The Automotive Thread

[James]

I think the old thread got deleted with the server problems.

I went to a local car show today. It was pretty good for only NZ$5. Most of the cars were American Muscle, which I'm not especially bothered about but they were interesting.

One of the bikes there was the Boss Hoss. It had a 502cui V8. 8.2 litres for a bike? That seems ridiculous to me. So I went looking for some info on it.

http://www.bosshoss.com/view_bike.asp?x=BHC3LS445

With the 502 it weighs around 1300lbs! My car weighs that much! What happens when you drop it? I can't imagine it being any quicker in a straight line than a 600 sport bike. It certainly wouldn't be any more agile. The only purpose I can think of is for old men to say they have a V8 bike.

[bickman2k]

That's just insane. My bike is around 350 lbs. with a full tank of gas. I can't imagine trying to move around something almost four times as heavy.

[blcklblskt]

I read on wikipedia that the 502 has 502 horsepower, but like you said, I think a 600cc would almost certainly be faster.  As much as I love big blocks, it doesn't really seem to make much sense in a bike.

[bickman2k]

Yeah, mine's a 650: http://www.motorcyclespec...da/honda_xr650lL%2093.htm

[Seno]

I remember seeing it a while ago on some show clarkson did in the early 90s, seem a bit pointless then and with no fairing anything over 80 going to be a pretty miserable experience.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

I bought a brand new 2002 Jetta and I lurv it.

[Seno]

Crap bike just failed its MOT, front brakes are binding a bit but I was hoping I could get away with it this week and rebuild the the calipers next week.

[James]

Isn't it annoying when you go out specifically to enjoy a drive on some country roads and get stuck behind a queue of cars not overtaking someone doing half the speed limit, then when you get to a decent overtaking stretch they speed up to over the limit? And yet, when you're driving the same road to get to the destination rather than to enjoy the drive you don't get that problem.

[blcklblskt]

People do that to me all the time.  Even when I'm just trying to get to class. It bothers me immensely.

[NES_Rules]

After 12 years and 130,000 miles, the transmission has gone out on my wonderful little S-10. It started with a little trouble shifting into overdrive one day, so I had the transmission fluid flushed and changed along with the filter. All was well and good for a couple days until I went to leave work after a 12 hour day, and it would barely budge. At first I thought I was sliding in the mud because it was revving high but moving slowly, but sure enough, it wasn't shifting at all. After 10 minutes of panicking (it was dark, in a field on a gravel road, with zero cell reception) the tranny finally caught and I was able to get back to the house.
The next morning was all was good, again until I went to leave work. Same results as the previous day. Later that day as I went to go home (a 2+ hour drive) it was mostly fine again, with only minimal abnormalities going through 1st gear. Each time I had trouble, I noticed air bubbles in the fluid on the dipstick, which after reading somethings online, I figured meant Sears that changed it, either added too much or too little fluid, so I took it back there today so they could fix the issue. After a couple hours, the mechanic comes to tell me that because of the high mileage, what was happening was that all the dirt and gunk in the old fluid was actually what was making things work before the first flushing. And after flushing it, with that gunk gone, the clutch plates could no longer work properly. So its time for either a new tranny or rebuild this one, but he said with the extra labor of rebuilding this one, the total costs would be comparable for new vs. rebuilt. And of course, there's no such thing as a transmission shop that's open on the weekend, so I'm stuck until Monday. And since I'm working 2+ hours away and living down there during the week, I can't do anything from down there. So I'm either going to have to leave my dad with my truck and have him handle everything during the week and borrow his truck so I can go to work, or I'm going to have to see if I can take a couple days off work, which just means less money coming in to pay for the new tranny.

So basically, I'm now going to be around $2500 in the hole because I got a job. Hopefully I can make enough in the next few months to make this all worth it.

[Razor Knuckles]

^ Sorry to hear that NES Rules. I really love S-10's and and hate to see one go.

The mechanic was right. Flushing fluid out of a transmission after so many years/ miles can be harmful to the trans. It's a huge misconception to simply flush the fluid when the trans starts to act up. At my work I don't even touch a trans fluid flush if it has over 90,000 miles or is over 5 years old. Unless I can find proof that it was done at least once before that mark.

The only thing I would do is change the filter and replace the fluid in the trans pan only. The average trans holds approx 15 quarts of fluid. By flushing the entire fluid out may be harmful to older vehicles. Just doing a filter service without the flush usually only removes about 4-5 quarts leaving most of the old fluid in place while replacing some of it with fresh fluid.

Honestly if you brought it to our place and we had done that flush, we would be paying for the trans to get rebuilt, because it would of been our fault for performing that service.

My first vehicle had a trans go out on it also. It was a '89 Dodge Caravan, yeah a Caravan, it was all I could afford. It had 331,557 miles on it with original engine and trans. Even though I could fix it myself for around $300 for a rebuild kit it wasn't even worth it. The vehicle was literally falling apart and I sent it to the pasture. 

Best of luck NES Rules

[NES_Rules]

Yeah, now that you mention it, I'm a little mad they didn't even warn me about the dangers of flushing a high mileage transmission. If I had known, I would have kept it the way it was, at least until I could get a good cheap tranny to replace it with. Not being able to go over 70 mph occasionally would have been fine by me.

Funny that you mention the Caravan. My parents have had two Caravans, one was an 88 or 89, that they replaced the transmission in when it was fairly new (they bought the van wrecked and had it all repaired), the other was a 93 that they bought in the late 90's and the tranny went out on it about 6 years ago and it ended up being scrapped because of it.


I'm looking for a good used transmission now. GM used this transmission in a bunch of vehicles, so there are a ton of them out there, its just tough finding one with under 75,000 miles already on it. There's one on craigslist that has 14,000 miles on it and is only $600, but haven't got a call back on it yet.

[blcklblskt]

I usually "exchange" my trans fluid every 10,000 miles or so.  I have a pump that I can stick into the dipstick tube (god that came out wrong) and suck out about a quart or two.  Then I replace it with new trans fluid.  I do have to replace the filter someday, though.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

After 12 years and 130,000 miles, the transmission has gone out on my wonderful little S-10. It started with a little trouble shifting into overdrive one day, so I had the transmission fluid flushed and changed along with the filter. All was well and good for a couple days until I went to leave work after a 12 hour day, and it would barely budge. At first I thought I was sliding in the mud because it was revving high but moving slowly, but sure enough, it wasn't shifting at all. After 10 minutes of panicking (it was dark, in a field on a gravel road, with zero cell reception) the tranny finally caught and I was able to get back to the house.
The next morning was all was good, again until I went to leave work. Same results as the previous day. Later that day as I went to go home (a 2+ hour drive) it was mostly fine again, with only minimal abnormalities going through 1st gear. Each time I had trouble, I noticed air bubbles in the fluid on the dipstick, which after reading somethings online, I figured meant Sears that changed it, either added too much or too little fluid, so I took it back there today so they could fix the issue. After a couple hours, the mechanic comes to tell me that because of the high mileage, what was happening was that all the dirt and gunk in the old fluid was actually what was making things work before the first flushing. And after flushing it, with that gunk gone, the clutch plates could no longer work properly. So its time for either a new tranny or rebuild this one, but he said with the extra labor of rebuilding this one, the total costs would be comparable for new vs. rebuilt. And of course, there's no such thing as a transmission shop that's open on the weekend, so I'm stuck until Monday. And since I'm working 2+ hours away and living down there during the week, I can't do anything from down there. So I'm either going to have to leave my dad with my truck and have him handle everything during the week and borrow his truck so I can go to work, or I'm going to have to see if I can take a couple days off work, which just means less money coming in to pay for the new tranny.

So basically, I'm now going to be around $2500 in the hole because I got a job. Hopefully I can make enough in the next few months to make this all worth it.

That sucks - I hadn't thought of it being caused because it was a high-mileage transmission. I was hoping it was just air in the lines, but it couldn't be that simple.

[NES_Rules]

I got my truck back today after spending $1800 to get the transmission rebuilt, and all was fine with it. That is, until I put it in reverse. The first time it just didn't shift very smooth, but nothing extraordinary. But as I went about my business through the day, every time I needed to back up, it got worse and worse. Eventually, it would just shake the whole truck when in reverse and would back up, but it was like backing over a pile of logs. So its going back to the shop Monday.