Postcards From Myself

I don’t often just plug companies - especially when they aren’t paying me to do so! But, there is one company that I really like, use, and hope catches on. That is ZipCar. Basically they are a service in about ten large cities that let you rent a car by the hour. OK, I know, what is so cool about a car rental service?

Well first of all the fact that you can rent by the hour instead of the day. So say I am in Boston on a trip and I just want to go drive out to the suburbs for some reason. Yes, I could take a taxi, but I like to drive. This enables me to go where I want, when I want.

Second, once you sign up for a membership with them there isn’t any of that dealing with a rental agent, paperwork, and do they have a car. You simply go online to the city you need, enter the date and time you need the car, and put in the general location where you want to pick it up. There are cars strategically positioned all over the supported cities. When you find the one you want you just click the button to reserve it online. That’s it! The send you an RFID encoded membership card so that when you go to the car you reserved at the prescribed time you can just wave your membership card over the windshield and the car opens. The keys are already in it. It is that simple!

Finally, and this would be cool for a lot of people, if you live in one of these big cities and normally just use mass transit and such, you can buy a membership that gives you a certain number of hours per month. You could then use the car to run errands, get groceries, or go on dates. Whatever! It gives the non-car owner the benefits of car usage without the hassles. Just return it to its designated parking spot when you are done.

Anyway, I think it is a great time-share kind of way to use a car. I also like it because I get to try out all sorts of different cars in a real world environment. My wife and I used it last year in Boston to drive up the coast and then down to a New England Revolution soccer game. With mass transit or a taxi we would not have had the freedom to explore or the ability to go where we wanted. And with a standard rental car we would have had to plan ahead much more carefully. With this we just booked the car when we saw that we were going to have some time free. Oh, and no credit card required! Debit cards work just fine. Try that with most rental car companies.

Anyway, give them a check. A very interesting and useful concept, and I wish them much success.

Technorati Tags: Cars

Just a quick update on the ‘02 for those of you who care. I spent a while working on her this afternoon and finally got the oil changed. It took the help of my friend Dave who is a Mac Tool rep to get the drain plug out. Nice having a friend who has all those special tools. The filter still isn’t changed due to that being on too tight also. Seems the previous owner really like to tighten things down. In my over 20 years of working on old cars this is the absolute worst case I have ever seen of over-tight everything. If it wasn’t such a pain it might be funny. Might be, but isn’t.

I also got the idle adjusted down. Turned out to be a slight adjustment to the actual idle control, but more importantly the throttle return spring on there just wasn’t up to the job. I replaced it with one a little shorter and stronger, adjusted the idle, and now Roxy idles happily at around 950 RPM. Much nicer than the 1500 to 1700 that she was doing.

Finally, and this was actually a few days, I replaced the spark plugs. This was not a big thing in itself, but I am hoping the combination of new plugs, clean oil, and calm idle will improve the gas milage. Right now she is averaging somewhere between 19 and 20 miles per gallon. I am hoping through this and other improvements to get up to at least 23 to 25.

Technorati Tags: BMW, Cars

I got the new trunk lock tumbler in today and got that installed this evening. I now have a secure trunk that I can store things in while I am out and about. This, to me at least, officially makes the Roxy useful. Yes! The other thing that helps, is that I put in a full tank of gas. Nothing makes you feel better than looking down and seeing that gas gauge reading full. Makes you want to take a road trip to anywhere.

OK, so this one has been frustrating. Roxy dies at work. New battery nothing. Some wiring work. Nothing. Tow truck guy comes to haul her home. He fiddles with the battery cables a bit and boom, she fires up. I kick myself, thank him, and then kick myself some more. Driver her around. Then driver her to the bank. Then driver her home. No problems.

Later that night I go out to move her and nothing. All the same symptoms. Geez! Anyway I figure the battery clamps have really had it so I replace them with bright shiny new ones. Now she has a new battery and new and improved connectivity to that batter. Would you like to guess what I get for that? Nothing.

Well, that is not quite true. I got some smoke! That’s right, a nice little puff of smoke coming up from somewhere in engine compartment. Seeing that I promptly turned everything off of course, but I didn’t see any problems and couldn’t find any burnt wires. So, being the good male that I am, I hit the switch again. This time I was watching closely to spot the area the smoke came from. Sure enough it did it again, I killed the ignition, leapt out, and started searching. Success was a wire that was warm to the touch - definitely something you shouldn’t find in a car that hasn’t run in two days.

That wire, the warm one, was one of a group coming from the starter solenoid. It either has a break somewhere in it or is actually grounding out because the ground to the engine isn’t strong enough. This wire is one of a group that runs very close to some ground wires and also some brackets on the side of the engine. Through vibration and voltage I can definitely see it have some problems.

I proved my point to my self by moving the wires around a bit, isolating things, and then trying again. She fired right up. So now that I know where the problem really lies, I will take some time when the weather warms up to replace a few wires and also clean the grounds and all connectors. That should take care of things - for a while. In the meantime I will just drive the Chrysler Sebring around. The weather is cool so it is behaving at the moment.

Since I was not able to get a key cut for the existing trunk lock in Roxy, I had to start the eBay hunt. Ended up being not that bad at all. i found one for less that $30 including shipping. It should be here in a few days and then I will finally have a secure, lockable location in Roxy so she can begin to do more regular service. I still haven’t been able to get the door locks working, but I am far less concerned with that now that I will be able to lock the trunk.

Technorati Tags: BMW

Or at least power. Turn out that the battery was bad, and then that the battery cable was also bad. After replacing the battery, beating my head against it for a few days and then fixing the battery cable everything is fine now.

So, Roxy is back on the road and I am happy again. Life moves on.