Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Zed Clampet]

I thought this was curious. I was talking to CoPilot about a conspiracy theory that I consider ridiculous. CoPilot was running right with me, confirming my points about historical events, etc. When we were done, I said, "You are designed to be a pleasant conversationalist. If I believed in the conspiracy, would you be arguing in favor of it?" So the little sign that it is processing came up, and only for a split second, the text started with "In short, yes..." and then all of the text on the screen flashed, and the beginning few words were, "In short, no...."

It doesn't actually mean anything. There is some sort of system reviewing what it says, I suppose probably another AI, and the first answer it gave could have actually been completely incorrect, so it was just working as intended. I still find it interesting and wish that I had been recording.

 

[Frag Maniac]

As far as Mechanics go, I'd love to just drop my car off and have someone else do it and I probably will work to find a Mechanic I trust when my wife and I finally have more money.

That's a thing that can be tricky to do anymore. I often wonder whether they can relate that I know a bit about mechanics, or wonder if I'm implying they're green at it or are taking shortcuts with the questions I ask. Just trying to find a shop that drains ATF the proper way via the drain plug vs sucking it out with a pump can be a trip down the rabbit hole. It's shocking how many shops think that all people want the work done the quick and cheap way.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I probably shouldn't be corresponding with a crush from 30 years ago, should I. Well, the good news is, if I actually saw her I'd think, "Jebus, she's old. Too old for me!" I would never cheat on my wife, but she doesn't like other women being in my zip code...

 

[BeardyHat]

That's a thing that can be tricky to do anymore. I often wonder whether they can relate that I know a bit about mechanics, or wonder if I'm implying they're green at it or are taking shortcuts with the questions I ask. Just trying to find a shop that drains ATF the proper way via the drain plug vs sucking it out with a pump can be a trip down the rabbit hole. It's shocking how many shops think that all people want the work done the quick and cheap way.

Your tranny pan might not even have a drain plug! My Jeep and my van both do not have one, but on my Jeep I actually upgraded the pan to an aftermarket one with a drain.

But yeah, I dunno. I've got a mechanic nearby I kind of trust, but I'm still a bit suspicious of, because one time they told me I needed to do a bunch of work which I had already done myself. But to their credit, they also spotted an issue I overlooked, so I dunno.

I probably shouldn't be corresponding with a crush from 30 years ago, should I. Well, the good news is, if I actually saw her I'd think, "Jebus, she's old. Too old for me!" I would never cheat on my wife, but she doesn't like other women being in my zip code...

My wife and I regularly tell each other when we think another person is attractive 😕
Neither of us has any intention or motivation to do anything about it, but we're both definitely human.

My windshield wiper arm project on my van turned into something more than I bargained for and I'm very annoyed with it as a whole. Thinking I might just take a break from it today and drive it around missing part of the upper cowl I took off, because I just don't feel like screwing with it.

It's a crap design on Dodge's part. It's interfering wipers, so they can contact each other, which happened yesterday while testing and broke one of the wiper blades. The reason being, the posts the arms mount on look to be stainless steel or some other very hard metal. They were corroded, so I'm in the process of cleaning them up, but the arms themselves are aluminum, so any slippage and they strip the inside of the arm immediately and then start flopping around like a dying fish. Can't even buy new ones, because the van is 22 years old, so if I've stripped the drivers side one, I'm going to have to go to the junkyard and hunt for a new arm that is hopefully in good shape.

Really kind of just feel like setting the car on fire at this point, I'm tired of fixing stuff on it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Your tranny pan might not even have a drain plug! My Jeep and my van both do not have one, but on my Jeep I actually upgraded the pan to an aftermarket one with a drain.

The only limitation on my Hybrid model is the tranny doesn't have a way of easily measuring fluid level and refilling via a dipstick tube in the engine compartment. It DOES however have both a lower drain plug and upper fill plug/hole on the side of the tranny under a cowling that requires taking out a few bolts to remove. I've also seen videos of both fluid exchanges and top offs being done on this exact model.

My only concern is a lot of shops anymore, especially the quick fluid change ones, will not do ATF changes on vehicles that don't have a tranny dipstick, but Grease Monkey at least will, and they tell me they'll drain it out the drain plug vs via a pump. I don't care if they pump in the new fluid because that's the way it has to be done when you only have a side fill hole vs a dipstick tube to pour into.

I got lost yesterday in a town just north of me trying to find a new drop site the company I buy a bulk grocery item from is using now. It involved having to stop at a parking lot, using the Google Maps GPS voice navigator on my phone, and driving up a fairly long, steep hill. The tranny handled it fine without a flinch, but I was very stressed.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I am going to retire, at least for now, from posting in this thread. Since I entered retirement, I've suffered from an escalation in my depression. I think many would be shocked at the horrible way I talk to myself. Many of my TMI posts on here were actually attempts to defend myself from my awful inner dialogue. In the real world, I hope that I'm not really that awful of a person. Other than myself, I don't have a single enemy in this world (except maybe the road rage guy if he remembers me). But I don't need to make this my personal therapy thread, and the stuff I post makes me look worse and worse, and I don't need people thinking about me the same way my subconscious does.

 

[Pifanjr]

I am going to retire, at least for now, from posting in this thread. Since I entered retirement, I've suffered from an escalation in my depression. I think many would be shocked at the horrible way I talk to myself. Many of my TMI posts on here were actually attempts to defend myself from my awful inner dialogue. In the real world, I hope that I'm not really that awful of a person. Other than myself, I don't have a single enemy in this world (except maybe the road rage guy if he remembers me). But I don't need to make this my personal therapy thread, and the stuff I post makes me look worse and worse, and I don't need people thinking about me the same way my subconscious does.

I hope you'll recover. I've been struggling with depression for a while now and it's rough.

 

[BeardyHat]

I am going to retire, at least for now, from posting in this thread. Since I entered retirement, I've suffered from an escalation in my depression. I think many would be shocked at the horrible way I talk to myself. Many of my TMI posts on here were actually attempts to defend myself from my awful inner dialogue. In the real world, I hope that I'm not really that awful of a person. Other than myself, I don't have a single enemy in this world (except maybe the road rage guy if he remembers me). But I don't need to make this my personal therapy thread, and the stuff I post makes me look worse and worse, and I don't need people thinking about me the same way my subconscious does.

I'm only just recently coming out of a pretty severe episode myself and I have a similar problem. My wife tells me I'm entirely too hard on myself and that's something that happens even when I'm not depressed, but especially now that I'm looking for work and not even getting any responses to the CVs I'm sending out.

Good luck. Those troughs of depression are the worst and all we can do is wait them out.

 

[BeardyHat]

The only limitation on my Hybrid model is the tranny doesn't have a way of easily measuring fluid level and refilling via a dipstick tube in the engine compartment. It DOES however have both a lower drain plug and upper fill plug/hole on the side of the tranny under a cowling that requires taking out a few bolts to remove. I've also seen videos of both fluid exchanges and top offs being done on this exact model.

My only concern is a lot of shops anymore, especially the quick fluid change ones, will not do ATF changes on vehicles that don't have a tranny dipstick, but Grease Monkey at least will, and they tell me they'll drain it out the drain plug vs via a pump. I don't care if they pump in the new fluid because that's the way it has to be done when you only have a side fill hole vs a dipstick tube to pour into.

I got lost yesterday in a town just north of me trying to find a new drop site the company I buy a bulk grocery item from is using now. It involved having to stop at a parking lot, using the Google Maps GPS voice navigator on my phone, and driving up a fairly long, steep hill. The tranny handled it fine without a flinch, but I was very stressed.

The old "sealed transmission" sounds like. "Good for the life of the vehicle", but what is the manufacturers idea of the life of the vehicle?

Ended up just driving my van around yesterday without the cowl, so you could see directly down into the engine bay. I thought it was kind of funny, because it makes it look like even more of a jalopy, so people really keep their distance.

 

[Frag Maniac]

The old "sealed transmission" sounds like. "Good for the life of the vehicle", but what is the manufacturers idea of the life of the vehicle?

The life of this tranny I've seen two opinions on. Generally Ford or especially Escape owners of this model will tell you this tranny (and EV battery) can last the life of the vehicle, based on a 300,000 estimate. There are Ford haters out there though that insist the tranny is lightweight junk. Many of their comments sound like obvious sarcasm.

I've seen actual Ford Escape owners of this model say they've gotten WAY more than what they expected regarding life out of both tranny and EV battery, but the reality of the latter is you can expect to lose engine shut off at stop lights and electric motor power below 40 MPH on flat roads at roughly 160,000 miles of use.

The Assist mode will still function though, where the electric motor kicks in at 3000-4000 RPM, and that IMO is the most useful feature for driving AND gas saving. It's intended to be used on the freeway though. Revving up past 3000 RPM on slower roads, especially when the vehicle isn't warmed up, is not advisable in my experience.

So what I'm saying is it comes down to common sense. Most who are mechanically inclined that have driven any kind of auto tranny know the dos and don't of how to use them, and their life is very expectant on that. Like most opinions on the net though, you have to toss out the highs and lows and find the median common sense ones.

For what I paid for this vehicle, I'll be happy to get 240,000 miles out of it, and I'm almost at the 180,000 ATF change interval now. As little as I drive that will be at least 15 yrs from now. I'll add that we can't forget that many vehicle owners get sucked into quick ATF change methods that can cause damage. You have to know your vehicle!