Hot and humid here in Fla. High of 90, low of 70F, sure to be humid.
Flight was ok. Pretty bumpy for about half the trip, but because of hearing issues, PA issues, and a thick spanish accent, I don’t know which route the pilot chose. It must have been the one with the best flight characteristics, but it still knocked us around.
Mask usage was mandatory at the airport and on the flight. Silly to raise and lower a mask between bites of food and sips of drink, all that does is contaminate your mask and your food. I guess no one said this stuff was supposed to make sense or work.
I think we’re headed to the beach today. In any case, it will be short shrift from me on the keys….
y’all talk amongst yourselves.
nick
keep stacking!
Aren’t there enough acronyms on this forum? Now we have AFCP. I can’t keep up with them all….
The way to fight back against acronym proliferation is to make up your own meanings for any that come up.
AFCP = Alliance of Fools, Cretins, and Poltroons
AFCP = American Forestry Council, Provisional
AFCP = All Furries Can Procreate
‘I am apparently not driving enough to keep it charged up. I am wondering if I need to charge it.’
“How long have you owned the truck, now? ”
One year, eight months.
Get a second opinion about the battery.
Ford and/or the dealer don’t have to replace the battery as a “consumable” but you want to make sure the alternator isn’t a problem. 20 months sucks, but I’ve taken a 36 month battery to Autozone at around two years at least once since moving here. Even compared to Florida, the heat in Texas is unrelenting.
Plus, start-stop is hard on all the systems regardless of what the manufacturers claim. I wouldn’t be surprised if a class action eventually ends it, with all the automakers offering software patches to turn it off for good.
I strongly suspect the patches already exist if the customer complains enough and things reach the point where the problem is pushing Lemon Law qualification. Third parties already produce OBD II dongles to disable the feature every time the vehicle starts, and I don’t doubt someone is working on the machine code for the vehicle’s embedded controller.
Ford and GM are making too many stupid decisions lately out of fear of the Cybertruck and CAFE. Though, I haven’t seen any announcement from Plugs regarding reintroducing the 54 MPG mandate — “Scranton Joe” is actually the offspring of a fairly well off GM dealer so he knows the score and what that number will mean.
If you are interested, search by flight number on flightaware.com
Driving through Leander yesterday, I spotted a Honda Clarity with what I swear was the PHEV emblem, but I never got close enough for a good look.
Yup, we got a Californian infestation ’round these parts.
Flight was ok. Pretty bumpy for about half the trip, but because of hearing issues, PA issues, and a thick spanish accent, I don’t know which route the pilot chose. It must have been the one with the best flight characteristics, but it still knocked us around.
Spirit Airlines? That’s child abuse. 🙂
PHEV = Phantasmically Horrible Escape Vortex.
Thanks, SteveF!
Naw. I really try very hard to fly United. I’ve got 3/4 million miles, about half that on United. This trip was on a voucher from a canceled trip at the beginning of covid lockdown. There is one? direct flight a day to SRQ, and that is enough. With my history and card, I get 4 free checked bags, full sized carry ons, club access, assigned seating, and premier line for checkin. Loved Continental, tolerate United, but like them the best of the other choices.
Avoid Tampa, SRQ is a nice little airport.
I don’t like SWA and will do just about anything to avoid them. Spirit? Life”s too short.
Happy Father’s Day to the other dads. I miss mine terribly even more than 2 years later.
n
Avoid Tampa, SRQ is a nice little airport.
Something has gone off the rails at TPA in the master plan. Rental car access is now painful.
Don’t know if it is still possible, but 25 years ago Delta would put your name on a plane if you turned in 1,000,000 miles. I presume other airlines had similar deals,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9704025/Joe-Bidens-beloved-pet-dog-Champ-dies.html
This is ‘chomps’ the bitey dog, right? The one that would have been killed for biting a cop?
I guess he became a political liability…..
n
Isn’t there a prorated warranty on the battery from Ford?
Since acronyms seems to be a theme today, HFD to all the dads here!
Same here, and it’s been 34 years now.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9703747/Texas-residents-say-temperature-smart-thermostats-raised-remotely.html
–someone here commented about this didn’t they?
I’d bet the one’s complaining now were happy to take the discounted rate…
n
It’s Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza…ACFP, not AFCP…so the above will need to be redone 🙂
Isn’t there a prorated warranty on the battery from Ford?
Not unless things have changed significantly. The dealers will do the right thing in most cases with a newly purchased vehicle as will the manufacturer if you make enough noise, but a battery is in the same category as tires and brake pads.
A woman in my wife’s vanpool gets a replacement battery in her new-ish Accord every six months, but I suspect that is a case of the dealer and/or Honda trying to avoid addressing a bigger problem with the electrical system, running out the clock on Lemon Law in Texas.
Honda is usually better than that to their customers, but the dealer would have to do the paperwork and get rid of the car.
“The thermostats were raised to 78 degrees without their knowledge – sometimes even as families slept in the middle of the night. Raising the temperature on the thermostat would cause an air conditioner to run less – therefore using less power.
…
Houston resident Brandon English said he didn’t realize his thermostat had been tampered with until after his wife and infant daughter ‘woke up sweating’ from an afternoon nap.
‘Was my daughter at the point of overheating?’ English said. ‘She’s 3 months old. They dehydrate very quickly,’ he told KHOU.”
It was probably his brother with the gennie in the trunk of the Tesla.
United used to have this thing where when you hit 500k miles you got lifetime premier status, and at 1M you got it for your family too, iirc. It was over before I hit it anyway.
Since I quit traveling for work, I’ll probably never add a significant number of miles to my total, and the 250k that I spread around include airlines that are defunct squared- their successor airline is now defunct too…. I;ve been slowly using my united miles for flights, and still have 250k+ in the bank. Used over 100K of AA miles when I moved to TX and realized I wouldn’t be using AA much anymore. I flew my inlaws to TX several times with those miles.
The most egregious of the loyalty programs is Hilton. Twice they stole over 500K points from me on “errors” by not counting qualified stays in the last month before my points would expire. After the first time I swore I’d never stay with them again and didn’t for years, but I got a new project, and for 9 months I lived in a Hilton Garden Inn because it was across the street from the jobsite. There were no other reasonable choices. They are set up to deny appeals, and keep the points. MOral of the story, don’t save them up too much and pay close attention if you get near a deadline.
n
My Subbie dealer has warrantied OEM batteries twice.
Yes, Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads. Jth can suck it.
“Without their knowledge…tampered with”??
Did they read the ‘fine print’?
Yeah, woke up sweating because their A/C was set to 68 and they had to use down comforters to keep warm.
Hot, Fried Dingleberries? Blecch, no thanks.
What dirt did Champ have on the Clintons?
I see comments popping up from ProgLibTurds that “only Blacks get Jth off”. Why, oh why, do White PLTs push this nonsense. Blacks gotta know the Whitey puppet master is never going to let Blacks rule. Wake up, sheeple! plugs is rolling you.
“Without their knowledge…tampered with”??
Did they read the ‘fine print’?
No. Just like Griddy customers.
Or so they claim.
All together now: All right, all right, all right!
In Texas, we’re just one more serious power outage away from that possibility in the Governor’s Mansion. The closer the outage happens to the primaries next year, the greater the chance.
My Subbie dealer has warrantied OEM batteries twice.
Subaru is a very competitive market. I’ve been asked twice about the drive down to Austin from Portland because the Gresham, OR dealer had deals which were just on the edge of justifying the trip to the people making the inquiry who lived in Texas.
The deal killer was always the drive. The most direct route goes through Westworld. Literally, Moab UT, where the series was filmed. Even then, it is three days of hard road trip.
Last night the local Fox news had a pretty good roundup on Juneteenth, including a report from Galveston, where it started in 1866. They interviewed a black professor at UH, who said it was a holiday not just for Blacks and the descendants of slaves, but for all. There were Whites that had supported abolition, Hispanics who had their discrimination problems, Native Americans, and Asians. It was about starting to live up to what America is about. Really refreshing POV. So, I’m included – my mom’s family ran a stop on the Underground Railroad in Indiana.
When Honda came out with the Accord the only ones to be had in the tri-state area (NY/NJ/CT or PA) were priced way over list. My father wanted one for my mother and finally found one at a reasonable price in North Carolina and bought it sight unseen. I got a good deal on a one-way flight from Newark to NC and the salesman picked me up at the airport. Took care of the paperwork and from there a relatively easy drive back to NYC. When we got a second one for my brother to drive bought another from the same dealer.
— Donald Trump, Grandmaster of Trolling
9-year-old roasts school board:
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2021/06/20/i-was-told-no-politics-at-school-you-lied-to-me-9-year-old-student-drops-entire-school-board-over-blm-posters-and-damn-watch/
Sam’s Club run yesterday. Chicken was almost unobtainium again after being fully stocked last week.
Lots of pork ribs, both spare ribs and baby back, filled what was usually the chicken sections of the refrigerated cases.
Chicken/unobtainium …. perhaps a temporary shortage due to everyone buying chicken for Father’ Day BBQ?
I still hate using a laptop without a mouse.
Doesn’t bother me as much as the poor keyboard layout. The touchpad is OK. I still remember the early days of Windows; a mouse was optional. My mouse was usually tossed behind the monitor, only used for occasional drawing. MS wisely implemented most of the IBM CUA (Common User Access) principles. Anything that could be found on a menu could be done with the keyboard. I embraced it and easily learned it. It was especially handy in word processing, because I didn’t have to take my hands off the keyboard to issue a simple command. I had started on a DEC system, then an HP system; both relied on function keys and various keyboard shortcuts that I easily learned. The first personal computer on my desk was a Mac, and I was very disappointed in its keyboard, especially the lack of Home and End keys, and of course the forced use of their primitive mouse. ISTR there were also no cursor keys. An abomination. When I switched to DOS and then Windows, it all seemed natural to me again. Some people are left brain, some right; I seem to have one that works anticlockwise or something.
I spent the last six years using Linux, and the desktop PM I used did not fully implement keyboard control, and I sorely missed that. Now that I have come back to Windows, most of it still works, but I notice a trend to remove some of it, especially some of the Ctrl-cursor key navigation in tabbed dialogs. Shame. I am using a mouse more, and not liking it. Of course, my Android phone relies on a touchscreen; I especially miss the Delete (NOT Backspace) key on it.
Don’t forget that the trackball preceded the mouse, and it was Doug Englebart who is given credit for inventing the mouse, which he had said was just an inverted trackball. He also had a small chord keyboard for the other hand that added to mouse functionality, but that never caught on. This makes sense for some work. I have used everything except that chord keyboard: trackballs, mice, touchpads, touchscreens, and graphics tablets. My fav is still the mouse, especially the scroll wheel, which I think is the greatest addition to the mouse. I will admit to liking a graphics tablet for some work. If I did more graphics work, I would not hesitate to try whatever MS calls their touchscreen graphics computer. I saw one of them in a MS store, thought the concept “embraced and extended” the Wacom implementation. Both are too fancy for what I do most, which is keyboard stuff.
I miss the keyboard of the Lisp Machine, with the Super, Hyper, and Meta modifier keys. It also had Top and Front keys that worked like Shift.
Isn’t there a prorated warranty on the battery from Ford?
Not unless things have changed significantly. The dealers will do the right thing in most cases with a newly purchased vehicle as will the manufacturer if you make enough noise, but a battery is in the same category as tires and brake pads.
A woman in my wife’s vanpool gets a replacement battery in her new-ish Accord every six months, but I suspect that is a case of the dealer and/or Honda trying to avoid addressing a bigger problem with the electrical system, running out the clock on Lemon Law in Texas.
Honda is usually better than that to their customers, but the dealer would have to do the paperwork and get rid of the car.
People are reporting on the intertubes that Ford dealers are replacing the AGM batteries if they fail to have 12.3 volts or fail the 300 CCA test. No proration.
“The Looming Oil Shock”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/06/20/the-looming-oil-shock/
“In fact, an article carried in the Wall Street Journal noted that “Planned investment in oil supply globally falls about $600 billion short of what will be needed to meet projected demand by 2030, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Christyan Malek. Pressure to deliver cash to shareholders, partly driven by worries about the long-run outlook for oil demand, has limited the industry’s ability to plow money into new projects, he said.” This reasoning was seconded in the article by another analyst.”
“To summarize. In an amazingly short period of time, the world has made an irreversible bet on green energy sources – solar, wind, and biofuels – being able to shoulder much of its energy burden. This is a transition without a track record and a very spotty roadmap of implementation. Time will tell if this bet will pay off. If my judgment is correct, we won’t have long to find out.”
Oil will be $100 / barrel by Labor day. Maybe.
Gonna be panic in the streets when the price does not stop there.
People are reporting on the intertubes that Ford dealers are replacing the AGM batteries if they fail to have 12.3 volts or fail the 300 CCA test. No proration.
Most fully charged batteries should measure >12.6V with a few hours rest after charging; higher before that. 12.3V is unreasonably low. There are exceptions to this voltage. I have a Costco Interstate battery that consistently measures ~12.4V at full charge.
300 CCA is very low. That battery is likely rated at >800 CCA when new. A lot of shops that sell batteries will recommend replacement if a battery measures less than ~70% of rating. They are in the business of selling batteries, but there is some justification because a battery will yield fairly constant test results, and then decline rapidly near end of life.
Determining battery condition has been tricky for decades, especially with lead calcium (since ~1980) and AGM batteries. Many give no warning, and then fail suddenly. That’s why critical uses, such as ambulances, replace on a schedule.
Let’s discuss testing. Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) is a term widely used in the industry. A CCA test is performed with the battery at 0F. Because most batteries have CCA ratings, this is the term most people have seen, but they forget about the cold part. Even though the shop runs the test with the battery at room temperature or way above, they still call it a CCA test. The result can be confusing. Read on.
First, some definitions. CCA, HCA, and CA are Cold Cranking Amps, Hot Cranking Amps, and just Cranking Amps, respectively. The tests are run at 0F, 80F, and 32F, respectively. There is another less common term, Marine Cranking Amps, and it is the same as CA. These tests measure the current a FULLY CHARGED battery can deliver for 30 seconds while maintaining a cell voltage of 1.2V, or 7.2V for a 12 V battery. These tests are defined by the Battery Council International, an industry body that sets standards. There is another test that is not standard, but is believed to be more representative of starting a gasoline engine (as opposed to a diesel.) It is called Pulse Hot Cranking Amps or PHCA, and is a 5 second test at 80F, with the same voltage limit.
What are some typical numbers? A particular battery, the Hawker 6TAGM, has CCA, HCA, CA, and PHCA ratings of 1225, 1730, 1550, and 2250 amps, respectively. Hawker, Odyssey, and Optima are leading brands of AGM batteries. You can see how temperature affects these tests.
But wait, there’s more! A shop doesn’t run the tests mentioned above. They use a small instrument that actually measures the AC impedance of the battery at something around a kHz or maybe more. The result will be milli-ohms, but the instrument almost always reads CCA, regardless of temperature. It performs the calculation internally in some obscure way that I have not found. There might be a standard. The advantage is that the battery doesn’t have to be fully charged. In fact, these instruments can read pretty much the same as long as the battery is above ~50% charge. This is very convenient and fast. It is accurate enough, but it is not CCA. Just be aware of that. Some instruments don’t even display CCA. They have the tech input the CCA from the battery label, and then just read the percentage of that. This is all meant to simplify, not deceive, but you should understand it anyway.
Again, if a typical battery like yours reads 300 CCA, it is close to end of life. Since I bought my tester, I had a battery rated 700 CCA read 490 CCA. It seemed fine otherwise, although it had been cranking the car a bit slowly for at least a year. I replaced it and kept it as a spare. I charged it and equalized it (it is a flooded battery.) I even load tested it. I attempted to raise its measured CCA, but couldn’t. After about six months it failed, with one cell dead. I was not surprised.
A lot of damage is done to batteries when cars sit on the dealer’s lot. Many go dead, and are charged with “death carts,” fast chargers. They then last only a few months to a year or so. This might be yours.
Sgt. Mom at ChicagoBoyz:
Interesting. Thanks, JimB. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “CCA test” done with a chilled battery — they just take the battery at whatever temperature, hook up a largish unit (I think it’s usually been a freestanding table with a “Battery Test Center” display board), get a reading, and recommend a new battery. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them not recommend a new battery, even when it’s about a week old and bought from the same shop.
It surprises me a lot that any white Democrats support any celebration of the day that white Republicans took away the Democrats’ black slaves. Blacks celebrating it, sure. White Republicans, I could see that. But white Democrats celebrating Rub Our Faces In It Day? Odd.
@Lynn
“Gonna be panic in the streets when the price does not stop there. ”
Gonna be hard to find the folks that pulled pipeline permits, tried to stop oil exploration, etc., etc.
A good article on black slave owners, many or whom were former slaves includes this paragraph:
“Why don’t history teachers include this in their curriculum? You know why! How can they demonize white people and divide us racially and if they taught the truth? What reason would they have for teaching the commie Critical Race Theory? How can black people demand reparations if you know thousands of black people owned slaves as well? How can they propagate the myth of “systemic racism” if we were all just allowed to get along?”
https://pjmedia.com/columns/kevindowneyjr/2021/06/19/slave-stories-history-forgot-black-people-owned-slaves-too-n1455761
“Gonna be panic in the streets when the price does not stop there. ”
Gonna be hard to find the folks that pulled pipeline permits, tried to stop oil exploration, etc., etc.
The mastermind behind pulling the pipeline permits?
3555 Farnam St., Omaha, NE
Ring the bell and ask to speak to Warren.
He also owns Oncor, one of the entities that fund and truly control ERCOT.
Robert Francis was in Downtown Austin this afternoon, leading a voting rights rally. I don’t think it is a coincidence that ERCOT was making headlines, asking for conservation measures this week.
A lot of damage is done to batteries when cars sit on the dealer’s lot. Many go dead, and are charged with “death carts,” fast chargers. They then last only a few months to a year or so. This might be yours.
Since my truck was a July 2019 truck and I bought it on October 30, 2019, it had been sitting on the dealer’s lot for at least three months. Maybe four if the truck was there in early July.
My truck had a $54K MSRP and I paid $40K plus TTL for it. The sticker had 20 inch wheels and tires on it for $1,500. My truck had 18 inch chrome wheels and tires on it so somebody grabbed the 20 inch wheels and tires that I did not want anyway. I do not like those 20 inch low profile tires. So I made them take off the $1,500 from the “internet price” and offered them a thousand below that. They took it after much deliberation.
My truck had a $54K MSRP and I paid $40K plus TTL for it.
That just might get you a new battery. 🙂
The son came over after church and the wife fixed us shrimp scampi for lunch. With extra shrimp. We then watched the two episodes of Loki and episodes five through nine of Wandavision. The first episode of Loki is FINE. We then went and got some TexMex takeout for supper. When I step on the scales in the morning it is going to be real bad.
Long day of doing not much. Swam in the pool. Got a bit sunburnt. Drank some fake beer and read a book. Watched some old disney movies with the family.
A good day.
n
My truck had a $54K MSRP and I paid $40K plus TTL for it.
That just might get you a new battery.
First, I am going to apply the Texas summer of death test to it. I do miss my two extra MPG that I get in the city from the start-stop system though. After all, I am an engineer, I appreciate efficiency after performance.
This will be the third Texas summer for the battery. That might do it in, especially with those two turbos and that huge intercooler under the hood. I think that there are three electric fans under the hood since I have the Max Tow package but I cannot find the third fan. When they are all going it sure does make a lot of noise.
When they are all going it sure does make a lot of noise.
–holy cow, does it ever. I remote start the Expy to get the temps in my black truck with black interior cooled down a bit, and the fans are like a hurricane.
When I leave it running to do a quick errand, it sounds like a jet engine.
n
@JimB, thank you for the detailed battery info. I’ve updated the tags on the day to mark it.
I appreciate it when you guys share your subject matter expertise very much.
n
When they are all going it sure does make a lot of noise.
–holy cow, does it ever. I remote start the Expy to get the temps in my black truck with black interior cooled down a bit, and the fans are like a hurricane.
When I leave it running to do a quick errand, it sounds like a jet engine.
n
I love the remote start on my 2019 F-150 in the summer time. I have the a/c fan set for max speed when it starts using the remote. That is freaking awesome. I never thought that I would use this feature along with the electric seats in winter time.
Maybe it went together with:
Whole other story, but putting a battery under the hood is just wrong. It led to thermal runaways in the late 1970s, and was solved by changing from antimony as a grid strengthening alloy to calcium. The batteries still die an early death from heat, though. Even modern battery manuals caution against electrolyte temperatures over ~120F during charging, with a max of 80F preferred. I haven’t measured temperature of my underhood batteries, but it is probably over 150F, based on touching the posts. Put batteries in a cooler place, preferably Alaska. 🙂
Never seen a thermal runaway of a car battery? Not a pretty sight. As the case melts, sometimes a fire starts. Acid and lead get into everything nearby. Cleanup, if the car survives, is daunting. Happens fast, and no way to stop it except lots of water to cool it. A fire extinguisher is about as effective as a squirt gun. The FD arrives in time to wash the road.
Belt-and-suspenders backups.
Come to find out one of my backup processes has only “sort of” been running for the past year. I do spot checks, and the particular directory I usually check has been backed up – and pretty much nothing else. Due to a silly configuration difference between the new house and the old house.
I just tripped across this problem because I noticed that the free disk space on the backup disk hadn’t changed in a while. Meanwhile, the other backup process has apparently been working fine. Still, I’m glad we haven’t needed to restore anything in a while.
Now I’ll have to watch the backups carefully for a while, to be sure I got everything tweaked the way it needs to be…