Performance debugging
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Yeah but that's not what the typical use for a Car PC is.
And if you mean the ECU that runs the engine, then I'm pretty sure that's possible now. Live tuning is a thing.
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Almost all aftermarket ECUs support it. Hell, at this point it's practically mandatory. Know some guys who had a 30 inch LCD and a keyboard permanently installed in their racecar cockpit for that. Ultimately they bent the car like a pretzel by jumping like the general Lee and landing astride a concrete wall.
The reprogramming of factory ECU's is still pretty much stationary.
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Geek cred. Also, media head units are almost uniformly terrible.
The one in my car's ok. Not great.
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One of my daydreams, or ambitions, is to be able to access the ECU in order to tweak things on demand so to speak.
Like what "things"? Specifically?
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Specifically?
For me, I'd like to switch my tinnie 4-cylinder to "performance mode" when necessary, and "eco mode" otherwise, instead of "normal I guess?" that it seems to be.
Filed under: One of these days technology will give me back my 33 MPG I had with my '96 Nissan Sentra...
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For me, I'd like to switch my tinnie 4-cylinder to "performance mode" when necessary,
"when necessary".
Is it ever necessary? Necessary to do what?
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Is it ever necessary?
When I want to accelerate from 0 to 45 in less than one minute.
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because...?
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because...?
It would be nice to not need to compensate for "something" (please don't ask what for, I haven't yet discovered what people compensate for, but Engine seems to snicker every time it comes up...)
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because...?
Because of the same general class of reason that led you to spend money on a hybrid Fusion instead of, say, a Smart ForTwo or a Fiesta.
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Because it looks vaguely like a whale-shark?
... huh.
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What are you driving that takes more than 30~ seconds to hit 60? Even a
blitzed out GoKartGeo Metro can do that in sub ~15 seconds.
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I'd like to switch my tinnie 4-cylinder to "performance mode" when necessary, and "eco mode" otherwise,
Like this switch?
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What are you driving that takes more than 30~ seconds to hit 60?
Toyota Taco 4-cylinder 1.6 Liter (ish, I think?)I was exaggerating a little, though not by much. It's even worse if the A/C is on, and abysmal if there's anything else in the truck except me.
Like this switch?
Would that I could make an Easy Button for that.
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What are you driving that takes more than 30~ seconds to hit 60? Even a blitzed out GoKartGeo Metro can do that in sub ~15 seconds.
My car's got something wrong with it that I am not willing--at the moment--to spend the $1000+ it'll take to fix, meaning it accelerates worse than a clapped-out Metro (and I know because I used to have one.)
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Be aware that issues of that caliber tend to turn into $3000+ issues if left unchecked.
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I mean, I can understand not wanting to replace an IAC(Fucking Mazda/Ford POSes), but damn, something is done fucked up if it costs $1K to not drive slower than a Fred Flinstone-mobile.
I guess I should feel lucky to grow up in a "wrench-head" family. As long as the part(s) was/were sub-$200 I pretty much had access to free labor.
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Mistakes you only make one time include free labor to rebuild a friend's engine.
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Never had to do that.
Though one time doing an fluid change for a friend I accidentally spilled some anti-freeze on an accessory belt that then popped off when we cranked the engine over.
Trying to explain why no, the "battery light" isn't supposed to be on when motor was running was not fun. Luckily(?) the neighbor was sitting on their porch drinking and brought over a hang light and helped me get the belt back on the pulleys.
Oh and this all happened well after sundown.
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I mean, in my defense it was SUPPOSED to be just a head gasket job. A Subaru head gasket job, which means engine out.
It just spiraled out of control into a full up rebuild because the fucking thing was trashed.
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Subaru
You mean Sucba-rus aren't rebuilt every oil-change cause Peter-Mc-DickShit thinks every single one is a rally-car? Oh wait, that's just RX-7s.
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Be aware that issues of that caliber tend to turn into $3000+ issues if left unchecked.
I am. My goal is to replace the car before that happens. (Actually, fixing everything that's wrong with it is probably already at that level. I like the car but it's a lemon. In addition to the usual Kia electrical problems, it's had ongoing issues with a catalytic converter--I bought the car at 53K miles, it developed a problem at 55K or so, the dealership fixed it, and the problem came back just past the 100K mark when it wasn't the dealer's responsibility any more.
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I mean, I can understand not wanting to replace an IAC(Fucking Mazda/Ford POSes), but damn, something is done fucked up if it costs $1K to not drive slower than a Fred Flinstone-mobile.
I don't have a full catalog of problems, heh. It needs a new crankshaft position sensor, which was quoted at $500. The last time I checked, the cat that's busted is an $800 part if I go OEM, not counting labor. And it's got other problems--the electrical issue I mentioned above spawned a particularly fun Kia problem: randomly-blown FUEL INJ fuses.
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Based on that diagnosis, if you decided one day to wrap that sucker around a light-pole I wouldn't blame you. Well, assuming you could do so without hurting yourself or others. I dunno, tuck and roll? She can't get that fast to begin with.
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Toyota Tacoma.
Didn't they all rust through years ago?
edit: I did think Tacoma but Wikipedia had the smallest engine as like 2.7litres so *shrug*
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Not sure? The only thing rusted in this truck is a USB plug that didn't get placed correctly....
Wikipedia had the smallest engine as like 2.7litres
I may be mis -remembering, who knows?
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Not sure?
A few years back there was a recall on older Tacomas because of inadequate rustproofing. Extended warranty on the frame, with an option for repair or buy back at an inflated value. Or something like that.
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Mistakes you only make one time include free labor to rebuild a friend's engine.
I had a friend help me change the fluid and filter on my transmission years ago. He brought an idiot friend along who tightened up the bolts on the oil pan finger-tight. Guess how and when we found out?
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I mean, finger tight is well along to being the correct torque for transmission pan bolts in absolute terms.
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Nah, those are just the turbo ones (brobaru).
This particular example is the femme Lesbaru variation- a naturally aspirated Impreza sedan. That setup only needs a rebuild every 100k miles or so because head gaskets and shit timing belt pulleys. The butch Lesbaru (a naturally aspirated Forester) falls into the same timing.
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I mean, finger tight is well along to being the correct torque for transmission pan bolts in absolute terms.
Well, I guess I should've made clear it was more like finger "tight", i.e., not really. As in, dumped the entire contents of the tranny[1] within seconds of taking the car out for a test drive.
[1] *cough*
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Man, this thread needs a trigger warning. I'm talking about stereotypical lesbian cars and you're talking about trannies.
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Someone could probably need a trigger warning about "finger tight" too.
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I see the problem. It's a Windows box and it's been up for three days. You need to reboot.
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33 MPG
Is that considered efficient in America? I know your gallons are different to ours but they're not that much bigger
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Pah. That's nothing. What you need is a classic british motorcycle. Norton, BSA, Trumpet, etc. Vertically split crankcases made with typical english attention to the wrong details. Oil leaks happen (and they always happen, no matter how new the gaskets, no matter how careful you are cleaning the mating surfaces and torqueing up the case bolts) directly in front of the rear tyre.
"Amusing"
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Is that considered efficient in America? I know your gallons are different to ours but they're not that much bigger
That's ~40mpg over here which isn't horrific.
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One of my daydreams, or ambitions, is to be able to access the ECU in order to tweak things on demand so to speak. You can get really small PCs these days and wireless input and stuff, they can be stashed anywhere.
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A few years back there was a recall on older Tacomas because of inadequate rustproofing.
Whether this matters depends greatly on where you live. There are places in the US where rusting isn't much of an issue.
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What you need is a classic british motorcycle.
This must be some strange new definition of the word "need" I'm not familiar with.
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efficient
It's supposedly a standard or something defining the "minimum" of "eco-friendliness".
My old car got that kind of mileage without all the high-tech that's available today. Not sure what's going on...
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Not sure what's going on...
Modern cars have a lot more extra gizmos that can draw power. The high current draw devices (i.e., the HVAC) can have a substantial impact on overall efficiency, and the emissions control systems can be not especially helpful that way either. Plus there's quite a difference between “deliver efficient running when driven carefully by someone who knows what they're doing” and “deliver efficient running to everyone who uses the model of vehicle”. The latter includes thousands of crappy drivers with leaden feet too.
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Plus there's quite a difference between “deliver efficient running when driven carefully by someone who knows what they're doing” and “deliver efficient running to everyone who uses the model of vehicle”.
There's always the VW approach - "deliver efficient running when the car isn't moving".
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My old car got that kind of mileage without all the high-tech that's available today. Not sure what's going on...
Air bags, ABS braking, crumple zones... the US has spent the last 30 years mandating more and more high-weight safety features, it's no wonder a car from 1980 gets better mileage than an equivalent (non-hybrid) car from 2015. (Sure, engine technology gets better, but by tenths of percentages since the 1980s. 4-cylinder economy car engines have been pretty damned perfected for a long time.)
Not to mention, Air Conditioning is a standard feature now. In my 1986 Mitsi Cordia-L the air conditioning was "open the window".
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You had a Cordia!?
I thought they only sold one of those!
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I loved that car. It was styled like a discount DeLorean.
No good photos of them online, alas. I guess 1986 is too old for anybody to have digitized the marketing materials.
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Reminds me more of a VW Scirocco but I can see how it looks DeLorean-ish.