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Living in the country offers it's share of benefits, and it's comparable share of disadvantages. Aside from having to wash off more bugs than the average city dweller, simply parking can offer it's own set of hazards. Though not limited to country dwellers, we do seem to be more at risk to suffering from - rodents.

When you live in the country the darn things seem to show up everywhere, and aside from living with a colony of cats it is difficult to keep them from crawling into the damnedest places. Especially at risk are cars.

Having been "moused" before in several vehicles, including a Honda CRX that required disassembling the entire air conditioner to find it's corpse at the bottom of the condenser, I knew instantly when I got into our 2009 C6 Corvette that there was a problem.

Turning on the air conditioner only made the problem worse. Calling my local shop offered no real suggestions. Googleing "dead mouse C6 Corvette" led me to a forum post/photo of a cabin filter that had been used as a rodent nest in the posters car. Popping open the cabin filter on our C6 (behind the battery) revealed - the same! (we like our photo better) Turns out the design of the Corvette cabin filter/filter slot offers a perfect spot for mice to nest, even providing them warm bedding to tear up. This makes us wonder how many other car owners have had a similar experience with their Corvette, or other car. If you have had this happen to you, let us know!

We are hoping that that has resolved the current issue, it may take a little time for the car to air out properly.

Posted by Jeff Barringer in News at 12:05 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Wednesday, January 11. 2012

Restoring a Desert Runner

Over the years we have had a lot of fun project cars to play with here, but last fall we stumbled across a rare gem on Craig's list, an original 1988 Nissan Desert Runner. Though in rough shape, it's rarity, and price, required that we acquire it for our fleet and since then we have slowly been fixing it up, and gathering replacement parts from a variety of far-away sources.

Restoring an older Japanese vehicle isn't like rebuilding a Ford or Chevy, very few original trim parts exist, especially the specialized Desert Runner parts, and there are few suppliers of aftermarket replacements. Luckily the mechanical parts are still readily available, as are replacement body panels for the point when the rust turns terminal.

Something else that is sparse is information on the Desert Runner. A one year only special offering from Nissan, it was marked similar to Nissan's factory supported off-road teams, and many were used as site and crew vehicles for the Mint 400 offroad race in Las Vegas. Not just a special paint and tape package, the Desert Runner package added special bumpers, skid plates, a spare tire carrier in the back, and on some a Jerry can rack in the bed. Opinions vary on the number of Desert Runners built and sold, in fact little information on the program still exists even at Nissan.

We will keep you up to date and outline some of our restoration work on our Desert Runner over the next few weeks and months, and if you see us buzzing around town gathering parts say hello!

If you have information on Nissan's Desert Runner program we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email!.

Posted by Jeff Barringer in Offroad at 10:20 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Friday, August 19. 2011

Sniffing your OBDII with KIWI WiFi

Our next review is KIWI WiFi OBDII automotive interface from PLX Devices, a device that connects your cars on-board diagnostics to an iPad in real time through it's WiFi port. Right up front this is just the interface device and without an app to access the data it provides you might as well own a rock instead. That said there are a number of apps in Apple's App Store that work with PLX's KIWI device, none more than $50. Alas there does not appear to be a free app, at least not anymore.

PLX Devices offers the KIWI in 2 different formats, the base model, which only connects to the OBDII port, and an upgraded version that has an input port for external devices like boost controllers and external sensors to gather data not collected by the OBDII port. We chose the upgraded version because at some point our test mule is to be equipped with a supercharger and we need something to manage the boost controller. A variety of compatible sensors and controllers are available from PLX depending on your needs.

Our KIWI arrived in the mail in a small box about a week after we ordered it, and opening the box we found a a small plastic box with two cables dangling out and a simple single page of instructions. After we located our OBDII port and plugged in the KIWI we started the car and the KIWI lit up. Following the instructions we launched the control panel on our iPad, located he WiFi settings , made a setting change and viola! The iPad found the KIWI and we were all set.

Or were we? Life is rarely as simple as a one page instruction sheet and in fact that turned out to be the case here.

While the iPad saw the KIWI and vice versa, when we launched our management app it was unable to locate or open the OBDII port. After casting about a bit on the internet for a solution (everyone elses seemed to work of course!)we finally decided to go straight to the source and contacted PLX devices support dept by email. After exchanging a few emails and voicemails I finally connected with Tim Oravec and after jumping back in the car he had me add a line to the iPad's network configuration file, something not in the instructions and not needed in most instances according to Tim. Firing back up the management app it immediately located the OBDII port and started collecting data.

I have run around with the KIWI attached for about a month now and it has been a solid piece of equipment. It has performed as advertised, would have been really simple to get running for the one configuration issue, and was worth the investment. For more information on PLX Devices KIWI WiFi OBDII reader for the iPad check out their web site at http://www.plxkiwi.com/kiwiwifi/ . They have a similar model that utilizes BlueTooth for Android based tablets..

Posted by Jeff Barringer in Mobile Electronics at 02:45 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Thursday, July 7. 2011

Why put a Tablet in your car?

What can you do with a tablet in the car? Well you can Tweet your current 20 to your legion of followers, or you can listen to or watch the last release from Slayer, but really that's pretty bush league.

While an iPad or Android tablet can do a pretty stand up job replacing a normal stereo head unit, as long as you don't need local FM, really that is just the start and the combination of cars, computers, and wireless internet opens up huge possibilities. Auto manufacturers aren't slow on the uptake and already Kia has a test mule/show car on the circuit where the traditional instrument panel has been replaced by 2 Android based tablets. But once again, that is really just the starting point. The best things haven't even been thought of yet and the fun won't really begin until 4G.

A number of hardware and software platforms DO already exist, however, that allow you to take advantage of some of these unique possibilities and the number of apps and hardware applications is sure to expand rapidly from here on out.

A few of the more interesting things you can do today are download and monitor live weather radar information, data and warnings, internet based radio and other media, monitor your engine and vehicle status and warnings from your cars on-board diagnostics, use the geo-location functionality to replace a GPS, or have your friends and family track your progress on a cross country road trip.

Now that we have our iPad mounted and installed in OUR test mule we will be putting a few of these apps and accessories through their paces. And just to be fair we will be adding an Android tablet to the mix, hopefully soon, because not everyone has swallowed the Apple kool-aid.

Our next review is KIWI WiFi OBDII automotive interface from PLX Devices, a device that lets you connect to your cars on-board diagnostics in real time like a pro mechanic. With the right apps do a whole bunch of cool stuff like track your skidpad results, plot out a race track and time your runs, check your timing and your intake temperatures and more. You can even monitor and plot your fuel economy to increase your mileage. We will be reviewing lots of cool hardware and software for the car. If you would like to see your product reviewed drop us an email.

Posted by Jeff Barringer in Mobile Electronics at 01:51 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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