Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Oakland, where I live, thieves have been targeting old generation 2 Priuses most often. I finally got my 2005 updated for the modern world with a CarPlay stereo and backup camera, and now I have to worry about it getting hacked apart by one of these scumbags in the middle of the night, as happened to my neighbor. They just saw the cat off with a sawzall. The cost of fixing the car afterwards is maybe 10 times the…
> The cost of fixing the car afterwards is maybe 10 times the amount of cash the thieves get for the metal, and often more than the car is worth. Why should the thieves care about that? > It’s killing safe low pollution cars They are not much better than any other cars. All cars are polluters and killers.
Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
71–80 of 87 posts
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#72The first chart in the article is particularly bad: there are no labels! It maps two data sources (unlabelled other than one being red and the other blue!). The axis are.. unlabelled. I can infer that the horizontal axis is time (from the dates underneath), but the vertical axis is just some monotonically increasing number (I assume it's "price", but just from context offered by the article, I don't know if it's in dollars or cents or euros)
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#73This impacts me in a somewhat strange way: usually palladium is cheaper than platinum, so when making platinum/palladium prints you can use more palladium both for controlling tone and to spend less on chemicals.
What kind of prints are those?
All the detail you might ever need from the excellent work of Mike Ware: https://www.mikeware.co.uk/downloads/Platinomicon.pdf
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#74This would explain the recent increase in catalytic converter thefts https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49767195
Indeed. Someone I know has had theirs stolen twice.. last month. I've just had a catloc (anti-theft) fitted last week, let's see what good it'll do. Glad we're moving to EVs and away from this nightmare.
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#75This would explain the recent increase in catalytic converter thefts https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49767195
In Portugal it's common practice to remove them on purpose right after it needs to be changed. Why? Because it's cheaper and there's no proper testing/regulation. It's sad.
That is the case in Norway at least and we're not even part of the EU fully.
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can’t believe people are stupid enough to think california regulations set the price of cars in other states, because they literally don’t.
They do, because of market size effects and standardization. Automakers, textbook writers, etc cater to the largest state they serve (or the lowest common of several large markets), then distribute the same version to multiple locations. In the case of cars, which have to adhere to California regulations to be sold in California, that can drive up the price in other markets due to expensive parts required for complia…
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I cut mine out of my trucks and put a straight pipe in. Sold them myself. Only able to do that in a state that doesn't regulate citizens to poverty.
Pollution concerns aside, your valves are timed and the manifold ports are shaped to work with the back pressure provided by a working cat. If you didn't compensate for this during the modification you've likely cut the working life of you head(s) by half.
This is a 100% urban legend BS myth.
There's a partial exception for two-strokes where if you tune the system right you get a resonance wave that lets you pack a little more mixture in on the intake/exhaust stroke. Literally no 4-stroke ICE benefits from back-pressure in any way. It's just that sometimes the things done to reduce back-pressure (small exhaust pipes being the primary one) seem like they would increase it and vice-versa hence the urban legend.
Edit: Who the heck is downvoting this? This is how ICEs work. Google it if you don't believe me.
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#78Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of prints are those?
It's a kind of siderotype, a iron-based (even if in this case the end result doesn't actually involve iron in the paper) photographic printing process. All the detail you might ever need from the excellent work of Mike Ware: https://www.mikeware.co.uk/downloads/Platinomicon.pdf
Re: Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Precious Metal
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
How exactly does cutting the catalytic converter out of your truck keep you out of poverty?
I don't agree with his sentiment, but some people find it unfair that California basically requires every car sold in the US to come with a $1000 part to control pollution. The argument is that California regulations shouldn't set the price of cars in Mississippi.
The reverse of say California not being able to define limitations because they have too many people that would agree it becomes a logistical standard would be a bizzare illogic and pretty hypocritical.