Doing my part to keep WGN weird:




We have a debate in-studio tomorrow night, between the two candidates in the runoff election for mayor.

The way this always works is that each candidate has "x" number of seconds to respond to each question. We put a countdown timer up on the teleprompter monitors (the candidates don't get any prompting other than this), and then there's a button which the producer can press to play a "gong" sound if the candidate is still talking when the timer runs out.

I decided to build a new button this year. From my brief email to the news dept: "Press Bozo's nose to gong the candidate."



Semi-happy with how this came out. Laid out the graphic in Publisher, and pulled dimensions to the center of the nose. Pre-drilled the aluminum panel, then stuck the printed graphic over top of it with some 3M "90" spray adhesive, cut out the nose hole, and overcoated it with clear enamel.

The enamel didn't really harden fully, so I baked the panel at 170°F for two hours. That hardened it, but also caused a little bit of bubbling underneath.

I plan to re-make it later, gotta figure out a better way to do this. I might just need to have the graphic professionally printed on adhesive vinyl.

 

Just curious - does it have a dipstick or do you have to trust a readout?

 

 

 

No dipstick.

 

Does it have a sensor, at least? Or is it like the Juke, where the procedure for checking the ATF level is "warm it up to 93°F as indicated by a code which only our proprietary scan tool can read, then raise it on a lift, peeeerfectly level, and without turning off the engine, remove this one specific bolt and time the rate at which fluid drips out of the hole."

 

It's between the sun visors

 

yes.



apparently each hash is about .4L. The above indicates the owner overfilled his with oil. Oil level should sit between the two arrows. It has has an oil temp and pressure gauge.







That procedure is how I had to fill my MBs' ATF. Overfill, start car and get trans fluid temp to ~250°F open drain plug, replace drain plug with fluid stops.



this little $1 plastic bit snaps into place on the inside of the pan on top of the drain port. to actually drain the fluid, you have to stick a screwdriver up in there and get that tube to snap off.

 

Ah, but I'll bet you it doesn't have both an oil position gauge and an oil momentum gauge.



Well, now that's seriously retarded.

One thing to credit with the Datsun: there's an SST (easily and cheaply available on eBay) which screws into the fill / sense port and allows you to hook up the plastic tubing from a little plunger pump stuck into the oil bottle, and just easily pump the oil right in.

Then you remove the SST, judge whether oil is trickling out of the hole at the correct rate, and if so, put the bolt back in (with a new O-ring.)

 

it's not supposed to be readable while going 56mph. not sure how the owner achieved that one.

it's supposed to be a function at key on (but not running), and sometimes takes 10mins for it to measure.

 

It was a joke. Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle. Impossible to measure the position of the oil without affecting its momentum, and vise-versa.

 

 

Ever have a broken/faulty temperature/pressure/level sending unit? I’ve had several - although my history of buying reliable, newish cars is a bit limited.
I recently bought a new Audi that requires you to actively delve through on-screen menus to find oil level, temperature - an act of misguided faith, I guess. My first instinct is to say “effin’ Germans,” but then remember that modern buyers understanding of cars is generally “Look! It’s a Wi-fi hot spot, and check out the digital dashboard!”

My 22-year-old Silverado has a dipstick, as well as analog gauges for oil pressure, engine water temperature, transmission temperature, and a voltmeter. Sigh.

 

Dipsticks are being removed from cars because of emissions regulations, it's not just an "effing Germans" thing. The limit on evaporative emissions are quite low, and a dipstick allows oil fumes to escape into the atmosphere.

--Ian

 

Thought that's what tiny O-rings were for.

 

 

i was curious and just tried this:




in case you care: I also seem to have a rear main leak starting to drip.

also, did my transmission fluid, and when i was cleaning up found the drain plug washer in the drain pan after emptying it out. :(

 

"A cat sitting on top of a Porsche 911" in traditional, photorealistic, impressionist, and cubist styles.












Bonus: Cat atop 911, by Vincent Van Gogh:

 

love the last one.