My car won't start after metal touching positive post and it smoked. Could it just be the battery or something else?
First check all your fuse’s , yes every last one of them , most cars have a large fuse panel under the hood as well as in the passenger compartment, An then you also have what's called a “ Fusible Link “ , These are normally located going to High Amp Circuits , in your car , i.e. The starter , the alt , the fuse panels , Modern Cars have dozens of these Fusible Links , An they have different ratings that depends on the wire size going to that Component ( I think there are about 6 different gauges / sizes ). What happens when in your case a Direct Short , occurs it protects the wiring An various other electric components in your car ,, they melt down when large amounts of current pass thru them , most are covered in a Fire Resistance shrink tubing type material, An they are soldered on to the wiring of the various components , So grab your self a VOM Tester , or a Test Light use one for Computer Circuits - The VOM Meter would be a better choice , An starting looking for where there is no power where there should be power going , There's a old joke We Mechanics have - wires carry smoke thru them An when you let the smoke out there no good anymore, Good Luck , An hey don't let anymore smoke outta them wires , oh An if you find out it is a fusible link - don't let the Clown at the parts store try An sell you a 25 foot roll of it , tell them you only need like a foot ( 12 inches ) of it OK , An if they tell you otherwise go to another parts store as they are idiots ,
Is it normal for dashboard lights to be on when ignition is off?
On some cars the lights stay on for like 30 seconds after the ignition is off. But if they are on all the time even when the light switch is fully off, something is wrong, that is NOT normal.That happens sometimes due to somebody wiring some accessory to the nearest hot wire, which might be the dash lights wire. That’s fine unless there is another source of power to the device, and that feeds back up the dash lights wire.The old Audi’s had this bug— if you held the high-beams flash switch, that would feed power back into the accessory circuit, even when the key was out. They considered that a “feature” not a “bug”, as it let you close the sunroof without the key.Anyway, if someone has done some wiring lately, that’s probably the problem. Has someone added a security system, a radio, an amplifier, or something else electrical? That’s probably it.If nothing has been messed with lately, then it’s likely that there is a short in the module that controls the lights. In the olden days the lights had a regular plain old switch, those very rarely failed. Today they use transistors to do the switching and they do sometimes fail, usually shorting out. They can be helped along toward shorting out if someone accidentally shorts out the cigar-lighter power outlet, with like a bad charger cord.
How do you open the hood of a locked car with a dead battery?
I find it interesting that the answers all say to stick the key in the door and unlock it. It's not that easy. The Volvo V40, and most, if not all post 2000 Volvo autos, as well as most current vw auto group cars, Mercedes, BMW, and several Japanese autos lock and unlock the doors electronically, meaning that they use the power lock solenoid, not linkages to the lock mechanisms. In order to unlock the doors to release the hood latch, one must raise the vehicle and connect a battery charger or jumper cable to the starter + terminal and to the vehicle chassis to activate the electrical system or charge the battery. One must be very careful not to short the positive lead to ground as this may cause damage, and one must also take care to assure that, when the vehicle is raised, it is safely ad properly supported with safety stands and wheel chocks to assure his/her personal safety. It may just be easier/safer to contact a towing company or roadside assistance (if offered through your auto insurance, this is definitely the best way to go) and have them perform the tasks necessary to assist you in releasing the locks to provide you access to the vehicle. Good luck.
What causes fuses to blow?
Various reasons can cause a fuse to repeatedly blow. A fuse is placed in a circuit as a safety measure and is expected to blow if the conditions against which it is to guard are violated. The conditions under which fuses may blow repeatedly are as follows:wrong power rating of fuse- a fuse placed at a certain point in a circuit monitors the current passing through that point and is rated as such to prevent a flow in excess of the limit that might be detrimental to the well-being of the circuit elements beyond that point, however, putting the wrong rating of fuse (under-rated) might cause it to give in even under normal circuit conditions.abnormal circuit conditions- there may be short circuit or abnormal conditions due to some failure which might be causing the circuit to draw heavily on the system in excess of nominal value rated for the circuit.wrong type of fuse- some circuits are designed to be protected by a slow blow fuse and this can be a problem if one replaces with a fast blow fuse. Under certain given conditions, a circuit may have a reason to delay the cutting off of power till some modules are operated into rest position and thus necessitate a slow blow fuse to cater for that and this must still be replaced with one of the same kind for good operation of the circuit and to have the desired effect.dead short-circuit : some component might be failing under load (perhaps due to overheating or something) and creating a path of less resistance and thus causing the circuit current to rise to above critical levels and subsequently blowing the fuse. It might be an intermittent fault that will need to be put under observation. Some trouble-shooting tip might be to have a can of cool-jet or some other compound to give cooling effect to spray on suspicious components to find out the culprit, if it is a case of overheating.
What should one do in their 20s to avoid regrets in their 30s and 40s?
Noticed something funny?People in their 30’s purchase a house on a massive loan.Why?So that when they do become old, they can live in it.So what they do is buy a house for a 30 year mortgage or loan and work their ass off for the next 30 years to pay for the loan.Funny thing is - they are working like a dog - spending their entire youth chasing, running and making - so that they can live in a house during their old age.Funny right?And they do not even think of the possibility that - maybe, just maybe - they may die before hand or that something may happen before that - which can change the entire course of their lives.So what these people and many others like them do is - live for the future.First and foremost - How do you know you will live until the age of 40? or 30?How do you know you may not die within 1 year? Next month? Next week?How do you know?The fact is - no one knows!Everyone likes to assume or believe they will live until the ripe old age of 75 or 100. It is nice to have an Optimism Bias but it is better to be practical and realistic.No one knows if you or I will live until the age of 30 or 40.And whatever advice I may give you today - may not be applicable in another few years.Why?Because you have changed, people have changed, the environment has changed and our world has changed.Given a planet where the technology changes every few weeks - you seriously want someone to give you advice for the next 10 years?Well - if you really want something worthwhile to keep in mind and heart….here would be the advice I would give.Live everyday as if it were your last day on the planet.Do everything that needs to be done - so that if you were to die tomorrow - you would live your life knowing - you have no regrets.That doesn’t mean live it recklessly or take a credit card and blow it out it completely. What I mean is - do those things money cannot buy and those things that do not hurt others. And live in a manner that is true to your value system. And where ‘living for the future goes’ - cross that bridge when it arrives.Remember - do not waste what you have right now - for hopes and anticipation for a future you have not seen and do not know if it will ever come.That is why what you have right now - is called “The Present”.Loy Machedo
What is something you didn't know about your car?
You guys are going to love this. I have a 2007 Chevy Silverado 2500 Duramax turbo diesel with quite a few upgrades, including a built transmission. Built transmissions generate more heat than stock, so I thought it prudent to upgrade to a BD diesel remote mount transmission cooler with its own fan. Following the instructions, they indicated that the new cooler was to replaced the OE cooler, so I did exactly that.Fast forward to last week when I took a vacation 1400+ miles away to Colorado towing my two side by sides.Everything was fine until I hit the mountains in Colorado on day 2 of the drive. Suddenly my trans temps started rising and if I didn’t stop to let it cool, temperatures would have gone over 240 degrees. WTF I thought! I have this awesome new cooler with a fan! Why is it overheating!?!? The last leg of the trip took 5 hours longer than it should have due to this. Unfortunately the town I was visiting had zero resources for auto parts so I couldn’t do anything while I was there. I figured I’d just enjoy my week riding my toys and worry about it later since there were no parts to be had and I just didn’t know what to do yet anyway.On my return trip, temperatures in the area rocketed to close to 100 degrees once we got out of the mountains and my temperature started to get close to 230 and rising quickly. I stopped in the town of Grand Junction CO, and contacted a local diesel performance shop. Here is where I learned something about my truck that I didn’t know - actually I learned two things. First, the transmission cooler I bought was meant to be used in addition to the stock transmission cooler, and, the truck actually has two transmission coolers from the factory! I thought I was bypassing one cooler that didn’t work very well with the upgraded transmission but I was actually bypassing two, which obviously offered more cooling than one aftermarket cooler. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have replaced them both with one and instead would have rethought the installation.In case you’re wondering what I did, I patched up the transmission lines and included the two stock coolers with the aftermarket unit, giving me 3 transmission coolers. On my back in a parking lot with basic tools. In 96 degree heat. yeah, it was fun. Luckily there was a NAPA parts store in town that had all the parts I needed to get up and running. The rest of the trip my temperatures never exceeded 208 degrees even up huge mountains and in high temperatures.