The Car Thread.

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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby WaitYAmIHere » Thu May 23, 2013 5:11 am

I have a '94 Infiniti J30t. The battery died. I put a new battery in. The car worked for ten-fifteen minutes then died again. A friend said it was the alternator. Now I'm not a car person so:

A) Whats an alternator?
B) Can it be fixed?
C) If yes, then how much will it cost?

I'm afraid all I have to offer is my 0+ and my friends A+
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby moosemaimer » Thu May 23, 2013 12:16 pm

After taking my Corolla down a glorified goatpath to reach a hiking trail and being terrified I was going to tear a wheel off or something, I've decided it would be cheaper to buy an old 4x4 than have my daily driver towed out of the woods and put back together at some hick garage. Thinking something along the lines of an old 4Runner, although I just saw the dealership where I got the Corolla has a Land Rover for cheap money... any suggestions?
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby Rebo » Thu May 23, 2013 1:59 pm

Oh, I sort of forgot about this thread.

D-LOGAN wrote:I just got a new car, well a jeep...... it's red and eh.... well that's pretty much it, you now know as much as I do about it. But I'm determined to take care of this one, and not ruin it like everything else that's been in my possession however fleetingly.

Change the oil regularly. Most important thing.

WaitYAmIHere wrote:I have a '94 Infiniti J30t. The battery died. I put a new battery in. The car worked for ten-fifteen minutes then died again. A friend said it was the alternator. Now I'm not a car person so:

A) Whats an alternator?
B) Can it be fixed?
C) If yes, then how much will it cost?

I'm afraid all I have to offer is my 0+ and my friends A+

A) An alternator uses the mechanical energy of your engine to generate Alternating current which is then rectified into DC current for your battery.
B) Yes it can be fixed.
C) A lot of this depends on where you live. Parts are a LOT more expensive in Australia and Europe than in the US. My cost on an alternator for that car is $130. Labor time is 2.0 hours and the labor rate at my job is about $80 an hour.

Knowing where you live ( as in country) will be important for me to best advise you on next step.

moosemaimer wrote:After taking my Corolla down a glorified goatpath to reach a hiking trail and being terrified I was going to tear a wheel off or something, I've decided it would be cheaper to buy an old 4x4 than have my daily driver towed out of the woods and put back together at some hick garage. Thinking something along the lines of an old 4Runner, although I just saw the dealership where I got the Corolla has a Land Rover for cheap money... any suggestions?

You would be much better off with a 4runner than a Land Rover. Land Rovers are NOT cheap to fix, at ALL. They are also prone to all sorts of bizarre problems. A Toyota is a much better vehicle in general.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby WaitYAmIHere » Fri May 24, 2013 10:22 pm

Rebo wrote:
WaitYAmIHere wrote:I have a '94 Infiniti J30t. The battery died. I put a new battery in. The car worked for ten-fifteen minutes then died again. A friend said it was the alternator. Now I'm not a car person so:

A) Whats an alternator?
B) Can it be fixed?
C) If yes, then how much will it cost?

I'm afraid all I have to offer is my 0+ and my friends A+

A) An alternator uses the mechanical energy of your engine to generate Alternating current which is then rectified into DC current for your battery.
B) Yes it can be fixed.
C) A lot of this depends on where you live. Parts are a LOT more expensive in Australia and Europe than in the US. My cost on an alternator for that car is $130. Labor time is 2.0 hours and the labor rate at my job is about $80 an hour.

Knowing where you live ( as in country) will be important for me to best advise you on next step.



I live in San Antonio, Texas, United States, North America, Earth
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby Rebo » Fri May 24, 2013 10:34 pm

When the car shutoff after it ran for 15 minutes and wouldn't start again, what did it do? Would it crank over but not start, or would you hit the key and just nothing happened? See if the headlights light up bright or dim or not at all.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby WaitYAmIHere » Sat May 25, 2013 4:43 pm

Nothing at all. No lights, no turnover, nothing.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby Rebo » Sat May 25, 2013 10:17 pm

Yeah, then either you didnt put a battery cable on tight enough ( go try and twist one around a post, it shouldn't move) or your alternator is toast. I'd get it fixed, assuming the rest of the car isn't total junk. It's not that expensive. You can get the alternator at autozone for $130, and they have step by step instructions on how to change it on their website.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby DoglovingJim » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:04 pm

Rebo wrote:Keep your smelly AB+ blood to yourself.


I was going to give a proper reply but then I saw this. I can see that I'm not wanted...
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby jbobsully11 » Mon Sep 14, 2015 3:38 pm

Does anyone know of any reason why a car's gas tank would stop filling up before it's actually full? My brother has a 2003 Ford Windstar (it was my mom's originally... long story) and every time someone takes it to a gas station (no matter which one), that keeps happening. If the nozzle is held open, it restarts and the gas stays in the tank (it's not overflowing or anything), but then it stops again about two seconds after the person walks away.

My blood type is A+, for what it's worth.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby Matt the Czar » Thu Sep 17, 2015 12:17 am

jbobsully11 wrote:Does anyone know of any reason why a car's gas tank would stop filling up before it's actually full? My brother has a 2003 Ford Windstar (it was my mom's originally... long story) and every time someone takes it to a gas station (no matter which one), that keeps happening. If the nozzle is held open, it restarts and the gas stays in the tank (it's not overflowing or anything), but then it stops again about two seconds after the person walks away.

My blood type is A+, for what it's worth.



The gas cutoff is measured by the float in the tank. This is a very inaccurate way to measure a tank, but it is reliable. So, you can't fix it. Sorry.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby iMURDAu » Thu Sep 17, 2015 12:58 am

Well maybe he can't fix it but someone else certainly is able to drop the tank and change a part or get a new tank assembly put on.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby Beernpotatoes » Wed Nov 04, 2015 4:49 pm

Rebo wrote:That pic isnt working for me right now, but almost all concordes have a v6 with a separate belt for the air conditioning pulley. It can be tightened, pretty easily. Surely your boyfriend must have some basic hand tools? If not, he doesn't deserve his beard. (Though I'm sure he's swell.)

If that's something you can make him do, I'll copy images from Alldata (car program) and give you a link to instructions. I'm not sure if it is OK or not to post them in forum since I'm sure it's copywrited by someone.

So, as annoying as it is, nothing bad will happen if you ignore it, except the dirty looks. Also what you see on the ground is condensation running out of the drain tube for the evaporator core. It's normal.

Fun fact, A/C is freon under high pressure. If you release a system quickly, you can actually freeze a wrench like in demolition man. Then you can shatter it.



Nothing bad will happen, unless it's squealing because the belt is too tight. If it is too tight, the squealing sound could be the sound of the bearings in the compressor drive wearing themselves down as they grind against the shaft (Hey, that sounded dirty!). If the belt is squealing because it's too loose, at the very least, you run the risk of it eventually breaking.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby Beernpotatoes » Wed Nov 04, 2015 4:57 pm

Matt the Czar wrote:
jbobsully11 wrote:Does anyone know of any reason why a car's gas tank would stop filling up before it's actually full? My brother has a 2003 Ford Windstar (it was my mom's originally... long story) and every time someone takes it to a gas station (no matter which one), that keeps happening. If the nozzle is held open, it restarts and the gas stays in the tank (it's not overflowing or anything), but then it stops again about two seconds after the person walks away.

My blood type is A+, for what it's worth.



The gas cutoff is measured by the float in the tank. This is a very inaccurate way to measure a tank, but it is reliable. So, you can't fix it. Sorry.


The gas pump has it's own cutoff that is unrelated to the car. The nozzle has little air vents near the top (near the handle) and If the gasoline backs up to the nozzle, the pump shuts off. This is why the pump doesn't automatically shut off when you fill a motorcycle - you don't stick the nozzle in far enough to trigger the shut-off. So, it sounds as if the problem may be the way that the filler tube to the gas tank on your car is designed - if the gasoline coming out of the nozzle at high speed hits the tube and splashes around before going down into the tank, it maybe triggering the pump shutoff. Try setting the nozzle on slow and see if the problem persists. Or, try filling it with the nozzle not quite all the way into the filler hole.
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby jbobsully11 » Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:06 pm

Thanks, but us New Jerseyans have been declared legally too stupid to pump our own gas. It sounds like that would be a problem with every car of that model though, wouldn't it? I can't seem to find many other reports of this happening...
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Re: The Car Thread.

Postby NathanLoiselle » Thu Nov 05, 2015 3:56 am

Why isn't my AB+ blood good enough? Is it to A+ for you? Do you not know that A+ is a great steak sauce?
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