1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

The sad thing is, people still see them as status symbols and need to keep up with the Jones.
I love to laugh at those people BUT when they wanna take me out on their $200K surf boat I still go

 

I think he was saying BMW has too many electrical probs. Volkswagen (VW, Porsche, Audi) has less electrical gremlins than BMWs do. Audi is to VW what Lexus is to Toyota.

BMW takes forever to issue recalls, despite having recurring themes with electrical issues. Melting lighting harnesses/molex plugs seems to be a big one, dating back to the 90s. Yet they'll watch thousands roll into the stealership over the years, 5, 10, 15 years of this and you may finally see an official recall from BMW, after customers out-of-warranty spent out-of-pocket to the tune of millions or more. It's absurd.

Passenger tail light connector melted on my 2010 535 twice. Melted on my friends previous-gen (late 90s/early 00s) 328, and by the 3rd time he had to repair, they finally issued a recall and covered it. It's happened collectively 3 times on my neighbor's old x5 and new x5, always the rear. It's complete BS, you can't tell me BMW doesn't know they have this issue yet. Clearly it's symptomatic of a bigger problem.

VW's stuff is pretty predictable. Interior parts will start to fail first, plastics breaking etc. Engine will keep running for a long ass time without major failures, it's just the rubber and plastic bits cracking that'll cause you gried. You usually don't need all the special fancy tools required for BMW (although there are a couple IIRC). But in the couple I owned, I never saw stupid shit like electrical connectors melting, fried wiring, etc.

 

Now that I think back about BMW, a lot of people were attracted to the fact they provided 3 years of free maintenance in addition to the warranty if you bought one new. Not sure if they still do that.

I do remember my friend had to pay the shop to teardown the transmission once to replace a relay or some other electrical component buried deep within it. Sadly, it was not covered under his extended powertrain warranty because it was electrical. I'd be pissed if Toyota did that to me.

 

For me, in 2010, they offered a 2-year, then wanted me to cough up about 5-10% of the vehicle Blue Book value to extend it another 12-18 months (I forget the exact #s, too long ago). Basically, the amount I'd pay to extend the warranty for a short period was roughly what I'd owe to buy out a new vehicle w/trading the BMW in, it was a real no-brainer for me what to do. That's how I ended up in the 2013 Camry Hybrid I mentioned Young Thug came about $1k from totaling out. Had it repaired and frame straightened at a Toyota dealership, which is what I eventually traded in to get my 1GT.

 

I can't remember whoall has a squaw on here, but whoever does, FYI, Toytec is running a 20% off on their Sequoia Toytec Aluma kits (I suppose it includes the Elka Toytec-rebrand 'Aluma Boss' kit I bought). Code below. I think @NWPirate already has aftermarket suspension on his. Maybe @dlowry81 or @rock climber or some others I may be missing, like our member from SoCal with the silver one... I'm drawing a blank.

Speaking of which, @TravisJr how are you liking your Aluma Boss setup, now you've been in it for a few months? Any issues, any pros/cons to share? @805Tundra how about you?

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Any so cal hoodlums see this?

 

I think a video about how to set up a 9v battery and can of carb cleaner to clean injectors while cycling em would be more helpful than a video of installing the injectors.

 

I'm guessing the injectors themselves aren't free - that'd be a pass for me.

 

Very happy with them so far, I think the ride is smooth (not to soft and not to stiff). They are easily adjustable and have held up to the elements so far. Definitely feel like these compete with the kings and icons as far as quality. Especially for the price. @shifty` you get yours installed yet?

 

Ouch. Yeah, haven't gotten there yet. Still spending every waking minute trying to finish out leftovers from the remodel. Patching walls, painting shit, installing bookshelves, rewiring, etc. Finally finished up relocation of my data cabinet this weekend, got the wife's wall-mounted TV and Apple TV setup so she can do Peloton stuff, got my shop shelving built from scratch and installed, but need to build out shelving for a 7'x3.5' storage closet and install shelving for, then wire up, her surround system.

At the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to get all the house stuff done by January, when we're entering peak-cold-af-outside temps for the year. I could use help, I think, but even if I had a helper here, I'm not sure what I'd have them doing. Will see how it goes.

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Damn didn't mean to rub that one in your face, whoops lol . sheesh you got a lot going on, well at least you got some good boundaries. Once i get car stuff in that goes to the top of the priority list. doesn't bode well with the wife

 

About as close to “snow” as it gets here on the central coast of California. This about 2-3 miles from the beach.

 

Yeah, she's been doing her own pulling. I've got an ulterior motive with making all this happen. She's not going to give me hell with all the stuff I'm planning to do w/the truck. Everything is a compromise...

 

Are you the only person driving on that road? That looks horrible enough that most Californians would want to stay home.

 

Ever seen suspension designed by a group of people that told the dumb guy to shut up?


Lbj's that give you time to notice somethings wrong?

look at all that meat.

 

Nissan?

 

Yessir. Due for bj's, tierod ends, swaybar links. Cleaning the bottom bits before tackling the rear axle seal.
Havent really checked on it the last 10k. Was gonna try to wait for 300k, but it passed the moon mark a couple years ago. Its earned some fresh bits.

 

not bad. not bad. nissans rot out so quick up here it aint funny. the bones are fine. but the bodies are gone. i rarely see one on the road these days

 

Silver really only needs to be washed once a year.

 

Are you into networking there @shifty` ? I thought about redoing my place so I can control everything remotely. Just bought a POE security camera, so I've been reading up on the appropriate mixed ethernet switch to use that adheres to the POE standard, IEEE 802.11af which is supported under IEEE 802.11az vs using a POE+ or POE++ only switch.

 

As funny as that statement is, its completely true lol. The panic sets in with just a little rain, at least 15-20 mph below the speed limit.

 

Network engineer is a former title. Low voltage is something I've handled during most of my tech career. Today's role is in cloud infra/security realm, a good fit with my jack-of-all-trades history, but I do the operational design and deployment of CCTV, access control, automation and misc security for all of our US sites, and on the side for small businesses near me (latter usually rolls in VoIP and POS work). Lots of process design & implementation in there too.

If you're looking for no-bullshit, powerful stuff for the modern home, skip most things found at the big box stores & scAmazon. Ubiquiti is hands-down - by a longshot - the best of the best and at a price point you just can't argue with, crazy feature set, secure remote access, great smartphone app/remote management offerings. Quality is far better than Cisco, but without the corporate pricing, a fraction of the cost.

Only tough part sometimes is finding their stuff in-stock. Word has gotten out, and scalpers have their teeth sunk in, most popular inventory sells out within 0-3 days of coming in stock. Sometimes you can find their Unifi stuff at big box stores like MicroCenter or (RIP) Fry's Electronics if there's something like that near you. But the POE camera options are plenty (link), as is the access control (link), out-of-the-box VOIP telephony (link), and of course my favorite, wifi (link).

You basically start their system by picking a console (link). Their flagship, the DreamMachine, basically sits behind your modem/internet connection acting as a firewall, an NVR for cameras, a wifi controller for POE access points, an access control hub for door access/badging, and telephony hub. But if you don't need something that all-encompassing, you can go as simple as buying a simple managed POE switche (link - look at the matrix there for features), something small like this 8-port handle POE/POE+.

I rarely find devices that require POE++, it's pretty high watt/volt. POE is up to ~15w, POE+ roughly 2x that, POE++ takes it 3x-4x depending which type. Best way to think about it, I think. You don't start seeing POE++ requirements (generally) until you start dealing with network-powered screens, etc. You'll find some PTZ cams requiring POE++ because of the remote motion functions PTZ handles.

If you need help piecing together a system, LMK. I just need a budget, an idea of where it's getting installed (any pre-wiring and what type, how many stories involved, etc.) and you tell me what of the Unifi suite is is interesting. It's easy to piece together a pretty f'ing robust, beefy core residential/small biz system for under $1k, then start tacking on cameras, phones, etc. from there. You can build up to some pretty wicked stuff, check their UID page (link)

Oh - and there is a TON of video support on YouTube from vendors and enthusiasts who sell and support their stuff. Big rabbithole you can go down. Just know, they refresh their products often to add features, re-jigger user interfaces, so any videos you find more than 1-2 years old will probably be out-of-date.

 

On a totally non-technical topic...

I suck at being creative/original with some stuff.

Surely, there's a website out there that'll layout shelving for you? I need to build 4-6 shelves, 14-20" apart, inside a closet that's 106" tall, 74" wide, and 42" deep. Shelves need to be L-shaped, about 20" deep. Top shelves will be full-width. Bottom closer to 48". I need to drop a chest freezer off to the side. Kinda like this crude MS Paint pic:

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It can be something stupid simple - the top wall-to-wall shelves are easy enough to figure out, but I'd love to have a vertical support on the left side of the short shelves. She shelves will be holding up to 40-70lb per foot linear weight. Something like these:

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Ground score! Found my latest and greatest used oil container on the side of the road today!
I’m bad about putting oil in milk jugs and forgetting to drop it off and they end up cracking and leaking. Well now I can pour it all in here and save for a trip to go dump it! I’m stoked!

 

Thanks! I’m sure I’ll be looking to do the upgrade at some point to a full system. Right now I’m just playing around trying to find the right affordable hi-res camera with a low lux rating so I don’t need additional lighting. Currently I have the inexpensive ring spot light camera and don’t find it ideal for what I need. IR lighting cameras are out due to noise in their playback with all the uncontrollable light sources outside. Wi-Fi is nice but I only need it for access and not cloud recording. Local recording is a must, preferably in the camera but I’ll take an external NVR if it makes sense. Right now the plan is for two outside cameras that can handle temps down to 0F. Internal cameras will come later.

 

Man, I must really be bored stranded here at home. I’m actually watching the Goonies for the first time in my life since TiVo randomly recorded it for me. I don’t get the appeal. Maybe if there was an R-rated version and it was remade today. Dunno.

 

You'll probably need to hunt for cams with IP66 or ideally IP67 rating for outdoors. If you're going piecemeal with the cameras, it's a wild array of options available, Dahua basically makes a lot of the NVRs other vendors re-brand. Camera-wise, you can solid bang vs. buck out of Dahua, HIKvision or pay a bit more, go with Avigilon.

The thing I don't like about Dahua and other companies I listed: It's a security nightmare if you ever choose to open your system up to the internet. They cobble together the firmware, and it's so full of bugs and security holes and backdoors, believe me when I say, you're not the only one who'll be watching your cameras. The cheaper you go, the worse it gets.

Best case scenario is to have a VPN connection for remote access to your home network's NVR, don't open ports/port forwarding on your firewall to allow general access to the NVR itself, which is what many vendors will do. Some devices will use UPnP to auto-force-open access/ports.

 

Huh. Truck in the top-right corner of the forum changed.

 

Word on the street is it’s @RainMan_PNW truck
Well earned

 

I must have accidentally clicked on the last one at least 50 times. Can't wait to see the new one that often!