TireSmoke.org

I am a huge fan of the VW and would have bought one of those instead of the Mazda if the VW didn’t share so many of the interior parts with the Skoda I just want a new car to feel new to me. I was also a little worried that familiar looking controls would add to my confusion in switching back to the...

Last week’s progress was just some overdue wiring cleanup. I installed an add-on 12 volt outlet with 2 USB charging outlets under the dash and plugged my phone and my GPS in there. This freed up both the factory outlets, one on the dash and one in the center console, while hiding some annoying wires...

If I can arrange a room reservation at my normal 'Auburn Inn', I'll be there.

Last week was my journey to Dayton to pick up our new trailer. http://knapp.rinestock.com/18001.JPG The Nissan was mostly a pleasant surprise as a tow vehicle. The Nissan drivetrain handles this trailer much better than my van handled my old trailer and I was loving having a manual for towing, again...

The rest of the parts arrived and of course the temperature dropped for the bulk of the work. It at least warmed back up for the finishing touches. The remaining wiring was also stupid easy. There were three connectors to simply snap in, although all were in complicated locations. The project wasn’t...

More like 1.16.

1/0.8615=1.16

Sorry so slow in responding. My calendar has been a little fluid lately. Count me in.

OK, I had to run some numbers to convince myself that I didn’t have this backward. Tell them you drove ten miles and only recorded 8.6. With a 30” tire diameter (arbitrary round number, probably not your actual tire diameter), the car would cover roughly 7.85 feet per rotation. To cover 10 miles wou...

Parts arrived before lunch today while the temperature soared into the 40’s. First up was the Class III hitch. It was an easy installation with precise bolt holes and dimensions, but I am really not in working-under-the-car shape. That kicked my butt. It was good to crawl under a vehicle again, but ...

We drove the Mazda down to South Carolina for Thanksgiving. I still can’t get 40 mpg, particularly not at 75 mph. After returning, I installed the winter tires. I haven’t driven them much in the snow, but Kris isn’t having any problem at all, even in a few serious events. The few times I did get out...

Neutral switches are there to prevent idiots from doing stupid things. If you are not an idiot, you don't actually need one.

I bought a set of Blizzaks mounted on a reasonably cheap set of wheels. I wanted the Yokohomas because they test pretty close in the important areas and are about 20% cheaper, but Tire Rack couldn’t get those any time soon so I changed to the Blizzaks. I stepped down to 16’s for the winter as 18’s r...

The Nissan is approaching 11,000 miles. Our 2012 vehicle now has less miles than our 2017. Two weekends ago, the battery finally quit. It was an ugly mess with the positive terminal completely corroded off, but at least that was just a terminal that connected to a larger power distribution plate. Th...

The Mazda is up to 12,500 miles. We took it on a trip to Nantucket recently and on one leg, the calculations after a fill came out to 39.6 mpg. I just can’t seem to get it over 40, although the readout was as high as 41 for a while. I took it in for its second oil change. It turns out that we don’t ...

I downloaded the Torque app last night and have been playing with it today, but I didn't get my OBD device yet so I am only looking at the setup options and playing around with the acceleration sensors in my smart phone. I hate buying apps since I have played around with programming a few android ap...