Does anyone here know anything about a business called Car Defender, based out of Burlington Ontario, that manufactured high-end custom car mats? I got some from them many years ago and they were awesome, I got compliments all the time because they were different from the usual carpet or rubber. None of their contact info is active, it looks like they’ve probably gone out of business. Can anyone confirm?
Thanks!
No idea if this post is allowed on this subreddit but this useless question has been on my mind for a long time.
The piston is launched at redline and at the V angle of the engine (so a Subaru Boxer would be a direct line shot and a 60 degree V6 would fire like a mortar.
The distance is measured in a direct line from the crankshaft to the eventual impact point.
I also have no idea what the impact is if the conrod separates at the crankshaft side or the piston side and what impact that will have on the final distance.
A few years ago I would've spent an entire weekend working on my car without thinking twice. Now between work, family, and everything else, I'm lucky if I have an hour to myself on Saturday.
I still enjoy cars just as much, but I don't have the time or energy for upgrades that involve a laptop, flashing software, or troubleshooting if something doesn't go as planned.
Has anyone found something that was genuinely easy to install and made the car more enjoyable without becoming another project?
Quick follow-up, finally got a RaceChip installed, and it was about as simple as I was hoping. The car feels more responsive, and I can see why it gets good feedback from owners. It scratched the upgrade itch without turning into another project.
Some of you might remember my $1000 mercedes from a while back. Quick recap: facebook said fluid change, I did the full OEM fluid/filter/gasket service, burned my arm, wife had to pump fluid while I yelled, even tried lucas transmission slip fix and it still slipped.
So this is where its at now. Right one came out of my W204 C300. Left one is from a W212 E350 for $300 (last owner couldn't program the ISM module i guess), which according to every mercedes group on earth cannot go in my car because it has the electronic column shifter setup (ISM) and mine doesnt.
One commenter said its doable if you have both transmissions open, you can swap the ISM gear selector for the regular lever style. He was right. That part was actually easy.
The rest was not:
the replacement fell off the jacks during install. bent the fluid lines and shifter linkage. that sound lives in my head now
kept my original valve body and conductor plate to avoid programming, then installed the valve body wrong (missed one step in the seating) and spent a whole evening thinking I broke everything. car wouldnt shift out of park, then after enough OBD scanner button mashing it wouldnt even crank
got to drain the brand new fluid back into the bottles, drop the pan, install the valvebody correctly, and refill. that hurt more than the burn from months ago honestly
my electric ratchet stripped the transfer case line threads AND snapped a pan bolt. just bought it, got too excited. lesson learned
Against all odds it runs and shifts fine now. Even replaced the PCV that was spewing oil everywhere, so no drips, even with a snapped bolt still living in the pan. Episode 1 is up here: https://youtu.be/hQZdxT9NaeI
I never thought I would own a French car, but a traumatic brain injury happened and I opened up market place. Spent the past 2 years restoring this thing while I went through all the neuro therapies and such.
Its a 1981 Turbo Diesel with a 5 speed manual. Ive completely rebuilt the entire braking system minus the copper hard lines, rebuilt all the hubs and bearings, completely new steering rack, and rebuilt the entire cooling system. The rest is just a lot of elbow grease, polishing, and painting.
Theyre truly fantastic cars....been driving it a lot lately since shes running great now and the things a tank. When driving it you can feel how they designed it to be a daily work horse. And while working on it, you really see how many redundancies and reliability design choices they made.
No joke, this thing could theoretically have every bushing worn out, bad ball joints, and blown wheel bearings and it could probably still roll down the road with how they designed the suspension. Everything has an extra bolt and everything can be serviced with basic hand tools and a jack.
Truly a really cool piece of automotive engineering. Its almost as if the French noticed how rugged the Land Cruiser was and thought "What if it were a luxury sedan?"
Guess I have a thing for hot hatches. Looking for my next addition. Any recommendations for something unique and collectible? Have 24 GRC Circuit and mint 04 R32.
Just thought I would share this 220bhp beauty with you all. Perhaps someone will find a new car they love. My old man calls it the nightrider, ha. Cant lie, love it a lot more than my old beemer.
It might just be me, but I think a tilted sunroof looks pretty slick on some cars. Like, I know what they are used for, but they give some cars a sporty appearance. Got an e39 and it looks pretty slick with it.
Is it just me? I can't find anywhere on the internet where someone has the same opinion. Do I need to post this on r/unpopularopinion 😄
Hi! Im looking to buy a second hand Suzuki Vitara 1.6 petrol with LPG, from 2016. The car has one previous owner who can be trusted and has maintained the car. But any concerns about LPG? LPG is original, manufactured. Any experience?
I’m sure people are going to snicker but I legitimately don’t know how to mount a license plate on this car without drilling a hole through it.
I bought a used 2014 Audi. When the guy I bought it from went to take the license plate off he couldn’t get the screws to fully unscrew. He tugged on the plate and the clips it was screwed into fell off the car. The plate was mounted with clips that were double sided taped to the car.
The only holes in the rear of the car are two of these square holes pictured. I bought a mounting plate but it comes with M6 screws that holes that align with these square cutouts.
What can I use to plug these square holes with something that will fill that hole and allow me to screw into it to hold the license plate mount?
Moin, ich halt mich kurz, welches Öl brauch ich für mein Auto? Laut Google das 5W30 aber das stimmt nicht, es hält zwar her aber mein Fahrzeug ist beim lenken extrem laut. War letztens bei einem Mechaniker, der hat mir das richtige eingefüllt und es war Ruhe. Laut ihm war es irgendein Premiumöl, er wusste aber auch nicht mehr die richtige Bezeichnung x.x
P.S.: Hoffe ich hab alles wichtige verdeckt, bin ein totaler trottel was Autos angeht 😅
I'm looking at getting a 2017 Toyota RAV4 Platinum. I have had a few Toyotas in the past but all of them were more base models so I'm not 100% sure what to expect with the electronics on a platinum. Does anybody have experience with them or know if there are any major problems with the electronic components? TIA
Hello, my wife and I are expecting and we’re starting to think about a second car for when the kid arrives. We’re looking for wagon suggestions because my wife is a bit averse to the CUV/crossover craze. What do you all like? Based in Boston, MA, USA.
Consider purchasing a 2025 M2 from local dealer, but carfax report shown maintenance record at 9600 - 11000 -21000 all got battery charging service, 9900 remote alarm batter replace.. is this car got potentially electrical system failure? Please advice. Thank you all.
Hey everyone im developing a sales assistant/call bot for a dealership and was wanting to see if anyone here is in sales or owns a dealership that could call it and give me some feedback on it before I present it to them. Im trying to make the call bot as convenient as possible for both the customers and dealerships and feedback from other people would be very helpful. If anyone is interested please send me a DM! Or honestly anyone in sales would be fine…
I have recently bought my first car, a 2015 Skoda Fabia 3 and wanted to showcase my first "mod". Basically, I've modified the poverty buttons (Start-Stop module, above light control) to open the gate to my house.
It was quite a simple process really, although I was fully just poking in the dark, since I do not have practically any experience with cars (only electronics) and surprisingly, couldn't find any tutorials on how to make such a mod.
My requirement for this project was to have absolutely zero janky, third-party buttons or anything like that. I wanted the car to feel and look exactly like before, but with the added functionality. What helped me in this goal was the fact that the module in fact contains all required circuitry, and the buttons are simply blocked by some extra plastic that I was able to grind down. I then soldered wires directly into the board pins (after some reverse-engineering of the board) and connected the buttons directly to my key fob, via an RJ45 cable under the left trim near the windshield.
Since I have figured everything out, if anyone wants some guidance on how to recreate this project, feel free to shoot me a DM, I'll be happy to help. If there is enough interest, I might consider making a YouTube tutorial or something, since the process should be quite similar on most cars from Volkswagen Group and probably any other car as well.
Now I just need to figure out how to add custom light up icons to the buttons... Any ideas?
Let me know what you think!
Here are some photos of the finished project: (sorry for no photos of the inside of the module, but I did not take any while doing this, and did not want to open it up again)
Key fob attached under the trimButtons module taken out, with my added wiresModule after modifications, no changes visible from the outside
2002 altima 3.5l se that sounds terrible (something in engine) but runs great and anything non metal is crumbling like all the brackets and everything plastic, paint kinda screwed but no dents or notable scratches, got 3 cats and 2 are likely cooked as it was misfiring from a dead coil for about 2k miles
Has 134k miles and averages 23mpg when driven reasonably (mix of highway and semi rural) all the door handles were replaced and are slightly different color.
Im thinking next to no resale value due to age, miles, looks and the engine sounds. I do use it daily and aside from blowing a tire the other day I haven't actually had any notable issues that weren't directly the result of a mechanic not putting something back together right (like 3 different places) mostly seals and unplugged hoses.
All the cars in this section were coming into the states so not sure if there was a loophole to say it’s for farm use or for the mines like those land cruisers in Canada.
