Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

@snakeweasel said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

We had some drama today.

After being assigned to the airport all day we were fed up with the monotony and about 5:00 pm we broke for coffee. On the way we discovered a badly injured buck laying in the middle of the dark 4 lane highway, obviously hit, obviously dying. We called the police so someone could put the poor thing out of it’s misery.

We pulled into our coffee place and found the guy who hit the deer he was looking at his badly smashed Tacoma. After making sure he wasn’t hurt we looked at the truck. Bumper gone, grill smashed, headlight non-existent. The hood looked tweaked and the fender was pushed back into the driver’s door. Ball park guess $8,000 in damage.

The police removed the deer (don’t know if it died or they euthanized it) and they gave the guy a police report for his insurance. If we had been 30 seconds faster that would have been us.

How do you know the police removed it. Something similar happened to my sister in Colorado many decades ago. It was several elk that suddenly appeared and they struck and killed two of them. She says that two people who stopped to render aid also took the elk when they left.

Son #1 hit a deer in 1993 I never knew they were so valuable.

jmonroe

............I'll finish the sentence for you.............or I would have gone back and picked it up myself.

graphicguy

jmonroe1 said:

@graphicguy said:

Well….we went from turntables to the old reliable….microwaves. Once again, we’ve come full circle. LOL!

I think my microwave is 24 years old. LIght still comes on. Touchpad works. Turntable turns. It still reheats and defrosts. And, it has a vent fan that still works. I may have just jinxed myself.

And yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie! It even has Christmas decorations and gifts (that are left in the livery car) as part of the “festivities”. It’s as much a Christmas Movie as Home Alone (which I hear has been dismally remade) or Charlie Brown’s Christmas.

I used to have a Keurig. Every 6 months or so, it would break down. They would have me send it back for repair (at which time I resorted to ye ‘ole percolator). They’d invariably would send a new one as a result. Became very tired of that. And given it made bad coffee to begin with, I finally got a Nespresso machine. Makes great coffee. 3 years and no issues (fingers crossed).

You sure know how to jinx kitchen appliances don’t you? Don’t come crying to us when you have to replace them.

FWIW, I think dishwashers are the least reliable kitchen appliance.

jmonroe

You really want to go back around to the dishwasher topic? LOL! BTW….I finally got a Bosch several months ago, before they went to being hens teeth rare. Quiet. Gets dishes as clean as I could ever get them by hand washing. Heard they don’t dry well. But, aside from some plastic lids with ridges that trap water, everything else comes out bone dry.

Wanna shoot for refrigerators?????

sda

graphicguy said:

jmonroe1 said:

@graphicguy said:

Well….we went from turntables to the old reliable….microwaves. Once again, we’ve come full circle. LOL!

I think my microwave is 24 years old. LIght still comes on. Touchpad works. Turntable turns. It still reheats and defrosts. And, it has a vent fan that still works. I may have just jinxed myself.

And yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie! It even has Christmas decorations and gifts (that are left in the livery car) as part of the “festivities”. It’s as much a Christmas Movie as Home Alone (which I hear has been dismally remade) or Charlie Brown’s Christmas.

I used to have a Keurig. Every 6 months or so, it would break down. They would have me send it back for repair (at which time I resorted to ye ‘ole percolator). They’d invariably would send a new one as a result. Became very tired of that. And given it made bad coffee to begin with, I finally got a Nespresso machine. Makes great coffee. 3 years and no issues (fingers crossed).

You sure know how to jinx kitchen appliances don’t you? Don’t come crying to us when you have to replace them.

FWIW, I think dishwashers are the least reliable kitchen appliance.

jmonroe

You really want to go back around to the dishwasher topic? LOL! BTW….I finally got a Bosch several months ago, before they went to being hens teeth rare. Quiet. Gets dishes as clean as I could ever get them by hand washing. Heard they don’t dry well. But, aside from some plastic lids with ridges that trap water, everything else comes out bone dry.

Wanna shoot for refrigerators?????

Please, NO!

kyfdx

Had to replace my 11 year old refrigerator, last month.

Bosch side-by-side. Cheapest one they make. Price is only $200 higher, 11 years later. Basically, the same exact refrigerator.

oldfarmer50

jipster said:

Die Hard a Christmas movie? Vote no. Die Hard is an action movie that takes place during Christmas. No holiday greetings, gift exchanges or ugly sweater contests that I can recall. Excellent movie though.

I don’t know, it looked pretty festive to me.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

We had some drama today.

After being assigned to the airport all day we were fed up with the monotony and about 5:00 pm we broke for coffee. On the way we discovered a badly injured buck laying in the middle of the dark 4 lane highway, obviously hit, obviously dying. We called the police so someone could put the poor thing out of it’s misery.

We pulled into our coffee place and found the guy who hit the deer he was looking at his badly smashed Tacoma. After making sure he wasn’t hurt we looked at the truck. Bumper gone, grill smashed, headlight non-existent. The hood looked tweaked and the fender was pushed back into the driver’s door. Ball park guess $8,000 in damage.

The police removed the deer (don’t know if it died or they euthanized it) and they gave the guy a police report for his insurance. If we had been 30 seconds faster that would have been us.

How do you know the police removed it. Something similar happened to my sister in Colorado many decades ago. It was several elk that suddenly appeared and they struck and killed two of them. She says that two people who stopped to render aid also took the elk when they left.

Quite possible. All we know is that we passed that spot on the way back to work and it was gone. Could have been a scavenger or it could have been one of the people who put their name on a police list and get called when this happens. The carcasses don’t even have time to get cold.

driver100

Yah, what could be more Christmassy than:

oldfarmer50

sb55 said:

snakeweasel said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

We had some drama today.

After being assigned to the airport all day we were fed up with the monotony and about 5:00 pm we broke for coffee. On the way we discovered a badly injured buck laying in the middle of the dark 4 lane highway, obviously hit, obviously dying. We called the police so someone could put the poor thing out of it’s misery.

We pulled into our coffee place and found the guy who hit the deer he was looking at his badly smashed Tacoma. After making sure he wasn’t hurt we looked at the truck. Bumper gone, grill smashed, headlight non-existent. The hood looked tweaked and the fender was pushed back into the driver’s door. Ball park guess $8,000 in damage.

The police removed the deer (don’t know if it died or they euthanized it) and they gave the guy a police report for his insurance. If we had been 30 seconds faster that would have been us.

How do you know the police removed it. Something similar happened to my sister in Colorado many decades ago. It was several elk that suddenly appeared and they struck and killed two of them. She says that two people who stopped to render aid also took the elk when they left.

Maybe these guys swooped in and got the roadkill:
https://vtdigger.org/2021/11/25/two-vermont-game-wardens-are-putting-roadkill-to-good-use/

Things must be different in VT because in NY they’d be arrested for giving out non-USDA inspected meat.

A few years ago a family near me who raises Bison had about 30 of them escape. They ran wild across the countryside, even swimming the Hudson River. Eventually they were considered too potentially dangerous and were shot by the state police. The meat had to be thrown in a landfill because they weren’t slaughtered under proper supervision.

stickguy

My DW seems to have fixed itself. No leaks over the holiday. I wonder if the door seal got pinched that one time so left a gap. In any case, we decided to wait it out and hope to sell before it goes!

ab348

Speaking of refrigerators, I am intrigued by this one for my compact kitchen:

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/haier-28-inch-w-15-0-cu-ft-standard-depth-bottom-freezer-refrigerator-in-stainless-steel/1001062714

stickguy

My wife would have a heart attack if she had to use one that small. Might need 3

venture

I didn't know the chip shortage affected cell phones too.

I attempted to buy one yesterday and the one I wanted is out of stock until late December.

Farm out.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
My wife would have a heart attack if she had to use one that small. Might need 3

I so miss having two. We went from two at the shore and two at home to one each place. Luckily both are huge, but we didn’t make it for Thanksgiving and I had to do a cooler for drinks. No way we are making for Christmas hosting both days.

I may try and snag a floor model from HD or Lowes for the basement storage room or garage in the next two weeks.

Oh and just one thing about fridges. Don’t buy a Samsung. Just don’t.

kyfdx

Samsung: Same thing goes for washer/dryers, from what I hear.

On another sad note: Our LG washer will randomly start leaking water into the tub. Run a spin cycle, and it's gone. Might not happen for another 2 months, then it will do it again. Sometimes, two or three times in a row. Pretty sure it's 10 years old, as we bought it at HH Gregg, and they are long gone.

Then, the other bad thing: The dryers never seem to go bad, but heaven forbid we would get a new washer that doesn't match the dryer.

sda

tjc78 said:

@stickguy said:

My wife would have a heart attack if she had to use one that small. Might need 3

I so miss having two. We went from two at the shore and two at home to one each place. Luckily both are huge, but we didn’t make it for Thanksgiving and I had to do a cooler for drinks. No way we are making for Christmas hosting both days.

I may try and snag a floor model from HD or Lowes for the basement storage room or garage in the next two weeks.

Oh and just one thing about fridges. Don’t buy a Samsung. Just don’t.

We bought a top freezer 20 cu/ft with ice maker Frigidaire refrig for the garage about 3 years ago. It works well though the wife would like the freezer section to be larger. We have a water connection in the garage so the ice maker is live. We do miss the 25 cu/ft side by side that it replaced, however. It was a 15 year old Whirlpool that was starting to make ominous noises. It had been troublefree up to that point.

My sister has a top of the line Samsung refrig. Beautiful unit. She hates it. Doesn't keep things cold enough. It got moved down to basement for overflow items. Bought a Whirpool side by side, stainless steel look, nothing fancy. It works fine.

jipster

@oldfarmer50 said:
I don’t know, it looked pretty festive to me.

Must have gone out for popcorn during that part.

jipster

@driver100 said:
@jipster As a general rule I say when 2 major repairs are needed it is probably better to bale out now before #3.
Good luck....hope it is an easy fix.

Well, my mechanic said he couldn't get to the car today. Taking it in early tomorrow morning.

Thx. Hoping it's not too expensive. I'm thinking if it's over $1,500 or so, I'll just bring it home and put it up for sale. Thus far in 2 2/3rds year... new alternator, wheel bearings, throttle body, brakes, rotors, calipers. It's at 172,000 miles now. Probably worth only a couple thousand. 😞

dad23

Since we're talking appliances, I received a notice that my MyCloud device will no longer be supported after the first of the year. I can obviously get to it direct connect, but no longer via the web, apps, etc.

Since y'all are so knowledgeable about everything, was wondering what everyone else uses for backup/storage. Cloud, another NAS device, ? We have several laptops, phones, tablets, etc.

stickguy

Backup for what? I think my laptop files go to OneDrive. And occasionally I copy to an external drive. iPhone goes to iCloud though that’s probably full. Should probably connect to laptop and backup to iTunes again.

dad23

Thanks @stickguy, backup for our laptops and all other devices. It also allows us to share files, photos, etc and does automatic backups of everything. I was looking at getting another physical device but also looking at the cloud solutions.

kyfdx

dad23 said:

Thanks @stickguy, backup for our laptops and all other devices. It also allows us to share files, photos, etc and does automatic backups of everything. I was looking at getting another physical device but also looking at the cloud solutions.

It's named MyCloud, but it isn't cloud-based?

dad23

kyfdx said:

dad23 said:

Thanks @stickguy, backup for our laptops and all other devices. It also allows us to share files, photos, etc and does automatic backups of everything. I was looking at getting another physical device but also looking at the cloud solutions.

It's named MyCloud, but it isn't cloud-based?

Correct, it's a little "personal cloud" that sits on my desk

stickguy

Remember, the cloud is just somebody else’s computer!

tjc78

@stickguy said:
Remember, the cloud is just somebody else’s computer!

A big giant one with layers of redundancy to protect the data (we hope)

imidazol97

I use a large Seagate external backup drive, that is disconnected from the system other than to do backups of the C drive and the other parts of the hard drive. I think it's a 2 TB. I also use USB memory sticks to back up certain types of things, such as pictures and music.

I also have some extra drives which I've used as mirrors to back up the structure of the drive and then I could copy the more current C drive from my Seagate.

I had 2 or 3 other large hard drives but they were WD and had a notorious problem of not working when they were needed. So I migrated to a larger drive that I could trust.

My phones are backed up to Google and Samsung both, along with having pictures on SD cards that can even go through the washing machine and still persist. I know; I've tested that already.

stickguy

I just don’t have that much I care about keeping I guess!

stickguy

tjc78 said:

@stickguy said:

Remember, the cloud is just somebody else’s computer!

A big giant one with layers of redundancy to protect the data (we hope)

They tell you that, so sure!

jmonroe1

@kyfdx said:
Samsung: Same thing goes for washer/dryers, from what I hear.

On another sad note: Our LG washer will randomly start leaking water into the tub. Run a spin cycle, and it's gone. Might not happen for another 2 months, then it will do it again. Sometimes, two or three times in a row. Pretty sure it's 10 years old, as we bought it at HH Gregg, and they are long gone.

Then, the other bad thing: The dryers never seem to go bad, but heaven forbid we would get a new washer that doesn't match the dryer.

Believe it or not mis-matched washer/dryers work well. Even when one is white (washer) and the dryer is green.

Yes, dryers seem to live forever. We gave our avocado green dryer, that we bought in 1967 when we built our first house, to the guy that packed the 2 U-Hauls for us when we left SC in August of 1997.

I have no idea what it would take to kill that thing but as long as it worked we kept it. I’m surprised Mrs. j didn’t mind keeping it but she did.

jmonroe

roadburner

graphicguy said:

Well….we went from turntables to the old reliable….microwaves. Once again, we’ve come full circle. LOL!

I think my microwave is 24 years old. LIght still comes on. Touchpad works. Turntable turns. It still reheats and defrosts. And, it has a vent fan that still works. I may have just jinxed myself.

And yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie! It even has Christmas decorations and gifts (that are left in the livery car) as part of the “festivities”. It’s as much a Christmas Movie as Home Alone (which I hear has been dismally remade) or Charlie Brown’s Christmas.

I used to have a Keurig. Every 6 months or so, it would break down. They would have me send it back for repair (at which time I resorted to ye ‘ole percolator). They’d invariably would send a new one as a result. Became very tired of that. And given it made bad coffee to begin with, I finally got a Nespresso machine. Makes great coffee. 3 years and no issues (fingers crossed).

I have a Keurig and a Nespresso. I was able to fix the Keurig the one time it went Tango Uniform.

carnaught

@abacomike, glad to hear from you! Hope you feel better and better and can make the trip to Cal.

snakeweasel

dad23 said:

Since we're talking appliances, I received a notice that my MyCloud device will no longer be supported after the first of the year. I can obviously get to it direct connect, but no longer via the web, apps, etc.

Since y'all are so knowledgeable about everything, was wondering what everyone else uses for backup/storage. Cloud, another NAS device, ? We have several laptops, phones, tablets, etc.

I back up my phone to my laptop and my lap top to an external hard drive.

stickguy

I just checked. iPhone still going to iCloud. Trying to also back up to iTunes on laptop and it’s fighting me hard!

Michaell

Don’t you all have cameras when you back up?

snakeweasel

@Michaell said:
Don’t you all have cameras when you back up?

You should be charged double the membership fees for that.

graphicguy

I got tired of Google constantly sending emails to me telling me I needed more storage and they wanted to sell some to me. Not so fast, Bucko. When I first signed up with a gmail and photo storage account (a loooonnnnggg time ago), they said I had unlimited storage. Guess times have changed.

Got a back up drive, which are quite cheap these days. Moved all old emails and photos to it and emptied my Google photos and email buckets. Problem solved for another decade or so for the cost of 20-30 Starbucks.

Appliances…the place I get my appliances is a local store (Recker and Boerger). They’ve treated me well over the years. The Big Box stores (BB, Depot, Lowes) couldn’t get what I wanted in the dishwasher. Matter of fact, they couldn’t even get something reasonably close.

Told my local store to give me a jingle when they got something in I was looking for and I’d buy it sight unseen. I was nursing my dishwasher along, and actually wouldn’t use it much since it wasn’t cleaning very well (and yes I cleaned the filter) and drying even worse. Didn’t take me much longer to wash dishes by hand.

Couple months ago, local company said they got 3 Bosch dishwashers in and if I wanted one of them, they’d put it aside for me. I was in Puerto Rico at the time when they called. Told them I’d take it, but couldn’t be home to pay for it or have it installed for 10-12 days. “No problem MR GG…we’ll hold onto it for you”.

Sure enough, called them when I got home. They installed it the next day. The other box stores were mostly “you’ll take what we have, and you’ll get it when you get it (if they could get it)”.

Interesting technology with these new dishwashers. Aside from them being quiet, they use some unique drying techniques. I don’t pretend to understand it, but apparently mine has some sort of minerals in it that heats and pulls the moisture off the dishes instead of a fan, or a heating element, or condensation to dry.

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

@stickguy said:

Remember, the cloud is just somebody else’s computer!

A big giant one with layers of redundancy to protect the data (we hope)

That’s what I always thought. In my mind I picture a bunch of nerds sitting in a big computer room going through all my stuff and laughing at last year’s Christmas photos before they sell them to China.

oldfarmer50

This must be the time of year for Fusion/Milan troubles. I made an appointment today to have the rear head gasket replaced on my kid’s 2010 Fusion SEL 3.0.

We’ve seen a small seep at the back of the engine for some time now, just a few drops at a time. No oil/coolant cross contamination that I can see, no white smoke at the tailpipe. I’ve been debating just leaving it alone since it leaks less than a quart between 3k mile oil changes but with the shortage and cost of replacement cars I’ve decided it’s better to be proactive.

Around $2,000 “if we don’t find anything else”. :@

jipster

@oldfarmer50 said:
This must be the time of year for Fusion/Milan troubles. I made an appointment today to have the rear head gasket replaced on my kid’s 2010 Fusion SEL 3.0.

We’ve seen a small seep at the back of the engine for some time now, just a few drops at a time. No oil/coolant cross contamination that I can see, no white smoke at the tailpipe. I’ve been debating just leaving it alone since it leaks less than a quart between 3k mile oil changes but with the shortage and cost of replacement cars I’ve decided it’s better to be proactive.

Around $2,000 “if we don’t find anything else”. :@

Not a good day for 2010 Fusion/Milan owners. I believe your sons Fusion has much lower mileage than mine. So good idea to repair..

I dropped the Milan at the mechanics early this morning. Hoping for good news. If not, you looking for another hooptie? Would be good for spare parts. I'd give you the The Brotherhood of Edmunds discount!

sda

oldfarmer50 said:

This must be the time of year for Fusion/Milan troubles. I made an appointment today to have the rear head gasket replaced on my kid’s 2010 Fusion SEL 3.0.

We’ve seen a small seep at the back of the engine for some time now, just a few drops at a time. No oil/coolant cross contamination that I can see, no white smoke at the tailpipe. I’ve been debating just leaving it alone since it leaks less than a quart between 3k mile oil changes but with the shortage and cost of replacement cars I’ve decided it’s better to be proactive.

Around $2,000 “if we don’t find anything else”. :@

Ouch. Is it possible it is leaking at the valve cover instead of the head gasket?

snakeweasel

@oldfarmer50 said:
That’s what I always thought. In my mind I picture a bunch of nerds sitting in a big computer room going through all my stuff and laughing at last year’s Christmas photos before they sell them to China.

Now why would the NSA sell your data to China?

stickguy

They don’t. China just steals it.

oldfarmer50

sda said:

oldfarmer50 said:

This must be the time of year for Fusion/Milan troubles. I made an appointment today to have the rear head gasket replaced on my kid’s 2010 Fusion SEL 3.0.

We’ve seen a small seep at the back of the engine for some time now, just a few drops at a time. No oil/coolant cross contamination that I can see, no white smoke at the tailpipe. I’ve been debating just leaving it alone since it leaks less than a quart between 3k mile oil changes but with the shortage and cost of replacement cars I’ve decided it’s better to be proactive.

Around $2,000 “if we don’t find anything else”. :@

Ouch. Is it possible it is leaking at the valve cover instead of the head gasket?

I would love it if it turned out to be that but I’ve had it examined by two indie shops who said the same thing. Neither of them does head gaskets but they do valve covers so I wouldn’t think they’d be steering me wrong.

oldfarmer50

jipster said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

This must be the time of year for Fusion/Milan troubles. I made an appointment today to have the rear head gasket replaced on my kid’s 2010 Fusion SEL 3.0.

We’ve seen a small seep at the back of the engine for some time now, just a few drops at a time. No oil/coolant cross contamination that I can see, no white smoke at the tailpipe. I’ve been debating just leaving it alone since it leaks less than a quart between 3k mile oil changes but with the shortage and cost of replacement cars I’ve decided it’s better to be proactive.

Around $2,000 “if we don’t find anything else”. :@

Not a good day for 2010 Fusion/Milan owners. I believe your sons Fusion has much lower mileage than mine. So good idea to repair..

I dropped the Milan at the mechanics early this morning. Hoping for good news. If not, you looking for another hooptie? Would be good for spare parts. I'd give you the The Brotherhood of Edmunds discount!

I’d look into junkyard parts for your power steering issue. I’ve had my guy go that route on occasion when the vehicle was so old nobody made them any more.

jipster

@oldfarmer50 said:
I’d look into junkyard parts for your power steering issue. I’ve had my guy go that route on occasion when the vehicle was so old nobody made them any more.

Good news on the Milan. My mechanic reset the codes ( which I thought I had done when I pulled the negative battery cable yesterday), and the power steering is now functioning. Test drive was o.k. Going to replace 2 bad tpms sensors at $50 a piece.
Fingers crossed everything stays o.k.

imidazol97

OMG. That's great.

oldfarmer50

jipster said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

I’d look into junkyard parts for your power steering issue. I’ve had my guy go that route on occasion when the vehicle was so old nobody made them any more.

Good news on the Milan. My mechanic reset the codes ( which I thought I had done when I pulled the negative battery cable yesterday), and the power steering is now functioning. Test drive was o.k. Going to replace 2 bad tpms sensors at $50 a piece.

Fingers crossed everything stays o.k.

That’s the best repair when the car just fixes itself. I wouldn’t be surprised on a car that old if it’s just a worn wire giving a false signal to the computer.

IIRC that car had something like 105k on it when you bought it? If it’s now up to 172k I’d say you got your money’s worth out of it. It certainly passes the old farmer standard of 10,000 miles of use for every $1,000 you pay.

imidazol97

That reminds me of when our Samsung Smart TV in the bedroom started acting up. I called
the Samsung number. He said to do a hot reset.

I didn't know what he meant.

He said pull the plug with the thing operating. That forces a complete reloading of the
information. That fixed it.

On cars, the radio repair guy loves to tell people to remove both leads from the battery and connect them together to drain any residual power in various computer modules. Don't just
remove the negative lead which removes the power.

Leave for 30 minutes or so. Then reconnect the battery and hope odd behaviors from modules
are fixed.

roadburner

How bad was my revocation docket today?
I asked the bailiff, "Can I borrow your gun? I promise to only use it on myself."
His reply- "Only if you promise to shoot me first."

snakeweasel

imidazol97 said:

That reminds me of when our Samsung Smart TV in the bedroom started acting up. I called
the Samsung number. He said to do a hot reset.

I didn't know what he meant.

He said pull the plug with the thing operating. That forces a complete reloading of the
information. That fixed it.

On cars, the radio repair guy loves to tell people to remove both leads from the battery and connect them together to drain any residual power in various computer modules. Don't just
remove the negative lead which removes the power.

Leave for 30 minutes or so. Then reconnect the battery and hope odd behaviors from modules
are fixed.

The day before thanksgiving our oven just died, no power going to it at all. I unplugged it for a minute and then plugged it back it and it started right up.

sda

snakeweasel said:

imidazol97 said:

That reminds me of when our Samsung Smart TV in the bedroom started acting up. I called
the Samsung number. He said to do a hot reset.

I didn't know what he meant.

He said pull the plug with the thing operating. That forces a complete reloading of the
information. That fixed it.

On cars, the radio repair guy loves to tell people to remove both leads from the battery and connect them together to drain any residual power in various computer modules. Don't just
remove the negative lead which removes the power.

Leave for 30 minutes or so. Then reconnect the battery and hope odd behaviors from modules
are fixed.

The day before thanksgiving our oven just died, no power going to it at all. I unplugged it for a minute and then plugged it back it and it started right up.

Electronics!?#*!