Car Problems

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I ran a few errands Saturday, including the first part of our three stop cake testing extravaganza (more on that in a later post). Unfortunately my Escape had different ideas, and refused to start when we were leaving a tux shop.

I will say that AAA pretty much sold us on getting a membership once we are married. The free tow would nearly make it worth it, and the addition of an extremely helpful tow truck driver pretty much sealed the deal. There was no question he was willing to go miles out of his way to drop me off at the church for an engagement, or for driving heather back to her car after dropping my Escape off at the shop. He also spent almost an hour trying different things to get us going before resorting to towing.

Now the downside is, from what the mechanic tells me this morning, he was completly miss-diagnosing the problem. The symptoms were that the dome lights came on, and the automatic locks were fine, but when I turned the key *nothing* happened. No clicks, no fans, nothing. Even putting the ignition in the “run” position wouldn’t let you roll down the windows or turn on the radio.

The theory the AAA guy was working under was that the on board security system had tripped, preventing the power from being engaged for ether the “run” or “start” positions. Everything he tried was related to tricks to reset the security system (apparently a problem he sees quite often). The last thing he tried was unhooking the battery for 5 minutes, and while he was at it he tested the battery and cleaned the terminals.

The shop told me over the phone that I just needed a new battery. Completely plausible considering the one in there is at least 6-7 years old. The symptoms don’t quite seem to add up to a weak battery, but its hard for me to know given I didn’t see the tester when the AAA guy checked it. If a new battery fixes it great, I just hope its still not some weirdness in the security system that just reset after setting outside the shop all day Sunday

-Jordan

Booo Verizon

Posted on by Jordan

I was in my local Verizon Wireless store a few weeks back trying to sort out the problems I was having with my billing address. Somehow they decided they didn’t know where I lived, despite sending me mail all the time. When I tried to change the number of text messages in my plan they “were unable to send a confirmation letter.” Calling their customer service line didn’t do much good, so I tried the store, and was told “I can’t change your account information from here, you have to call the customer service line.” After failing there I asked how much a new battery for my phone would cost, he said around $40.

I bought a new OEM battery for my phone for $4 last night off Amazon… unhelpful store people and 900% markups FTL. I wonder if I can find another carrier with passable coverage… Heather and I will probably end up doing a join plan in a few months here 🙂

-Jordan

Hybrids

Posted on by Jordan

I read this article first thing this morning, and realized I had a pretty bad understanding of hybrid state-of-the-art.

  1. Current production hybrids still allow for the gas engine to directly drive the wheels
  2. The lithium-ion battery in the Volt weighs well under 1000 pounds.

On the first point I am still sort of torn on, it seems really dumb to have the extra drive-train for 2 engines, when you consider weight to be your number one problem for staying efficient. Even with the dual drive option, you are looking at using the gas engine outside its optimal operating speed at least some of the time.  On the other hand, charging a battery is extremely lossy… it seems like 20-30% is the number I read not to long ago. Running your engine at optimal RPMs, you’re still bleeding energy all over, losses when you generate electricity, losses when you charge the battery, losses when you discharge the battery. I am really fascinated by the trade-offs there, I really wish hard numbers were more available. (Maybe they are and I just haven’t looked)

On the second point, I am really impressed by the performance they are getting out of a fairly small battery weight footprint. My personal experiences with lith-ion batteries haven’t been all that positive, but I think its because sooner or later my cell phone runs dead, and I hope that preventing that will extend battery life substantially. Its also interesting to me that they aren’t really charging the battery with the gas engine, just putting in enough power to keep the battery above 30% charge, so hopefully avoiding a lot of waste in the explosion –piston -coil/magnet-wire-chemical _reaction system they have to go through to charge the battery on the road.

I am still highly skeptical when it comes to the long-term viability of a battery powered car, the article claims they are shooting for 150,000 mile lifetime on the battery packs. If they make that, I suppose it’s loosely comparable to automatic transmissions.

-Jordan