By Robert Emslie
Considering their infamous propensity to roll over, how fitting is it that the Reliant Regal’s badge is a triangle with Rs in it that can be read from any and all angles?
Last Call indicates the end of Hooniverse’s broadcast day. It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.Â
Image: ©2015 Hooniverse/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved
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Jeff Glucker
I changed the oil on my daily driver, a ’05 Dodge Neon SXT, earlier today and I noticed that I have a broken 12 gauge wire that runs from the frame to the strut. Anyone know what this is for?
Ground?
That would be the path to ground… through the wheels.
But I think you’re wrong. It’s a regenerative suspension power lead that supplies the little loudspeaker that goes bing! bing! bing! when you open the door with the keys in the ignition. It’s called the Bing-Boing Transducer.
I hate this… but does it go to the brake pads?
Your grasp of science and mechanics is boingtastic.
Thanks! I work in a science museum, and whenever they have to fudge something because it’s either too complicated or there’s really no good answer they come to me to make up something science-y they can put on the placards.
Hah! I kid. Actually, after a week of explaining things correctly and succinctly its just the right time for some creative doggerel.
That’s the backup strut retainer in case of catastrophic failure of upper and lower mounting points. You can get a replacement for a mere 27.95 at the Mopar parts counter.
If you -must- attempt to repair this yourself please remember not to unglue part nine to part seven. It’s important.
Google is your friend. According to this post (about a half a dozen replies in), it’s a ground strap mean to prevent premature bearing failure due to static electric discharge. Found same info here and here.
Truth is stranger than fiction, I’m not sure I could have made up a goofier explanation.
Posts like this make me realize how I’ll never really understand what keeps our world rolling. Fascinating!
Out and about today and spotted this ’54 Nash Ambassador at the supermarket. The owner, sporting an oxygen nasal canula, hopped in and gracefully glided away.
This is for sale on LA craigslist, a 2006 Romanian ARO, albeit with a small block transplant. Only $19,500 of your finest American dollars!
Great find! How is this registered legally? I have never seen an ARO so sharp. Crazy price though.
Well, the gentleman selling this (unfortunately, uncreatively ‘murricanized) rig makes no claims to it having legal registration, nor does it appear to wear license plates of any kind.
You’re right, I just assumed…well, it appears, I am as sharp as a spoon.
I am guessing that dead_elvis might be right, since mentioning that it was somehow street legal in the US would be a decent selling point, especially at that price. Why spent that much money for an offroad toy? But as a counterpoint, sometimes people do dumb things on craigslist that seem contrary to actually making a sale, so I’ll just throw out that if he is in California, a believe there are some voodoo ways to register the vehicle as meeting the standards of the engine that was swapped in, if everything is emissions stock on that engine–doable with an LS small block and still get decent power, methinks. The other possibility is that if those pueblo style houses are any indicator, the ARO might in fact be in a much more lenient registration rules state like New Mexico.
Whatever, it looks like it would be a fun problem to try to solve, how to drive that every day! If wishes are fishes, I would want a stick shift, the 4 wheel drive to work, an pay a whole lot less for it!
Looks like a Wankel rotor. That’s one swap that’ll have no trouble getting off the ground, so to speak.
Which used cars are driven the longest distance? The numbers have been crunched for Germany:
http://p5.focus.de/img/fotos/origs4650167/9088435935-w1280-h960-q72-p4/unbenannt.jpg
The percentage number shows how many of the car models offered online have an odometer reading above 200000km. Obviously, Volvo does that very well.
There is of course another way to read this: Volvos and Mercedeses have such high running costs that their owners will never be able to buy a new(er) car… 😉
Thus, the “high mileage trap” was identified: Volvo and Mercedes are also the oldest cars going to the crusher/spend the longest time running (numbers for Norway):
http://www.ssb.no/transport-og-reiseliv/statistikker/bilreg/aar/2015-03-25?fane=tabell&sort=nummer&tabell=220835