Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[EV Dan]

Went to do some Christmas shopping and the DTS was starting kinda slow, even though I've been keeping the battery topped up on a maintainer periodically due to my limited usage right now. I had a 'new' (1 year old) AC Delco battery, the correct group 79 (which is really obscure, only a handful of GMs used it), on hand, so I figured I'd swap it out proactively. Battery is under the rear seat in the DTS, so I was not looking forward to it, but I was surprised....Keeping the battery in the car has some merits; all the connections are nice and clean, as is the hold down, so no corrosion or dirt to deal with. I used a booster pack on the jump points under the hood to keep the car powered up during the swap too, so no need to reset everything. 20 minutes flat, including getting the battery and tools out.
Starts great now, and I have peace of mind knowing it's got a fresh battery. Old battery was an Interstate dated 2015, so not terribly old, but probably due.

The dealer gave me a quote to swap the 12V battery on the A3 - $1,044. The part itself is nearly $700, the rest involves between 3 and 4 hours of dark forest rituals, secret codes and proprietary software.

WHAT?

Nuts! Could it be some special Li-ion 12V battery?

[Firm]

Went to do some Christmas shopping and the DTS was starting kinda slow, even though I've been keeping the battery topped up on a maintainer periodically due to my limited usage right now. I had a 'new' (1 year old) AC Delco battery, the correct group 79 (which is really obscure, only a handful of GMs used it), on hand, so I figured I'd swap it out proactively. Battery is under the rear seat in the DTS, so I was not looking forward to it, but I was surprised....Keeping the battery in the car has some merits; all the connections are nice and clean, as is the hold down, so no corrosion or dirt to deal with. I used a booster pack on the jump points under the hood to keep the car powered up during the swap too, so no need to reset everything. 20 minutes flat, including getting the battery and tools out.
Starts great now, and I have peace of mind knowing it's got a fresh battery. Old battery was an Interstate dated 2015, so not terribly old, but probably due.

The dealer gave me a quote to swap the 12V battery on the A3 - $1,044. The part itself is nearly $700, the rest involves between 3 and 4 hours of dark forest rituals, secret codes and proprietary software.

WHAT?

Nuts! Could it be some special Li-ion 12V battery?

Another reason why I will always run 'old junk', even if I was in a position to drop that kind of money on a battery replacement, I could never justify it. That $700 (or $1000) is just so much better elsewhere.
The DTS replacement cost me $0. When I bought the chrome wheels and tires off a seller who had recently scrapped his high km DTS (he had a mint low km example as well) so mentioned that he had a new battery that had only been in the car a few weeks before something failed (power steering) and he decided to scrap the car. So I talked him into including the battery in the deal on the wheels - knowing that mine was of unknown age, I figured it would come in handy.
If I went out and bought a new battery, say at CTC, it would be $300 since the DTS uses a massive single battery that's an obscure group size. 

[Blueprint]

Went to do some Christmas shopping and the DTS was starting kinda slow, even though I've been keeping the battery topped up on a maintainer periodically due to my limited usage right now. I had a 'new' (1 year old) AC Delco battery, the correct group 79 (which is really obscure, only a handful of GMs used it), on hand, so I figured I'd swap it out proactively. Battery is under the rear seat in the DTS, so I was not looking forward to it, but I was surprised....Keeping the battery in the car has some merits; all the connections are nice and clean, as is the hold down, so no corrosion or dirt to deal with. I used a booster pack on the jump points under the hood to keep the car powered up during the swap too, so no need to reset everything. 20 minutes flat, including getting the battery and tools out.
Starts great now, and I have peace of mind knowing it's got a fresh battery. Old battery was an Interstate dated 2015, so not terribly old, but probably due.

The dealer gave me a quote to swap the 12V battery on the A3 - $1,044. The part itself is nearly $700, the rest involves between 3 and 4 hours of dark forest rituals, secret codes and proprietary software.

WHAT?

Nuts! Could it be some special Li-ion 12V battery?

Another reason why I will always run 'old junk', even if I was in a position to drop that kind of money on a battery replacement, I could never justify it. That $700 (or $1000) is just so much better elsewhere.
The DTS replacement cost me $0. When I bought the chrome wheels and tires off a seller who had recently scrapped his high km DTS (he had a mint low km example as well) so mentioned that he had a new battery that had only been in the car a few weeks before something failed (power steering) and he decided to scrap the car. So I talked him into including the battery in the deal on the wheels - knowing that mine was of unknown age, I figured it would come in handy.
If I went out and bought a new battery, say at CTC, it would be $300 since the DTS uses a massive single battery that's an obscure group size.

The Audi's battery is in a box accessible from the trunk floor. There is a bit of programming required, here's a how-to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN1zXNpDbE0&t=5s

I would not be comfy with the programming tool, but still I don't see $1k's worth of work here... 

[me_2]

The Audi's battery is in a box accessible from the trunk floor. There is a bit of programming required, here's a how-to video: https://ausaucissonvaudois.com/

I would not be comfy with the programming tool, but still I don't see $1k's worth of work here... 

Are you certain about the above link you supplied? 

[Blueprint]

The Audi's battery is in a box accessible from the trunk floor. There is a bit of programming required, here's a how-to video: https://ausaucissonvaudois.com/

I would not be comfy with the programming tool, but still I don't see $1k's worth of work here... 

Are you certain about the above link you supplied? 

It was tasty, wasn't it? I edited the original post.

[Blueprint]

CTC has batteries for my car from 167$, not made of boxed static electricity from unicorn underpants: https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/automotive/batteries-maintenance-accessories/car-truck-batteries/audi/a3-sportback-e-tron/2017.html?engineConfigId=21650

[Triple Bob]

Went to do some Christmas shopping and the DTS was starting kinda slow, even though I've been keeping the battery topped up on a maintainer periodically due to my limited usage right now. I had a 'new' (1 year old) AC Delco battery, the correct group 79 (which is really obscure, only a handful of GMs used it), on hand, so I figured I'd swap it out proactively. Battery is under the rear seat in the DTS, so I was not looking forward to it, but I was surprised....Keeping the battery in the car has some merits; all the connections are nice and clean, as is the hold down, so no corrosion or dirt to deal with. I used a booster pack on the jump points under the hood to keep the car powered up during the swap too, so no need to reset everything. 20 minutes flat, including getting the battery and tools out.
Starts great now, and I have peace of mind knowing it's got a fresh battery. Old battery was an Interstate dated 2015, so not terribly old, but probably due.

The dealer gave me a quote to swap the 12V battery on the A3 - $1,044. The part itself is nearly $700, the rest involves between 3 and 4 hours of dark forest rituals, secret codes and proprietary software.

WHAT?

Nuts! Could it be some special Li-ion 12V battery?

Another reason why I will always run 'old junk', even if I was in a position to drop that kind of money on a battery replacement, I could never justify it. That $700 (or $1000) is just so much better elsewhere.
The DTS replacement cost me $0. When I bought the chrome wheels and tires off a seller who had recently scrapped his high km DTS (he had a mint low km example as well) so mentioned that he had a new battery that had only been in the car a few weeks before something failed (power steering) and he decided to scrap the car. So I talked him into including the battery in the deal on the wheels - knowing that mine was of unknown age, I figured it would come in handy.
If I went out and bought a new battery, say at CTC, it would be $300 since the DTS uses a massive single battery that's an obscure group size.

Yeah but, not only do you have the knowledge to fix a lot of things, you also seem to have an inordinate amount of time to faff around on vehicles. 

[Firm]

Went to do some Christmas shopping and the DTS was starting kinda slow, even though I've been keeping the battery topped up on a maintainer periodically due to my limited usage right now. I had a 'new' (1 year old) AC Delco battery, the correct group 79 (which is really obscure, only a handful of GMs used it), on hand, so I figured I'd swap it out proactively. Battery is under the rear seat in the DTS, so I was not looking forward to it, but I was surprised....Keeping the battery in the car has some merits; all the connections are nice and clean, as is the hold down, so no corrosion or dirt to deal with. I used a booster pack on the jump points under the hood to keep the car powered up during the swap too, so no need to reset everything. 20 minutes flat, including getting the battery and tools out.
Starts great now, and I have peace of mind knowing it's got a fresh battery. Old battery was an Interstate dated 2015, so not terribly old, but probably due.

The dealer gave me a quote to swap the 12V battery on the A3 - $1,044. The part itself is nearly $700, the rest involves between 3 and 4 hours of dark forest rituals, secret codes and proprietary software.

WHAT?

Nuts! Could it be some special Li-ion 12V battery?

Another reason why I will always run 'old junk', even if I was in a position to drop that kind of money on a battery replacement, I could never justify it. That $700 (or $1000) is just so much better elsewhere.
The DTS replacement cost me $0. When I bought the chrome wheels and tires off a seller who had recently scrapped his high km DTS (he had a mint low km example as well) so mentioned that he had a new battery that had only been in the car a few weeks before something failed (power steering) and he decided to scrap the car. So I talked him into including the battery in the deal on the wheels - knowing that mine was of unknown age, I figured it would come in handy.
If I went out and bought a new battery, say at CTC, it would be $300 since the DTS uses a massive single battery that's an obscure group size.

Yeah but, not only do you have the knowledge to fix a lot of things, you also seem to have an inordinate amount of time to faff around on vehicles. 

I prioritize differently than most people...Don't follow sports, don't watch TV, etc...basically, if it's not productive I am not interested. Work takes up a lot of my time, with WFH I am probably 9-11 hours a day on work stuff. Rest of the time is my time to get to the stuff I want to do.

[Triple Bob]

Went to do some Christmas shopping and the DTS was starting kinda slow, even though I've been keeping the battery topped up on a maintainer periodically due to my limited usage right now. I had a 'new' (1 year old) AC Delco battery, the correct group 79 (which is really obscure, only a handful of GMs used it), on hand, so I figured I'd swap it out proactively. Battery is under the rear seat in the DTS, so I was not looking forward to it, but I was surprised....Keeping the battery in the car has some merits; all the connections are nice and clean, as is the hold down, so no corrosion or dirt to deal with. I used a booster pack on the jump points under the hood to keep the car powered up during the swap too, so no need to reset everything. 20 minutes flat, including getting the battery and tools out.
Starts great now, and I have peace of mind knowing it's got a fresh battery. Old battery was an Interstate dated 2015, so not terribly old, but probably due.

The dealer gave me a quote to swap the 12V battery on the A3 - $1,044. The part itself is nearly $700, the rest involves between 3 and 4 hours of dark forest rituals, secret codes and proprietary software.

WHAT?

Nuts! Could it be some special Li-ion 12V battery?

Another reason why I will always run 'old junk', even if I was in a position to drop that kind of money on a battery replacement, I could never justify it. That $700 (or $1000) is just so much better elsewhere.
The DTS replacement cost me $0. When I bought the chrome wheels and tires off a seller who had recently scrapped his high km DTS (he had a mint low km example as well) so mentioned that he had a new battery that had only been in the car a few weeks before something failed (power steering) and he decided to scrap the car. So I talked him into including the battery in the deal on the wheels - knowing that mine was of unknown age, I figured it would come in handy.
If I went out and bought a new battery, say at CTC, it would be $300 since the DTS uses a massive single battery that's an obscure group size.

Yeah but, not only do you have the knowledge to fix a lot of things, you also seem to have an inordinate amount of time to faff around on vehicles. 

I prioritize differently than most people...Don't follow sports, don't watch TV, etc...basically, if it's not productive I am not interested. Work takes up a lot of my time, with WFH I am probably 9-11 hours a day on work stuff. Rest of the time is my time to get to the stuff I want to do.

Same here, I don't watch much TV either. The combination of house stuff, kids, dogs, and getting my business off the ground has left me with a lot less time to tinker. Any spare time I have I like to spend it dirt biking. Which is why both of my motorcycle projects are taking so long. Hopefully this spring will see the RC51 back on the road.

[Dante]

The GTI turned 70,000 km on my way home tonight... and will be exactly 5.5 years old tomorrow.

[Scaerio]

Are there really any truly reliable 'uber' sedans? 

Lots of the drivers seem to use late model Toyotas and Hondas, so I'd say "yes."   

[Bubba]

I put the grill block on the Corolla. 

[ktm525]

I put the grill block on the Corolla.

Nice. Old Pilsner box?

[EV Dan]

I put the grill block on the Corolla.

Why would you do that? 

[ktm525]

These south Ontario people.... Think Fargo movie.

[Bubba]

I put the grill block on the Corolla.

Nice. Old Pilsner box?

Corrugated plastic sign material and pipe insulation. 

[EV Dan]

It doesn't look like there will be steaks ... 

[bridgecity]

Replaced the rear rotors, pads, and one caliper on the Tundra today. The drivers side rear locked up on me a couple years back. It’s been fine ever since but I had one sitting in the garage that I had ordered a while back so I swapped it. It was a getting the old pads out of that one caliper so I thought it would be harder getting them back in without a bunch of cleaning. Took about 4 hours start to finish.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rrocket]

Looking good!

[bridgecity]

^ Thanks. Blizzarding here now so can’t even properly test or give them a good break in. Took it for a short drive and the pulsating that was there before is gone.  Mission accomplished I think.