What did you do to/with your vehicle today?

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Cabin or engine? Is that a coin??

It is the cabin airfilter in my wife's 2010 Subaru Forester, and that is a US penny. Today, I got an AC recharger because changing the filter was about as useful as I had any right to expect. I was gonna take it somewhere, but if anyone is gonna overcharge my wife's AC system, I want it to be me!

[California98Civic]

You can recharge a 2010 Subaru Forester AC system for $35 in hardware and r134a. Did it today. I decided I am with the people who say it is normal for an AC to lose a little cooling power after 10 years. System was at just under 30 psi when I tested, read that 40 psi is OEM spec, pumped it to there and no more. AC... cold. We'll see if it last.

[M_a_t_t]

Since you are in California, you probably know exactly what I am talking about, but here it isn't "standard" yet. The small cans of r-134a that have a valve in them can be used to evacuate the system too. You can rent a vacuum pump from the LAPS and use those smaller cans (for example: if you have been refilling because of a small leak) to hold the freon that is left in the system. Then replace o-ring or hose or whatever. And then use the freon in those cans to refill it.

[oil pan 4]

I used my leaf to drag logs from where they were cut to next to my house.

[M_a_t_t]

Messed with the Fiat a little more. I think the pistons/crank is free. I was tapping on the pistons trying to work the rings loose. When I switched pistons (between 1 and 2) the noise would change after a few taps like I was hitting solid metal. I was going to continue working it back and forth but it was getting late.

[MetroMPG]

Cool! I've never attempted to bring an old, stuck engine back to life before. Watching YouTube "Will it Start?!" videos is fun, though.


Those vids are responsible for giving me the probably incorrect impression that you can drag any 50 year old car out of a field and have it in driveable condition with a couple of hours of tinkering.


---

This happened today...




It actually started normally, then stranded me, luckily only about a 10 minute walk from home.


It's toast. Voltage plummets under load.

[M_a_t_t]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Cool! I've never attempted to bring an old, stuck engine back to life before. Watching YouTube "Will it Start?!" videos is fun, though.


Those vids are responsible for giving me the probably incorrect impression that you can any 50 year old car out of a field and have it in driveable condition with a couple of hours of tinkering.

I was hoping for an easy resurrection too. The truth though is that if you can't revive it you probably just won't post it so the "success" rate is really high .

How old is the battery?

[MetroMPG]

Not sure - there's no date on it (might be in the form of a code).


But the battery was already on its 2nd life -- it came in my winter beater 2004 Prius that I had in 2015/16, and its capacity was already shot back then, so the Prius got a new batt but I kept this one for random vehicle / jump start duty.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I used my leaf to drag logs from where they were cut to next to my house.

A uniquely cool ecomodder sentence. Also, you kinda punned.

[101Volts]

Yesterday:

Topped off the tires, filled up the tank. Got 20.2 MPG over 410.5 miles. Put 4 oz of Opti-Lube XL in the tank before the refill (same as the previous tank,) and added 24 Oz of Marvel Mystery Oil to the crankcase since I'm close to changing the oil. Also bought a tarp and silicone for both a grill block and roof rack delete.

Over the 83.x miles I drove on the same day after the refill, the mileage had increased to 21.5. The engine had already been warmed to 195F, but I'm not surprised about an increase since I put the MMO in the crankcase; the oil viscosity's thinner now.

I've seen my mileage differ in the Suburban, depending on which Oil I used. Oil Viscosity matters, and it's a bit of a low hanging fruit mod. The Suburban got these rough MPG figures with these oils:

Amsoil Heavy Duty 5w40: 18 MPG
Mobil 1 Turbo 5w40: 20 MPG
Shell T6 5w40: 20 MPG
Shell T6 0w40: 21 MPG

Shell T6 0w40 is one of the thinnest Diesel 0w40s that I can think of.

EDIT: I have now removed the Roof Rack, and put Silicone over the bolts.