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I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

davidmuller.github.io

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Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#381

Post by Sakos »

nickff wrote: post #62
lylejantzi3rd wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like mechanics really don't like digging into the electrical part of the car... Tell me about it. I'm in a similar boat. My audi a4 has had a parasitic draw for the past 10 years. My mechanic didn't want to take the time to address it because that sort of thing takes a serious amount of time and he's always backed up. I got out my fluke and narrowed the cause to what I believe is the comfort control unit.…

The problem with specializing in these issues is that most customers will be dissatisfied when you charge them thousands of dollars to reset a minor module on their car. How many hours of shop time are you willing to pay for with no guarantee of a solution, and very few (if any) parts replaced?

Actually had this problem in PC repair. A lot of times I'd spend hours/days diagnosing an issue just so I could understand it inside and out and have a quick solution for the future. I could almost never bill customers for it since it would've cost hundreds of Euros (easily going into 1000+) for what ended up being a fairly simple fix (the $10.000 to hit a pipe with a hammer phenomenon). I'm just lucky I had enough slack to be able to do in-depth diagnoses, because it saved me fuckloads of time later on.

Then there were the cases with arbitrary random bluescreens that were impossible to diagnose where I'd upfront tell them I could only do the bare minimum because otherwise they might have to pay 500 Euros for a solution that probably wouldn't work.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#382

Post by everyone »

alliao wrote: post #360
o10449366 wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife, bless her heart, leaves everything partially open. Not even just open, but she'll screw the lid on jars just enough where if I pick it up by the top they'll drop. It drives me crazy.

are you leaving toilet seats up or something to induce this behaviour...

All toilet users should set the seat to their preferred setting prior to using it.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#383

Post by poulpy123 »

civilized wrote: post #166

My wife and I gave our old car to her parents. In the subsequent years, its battery kept dying and we had to go over to their place and jump it. Never happened in the prior 7 years we'd owned the car. The mechanic said nothing wrong with the battery, but suggested there might be a parasitic drain somewhere. A few days later, we were visiting them. I looked at the car and saw the door closed, but not properly latched…

Why would leaving the door open drain the battery is there is no light whent he door is open ?

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#384

Post by toxik »

nikau wrote: post #333
toxik wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics South Main Auto Watch Wes Work musty1

And if to want to see an actual professional, diagnose dan

You could have recommended that channel without disparaging the others but alright

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#385

Post by oaw-bct-ar-bamf »

poulpy123 wrote: post #383
civilized wrote: post #166

My wife and I gave our old car to her parents. In the subsequent years, its battery kept dying and we had to go over to their place and jump it. Never happened in the prior 7 years we'd owned the car. The mechanic said nothing wrong with the battery, but suggested there might be a parasitic drain somewhere. A few days later, we were visiting them. I looked at the car and saw the door closed, but not properly latched…

Why would leaving the door open drain the battery is there is no light whent he door is open ?

I can only guess: Probably some vehicle control unit (multimedia/dashboard) thought it had to stay powered on. Door is not fully closed - driver might want to enter the vehicle again any minute and start driving again. better keep the infotainment/vehicle computer in an alive state so the driver experience is not interrupted by a booting system once he re-enters.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#386

Post by Reason077 »

o10449366 wrote: post #324
adversaryIdiot wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats insane... To consistently not close the door like that

My wife, bless her heart, leaves everything partially open. Not even just open, but she'll screw the lid on jars just enough where if I pick it up by the top they'll drop. It drives me crazy.

My flatmate does this with kitchen cupboard doors, and, most annoyingly, the microwave. She'll open the microwave to stop it, takes her food out and, just ... leaves it open. Then when I close it later it will start up again with nothing inside. Arrrgh!

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#387

Post by rjzzleep »

Sakos wrote: post #377
coding123 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting older and one of the things I started to notice is that men are just there, doing things that are generally... straightforward. I mean I guess posting on hacker news is probably pretty strange to a lot of people - so ignore that. Anyway, women however, I feel like they build these neurotic behaviors - like learned things that just stick with them forever. Like ouch, the pan was hot, don't do that again, b…

Reminds me of the stereotype that women will tell you something that happened in the most expansive way possible with all this context that doesn't really matter while guys will just tell you what happened.

Where's that stereotype from? I always thought this is a basic cultural difference between people from Germanic countries vs. North America.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#388

Post by Reason077 »

mikereedell wrote: post #354
coding123 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the cabinets have those magnets or latches that have an annoying sound? Some people avoid the "hit" and leave them slightly ajar.

Spending a Saturday putting soft-close hinges on every cabinet door in my house was one of the best quality-of-life investments ever.

Even just installing those stick-on rubber bumpers makes a huge difference. A soft, satisfying "thunk" when you close a cabinet door rather than a horrible bang/clatter.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#389

Post by Toutouxc »

ambicapter wrote: post #154
tsgagnon wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This must be the new astroturfing attack against concepts like public transportation. I've seen this phrase pop up too frequently at this point for it to be organic.

Maybe a lot of people just read the news? It was said by the leader of the World Economic Forum.

Stop lying.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27ll_own_nothing_and_be_...

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#390

Post by Doxin »

thereisnospork wrote: post #306
Dalewyn wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangent, but what's the rationale for car doors requiring slams? They are the only door I know, at least in common, daily life contexts, that require slamming them with the force of Thor to properly close them.

The solidness is an indicator of quality. Apocryphally Mercedes used to add lead weights to their doors to get that solid 'thunk'. Nowadays car manufacturers are a little more subtle at it -- there's a lot of engineering that goes into how a car door feels and sounds to give that impression which is very much intentional.

AFAIK a lot of engineering goes into the hinge to make a car door feel heavy. Meanwhile the average person can easily carry two around without too much effort.
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