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That’s the thing, it’s not something you need to do right now, if ever, if the car is able to do all you want of it without the added in navigation. And there may be a work around or an out of date copy sometime in the future if you don’t need the latest update.
Heck, navigation has been available here in Japan for nearly 20 years in one form or another, and we only just got it on our most recent car and if there’s anywhere on the planet where navigation is really needed, it’s here. We managed to get around ok most of the time, but decided it was time for me to get upset at a box in the dashboard than Mrs. Schtoo when she’s navigating. She’s not great at it which doesn’t help.
That said, it’s nice to have and as the one we have is the latest and greatest, it gives directions through the dashboard, talks to you and plays music through bluetooth all at once. Even shows pictures of what you’ll see when you come to an on/off ramp on the highway.
Still not fool proof though as this especially talented fool manages to miss exits and entrances with all the help possible…
Stu.
???
What kind of car is it? Sounds awfully strange to me that the gps system, which uses satellite information not cellular data, requires a sim card to operate and that such a system would be fitted to a car but not actually working. Normally they fit a full gps navigation system or a unit that allows the car’s systems to work like they should, but without the navigation system built into it. I.e; reversing cameras and radio but no nav.
The navigation system in our car works off an SD card, but that’s for up to date maps and came with the car (maker option, paid for). An updated card is about
$200$150$100 IIRC. It doesn’t need data to function, but if you allow it access to the interweb, it can offer traffic updates and a few other niceties we don’t really need so don’t let it access the interweb, although it’s usually bluetoothed to my phone because I like to listen to music. If I tell it, it’ll connect to the interweb but it doesn’t need it to function.Sounds really strange to me.
After some googling, Mazda? It’s not a sim card, it’s an SD card and something that can’t be readily hacked or circumvented by the sounds of it. Path of least resistance would be to extract the card from them by any means possible and insert it yourself (armrest apparently?) and yes, it locks to the VIN after 100km/62 miles so a used one isn’t going to work either.
It’s so they can fit a standard unit to every car (saving $$$), and have everything work like it should (ease of manufacture), but hit you for that extra $400 if you really want navigation (nav is still an option).
Good luck,
Stu.
You’re older than the others in your class, but the flip side of that is ‘life experience’ and a proven record of showing up on time to put in your days work.
When I did my apprenticeship, there were 2 older guys in the class. One was in his 30’s and the other about your age. In that class, we all had ‘jobs’ already working most of the week and a day per week at school, but they didn’t seem to have any problems keeping up at work and they never missed a day of school either. A few of the younger guys did miss days at school which was more trouble than it was worth as you had to make it up on your own time.
Don’t worry about it. Not even a little bit. You’ve been told that several times right here already and it’s all true.
If you can manage it, complete the program at the tech school and go from there. Never hurts to have a piece of paper that can open a door and never actually use it.
Stu.
I can’t buy a bottle of ATF larger than 1l by walking into a store here.
A reliable source for spark plugs for the little car we have is further away (300km) than the factory it was built in (70km).
Your standard auto store, whatever it is and however well or poorly stocked it is has more ‘repair’ parts in it than I can buy locally, and possibly more than I can readily acquire ordering in parts. I ended up getting bushings for the front suspension for it from the middle east because I couldn’t get them locally, and if I could, I’m not allowed to know where or even get a part number.
Believe me, however bad it is where you are, it’s a whole lot worse here.
The way it’s done here does have it’s reasons and it does have it’s good points (small shop can fix all manner of cars without a lot of special purpose gear, they simply replace large assemblies not small components), but for someone who doesn’t mind (likes?) getting dirty on cars that aren’t lusted after, it’s a nightmare.
And also why new cars are so popular. Got one of them too.
Stu.
You didn’t think of it because it’s one of those things you never consider, until it’s mentioned and becomes stuck in your mind like a piece of corn stuck between teeth.
The ‘uppity’ bit comes from a specific person who we’d asked to take a look at a house for us as an ‘expert’. It was termite damaged, and worthwhile saving, but wanted a second opinion. She arrived in a very small sports car (Daihatsu Copen) and it had a turbo timer on it.
She then told us her ‘expert’ opinion on the house, which was very much CY(her)A and talking down to us like we knew nothing.
(I’m a card carrying electrician. I know a thing or two about houses and how they bolt together and I know the tools used as well, especially the locally made (Japan) ones. A shed load more than her although she’s the sales gal for a construction company…)
In the end, she got a lesson on making assumptions and I also asked her how much the turbo timer on her car cost her, which she replied $600 ‘to protect the turbo’. My stage whisper to my wife was “a fool and her money are soon parted” at which point she also learned I know how to twirl a spanner on cars and that the turbo timer was an outdated accessory her ball bearing and water cooled turbo car didn’t need.
(Ok, I learned about the watercooled turbo thing a couple weeks before. I knew newer turbos didn’t need timers so much, and then I knew why as well.)
She doesn’t outright dislike me, but she’s somewhat surprised that I’m not the same as the locals here in Japan who tend to be very good at one thing, and completely useless at anything else. I can do a few different things at varying levels of competence from ‘professional’ to ‘modern art-esque’.
It’s actually more my getting a little fed up with how they do things here in Japan and how the unwashed masses are protected from themselves, but it often ends up having the mute leading the blind. All too often you ask questions, and quickly realise you know more about the subject than the ‘expert’.
Stu.
Actually, it’s not just cooling the coolant in the radiator…
If the engine is at a temperature where the fan is running, i.e; hot, then the thermostat will also be open and coolant will flow from radiator to engine block without much hindrance.
And the cooler coolant in the radiator (because the fan is cooling it) will push the warmer coolant in the block to the radiator. Rinse and repeat until things are all cooled down sufficiently. Google ‘thermosyphon’.
Same reason pretty much every turbo charger fitted as new nowadays is water cooled. Gets the heat out of there when it’s all shut down just by being ‘hot’. No pumps or timers or other such frivolity required. Just access to the coolant and it’ll cool itself down and help prevent the turbo from getting clogged with burnt oil.
None of it is strictly necessary if the operator is somewhat knowledgeable about these kinds of things and makes allowances to cool things down before shutting down the engine. But because most operators don’t know, don’t care and don’t want to make the effort to cool things down(I need to pee, NOW!) those clever folks who dream up these things have made the car be able to cool itself down without the assistance of a knowledgeable operator. Any half wit can operate a vehicle with relative impunity and little mechanical sympathy.
(But then the half knowledgeable ones get all uppity when you tell them they got suckered into something they didn’t need by some silver tongued sales jerk.)
Stu.
Mitsubishi i. Google it. Smaller than a beetle, more egg shaped than bug shaped. A FWD drivetrain under the rear floor, and 660cc with all the tech Mitsubishi in 2006 could throw at it.
Not bearings, not brakes (fixed), not ball joints (new!) as they’re all checked and all in good shape. Even the sway bar linkages (fixed length rose jointed rods) are in good shape. No CV joints in the front, and the ones in the rear are in excellent shape as I’ve had both in my hands in the past month when I replaced the transmission, in the back of the car.
It’s a weird one. I might replace the bearings because I can, they don’t cost much and it’ll take that possibility completely out of the equation. They’re not at all noisy, and have no play in them but $20 a side, no big cost to change and I have the gear to do it.
It’s a weird one. Not one of the usual suspects and a stock answer isn’t going to work because everything that can usually cause these noises has been thoroughly checked or replaced. Just wondering if there was something else in the there that could be causing a heavy thunk under extension only (not under compression at all, that thunk was lower strut ball joints and banished) like something is loose but held tight when there’s weight on the front end.
I though it was strut top rubbers/bearings, but with the wheels off the ground, no looseness and taking the spring tension off them showed no play and everything looks to be in good enough shape.
Stu.
I’d check for water like everyone else has said, and if that doesn’t work, clean the carb (pull it to pieces, clean everything, re-assemble) and then drain and clean out all the fuel.
That ‘premium’ might have been just that, and included a little more ‘cleaner’ than usual, which might have dislodged something in the fuel system and caused some grief, as in a chunk of gunk stuck in a narrow passage. No effect at idle, lots of effect when it needs more fuel.
Stupider things have happened…
(DAMHIKT. Helped a friend rebuild a triplet of SU carbs because of something getting into the fuel system and giving it all a clean out…)
Stu.
[quote=”Bluesnut” post=170674]
You need to take car complaints with a grain or two of salt. Laying a car complaint at the feet of the company who built the car is often not justified. I’ve skimmed the internet reading car complaints and many of them (either outright or reading between the lines…) are the fault of the car owner; not the manufacturer. Just try convincing some of those people that problem was caused by them…..it ain’t gonna happen.[/quote]You can’t say that! All these complaints are entirely valid and legitimate faults because the car makers attempts to make their products ‘idiot proof’ simply fell into the hands of superior idiots than they were aware of… 😉
You could put any product with the ability to fail in some manner in place of a car, and it’d still be valid. Not saying there aren’t some products that aren’t genuinely flawed by design/manufacture as there are plenty of them, but the good manufacturers make efforts to correct those problems and make good those affected products. Those that don’t continue by market inertia and/or perception or they simply fail.
But you can’t please everyone, and some make the possibility of pleasing them impossible.Some you can’t even make things right for them, they’ll stand on their soapbox and scream blue murder for eternity with the ‘fix’ sitting by their feet…
I’m sure some people want to be upset, and are only happy when they find that little nugget that allows them to express their outrage at some small indignity that’s befallen them. That’s how life is these days, for better or worse.
Stu.
[quote=”Hockeyclark” post=170617]Well, they don’t make Suzuki’s anymore.
Remember, there is no dealer network to support this vehicle. They didn’t make many of these, so parts probably aren’t cheap, either.[/quote]
Umm, they do make Suzuki cars, heaps of them. Too many really as they’re a plague on the road here.
They don’t sell them in the US any more though, ‘not sell’ is a completely different animal to ‘not make’. 😉
That still doesn’t change the fact that unless the car in question is ridiculously clean, cheap and problem free, it shouldn’t be touched with a 40 foot pole. There must be plenty of options out there that are a far better option and have actual parts support.
Suzuki cars are generally pretty good though. They’re quite reliable, although you give up some of the more up to date engineering replaced with trinkets to attract buyers. I’d not buy one if there was an alternative available myself. Previous car we bought was down to a Suzuki with all the fruit or a stripped out Mazda, and we bought the Mazda because while it was lacking in creature comforts, it was better built and better to drive. Most recently, Suzuki didn’t have anything on offer for us until a year after we were looking, and even then, the Nissan we got was the better choice.
(I’m not a badge snob. Whatever fits the bill is what we get.)
Here in Japan, their full sized cars take the place of what the Korean made cars would in other markets prior to the Koreans getting their act together of late and building some impressive cars with up to date engineering and tech in them.They don’t sell anything Korean here for the same reason they don’t sell Suzuki in the US.
Small cars though, probably 30% of them are Suzuki, 30% Daihatsu and the rest Mitsubishi or rebadged versions of cars made by Suzuki, Mistubishi or Daihatsu.
HTH,
Stu.
Why not? I don’t know what the crash test figures are for a Fit, but I’d guess they’re at or near the top of the class.
Not much power, decent road holding, safe and reliable. Just about perfect.
Things to keep in mind are that the kids will in all likelihood crash the thing. Hopefully not seriously so you give them the best possible chance to walk away from that event when (not if, we hope ‘if’ but don’t bet on it) and for that event to be relatively benign.
Surrounding them in a large mass of ill handling metal and/or outdated chassis/safety technology causes the threshold of “not walking away” to be reduced.
Making the first set of wheels to be medium sized, but still as up to date as possible is not a bad idea.
Yeah, I’ve considered this a lot. Where I live has the worst road accident rate in the country so any car purchase I make is largely based on “will my family and I walk away from it when xyz moron decides to smash into us?” and “will this vehicle allow me opportunity to put some distance between me and xyz moron if needed?”
Good luck, don’t get attached to the car. Took 2 small crashes and a half rollover to kill my first car and the safety gear in the car (I added) to let me walk away from the last one.
Stu.
That’s what confuses me as cold or hot, forward drive does not change at all. Very well behaved in forward.
I did notice a small amount of varnish like deposit on the reverse valve in the body which I removed as best I could, but there may be some left inside that I simply can’t get to, even though I had the valve body broken down as far as I dare. Having 2 plates and 3 castings, numerous balls, clips, catches and whatnot, I didn’t want to fiddle with too much. The valve itself is spring loaded which probably plays some part as well, the valve not being free floating.
It needs to go in for a couple of recall issues, and I’ll ask them while they’re doing that if they have any ideas while making sure they don’t actually touch anything because if they do, it’ll be big money real fast and it’s not worth it.
This would be much easier if I was able to get a workshop manual, but that’s not allowed. Don’t ask, it’s mad how common folks are limited in what they’re allowed to see here…
Thanks for the ideas. More than I had to go on, somewhat expected I suppose but still confusing.
I wonder if I could adjust the pressure settings to fudge a fix? As it is, this trans isn’t right and I’ll looking at finding a replacement unit, so pushing it that little bit further might be an option to get it working for the time being? Or just keep playing at gravity reverse and avoiding reverse whenever possible?
(This is all a little mad really. Basically I don’t want to play in the dirt changing it over all by myself. It’s a pain of a job and I don’t want to do it!)
Stu.