hot wire coming into the box. 110 volts of joy. Crazy what people do.

imidazol97

oldfarmer50 said:

imidazol97 said:

Many areas here have what looks like an inch of snow based on the whiteness on roads especially intersections. But it's only the salt they've piled on, just-in-case. Here in Dayton area snow flakes
were scarce. Flurries had occurred farther south and east as snow went south and east of the
area.

That’s the pattern around here, one inch of snow, two inches of salt.

oldfarmer50 said:

imidazol97 said:

Many areas here have what looks like an inch of snow based on the whiteness on roads especially intersections. But it's only the salt they've piled on, just-in-case. Here in Dayton area snow flakes
were scarce. Flurries had occurred farther south and east as snow went south and east of the
area.

That’s the pattern around here, one inch of snow, two inches of salt.

So many cars to cause to rust away with the various salts, and so little time to do it in.