Fixit Log

[jacob]

@Lemur - The thing that gets me with these things is that repairing old stuff is never as easy as the manual suggests. In that way it's like plumbing or electric work in an old house. Once you start taking one part off, you might end up having to replace everything since the whole system was held together by rust and corrosion---the bonds of history. Worse, original parts are likely hard to get, so the challenge is figuring out what kind of alternatives are suitable for the old system.

In this case, the Honda Fit does not use standard battery terminals. Instead it uses some proprietary distributor terminal (probably not the right word) that costs $60-100 to replace and is somehow hooked into the starter---the cable just disappears into the engine somewhere, I never figured out where. See exploded diagram here: https://www.hondapartsnow.com/genuine/h ... 6-000.html

The other aspect is when things are mission critical. I'm not sure how much patience DW has with me derping around at my usual "learn a topic from scratch pace". Since the car is 15 years old, the smart thing to do might be to buy a similar younger model and use the older one for parts and experiments.

My real problem likely is that I don't think cars are cool. However, despite being together with DW for 20 years now, I've never managed to talk her out of having a car.

[Lemur]

I’n familiar with those cables. I had a Nissan Maxima when I lived in Guam and those terminals rusted all the time due to the humid and rainy environment. I had a wire brush handy and it was standard maintenance to keep the terminals cleaned. Usually performed at the same time as doing the oil change.

Also once had a 1981 Ford F-150 that lasted until about 600k miles. That car was basically on life support. Engine block literally blew up on the road. Fun while it lasted. Purchased for only $700, no major repairs, and I got a year out of it.

Occasionally older cars are easier to work on because they typically have larger engine bays, the engine components are less compacted, less sensors, and overall easier design. I always used www.Rockauto.com to find older parts.

Best thing to do is find vehicles with reputations for easy designs and interchangeable parts between models. 90s Toyota Corollas are a good bet as well as 2000s Honda Civics. Never owned a Honda Fit…do have a 2012 Prius now that I have had since 2018 or so. I got that car for half the blue book value at the time simply because it had an incident of being t-boned once…but since the damage was just the door and not the engine, I took a chance. Have only had one repair since and that one I was not confident enough to do on my own (rear axle replacement).

ETA: I have sometimes wondered about the tradeoff of getting a much newer vehicle with low mileage and keeping it alive for as long as possible versus a treadmill of used cars at 8-12 year old range. Tough to analyze even when considering depreciation schedules…newer vehicles have better safety features typically and usually more fuel efficient too. Not to mention not having to dig through junk yards for older car parts.

[zbigi]

ETA: I have sometimes wondered about the tradeoff of getting a much newer vehicle with low mileage and keeping it alive for as long as possible versus a treadmill of used cars at 8-12 year old range. Tough to analyze even when considering depreciation schedules…newer vehicles have better safety features typically and usually more fuel efficient too. Not to mention not having to dig through junk yards for older car parts.

That's my strategy. I bought a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer in 2013 and hadn't had a single failure so far (apart from battery dying from old age). It was only $15k at the time, and I hope to use it for the next 10-15 years. $15k amortized over 300 month (25 years) is just $50 a month, which can't be much more that going through several old clunkers over the same time period.

[Sclass]

Missed a few days. Glad you solved the car issues. I had terminal on my Accord corrode badly a few years ago. I bought one of the clamp on ends from the auto parts store and fixed it. The thing to understand about starting is the currents are so high that it doesn’t take much resistance on a bad connection to drop your voltage to nothing.

A voltmeter is a great way to trace these drops. Just start with the black probe on the negative side of the battery. Use the red to probe voltage from points at the positive side of the battery along to the circuit to the motor and then on to the negative side. While current is flowing - you may need a partner to crank the car. Copper wires and good connections should have no drop. The load (starter motor) should have a massive drop. It’s just simple physics. You want all your energy going to the motor.

This process solves 90% of electrical problems. And I estimate starting and battery related stuff to be half of all breakdowns. Once you get this down you have the majority of bugs under control.

[loutfard]

My wife recently bought an unused new in package blender thingie from the non-profit thrift store for 9€. It didn't work. I opened it up. I didn't have my multimeter around, but I had a box of Wago clamps.

I bridged power to the motor directly. That worked fine, so it was something to do with a switch or a sensor. Then I got lazy. I just rewired things internally to just use the one button we really needed. Fifteen minutes later, I made a banana milkshake with it.



P.S. Don't worry about this going wrong. I properly immobilised the power cord, and I put back the protective hood for the motor too.