Dumb Design

Altron said:
I'm amazed that so few cars have gone to LED tail lights. A LED version of the standard 1156 bulb is literally like five bucks, and will never burn out. Only problem is that you need to use electronic flashers instead of thermal flashers, but they aren't that expensive.
(Thermal flashers are the ones most cars have, the ones that make an audible clicking noise, where they work based on the heat of a resistor, and if the bulb isn't drawing enough current (it's either a low current LED bulb or a burnt out incandescent bulb) it flashes really quickly)

I kinda want to replace my incandescents with LEDs, but then I face the reality which is that my car is old, has 140,000 miles, and has several things wrong with it, so LEDs are not a priority.
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Well there must be some issue with LED taillights,because Mazda3s had them in previous years,but the last couple of model years haven't used them.
 
tonksy said:
I can't have a clothes line here....and my maters are technically contraband but we hide them well enough.

My ex's car has that damn door open dinging noise stuck on all the time. I can always tell when he's calling from the car. It's really freaking annoying, I have no idea how he stands it.
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Yank it out by the wires! A lot of these "safety features" cause more accidents than they prevent.
I'm disillusioned with technology, on the whole. Sure doesn't live up to the expectations made by the science fiction writers.
Tomatos are now contraband? Now I've heard it all.:gun:
 
My "check engine" idiot light has been on since last century- nothing wrong with the engine, and lately the little air bag idiot light has been on, which makes me wonder if the damn thing is going to explode in my face going down a bumpy dirt road. It's a pickup truck, not a damn space capsule.
 
JTP said:
My friend Matt is not only an archaeologist, race car driver and mechanic, he also studied product design in college. He pointed out something to me today that I did not know. A lot of new cars on the road are made so the headlights just stay on all the time when the engine's running. For safety's sake, right? Problem is, people will be driving along at dusk and when it gets dark, they forget to pull out the actual switch. They assume that because the headlights are on, they've got taillights too- not the case. So they're driving along after dark with headlights but no taillights. They get a ticket for unsafe operation or worse, cause an accident. Now what knucklehead, silly SOB designed that, and how did it make it all the way into production without somebody going, "Hey- that's a dumb idea, let's make the taillights come on automatically, too." ??? Duuuuuh- huh?
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How about a car where if you want the headlights (or tailights) you have to turn them on? That'd be my kind of car.
 
Best vehicle I've ever owned- 1955 Ford 2 door sedan. You lifted that hood and there was an engine, a radiator, and a battery. No extraneous BS. You could step up on the bumper, sit on the fender and get right in there and work on it. We lost a lot of freedom when they started making cars and trucks that people couldn't maintain and repair themselves.
 
You pulled the switch if you wanted headlights, you locked the doors with the push-down button or the key- a real, metal key. It had a vacuum-tube AM radio that worked and a clock in the dash that always kept the right time-30 years old when I had it! Plenty of headroom and legroom and trunk space, a real spare tire- not a "donut". Big old V8 engine, but with a lean carb setting and slightly over-inflated tires and careful driving you could get nearly 30 mpg on highways. My gawd, I loved that car!
 
Oh, and a tachometer and a real oil pressure guage- without which no automobile is complete.
 
JTP said:
OTC- Off my own topic, this isn't about dumb design. In Columbus, Georgia there's some kind of homeowner's association telling people they can't dry their clothes on a line, even in their backyard. UUuuuhh, telling people what they can and can't do (within the law and reason) on their own property? Does this strike anyone as sort of...un-American?
If anybody tried that up here where I live, we'd laugh 'em out of the county.
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Here (Ontario Canada) they passed a law saying it was a right to have a clothesline, and no matter what your homeowners agreement said no one can stop you from putting one up.
 
Makes sense..why waste power drying the clothes inside if the sun/wind will do it for free outside?

I HATE power-windows. It wass cute for a while, but now the passenger side window sticks..usually in the wrong position (up on blazingly hot days, down on rainy days)
 
Taillights burning out and causing the turn signal to flash quickly... if you happen to have one bulb shared for the taillights and the blinkers, that's great. My car has separate orange blinker lights on the back.

For the LED 1156 bulb replacements, I just looked on google and it looks like they're fixing the other problem I had, which was just having a tiny dot of light in the center of the taillight assembly because of the light from LEDs shining directly out, while an incandescent bulb shines in all directions and thus has light bounce off the reflective surface inside the assembly. Now LED taillight bulbs can come with, say, 19 LEDs facing out and six mounted radilly around the sides to be able to bounce light off the reflective surface for better lens fill.

LED taillights do cost more to make, so Mazda is likely de-contenting ther car to increase profit by going from LED lights to standard without lowering the price of the car.

As for the check engine light... if it's on, then something IS wrong with the engine. It can run fine for years that way, as you've seen, but it would be polluting the air more than it's supposed to. My guess is an oxygen sensor went bad, and without it the computer can't know it's mixing the fuel quite right. Over here, a car with the check engine light on will not pass the smog inspection, which has to be done every other year on a car more than four (or might be six) years old every other year before they'll let you register it.

I learned to drive in a 1962 Faielane, which my parents still have... much easier to work on, yes, but has an idiot light for oil pressure and for the generator. At least the weather sealing is a lot better than what 1950s cars had. The trunk actually stays dry in the rain in that car.

That said, the reason why cars these days are so much harder to work on is because of the amount of things mandated by the government in order to cut pollution. Your 1955 Ford had no catalytic converter, a road draft tube instead of a PCV valve for crankcase gases, etc. The '62 is a cool car to drive, but doesn't make a good daily driver because it gets 1962 gas mileage (best I've ever gotten was 20 downhill from Reno to Stockton, best on flat land was 17), has 1962 brakes (drums on all four wheels with no power assist), has 1962 safety systems (it has the optional padded dashboard and 1962 was the first year for factory-installed seat belt harnesses for the front seats, so the car has lap belts in the front and nothing in the back), etc.
 
I think the LED tails are an option package on the Mazda3.

When my dad was looking at the Mazdaspeed3, the "Sport" model had regular taillights, and the "Grand Touring" model had LED taillights.

So it may just be that a lot of the newer ones you've seen were the base model.
 
JTP said:
OTC- Off my own topic, this isn't about dumb design. In Columbus, Georgia there's some kind of homeowner's association telling people they can't dry their clothes on a line, even in their backyard. UUuuuhh, telling people what they can and can't do (within the law and reason) on their own property? Does this strike anyone as sort of...un-American?
If anybody tried that up here where I live, we'd laugh 'em out of the county.
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Same for my sister in her new appartment block!!!!

No clothes horses on balconies or lines in the shared garden!!!!

Personally I think its ridiculous... we're meant to be decreasing global warming but thats avidly encouraging people to use a tumble dryer!!!

And there's nothing like the scent of sun and wind dried washing!!

*steps off soap box
 
BeardofPants said:
Clothes-horses work perfectly fine indoors as well. :shrug:
*lives in an apartment & uses a clothes-horse indoors
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As does she... but having clothes hanging around for days and days and days drying is soul destroying!

It clutters the place up... makes it look like a laundry and all guests can see your kecks!!! :roll2:

Besides... being able to wash and dry iron then put away clothes in less than one day by pegging them out during the nanosecond we Brits call summer is a simple yet necessary pleasure which needs to enjoyed to keep us all sain!!!!
 
Mine don't take the long to dry, but I've got nice big winders, so yeah. A day, tops. In the spare-room where people can bypass the knickers. ;)
 
Altron said:
I think the LED tails are an option package on the Mazda3.

When my dad was looking at the Mazdaspeed3, the "Sport" model had regular taillights, and the "Grand Touring" model had LED taillights.

So it may just be that a lot of the newer ones you've seen were the base model.
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:grinno:*is a happy 08 Mazda3 GS owner and they no longer offer LED as an option.
 
Problem is, people will be driving along at dusk and when it gets dark, they forget to pull out the actual switch. They assume that because the headlights are on, they've got taillights too- not the case. So they're driving along after dark with headlights but no taillights. They get a ticket for unsafe operation or worse, cause an accident.
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If they are that stupid, they shouldn't have a driver's license to begin with.
 
Dave said:
If they are that stupid, they shouldn't have a driver's license to begin with.
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Agree, but the stupid people have to get to work and the grocery somehow, too.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, okay? Now, statistically speaking, half of the population is even stupider than that".- George Carlin
 
I got in hot water with the homeowners association at the first house I ever owned for working on race bikes in my garage.
 
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