No, wife was actually driving it. Going to her friend's house for a baby party, one of the few times she's ever driven it. Wife's niece got out and dumped water on it. I would have preferred it if they got out safely and didn't even call the fire department until it was 90% gone, but oh well. Sounds like a front caliper stuck and friction did what friction does. I'll get to see it in a little while.
If I had to guess, I'd say the cv boot exploded for some reason. Slung all the grease all over and it caught on fire. The grease was everywhere, and it was not like that when they left home. I always check tire pressure and fluids before she drives it, since she would struggle with any kind of breakdown because of her leg. It needs, at minimum, passenger side axle, brakes(pads, caliper, brake line), serpentine belt, wiring harness, a hose or two, probably new struts, control arm with ball joints and bushings, tie rod ends, a motor mount, whatever sensors might be in that hub. We'll see if insurance pays for all that, minus deductible, or if she should have let it burn to the ground, which they definitely would have paid for. It's really not worth all that. It's just an old beater that I only kept because it got good fuel mileage.
I'm betting my mini cooper is totalled after the fire. The adjuster is supposed to look at it Wednesday. I'm shopping for a new daily driver. Do I get another little gas saver, or a little black stripe maker?
Well fuck me. My car is in the shop getting a cosmetic warranty-covered issue handled. The dash covering (the big area under the windshield) is coming unglued/delaminated from the substrate, so the leather is lifting and wrinkling. I managed to get it covered under the 2nd last day of the new car warranty, so they had a new dash built and shipped over, and it's now being replaced. Hop into the truck this morning to take the dog to daycare, and I'll be damned if the same shit isn't happening to my 3-year old Ram. But of course it's not covered under any kind of warranty. I'm starting to look for auto upholstery shops around town to get it fixed, but most of them only want to deal with seats and door trim, not dashboards. I can understand that... the time/effort to replace it has got to be non-trivial. Anyone have any experience dealing with shit like this?
Yeah, that's what I'm learning. Maybe I should get the truck fixed by replacing it with vinyl or something non-leather.
I always tint my whole windshield a very, very light tint that has a high UV block to try and help with that stuff. Not legal but it's so light that no one can tell. It also helps with headlight glare at night which is affecting me more and more as I get older. Yay.
When I bought my GMC Sierra in 2003, I spent $30 for a dashboard mat. 21 years later of living in the baking Central California Sun, my truck looks its age with faded paint, dead clearcoat and such. The dashboard mat is seriously faded but the dashboard itself looks like it just got installed. It may not fix your dash, but I am sold on it saving the dash from getting ruined to begin with.
I did not buy the cool AF 5.3 ls swapped chevette for a daily driver. I'm kinda embarrassed to say, because of how bad talked about the one that caught fire, I bought another Mini. I really wasn't planning to do that, but I saw one that was cheap and the photos looked like the cleanest used car under $5k I'd ever seen. So I went to look at it. And it is a little newer and had just over half the miles of my old one. And it had the most complete and current service records I think I've ever seen. And it's the extended model, so I can comfortably transport a large pizza if I want. I think it will last many more years before I either start hating it, or it burns up. But, if I'm ever in this thread complaining about a Mini again, just know that I know that I did it to myself. I had the chance to do something different, and I didn't. I guess I never really thought it was a bad car, old one always made it a to b until the last day, even though it was severely neglected before I got it. They're just so tiny that major preventative maintenance and repairs suck ass.
So we just got some electric forklifts that are dead silent like electric cars. One of the managers wants to put something like an ice truck or la cucaracha horn on it. My problem is everything i have found so far runs on remote, we need something that just turns on when powered cant have it remote activated. Anyone know of anything like that?
Just put a card in the spokes or something equivalent. Something analog that does not need power to work
How many volts do those machines operate on? I'm sure that the drive motors are really high voltage, but do they have a lower voltage system (12V)? If they have a 12V system, there are shit-tons of options.
To reply to a rep, it is an industrial site, it has to be plug and play, and completely idiot proof. If the horn fails, we have to be able to change the horn and not rewire the new remote to turn on at the same time Yes there is a somewhere where we can pull 12v's from. My google fu sucked then. All i could find where remote activated one. If you know up ones that just turn on when powered, please let me know.
Questions for all you shop mechs. Our shop is looking for a good obd diagnostic tool. We have mostly have Dodge trucks, but i want something that works with everything, that can be updated when we get new vehicles. That can program these stupid modules, that we have to send to the dealer. What are your recommendations? edit: even if it is 2 tools, a scanner and a reprogrammer.
It is for the company, so price doesn't matter a whole lot. I don't want to recommend the most expensive just because it is expensive, but if it works the best that is all the matters.