The continuing Cellar Car saga
 

I feel like I have a responsibility to mention when the Cellar Car goes through anything at all. This'll be a thread for it.

Today the update is that J's son and his friend fixed the rear window.

The car was delivered with this issue, where one rear window was faulty and would not go up or down, and would not even close the whole way. There was always an inch of air where the window stopped, and the gap was closed with duct tape. Over the years I had learned to use Scotch's 200 degrees F heat resistant duct tape so that it would last through summer heat without melting.

Well J's lad had nothing to do on Sunday, so I said I would give him a few bucks if he would tear the rear door down and figure out how to push the window up permanently. He's a car guy, so he dug into this task whole-heartedly. And when his buddy came over, they both got into it. Pretty soon they isolated the bad regulator, and proudly ran to the junkyard to find a replacement. An hour and $30 later the whole thing is fixed.

Well that's great! But they ran the battery down whilst doing all this; and in jumping the car to start it, they must have blown the fuse to the stereo, because it's completely dead now. And that's how it inevitably works, you know; I just wanted the lad to put a 2x4 in there and push the window permanently closed, but he wanted to do a more complete job and as a result may have fried the $99 stereo along the way.

But what're ya gawna do? The kid was idle on a Sunday afternoon.

Give him points for wanting to deliver more than was asked of him, anyway.:thumb:

Yup, when directed at a job he can do, he is relentless at it. He's got that going for him.

It wasn't a fuse in the car's main fuse box; or, a fuse link going to the stereo?

Fuse wasn't out the main box, I have to pull the whole middle dash to get the thing out to see if it's the fuse on the way in to the thing.

Have you tried hitting it with a hammer?

I had to look back to see when we did this. January 09. awesome that it's still kicking!

how many miles on it now?

Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

Idiot list from any troubleshooting section of any manual ever printed:

1. Is the stereo turned on?
2. Do you have speakers?
3. Are the speakers hooked up?
4. Are they real speakers?
5. Is the stereo installed in a manufacturer-approved vehicle?
6. Does this vehicle have an electrical system?
etc, etc.

182K now

woot! finally out of the break in period!


I can see it lasting another 100, and you becoming an expert on Nissan maintenance.

I'm having an unbelievably hard time finding a car for a friends kid. He started out wanting one for $3500 and has upped the ante to $6-7k and I STILL can't find anything as nice as that car!

He wants a civic, sentra,corolla with less than 100k, but everything we trade is either 100k plus, or they put 8 grand in them! You could sell that Maxima today for more than I got for. with a quickness.

used car values are all twisted right now, especially imports.

The paper today had an article in the business section about how used cars are commanding 30% higher prices than they normally do because the supply is so tight. People simply aren't selling their old cars to buy new ones.

Edit: Found a link to the article. Apparently used car prices are the highest in 16 years.

I will keep the Car going until it needs a head gasket, I guess.

It does have a light rust issue that must be dealt with soon.

The Craigslist by-Owner section can be interesting. Right now there are a few 1998 Maximas under 3 grand.

I wonder how much I could get for a 2003 Honda Insight with 60,000 miles. It gets 66 mpg.

I might have to look that up when I get some free time.

So harsh. You're such a LAMP-fanboy. Your stereo doesn't work, and OF COURSE it's Windows fault. Typical.

That made me chuckle V. thanks.

isn't the used market pretty tight because of that ridiculous cash-for-clunkers program?

Is there a speaker in the rear door in which a window was worked on?

If so, a speaker wire; or, connection could have been broken and a wire even displaced to where it's shorting out the sound system. With some door frame configurations it might easily go unnoticed. A door housing a speaker would be worth while opening up again to check that out since it would affect any stereo you have installed.

Good thinking sexo, but the speakers are on on the rear deck.

No, the barges they took in aren't what people are looking for, it's what they're trying to get away from.

UT , I had a speaker wire on the drivers side of a past work truck that was frayed , every Now and then the speaker would stop working and the Cruise controlle would cut out at the same time ,
the fix , opened the door panel fixed the wire and the Cruse never kicked out again ,
Electrical shorts can do WEIRD things

I've never worn electrical shorts, but I'll take your word on it. :D

:p:

their TINGLY !!!!!

:shocking:

Haggis!

OK yeah so the fuses behind the stereo aren't blown, so now all the fuses have been checked and the thing is still dead.

*sigh*

I take it there's no indication the stereo is powering up; yet, all of the other interior accessories are working.

Intact interior fuses makes it seem less likely that a power surge from a jumpstart fried the stereo; or, at least that the problem is between the firewall and the stereo (which probably doesn't have an organic fuse or reset button). I'd continue troubleshooting by tracing the fuse box wiring from the firewall to the car battery looking for a possible fuse link in the engine compartment wiring, an obvious disconnection or circuit breaking corrosion on connections. Before I'd remove the stereo and chuck it, I'd bypass most of the car's electrical system by pulling the stereo's fuse from the fuse box and connect an appropriate power supply to the terminal ends of the stereo's wires to see if it powered up.

Wow, I didn't keep this thread up. I started a different one. Oh well,

...the sad time has come!

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto/4351147899.html

If I could deal with the logistics, I'd take it. Any running vehicle is worth that much.

If you post it again, you should put in the title that it runs well.

Sad day indeed. What are you doing these days for transportation?

Katkeeper has sold me her 2005 Subaru Forester as she has gotten a new vehicle. It has 170K on it, so I am starting from scratch.

This does give me the opportunity to once again - five years on - thank Jim and everyone involved in this project. It helped me tremendously at a time when I was desperate - more than you knew, more than I knew - and really needed it.

Wow, has it really been 5 years? Yes, I guess it must be, because I remember being in our old house when Jim was planning it... Except wait, that would put it at 6 years, almost 7... Man, that car had a good run.

January 2009 it was

Pretty cool that it lasted so long. That was fun to do. Plus lots of good karma all around. Hats off to everyone involved!

Wow she really did hold up nice going Jim et al.

Five years? Bloody hell. That skipped past.

Sad tidings, but it had a good innings.