hooniverse

What was your automotive news for the week?

Greg Kachadurian

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Hi everyone. Even though there was plenty to talk about in the auto industry this week, I’m passing the mic to you all once again. I’ve been on the road most of the week with a mini road trip to Charlotte and back to drive a GT500 (more on that soon) and then a massive cross country drive to California which I just wrapped up last night. That’s about 3,000 miles in total this week all in my Recaro-equipped Mustang riding on tires with a 30 aspect ratio. So uh, yeaaaaah a news recap isn’t happening this week. Things should be back to normal next week.

In the meantime, share whatever car (or non car) related stuff you did this week with your fellow hoon. Have a good weekend.

About

Greg Kachadurian

Greg Kachadurian

I’m the guy that spoiled the site with all the new car stuff. Hooniverse News Editor since 2011, amateur motorsport photographer, sim racer, and mountain road enthusiast.

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27 responses to “What was your automotive news for the week?”

  1. Smaglik Avatar
    Smaglik

    In Palm Springs for a long weekend, and going to do the Ultimate Track Experience at the BMW Performance Center in Thermal, CA this Sunday. It will be my first time ever driving on a track, so looking forward to it!

    Reply
    1. onrails Avatar
      onrails

      Awesome! Have fun and embrace the late apex!

      Reply
    2. MattC Avatar
      MattC

      Congratulations, that should be fun

      Reply
    3. Scoutdude Avatar
      Scoutdude

      Cool, have fun!

      Reply
  2. nanoop Avatar
    nanoop

    I finally got the title for the scooter, just in time for the first night frost – I, ahem, dismounted my bicycle just yesterday night mid-turn. I take pride in the fact that the rear wheel slid off after the apex, accelerating.

    Reply
    1. Smaglik Avatar
      Smaglik

      Everything ok on you and said scooter?

      Reply
      1. nanoop Avatar
        nanoop

        Thanks for asking, I am fine. The two-wheeled nomenclature isn’t fully established in me, so maybe I used the expression wrong: with “bycicle” I actually meant my muscle-powered bicycle (Which is fine, too).

        Reply
        1. outback_ute Avatar
          outback_ute

          No traction control on those!

          Reply
        2. Smaglik Avatar
          Smaglik

          Got it. I was confused by the words bicycle and scooter in such close proximity to each other! Glad you’re ok.

          Reply
  3. MattC Avatar
    MattC

    I cleaned the IAC on my Ford Ranger to cure a sporadic idle issue. I bought a Chinese knock off part that didn’t cure the problem and wound up using the original part but cleaned properly. I also cleaned the throttle body, and the MAF sensor. So far, so good. I also found out the the MRC (Intake Manifold Runner Solenoid Control Valve) is also a culprit so that may be replaced as a cheap piece of mind

    Reply
  4. Scoutdude Avatar
    Scoutdude

    Those who have been following along with the wheelchair van saga I’ve got another installment.

    While he was in CA apparently the switch that lets the control board know the doors are fully open had stuck or was jammed by something. That meant the lift tried to unfold before the door was out of the way. Of course things got damaged in that situation. People then tried to help and plugged the sensor wires in in the wrong places.

    So first order of business was to put the wires back in the correct places and verify that the fold/unfold would actually work. That was easy enough. Next was to fix the mechanical damage. What broke was the link between the arm that folds and unfolds the ramp and the ramp itself. It sort of looks like a shock and does function to allow the ramp to conform to different ground angles. But it also allows for the extension needed as the distance changes due to not being a perfect parallelogram. Luckily I still had the chain, shackles and quick links from the fence post pulling adventures in the truck. The top attachment was just a pin that slid through the arm and was retained by a hairpin. So that was quick and easy attachment at the top. The bottom was a little trickier as the original attachment was a shoulder bolt through the ramp side that acted as a pivot. So I cut a piece of angle and bolted that on using the existing hole and another then a hole in the top and a quick link and it is usable again.

    IN all the testing and troubleshooting I managed to make the lift unfold with a partially open door and broke the glass in it. So today was a trip to the wrecking yard where I did find a piece of glass and this as the first vehicle into the yard in their complete cars for sale. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0bd3b75e067c585232fd62dd07cd9f561c9a9d620503bc3f70d4bf6a32a26220.jpg

    Reply
    1. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      Not gonna lie, I’d have probably bought it, but then I have a history of ill-advised purchases.

      Reply
    2. Fuhrman16 Avatar
      Fuhrman16

      What did that start out as? Some sort of Japanese compact pickup?

      Reply
      1. Victor~~ Avatar
        Victor~~

        Early Mazda ?

        Reply
      2. Scoutdude Avatar
        Scoutdude

        Yes writing on the driver’s side glass said 1970 Datsun PL510 though it would be a PL520 in reality. The chassis appears to be from the Hardbody era as it has a NAPS-Z twin spark plug engine. Though interestingly while it has a pair of coils mounted to a bracket it has a single plug distributor and only the plugs on the intake side have wires going to them. I guess it is possible it is a 720 chassis and not a Hardbody, don’t know those well enough to tell them apart. It is still 4wd, or at least it had a T-case lever sticking though the floor.

        Reply
    3. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      That photo could invalidate racing it in Lemons unfortunately (if the judges see it), I doubt there are $1200 worth of nonessential parts to sell off! Unless you have really good negotiating skills, for example to get them to put $500 on the receipt regardless of actual price.

      Reply
      1. Fuhrman16 Avatar
        Fuhrman16

        The Lemons judges wouldn’t care what you spent on an old Datsun pickup. They would however prevent you from racing it due to the complete lack of oem crash and body structure.

        Reply
        1. outback_ute Avatar
          outback_ute

          That’s a very good point. I wasn’t picturing racing it as is by any means, but with a cage and tube front crash structure based off recognised practice say in NASCAR, would it be any worse than the Model T GT? Or indeed standard 1970 Datsun pickup?

          I could still see it being an issue because if nothing else body panels could help with load spreading or should I say making sure that crash bars don’t miss or find a void or soft spot in the object being hiand basically not function. An extreme example would be Robert Kubica’s rally crash where I don’t think the guard rail hit anything solid in the front of the car.

          Reply
          1. Fuhrman16 Avatar
            Fuhrman16

            While I don’t disagree that it wouldn’t likely be any less safe than a stock old pickup would be, most likely safer, Lemons has really been cracking down on safety and any modified bodied cars are now an instant tech fail, even those that have raced before like the Model TGT.

          2. outback_ute Avatar
            outback_ute

            Didn’t know that (only come across Lemons stuff sporadically)

    4. Scoutdude Avatar
      Scoutdude

      More news on the van, got the window installed today, nice quick and easy install. He then mentioned that the battery was dead this morning and it had died the other day. Good news is that it proved out the aux battery system that I had installed as the lift continued to work even though the main battery was totally dead. The charging system was good and we did find that the add on goose-neck map light was on. So hopefully it will be good tomorrow as he let it run for 30 minutes before taking it for an hour drive.

      We did verify that there is a relay that is going bad or has a bad solder joint, since when the door isn’t opening a quick tap on the relay will make it work. There are two types on the main board and that family of relays has been discontinued. I did find a surplus seller on E-bay and picked up some of the type that is verified to be bad from a US seller. Unfortunately the other style I can only find sellers in China with a much longer ship time.

      Reply
  5. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Last week, we test drove the MG ZS and, for a few minutes, an Opel Ampera e. We then figured that we won’t spend so much money on a car that we regard an appliance. Today, we suddenly bought a Hyundai i20. These cars are insane deals, losing 65% of their value in five years, and being reknown as good, conservative, small cars. We really wanted this one which had much cooler colours, but it is on the other side of the country, and we got to push the selling dealer here to a price we could live with. This is barely my 10th car, but the first I ever bought at a dealer. We spend 10k$ and a similarly equipped, aged and driven Honda Jazz is about 75-80% more in Norway. So now we got two Hyundais and a Leaf, and I can focus on the Centennial to be my one car which I expect to need constant work. Very strange feeling to buy something that is only five years old… 😛

    https://images.finncdn.no/dynamic/1280w/2020/10/vertical-3/21/3/195/651/903_11267828.jpg

    Reply
    1. Fuhrman16 Avatar
      Fuhrman16

      That is quite an attractive car. You don’t see many automobiles in brown these days. Shame you can’t buy something like that over here.

      Reply
      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        Agreed, I like it, too. It’s an Audi designer snapped up by Hyundai that is responsible for this. Very conservative on the inside though. Colours on cars are a huge plus for me, and, strangely, they lower the price in the market. The common used car buyer seems to want silver, black and white – sometimes I believe our population is basically colour blind. This one has only 83hp, so it barely gets out of its own way. But I think it will be a sensible choice for what we need it for.

        Reply
      2. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        Agreed, I like it, too. It’s an Audi designer snapped up by Hyundai that is responsible for this. Very conservative on the inside though. Colours on cars are a huge plus for me, and, strangely, they lower the price in the market. The common used car buyer seems to want silver, black and white – sometimes I believe our population is basically colour blind. This one has only 83hp, so it barely gets out of its own way. But I think it will be a sensible choice for what we need it for.

        Reply
        1. nanoop Avatar
          nanoop

          They actually kind of are colour-blind, statistically speaking (about factor two of the global average). But looking at some palette offerings you can’t even blame them for picking the most thrilling shade of slate…

          Reply
  6. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    The Bathurst 1000 ran last weekend, with the usual ridiculous hyperbole, such as a bit of frothing over the sub 1 second winning margin; not surprising when there were only 3 green laps after the last safety car, or the “last ever Holden win”; the unspoken fine print is “by the factory (supported) team”, because Holdens will still be on the grid for one more year before a new spec car is introduced.

    That being said, it was an intense race all day, deservedly won by a team that didn’t put a foot wrong once, and particularly Shane van Gisbergen who had the pace during a brief, tricky half-wet period to move into the lead.

    Reply