'Tis the Season for TPMS

I am seeing a lot of web searches coming in for "dashboard Exclamation point", so I decided to re-post this classic article that i wrote a few years ago on TPMS.

So now that it is starting to get cold here in the Northeast, a lot of motorists are now noticing a new symbol which may have appeared in their dash over the holiday weekend. It looks a little something like this...

[caption id="attachment_17" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="courtesy Safecar.gov"][/caption]

That huge exclamation point makes you feel like your engine is about to explode if you don't go to a shop right now, but relax, this is just your cars Tire Pressure Monitoring System, (or TPMS) kicking in. When is gets colder, air contracts and reduces tire pressure slightly. Usually not enough to be dangerous, but certainly enough to trip the sensor.

How do you fix this problem? Go check your tires recommended PSI, (usually inside driver-side door) fill it up, and wait for the sensor to eventually turn itself off (This could be when you restart your car, or could take a week).

How I’m going to save about $600 this year for my cars

Lets face it, gas isn’t getting cheaper. Tolls are going up. Its time to start cutting back somewhere.
This weekend, I did something I haven’t done since high school - I changed my own oil.

It was actually my local fast-lube place that inspired me to start doing this. While getting the car serviced, the guy has my hood up, and he can see that there is a lot of work done to this motor, and its obvious that this is a well cared for car. The guy then walks into the waiting room, and shows me my (clean) cabin air filter, and tells me I need to replace it. I just did these about 5K miles ago, and tell him to put it back. He then tries to convince me I need a transmission flush and new wipers. Yeah, I’m not going back there. I also skipped the “tips” bin on the way out.

Why go back to changing my own oil? Well, here’s what I figure: I started using synthetic in my car, and my wife’s uses regular. It’s not that I don’t care about my wife’s car, its that she drives a Honda four-banger and the thing could run on bacon grease if need be. My oil changes are about $60, and hers are about $35. Multiply this by a few times a year, and it starts to add up really fast. I change oil every 5000 miles, because I don’t buy into the every 3000 mile hype that lube places try to make you believe. So at a few times a year, that’s $400 for my car, and about $175 for my wife’s car. Why have I been spending this money?

So this weekend, I went down to Autozone, and picked up $80 worth of supplies, including jackstands, funnel, a Fram filter (the grip is nice), a 15 quart drain pan and a five liter jug of synthetic oil. Previously, the only thing stopping me from doing this myself is that I had no where to put the used oil. Used automotive oil is a huge threat to the environment, highly toxic, and there are heavy fines for disposing of it improperly. AutoZone now takes oil free of charge for recycling. I figure I’ll drop it off when I go in to get some wiper fluid or blades or something. So all things considered, now I’m negative 20 bucks, but the next time I do this, I’ll be ahead $40. And the savings grow every time after that.

The process is so much easier than I remember, just raise the car, drain, seal and put on new filter and refill. Took me about 40 minutes, most of which was just jacking the car up and waiting for the oil to drain. Seeing as how time spent driving and waiting at a lube place is about 30 minutes, this only cost me about 10 minutes in time.

What are the other benefits? Well for one, I know I am getting good parts, and not some recycled oil crap or inferior filters. The other thing is that I realize I’m doing a better job - after seeing how long it took the oil to drain, I don’t think its possible for the pan to completely drain out in the two minutes they have the plug off. That means this sludge has been sitting in my motor.

Now my car is happy and purring like a 300HP kitten.

The misguided life and times of Karen

Let’s get this out of the way up front - Karen was a spiteful bitch. Her demise is bittersweet. So while now I have to go out and spend money on a new GPS unit, I look forward to building a lasting relationship with a GPS unit that doesn’t take joy in my misery.

Here’s that back-story:  A few years ago, I got a new GPS unit, a Garmin Nuvi 650W as a birthday present. I loaded in the female Australian voice which Garmin named “Karen”. The name stuck. That’s was about four years ago, and this weekend, on our way to visit a friend up near Boston, her touch screen finally gave out.

[caption id="attachment_408" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Karen and me, in happier times"][/caption]

Since our first drive together, Karen and I have had our ups and downs in our relationship. She went all over the country with me in my travels, and found a home on the dash of many rental cars. She got me through Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles more times than I can count. Sometimes she has bailed me out of some real sticky situations. She even once acted as a tattletale when a valet decided to take my car on a 143 MPH joyride.

But the good times are few and far between. I remember the time she dropped me in a field in the middle of Pennsylvania, about 30 miles away from my destination, not even in the same town. She had an uncanny ability to let me know I had to turn immediately after passing the street, and when there was no way where to turn around. No matter what, even if it was backed up for miles, she always wanted me to take the Long Island Expressway. I never understood why she would literally take me 5 miles out of the way to get from the Northern state to the LIE.

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of a car trip with me knows about Karen and our verbally abusive relationship. I would yell. She would typically respond with “Recalculating – Make U turn” in her cool, emotionless voice. And then there was the time we got lost out in the Mojave and she started making up roads. Really, there was nothing on the map, yet she insisted on making a turn directly into the woods. She also had a knack for saying the wrong road names on major routes. Need to go somewhere near 27 / Sunrise highway? Instead she always called it the POW Memorial parkway.  While this was very confusing, her pronunciation of different Long Island road names was always entertaining.  Lane choices? She frequently enjoyed telling me to get into the far left lane on major highways, and letting me know I had to take a left exit in 200 feet. Cause that’s fun at 60 mph.  I really think she was jealous of my wife. It got so bad I was nervous to let her go on a trip with Karen without me for fear she would get her lost on purpose.

So now I need a new GPS. They have come a long way in the last four years, and now I’m looking at bigger screens, traffic updates, A/V inputs, and a unit that won’t try to murder me.

It’s never easy to say goodbye, but I have a feeling that her spirit will more than likely come back to haunt me.

 

 

On another note -  I'm starting to pull together a list of the a douchebag's favorite cars. Let me know if you have any input.

This Mornings Commute Sucked...

This morning, I sat on the CBX for no less than 4 hours. NewsRadio 88 and 1010 Wins were no help, those asshats. They just said  "truck blocking the upper level right lane, expect delays." they say that same phrase  if there is an errant paper cup in the road, it memans nothing. Had I known what I was walking into, I would have taken the Major Deegan, and at least got some scenery out of the deal.

But as I sat in my car for hours, I managed to get a lot accomplished. So here is my list of things to do while sitting in traffic:

• Update your Bluetooth address book


• Clean your entire car


• Refresh yourself on your owner’s manual


• Count the number of Spanish vs. English radio stations


• Try not to piss yourself


• Speaking of pissing yourself, count the number of trucker bombs on the side of the CBX.


• Catch up on emails on your Blackberry


• Affix a big’ole “tuned by Stillen” emblem to my dashboard, because I had nothing else to do. It looks better than I thought it would


• Use Google maps to see what line comes after red for traffic condition

 

 

Austin Vs. NY

Well I'm back from SXSW. I was out there on shooting assignment for the week, and had a great time. Of all of the auto manufacturers, Chevy by far dominated the social media space. They had a slowly building production Volt Display, a lounge and a showroom ready Cruz. But the best part is the rides that they were offering to show attendees in a Camaro SS or new Corvette. They also are totally rocking augmented reality into their advertising campaigns, which is going to be big in the future.

But what about driving in Austin? For this little excursion, we got ourselves a Chrysler Town and Country Mininvan. Not my first choice, but hey, it carried everyone and my gear, so I cannot complain. But my conclusion is this - Austin drivers are the most similar to NY drivers I have ever seen, but they have an extreme lack of awareness.

I think the oddest thing about Austin drivers is that a majority do not use turn signals. more than one time, i had a car next to me on the highway that was inching over, and when i didn't alter my speed to let them in, they got visibly angry. I didn't know they wanted to lane change. If I saw a turn signal, I would have let them over.

But getting there is half the fun right? As a hardcore commuter, I frequently find myself on planes. And I have a rule - I know I sound like s snob, but I always fly direct. It’s not that I’m impatient, or don’t like connections. It's just that every single time I take a connection; my bags never make it with me. Of course, this happened again, as the Delta flight From JFK to ATL to Austin was lacking my luggage for the week. But no worries, I carried my camera gear in my carry-on.

Anyways, see the gallery for my really terrible shots of some of the car stuff at SXSW 2010

[gallery]

Upcoming – I am actually working on a really good article, as a PR guy’s perspective of Toyota’s current crisis.

Broken down: 90’s Crown Vic, 94 Maxima, 97 Corrola, a couple of vans

Electronic signs and the impatient commuter

Isn’t technology wonderful? It seems just a few years ago, we actually had to guess how long it would take us to go from point A to point B, and now we have these nifty electronic signs to tell us the approximate time to our destination – and sometimes they even work.

This entry is inspired by a road sign that I have been eagerly anticipating - the “average travel time to the Throgs Neck Bridge” (TNB) sign on the Grand Central parkway. This sign finally came on line at the beginning of this week, and to tell you the truth, I have mixed emotions.

On one hand, I am happy to have this reference just in case the Clearview (295) is totally backed up /flooded/on fire/closed/f. Everyone knows the Cross Island Parkway typically sucks, especially since the TNB caught on fire and the lanes were reduced, causing a daily clusterfuck of traffic for about 2 miles before the on ramp.

But then, I am angry that this sign is sharing my secret. The Clearview is an excellent road, and it’s typically the fastest way to the bridge because no one really wants to take it. Also, the CIP is about a mile beforehand, and drivers will typically encounter a wall of traffic between the two. But after seeing the sign, I think more drivers will move over to the Clearview because it’s shorter. I don’t want more cars on this road, and I hope they stay on the CIP. Here’s a sign I really would like to see.

I also found out an interesting thing today – this sign is accurate, and it is calculating distance from the sign, not from the start of the Clearview. So this sign actually takes into account the traffic beforehand. In order to do this though, it is important to note how these signs work- They respond to EZ pass tags or drivers, and then take an average. I am also pretty sure they have a minimum setting to confirm to speed limits. These “average travel time to…” signs are much more accurate than the old style of “traffic moving well to…” signs, that I have found myself sitting under at a complete stop more than one times.

But, like the red headed step child of New York it is, Jersey has to come out and screw it all up. They have one important sign. Just one – and that’s the one that says the average travel times for the different levels of the GWB. I have seen this sign working maybe twice in the past 8 months. And I know it works, so why isn’t it on? I mean, it was grossly inaccurate by at least 20 minutes in rush hour, but at least it was a good indicator of where you could waster more of your life sitting on that bridge.

Lots o’cars Broken Down since last post:  2001 Dodge Caravan, 2001 Nissan Altima, ~1997 Nissan Sentra, ~1997 Toyota Tacoma, 1999 ford Focus, 1994 Accord, mid 90’s Buick LeSabre

From CES 2010 - The Cars

Here i am, sitting in McCarren airport three hours early waiting for my flight. I expected security to be a nightmare, but apparently everyone is leaving tomorrow instead. Between all of the tech industry trade shows, me and the D terminal of this airport have spent many, many hours together.

Bit I digress. Today I finally was able to walk the north hall, where all of the car exhibitions were, and will post some photos. This year there was no one dominant model that companies tricked out. In years passed, it was 300C's as far as the eye could see, but this year, the range was all makes and models. And did i see the GT-R I was searching for? you bet. See you in a few months, Vegas.

Apologies for the point and shoot images, I couldn't lug my big camera out here.

[gallery]

'Tis the Season for TPMS

So now that it is starting to get cold here in the Northeast, a lot of motorists are now noticing a new symbol which may have appeared in their dash over the holday weekened. It looks a little something like this...

[caption id="attachment_17" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="courtesy Safecar.gov"][/caption]

That huge exclamation point makes you feel like your engine is about to explode if you don't go to a shop right now, but relax, this is just your cars Tire Pressure Monitoring System, (or TPMS) kicking in. When is gets colder, air contracts and reduces tire pressure slightly. Usually not enough to be dangerous, but certainly enough to trip the sensor.

How do you fix this problem? Go check your tires recommended PSI,(usually inside driver-side door) fill it up, and wait for the sensor to eventually turn itself off (This could take a week or two).