2015 Tualatin Flood

A few days ago i thought the only way i was going to see that park again (Brown's Ferry) was covered with mud. But i was wrong. Only a little area was affected. Much of it looks like after a heavy raining. Water got from the river in the street through some sort of lake or appendix of the river. Parking lot is still closed but i walked in the park and took some pictures. Hopefully in a day or two the parking lot is going to be open again.

Red Light District

I once joked on a forum or don't know where. (This time i won't bring in here a link to document everything that i'm saying. It's so tedious and idea wrecking. Once because while i'm working to retrieve it i loose momentum and second whoever follows it might loose it as well. Maybe i gained enough credit to just write things without cross-referencing with a link everything).

December 1st. The first day after the stickers expire on the Nissan. Got it in November 99, there are 16 years and the car is a 93. November, odd years, time to renew.

So what's the joke. Can't remember, i boil with frustration. Oh. The title.

Red light district is where red light cameras are? Ha ha ha... Beaverton is full of them. There are some... is that Tualatin or Sherwood, the one i just passed today FOUR times?

The envelope was there on Angela's desk and first thing i remembered in the morning was to go to DMV with the old piece of... No i shouldn't be talking like that. Cause recently i just rediscovered what a engineering marvel it is... (That motivated me to find what the problem was with the Chevy from the beginning...) Though with the paint worn-out and painted over and with a spray can every year and a missing motor mount and still a tire vibrating after replacing all the tires, water leaking inside from the rear windshield and oil pouring on the exhaust...

Yes i should have bought a new used car before i started with the repairs this year... First radiator was leaking at the upper joint between the plastic frame and the metal serpentine... Then motor mounts, driveaxles and yes, the distributor, coil, plugs and wires, the full she-bang... 2000 bucks so far...

But right after it started running like in the beginning... 16 years ago when i first got it... With the exception of a noise when hitting bumps...

I had in mind a small adjustment on the TPS sensor... Last time i checked it it was .63 volts... Before that, weeks ago, when i finished with it and got thrilled by the results, almost 30 mpg on the freeway, it was adjusted by ear alone. Then i put it at .5. Then the mileage dropped to 20 and about a week ago i found it at .63. I remembered i read somewhere it should be between .45 and .55. So i put it at .48. But that was not as good as my adjustment by ear cause by the position of the gauge after 60 miles or so it was doing like 22 that was still low.

So this morning i got my meter and set it to .45. And i was feeling the difference in power and i already expect a close to ideal mileage.

Then i drove to DEQ. Straight on Tualatin Sherwood. I was looking for the camera. I saw it. It was green. I passed and kept my eyes on the light. Green. Positive. Noted.

The line at DEQ Sherwood was all the way to the street. Tried vainly to get some wi-fi on my phone just to not get bored in line. Got a HTC 510 that now is 100 bucks at Best Buy but was on sale for 50 when i got it. Not activated. Got a number from Google and i use it only when i got wi-fi, with Google Hangouts.

Got a fair signal from the nearby Walmart. Could use Google Maps but no hangouts. But while taping on the phone time passed quite fast and soon i got at the bay...

From the beginning, trouble. They were taking two cars at a time, each lane, two bays. Got in bay nr.2 at lane nr.1. Had to wait because... They could not do the test for my... year of car at bay 2. Didn't have an analyzer... (only a computer reader). Though at bay 2 lane 2 they had one, as i went later for a... volutary test. Cause i did not believe the results of the first.

Some truck on the bay nr.2 lane 2 was putting out bad smell and noise, covering my car. So i stopped the engine while waiting to pass at bay 1 to see if my car was smelling like that. It wasn't. So i started the engine again as i advanced. Finally got at bay 1 after they finnished with the car in front so they tested it.

It passed but the result were marginal.

Then more trouble inside. Cause i didn't have the insurance policy number (i couldn't remember Angela told me was in the glove compartment of the car). So i paid some 20 bucks only for the test and followed the technician's instruction and went to the DMV next intersection to pay for the rest and get the stickers. But there, after taking a number and coming back to DEQ to look for my small ATT phone with prepaid minutes, that was actually at home, the one i used to make call when i don't have wi-fi, i came back only to find out they could not pull my insurance number either.

So i went home. Again, holding my breath wile passing through the red light camera intersection (105 and Tualatin Sherwood i guess). Green all the way.

At home i finally called Angela and she told me the policy number was maybe in the glove compartment. Grabbed from there it and and tried to find a DMV where i could go without passing through a red light camera. It was on Monroe St, next to where i used to live in Lake Oswego. Only when i got there, a sign on the machine with numbers was saying they take only cash and checks. Hm. Who is using cash and checks these days besides DMV?

Couldn't talk to anybody and took a chance and went back to DMV in Sherwood, the one next to DEQ. And just before the red light camera intersection, Adele started singing [on the radio]. Then again i went through the same mental processes i do every time when i hear that song. And woke myself up on the other side of the red light camera intersection, with some cars in front of me and some after, not knowing what the color of the light was...

They didn't take cards either and then i went to DEQ again. But the only way they could get me stickers where only if i paid the 20 bucks for the test, again.

So i asked them to do a voluntary test again since i was there, planning to go to an ATM, withdraw 100 bucks and go and pay cash at the DMV, (in Oregon on cars made before 96 you can do as many free voluntary tests as you want) just to see if the first one was not manipulated. So they did, but then the printer... broke. And i asked them if there was an analyzer at bay 1 lane 1 and they didn't know what to tell me. And one more thing. Everywhere i go these days i talk to people that obviously are not Americans. I speculated for a long time what they might be but now i think i got the answer.

They told me though the result was slightly better than the first one.

Then the third guy came and since i wasn't going, then they fixed the printer and gave me a printout with some of the result at the limit and some worse then the first test at bay 2 lane 1 though still passing.

Then i came home and started thinking if i ran a red light camera or not the second time when i went to DMV on Tualatin Shwerood Hwy.

Not being able to get the answer i called DMV on the phone. But guess what. My voip Google Hangouts phone was working with big delays, not like usually when it was working similiarly with any 4G phone. Could harldy talk to them. Finally i got to talk to a guy who seem to understand what i'm saying and ask him about the following:

DMV has a "driver improvment program" that is based on the number of tickets including red light camera tickets. If you get 3 tickets within 18 months you're ok but if you get one more, you get a 1 months suspension or something like this.

Basically i was questioning the legality of red light tickets since they are sent in mail (like i got the last one) from some private company in Arizona that owns the cameras without an officer of one of the Police agencies in Oregon ever seeing it. Oregon laws says an officer of law has to have enough reasons to believe you committed an infraction BEFORE issuing a ticket which on red light cameras would be possible only if the cops would actually be somewhere in a room in front of a monitor and seeing the video stream in real time.

But this is not the case. No officer sees those because they are being mailed, as the stamp on the envelope says, directly from A PRIVATE COMPANY in Arizona.

Then i told the guy about defense. When you go in front of a judge and the cops stick a picture of you while passing though an intersection with the only witness (in that picture with your face the light is not even visible, the light is in a separate picture) a camera, you can't possibly defend yourself, since you cannot even remember the event, after one week of driving prior to receiving the letter and start trying frantically to remember how it happened. So how can you go and defend yourself in front of the judge if you cannot even remember what and how it happened?

That would not be the case if an officer actually pulls you over right away, when you have all in your immediate memory.

Or like me right now. I am in the situation of not being able to remember how i passed that intersection, because of Adele and some crazy DJs. Not weeks or days or even hours. I could not remember because i never new. I was just following the traffic, with others following me.

And one more thing. The hefty fines are designed with expenses of having cops on the street in mind. I once stood at an intersection with a red light camera just to see how many make the same mistake i did 2 times within a year or so. That is not fulling stopping before making a turn on red. 90% of the drivers made the same mistake. How much money and who are getting that money from this BUSINESS?

I think when the law was issued they did not have in mind red light cameras. Some inventive lawyers might have found what they think it is a loophole, but probably it would not stand if seriously challenged? By who? People who are tired from work or fixing cars or cleaning or writing blogs and pay just not to have more trouble and time wasted?

So here i went to the liquor store. Cheap brandy, used a card. The lady at the counter said something if my card had a chip cause they have to do it differently. Then i remembered. Liquor stores in Oregon are state owned also. How come they have card reading machines?

Grommet vs Connector In Power Brake Booster Design

(Though i have a degree in mechanical engineering since 1986 from Romania, it is in Machine Tools and not Automotive Engineering. After i graduated, most of the work i've done was in computer programming though at the beginning related to engineering CAD after which i swicthed to accounting, payroll and medical insurance. Also my level of English when i came in the United States, especially in the technical area was much lower than today, after i started writing on social media. Thus it is only recently when i understood the below described phenomena and also became capable of describe it.)

A rubber grommet is a ring with a groove on the outside that fits in a hole and helps with the passage of a pipe, cable or connector through that hole, preventing the last one touching the edges of the hole. Most common use of grommets, as described in this Wikipedia picture, is for passing cables through holes.

In automotive industry they are also used for passing and sealing of ribbed connectors and holes, mostly in PCV valve or power booster applications. Here is the image of a power booster check valve with two connectors on each side (in and out). It is a one way valve with a spring and seal inside that allows the flow of air in one direction only and it ends with two ribbed connectors, of which one goes into the power booster grommet and the other to the power booster vacuum hose that at the other end is connected to engine manifold or throttle body on the manifold side. The function of this valve is to make sure that vacuum does not escape from the booster or air it's not getting in immediately after the engine stops, ensuring one or two brake cycle in case of engine failure or sudden stop while the vehicle is driven. For the purpose of this discussion it does nothing more than an L shape connector.

A brake power booster is a big cylinder with one or two diaphragms inside that helps with braking by adding extra force to the master cylinder when a smaller brake force is applied on the pedal. The extra force is generated by the suction power of the engine on the admission cycle, which in automotive terms is named manifold vacuum, or the difference of pressure between the inside of the manifold and atmospheric pressure applied on the opposite sides of the diaphragm.

Many don't understand. In combustion engines the air volume necessary for running the engine is small, at least at idle and under no load conditions. Thus, the flow of the air in the engine is restricted by a round shape valve called throttle that turns inside a cylindrical air passage with the same diameter with the throttle called throttle body with the pressing of the "gas" pedal. At idle the throttle is in perpendicular position with the air flow and closing the passage. A small amount of air (by)passes usually through a parallel passage that is also controlled by the computer through a solenoid or actuator, that is open only at idle. On the rotation axis of the throttle there is a potentiometer like sensor (similar with those in older audio devices) that turns with the throttle, thus transmitting to the computer a variable voltage that tells the computer how much the throttle is opened. Because of this severe restriction of the air flow inside the engine, vacuum is created on the intake side of the throttle. This vacuum is available and engineers long time ago figured they could use it for powering different devices and actuators in the vehicle as if would come from a vacuum pump), as the brake power booster.

In a normally running engine, at idle, this vacuum generates a difference of pressure with the atmospheric pressure of or above 22 inches mercury, that is about 11 psi and can go a little higher but obviously not higher than the atmospheric pressure itself that is about 14.7 psi since the difference it's generated by vacuum, or suction, or lack or pressure that can obviously cannot go lower than zero. 11 psi is equivalent with about one third to almost half of the pressure inside a tire that is above 32 psi.|

Here is a picture with a power booster that uses a grommet for passing the connector of a check valve.

Another type of design for solving applying manifold vacuum to the power booster described in the picture below uses instead of a grommet a connector that is part or welded or pressed on the power booster in the same place where the grommet hole is in the grommet solution, connector that is similar to the connector used on the other end of the hose as in both solutions, in which case the check valve is placed somewhere else like inside the booster.

Due to the way it is created, by the reciprocating motion of the pistons inside the cylinders that follows a time dependent sine pattern, engine vacuum has a pulsating nature that is partially smoothened by the volume of (low pressure) air inside the manifold and hoses (there are other pneumatic devices that are also fed with the pressure difference of pressure between inside the manifold and surrounding air that are connected to the manifold side of the throttle body though smaller and less important that also hold a certain volume of the same low pressure air in all the hoses and devices).

In a normally running engine, at idle, vacuum is  about 22 inches, relative or lower than atmospheric pressure. When the gas pedal is slightly pressed and throttle opens a little, around 2000 rpm, the vacuum gets even higher, closer to zero pressure or absolute vacuum or 14.7 psi relative to atmospheric pressure due to increasing need of engine for air because of faster movement of the pistons and the throttle's opening resistance. When the throttle is opened even more, thus allowing more air freely into the manifold the vacuum starts to decrease again.

The more vacuum in the manifold, the more pulsating is the pressure difference due to increasing amplitude of the sine wave due to reciprocating motion of the pistons.

Also. Due to various dynamic forces the engine has a tendency of moving or vibrating on its rubber mounts, mostly following the cycle of pistons' reciprocating movement, but also the rpm. There are certain rpms that make the engine move more or at higher amplitudes than others due to resonance phenomena.

Also, all the hoses, including power booster vacuum hose are not rigid and move around together with the engine having their own moving pattern and resonance with certain rpms.

The grommet in the grommet solution in all different design variations (i've seen so far) have the length and diameter of the groove comparable with the sheet metal and the hole they seal, design that cannot generate a sealing force on the wall of the booster. Thus the sealing is being insured by the difference of pressure between inside and outside of the booster applied on the outer side of the grommet that presses against the booster's wall.

The check valve's connector on the grommet side has a slightly bigger diameter than the hole of the grommet and it is ribbed, and when is inserted into the grommet it causes very hard to predict deformations of both parts which in this case are static but asymmetrical due to the weight of the hose but at least at the beginning of its life and at idle it seals the vacuum or at least partially, up to a certain pressure difference or pulsating amplitude at certain rpms.

Thus there are two sealing surfaces regarding the grommet. One is between outer rim of the groove and the sheet metal around the hole and one is between the hole and the connector.

As i said the vacuum hose has its own weight. This weight is applied on the grommet side as well but with dynamic variations following the different relative motions between the grommet and the hose, generating variable forces that are impossible or very hard to predict that are in the end applied onto and sustained by the grommet, causing it to slightly change shape many times a second, or causing dynamic deformations, following the relative motion of the engine and the hose. Those changes of shape are asymmetrical due to direction of the variable force being applied on the grommet and very hard or impossible to predict, in the end changing the sealing surface, in a dynamic way and increasing it on one side and decreasing on the other.

In conclusion, both the pulsating nature of the engine manifold vacuum and the forces generated by the hose moved by the engine moving on the mounts deform the grommet dynamically, combined can change the sealing areas and pressures on the sealing surfaces of the grommet, possibly leading to small, pulsating leaks that might appear only on certain rpms and engine loads.

The power boosters are oftenly painted on the outside to check corrosion. The sealing surface between the grommet and the power booster is also painted. Paint thickness can be irregular causing unpredictable variations on the final shape and smoothness of the sealing surface and can also degrade in time or even be peeled or chipped due to age causing irregularities to grow in time and sealing to decrease, thus increasing  the pulsating vacuum leak.

Peeled, eroded paint an a small indentation at the power booster grommet hole

The grommet solution compared to welded connector solution brings several more areas than need to be sealed in the vacuum transmission assembly between throttle body and booster, that is throttle body connector-hose, hose-check valve, check valve-grommet and grommet-power booster.

Grommets are made of rubber. Rubber is a material that often has irregularities but also changes properties in time due to aging. Constant pressure like from the ribs of the connector can cause grooves inside the hole of the grommet thus in time decreasing sealing capacity on that side. Also rubber looses elasticity with age thus the initial installation pressure and sealing capacity between grommet and check valve connector and capacity of following the irregularities on the painted area.

The welded connector design is much simpler, and cost comparable solution, it follows the solution on the other side of the hose, has less sealing surfaces and much less like to cause vacuum leaks.

Uncontrollable vacuum leaks in the end translates by air flowing in the engine in uncontrollable ways, bypassing the throttle body and throttle.

Small intermittent vacuum leaks on carburrated engine can cause trouble by changing in unpredictable ways the fuel/air ratio.  The computer responds promptly by the reading of the oxygen sensors, thus adding more fuel.

But on injected engines even small vacuum leaks are critical because in injected engines fuel/air mixture is adjusted by a computer based on reading from one or more oxygen sensor inside the exhaust system, among others. The more oxygen the sensors read due to a vacuum leak or air escaping uncontrollably into the manifold, the more fuel it adds. Also air/fuel ratio is adjusted by the computer using readings from other sensors, including throttle positioning sensor and pressure sensors inside the manifold and intake hose. Air flowing into the manifold due to unpredictable, intermittent leaks translates into reading in the sensors than cause the engine running erratically and mainly increasing fuel consumption with all its consequences, like more fuel burning with the extra air inside the exhaust and catalytic converter, shortening the life of the catalytic converter and overheating other components of the vehicle, like floor, transmission and clutch. Extra fuel consumption also translates in more fuel being used, extra cost, pollution, etc.

The following pictures are done with my old check valve and hose and a new original grommet.

All the deformations that remain permanent due to aging of the grommet, abrasion of the paint, inevitably lead in time to more important vacuum leaks that can lead to decreasing braking capacity, but that is not obvious since it occurs very gradually and the driver gets used to. Though vacuum is present in the booster, it is diminished due to vacuum leaks that appear only in this design up to a point when the computer finally sets an error that usually indicates a lean condition (too much air in the air/fuel mixture), because through its oxygen sensors it actually measure the amount of oxygen left after the burning cycle inside the cylinder that is increased in case of vacuum leaks or more air bypassing the throttle thus unaccounted for by the TPS sensor inside the intake manifold. But when usually that happens that engine has been functioning abnormally for too long and other components have been damaged by overheating. Also the vacuum leaks even at the beginning of the life of this vehicle that are due to the grommet solution are intermittent, and the computer is programmed to put a check engine light only after a contentious malfunctioning or a high reading on one of the oxygen sensors of a certain period of time, cycles and events, that only happens when the vacuum leak grows bigger and/or gets permanent.

All these consequences can be averted if the pressed or welded connector solution is used instead of the grommet one.

It is hard for me to estimate the amount of fuel being used by multiplying this type of failure due to a faulty design to the the number of vehicles that still use it, but i estimate it in the enormous area.

Cars and Stuff

Mc

Question. Do they know?