October 26

5:10 Angela is doing overtime today, she went at 5. When i got back, though i didn't make any noise, he awoke and started the drier...

7:40 Back with a vengeance, keeping me awake since 5, second load of laundry, ignoring the fact the dryer is broken, doubled by a walking robot with a feedback on my brain, squeaking and stomping.

7:53 BTW Have you seen the latest from Boston Dynamics?

9:58 I thought it was condensation water in his dryer's exhaust pipe and tried to insert a piece of PCV tubing attached to a pump (i had it to vacuum the oil from old Elantra's manifold) through the vent, however i didn't pull any water. I remember the problem with his drier started in spring, not in winter. Most likely it's clogged with lint and there's nothing i can do about (or maybe vacuum it with a vacuum hose). I remember, after a couple of weeks i fixed  those pipes, like shown in the post linked, they came with some rotary tools and cleaned the pipes. By the end i was done i saw a "woman" climbing stairs in building D who from behind looked like the handy "woman".

10:55 She looks like a woman i see sometimes smoking on the alley here.

Last of the Hyundai

April 2018. We bid on a car at Copart. Like IAA, it's a place where insurance companies sell the totaled cars after they pay their customers the market value. They usually specify the areas where the car was damaged. This one has been listed as  "minor scratches and damages". We saw the car prior at the auction lot, together with one hundred others. Did not realize the car was actually in an accident, partially fixed and put back in auction and sold again at a higher price. I paid a total of 45 hundred dollars, including Copart fees.

When i went and picked it at the auction site, the car was driveable, but was making a weird noise at the engine. The mud cover on the right front was damaged, the fender was not holding in place, battery was almost dead and 5 years old. Serpentine belt was bent by a foreign object that gut between belt and pulleys at the time of the accident. When i got home i found in the trunk the broken windshield washer reservoir and the right headlight. Car was painted on the right side, with the right door and fender damaged. It was unclear if the right door airbag was still functional, though no dashboard light was on.

They were some sort of crystals on the windshield and hood, maybe from car being driven behind a de-icer that did not go away after a year or something, impairing visibility. Nr.1 and 2 cylinders had spark plug loose (0 torque) and there was oil in the cylinders and on the threads and inside the spark plug wheels. The shoulder at the bottom of the spark plug wheels  where the washers of the spark plugs seal sit was damaged and it was impossible to seal the spark plug when torquing it. Exhaust was leaking by the spark plugs in the engine compartment. Hood was bent (never fixed) and was not touching the seal with exhaust coming through the air intake grill in the cabin. There was oil in the the cylinders and on the spark plug threads.

3 years of struggle followed, with me working at the cars for hours, several days a week.

First went to Beaverton Hyundai and bought a battery and had it installed. Bought there a serpentine belt and installed it. Bought on Amazon a 6 mm diameter camera (about 20 bucks) to look inside the cylinders where i did not see piston slap damage but oil.

I tried to wipe the spark plug threads with balls of cotton soaked in alcohol, but they were not holding.

 
Designed and build in a machine shop a tool to resurface the shoulders of the spark plug holes. Finally torqued the spark plugs. Ordered a mud cover for right front on ebay and installed it. Ordered a windshield washer reservoir and installed it. Straightened the hood by stepping on it while hood semi-open, several times over the years. Did not realize the plastic grill was still leaking in several places by design, until about a week before the accident. Over 3 years i drove the car from 35 k to almost 100, while breathing exhaust inside the cabin, though less and less.

Did not realize the battery connectors could not be tightened enough, and were constantly getting loose, again by design, with battery never fully charging, until i bought a plug in USB charger with a digital voltmeter and because of needing jump starts several times after exhausting the battery with radio and fan in parking lots i also bought a 40 dollars 10000 mah li-ion smart jump starter on Amazon.

There was foam in the oil indicating sticky valves and squishy lifters. Tried to use some valve cleaner for the noise and injector cleaner additive inside the tank. As that wasn't working, i tried to clean the throttle body when i saw the inside of the composite intake manifold, which was installed in front of the compartment, or the left side of the engine, which was oily.

I tried and used a 3/8 piece of vinyl tube connected to a vacuum cleaner and pulled from the intake ounces of oil. It was  then when i realized that oil from the PCV was condensing inside the cold manifold that was installed in front of the engine compartment and pooling at the bottom of the intake which was installed upside down, by design, with the bottom bellow the runners, unlike any car i seen before. From there, oil was trickling up the runners, burning on valves and making them sticky, especially at number one cylinder. More oil was getting inside the cylinder, lubricating the piston rings unevenly, contaminating spark plugs, etc..

I pulled the injectors and tried to clean them applying voltage and some solvent from a spray can. Can had twice the pressure of the fuel and blew the injectors microfilters. I had to buy new injectors from dealer, for 400 bucks.

Over the years, i designed and installed several versions of catch cans on the PCV circuit, trying to minimize the amount of oil that gets in the intake which i was vacuuming "regularly" with a device i designed myself, made of a piece of tubing and a mat pump. With the last version of the catch can i could not vacuum oil from the intake anymore, there was none left.

A few months ago i bought an Exide battery and installed it and the noise was gone for a few hours. That was until the nuts at the connectors got loose again. Weeks before the accident i degreased the connectors together with the 8 bolts and nuts that were around the battery connectors and sealed the nuts on top with some adhesive. The voltage on the plug in charger with digital voltmeter was finally showing 14.3 volts while driving, 14.1 while idling. In the day of the accident, the noise was almost gone.

The noise was coming from the nr.1 cylinder or the furthest on the fuel rail, where fuel had not enough pressure because of low voltage at the fuel pump and injector was dripping,  causing uneven washing of the cylinder, with probably some slap while the engine cold, and not enough fuel washing the oil condensed on runner and trickling on valve, which was not getting washed enough because of low voltage at the fuel pump, making the valve stick and the lifer squish oil which was foamy. One cylinder working less than others meant vibration at the engine which meant poor driveability at high speed.

When i did rear brakes, a couple of years ago, i saw the indicators for pad wearing were bent and acting like springs, pushing the pads on the rotor, diminishing mileage.

Over the years, the car was doing an average of 35 mpg on the freeway and @20 in stop and go traffic. The car was quite comfortable to drive, due to soft suspension and many options, including working AC, bluetooth and satellite radio (which we did not subscribe for). In the days prior to the accident it was in its best shape ever, with smooth running engine, good driveability and almost no noise.

On August 19 Angela told me on the phone she had a flat. On the same tire there was another, several months ago when i got it fixed at Les Schwab in Lake Oswego. When she got home, i found low pressure in right rear, enough to trigger the sensor, put the tire in the tub full of water and didn't see any bubbles. I took the tire, for precaution, at the same Les Schwab shop in Lake Oswego.

There i spoke to a guy who resembled the current Finance Minister of Romania. Of course i didn't realize right away. Inside there was this Hungarian opera singer who acted like Phil Wick, Les Schwab's CEO after the death of Les Schwab.

The Romanian guy called me inside the shop which didn't happen in a long time, i went reluctantly after he called me a couple of times and showed me a tire similar to mine that had a damaged rim for about 1/6 length of the whole rim. He told me if it was from a previous installation which was in the same shop and asked me if wanted a new tire, i asked him if he had Michelin, the brand that was originally on car when i got it, he said no, if he can get it by tomorrow, he said we should talk in the morning, he had the number on my record, he then put the tire back on the wheel, inflated it and the wheel in the trunk. He insisted to put it there himself. This car doesn't come with a spare, though it has the space for it in the trunk. I found one at the junkyard, from a Ford that fitted. Though spare was new, the car was not driving the same as with the original wheel, especially at high speeds on the freeway. In the same evening i re-ordered a couple of tires similar to those in front which i changed more than a year ago, similar to the original ones. They were scheduled to arrive Monday, however they came Saturday morning or the day after the accident.

Friday evening i drove to Ilany, after both of us changed our mind, first Angela, then me, not to go that evening. 40 miles one way, had some difficulty driving, the car was drifting a bit, they were lots of drivers with weird LPN like KGB harassing us, as usually in the last few years. So i had to go with the speed limit.

In that day when she came from work she said she saw a light on the dashboard, it was the light showing something wrong with the airbags.

At midnight 20/21 i was coming back doing 60 in a 60 area on cruise control (which is kinda slow i recon). I was in the middle lane, because i was close to the interstate bridge where i don't want to drive on side lanes. Suddenly i noticed i was surrounded by a group of cars, left, right and behind. I saw in the mirror the lights from behind approaching at high speed, probably 20 over the speed limit. I could not change lanes, though the cars left and especially right might have slowed down in that moment, living me alone. Thing is i can't remember, because it all happened very fast. All i know is in my mind i had few options except to tell Angela to brace for impact and probably i accelerated in the last few seconds, reducing the difference in speed between the vehicles. For one second i thought he gave up then he accelerated too and i felt the impact. I was pushed forward at higher speed while all the other cars in the group fell behind. When i realized i still had control of the car i looked, the right lane was free, i veered right, stopped on the shoulder and tried to see his LPN. However when he passed he was surrounded by the other cars. All i could see was the tail of a huge white Ford pickup with the letters 4x4 on the tail. I took a picture of the car which was pretty damaged but still driveable (in the end, after talking to the cops who called a towing company who didn't want to go that far, calling our own towing that wasn't calling back, i drove the 22 miles from there to home, on right lane, and i had to pull over at least one time because of a truck that was coming again threatening from the rear).

The Washington State police came within 5 minutes. The cop looked bored and interested in a car that zoomed at high speed. He left the front lights on onto my car and i could not see his face. He said i should not drive the car back home cause it could not take another hit like that, which in the end almost happened. However, i do remember he looked like this guy.

He then agreed to drive before me (while another Police SUV came from behind, following me) and pilot me to a safe place. He exited the freeway than choose a street with poor illumination, near a property called G&G in the Minnehaha neighborhood of Vancouver, Washington, 2 miles away from Columbia river and Oregon.

There he asked me to write on a form called SUSPECT/WITNESS statement what happened and sign it. Then he asked me this question. What happened right after the impact? Because only those who survived such impact know what happens. The speed of your vehicle increases and that of the vehicles who hit you decreases. I think it was a test question. However, he did not write on the report "hit and run" which could have triggered a call for potential witnesses in the media.

Then he called their contracted towing company which came but refused to tow us "because of the distance". So i called the insurance, but the menus where such designed i had to file the claim first which meant an almost one hour conversation with the insurance claims rep. The cop left, the towing left and we were all alone on the dark street. I had to pee in a bottle i had in the thank that was crushed by the accident. The towing was not coming, i tried to call insurance again, got lost in menus and then i decided to drive back home. As i got on the freeway at around 2 AM, towing called saying they are within 10 minutes distance.

to be continued

September 7

1:38 Just finished fixing my blog. Figured it after hours of searching on forums, had no idea that a bad (disparraged) div tag could mess the home page of my blog (widget moved to bottom of page), up to 5 posts later. No conspiracy, no nothing.

Thinking how i've been metsubushed (again) tonight.

There use to come real Latino guys at Spirit Mountain. Tonight we ran there for a couple of hours (mpg on the truck was 26, mixed, but still has some bad gas in the tank, again mixed), place was pretty empty, machines were pretty tight and we were pretty tired and all i could see was Japanese Chicaons playing there scenes around us. On cameras, with masks and learned gestures is pretty hard to tell i guess. On my way back, i think it was on this point i saw a sweeping car on the right. Probably taking advantage of the direction of the wind. I saw from a distance it because it was yellow flashing in the night. Though i shut the fan, the dust raised settled on the car and minutes later after we passed through that stinking wooded area (stinks like a dead animal, always a fresh one?) i started the fan again. Throat, esophagus, stomach and now intestinal pain. It's fine silica sharp dust scrapped by the wire brush of the sweeper combined with that bacteria that does it. Face burning.

Question. Why my mpg on the truck when new was 23? Until i first (and unfortunatley last) replaced the fuel filter, i think before year 2000, Cindy was still manager at Sussex, when it went 27 until i went for 3 months in Romania in 2004 and when i got back it went to 20 or something.

2:02 Working from home for the TV presenters, even politicians all around the world means they get to stay most of the time near their studios in Hungary, right? Is Dave Salesky presenting the weather from Portland?

BTW. 土 What did i say about all tennis matches being fixed, like all matches in all sports?

10:53 Un fel de bilanț al lui Drulă. Așa cum ne-am dori, periodic, de la toți miniștrii, sau cel puțin la venire și la plecare, însă cu sume numai derizorii și acelea de "bani europeni" (probabil primim înapoi mai puțin decât cele 10 miliarde de lei anual cu care contribuim la bugetul european, cine să ne spună, Ministrul de Finanțe nu știe care este salariul minim).

Multe din proiecte nu sunt ale lui, nu sunt ale predecesorului lui, ci ale predecesorilor predecesorilor lui, de decenii.

Din bilanțul la mișto lipsește bineînțeles suma cheltuită din bugetul nostru de stat indigen anul acesta, "grosul" "activității" lui, care a fost raportată (scăpată sub formă de procent, 80%) de Cîțu pe primele 6 luni, în valoare de aproximativ 2 miliarde de euro, din cei 6 (30 miliarde de lei) prevăzuți la buget pe tot anul.

Pleacă Drulă în pusta lui, vine înapoi alt ministru, alt guvern, pe următoarele miliarde până la sfârșitul anului, la anul, că și acela este un an cu bugetul lui, cu propria "perioadă de grație" în care nu spun nimic și cu iată, "perioada de demisie" în care spun foarte puțin și scandaluri multe și mărunte între. Nu vi se pare că toate aceste schimbări de guvern la 1 an (sau la un buget) din 90 încoace sunt de fapt trageri de timp perene, organizate minuțios?

11:33 Though should not attach a bracket to an exhaust stud!

I took this picture back in 2007. To show what i thought it was a leak on the thermostat housing. Three mechanics replaced that part (which comes with the long black pipe that goes to the core heater attached to it) three times . I was still messed up after the work accident in 1996 (started to come back a bit a few years ago) but the mechanics knew. The leak is actually at the coolant temperature sensor, also attached to that housing. Fixed it Sunday with a quart of a turn of the sensor. However in the picture you can see a bit of the last stud of the exhaust manifold which is kinda oily and shiny, in the forque of a bracket (wasn't even a hole, but a forque, the nut touching only half of its surface). Also an oil leak from the PCV hole (it is not a valve, but a hole in the cover where a rubber hose goes into and then in the intake box before the throttle (PCV through vacuum throttle i guess). That stud looks like that because there is a bracket (by design) attached to it. Truck has been designed by GM in cooperation with ISUZU.

Torque spec for the nut on that stud is 10 ft lbs and that torque doesn't even closes full contact between the bracket which is kinda irregular sheet metal that comes at a bit of an angle and the manifold. The bracket installed in between the nut and the manifold holds the pipe of the oil gauge which is long and heavy and oscillates and opens and closes intermittently an exhaust leak. The seal of the hood was literally twisted and permanently deformed by the heat. I bought one from the junkyard and installed, but didn't realize the importance of adding some adhesive at the ends. The result is i've been breathing exhaust in that truck for decades.

Yes the Hyundai brought some life in me. Because of many luxury features, look and performance i became interested and figured many things, with my today's partly restored brain and i applied back those things finally fixing the truck, after 23 years.

Yesterday i modified the "design" that is i put the nut directly on the manifold, the bracket with another nut after it. Wheel click on a picture for best view

It still runs!

While taking the last picture, the mail lady who just finished the boxes came @ with her 70s nostalgic van to hand me a delivery. I noticed a heavy knock at the engine, the rusted wheels and exhaust surrounding the whole van (she was also kinda dizzy, couldn't scan my item easily), also looking kinda red in her face.

Among other things, in the mail was a letter from US Bank saying it increased APR from 7 to 14 for a balance transfer that was done just a month ago, based on their own offer. What could have changed in our credit history in one month? We still have a valid offer from US Bank we planned to use. Wondering if that is still valid. I suspect is because of what i just said over the weekend about frugal Warren Buffet.

Which means they also shortcuted the normal postal route. Wouldn't be the first time when i suspect this. On a hunch, searching to see who is their CEO cause i know by now (mathematical induction, everybody i searched so for i found) all US financial institution are controlled remotely by some AI software and accountants from Hungary and Japan, with actors as CEOs. Thing is how many i have them still in my lists until i exhaust those and how many will remain unknown.

BTW David, "son of Warren" was acting, for years as a salesperson at the Liquor Store at Zupan Market in Lake Oswego, and one day "Warren" himself, in shorts, was there when i went to buy liquor.

7:11 I was Lucky enough to find Cecere, CEO of US Bank Corporation. I had a checking account with US Bank since September 1995, loocking forward to close it.

But right now i got bigger problems to worry about. When i bought this truck back in 98 i wasn't paying much attention. Like right now, i had bigger problems to worry. I was going to my job as software engineer at Quadramed, in a building near Safeway in a neighborhood i believe called Ralleigh Hills, without knowing that my manager was Andy Carson, one of my colleagues Jeff Gianolla, possibly Shatner, Nimoy, others. Was trying really hard to catch up with Windows programming (only did DOS in my time in Romania), object oriented, version control, remote programming, all new to me. Though i have finished my first project, for a hospital in Corvallis, my stomach pains which now i believe was caused by exhaust, coolant leak, dust and sciatica, made me quit.

We've been in a roll over with our 89 Escort GT, driven by Angela (yes she was driving stick back then but after 22 years of driving automatic, she forgot), one mile to our destination near Cape Meares at Tillamook Bay. So i bought this truck because i liked trucks since i drove them when i was working at Les Schwab, it was a lease first, the truck had a number of problems, should i have ended the lease and buy another one, among those was pulling right really hard, angles on front wheels were all screwed up, suspension was really stiff but the clutch. It was so stiff, Angela could not depress it. In years it brought me some bad sciatic problems, but i was never so sure until now when i started to drive it again. At the third clutch, Steve put one with more human springs, but somehow these days i find it stiff again. After driving the truck in a number of trips, today i could barely walk, i mean, i can walk if i start but if i turn around, there is this sharp pain in my right hip. But it's not in the hip, if i press it with my hand. It's in the sciatic nerves. Also since 2007 had some sort of paralysis which lead to other kinda of problems. And Angela can't drive it.

7:44 Angela read that paper again. It does not affect promotional offers. However our mistake lead to a good thing, it motivated me to find Cicero.

Talking about Cicero.

10:36

10:50

Have You Ever Been Grilled?

Before last weekend i went to wash the car, knowing it had accumulated some invisible dust on it. I assumed the dust went with the water, in the grill and then in the drain under the car. However, it settled there and dried.

In my way to Spirit Mountain, Lincoln City i noticed some shortness of breath. Symptom that has accompanied me for a long time in the last 30 years or so, on an off with times when it lead me to... mental hospitals (cause it was all in my mind, they said). Like the LPN on the SUB Я U in the picture below.

From Lincoln City to Florence i started to feel weird while driving, had some mild hallucinations (i called them fantasies) in a parallel process in my brain. I thought i was under the influence of dog poo at home, tired, because i didn't sleep enough the night before. In Florence it woke me up a fire engine flashing and sirening and everything. I pulled on the right in a pile of broken glass i failed to see. When i got at the casino, no matter how tired i was, i checked the tires, then i went inside. After seeing all kinda weird scenes, including the digital guy with a hamster on his hat who died the next day in the news, i went back in the car and tried to get some sleep. I was awakened about ten times, like in the second i fell asleep, someone put the headlights in my eyes, walked by, looked at me to see if i'm dead, etc., yelling, trumpetting exhausts. Then i called Angela and told her i wanted to go home. To my surprise she came right away and we left.

However the car started to make the sound that i now associate with gasoline contaminated with water. Water in gas clogs the fuel filter, reducing pressure at the injectors, which in turn don't get enough gas to wash the valves that get blow-by-oil from the PCV and the valves start to stick, squishing the lifters, foaming the oil and giving you bad emissions which translates in vibrations, poor driveability and temporary pulsating opening at the exhaust manifold seal, which may end in the cabin through leaks by the grille and seal.

All these made possible by lower than normal voltage at the fuel pump, due to a badly designed battery connector.

On the road, on a hunch i stopped to check the cabin filter and besides being dirty and stinky, it had some engine oil on it. Which i have no idea how could had gotten in there. Removing that one but mostly driving with the windows open got me to Lincoln City. On the right, the previous filter which i saved with the box to find a new one easier in the store. However i started to order it on Amazon, and i already got it, because there you can know when you bought it last time.

Angela said she wanted to go to the restroom, it was half hour before closing time, however she went in and played and lost a couple of hundred dollars (my estimate). Then she drove to Spirit Mountain. Then she went inside, lost some more money and i slept in the car for 4 hours. It's been two days and i still feel weird. Today i found an almost microscopic piece of wood in an invisible area of my belly skin that i extracted with some tweezers using some old lens as magnifying glass. The infection around it started to subside.

Tonight i remembered about the hole in the grill with the missing retainer i saw yesterday when i finally washed the dust on the grill last night. I saw it before and ignored it. Went outside to put some tape on it, checked the symmetric area of the grill and what do i see.

The plastic grill is interrupted, and there is some sort of lid that allows you to feel the master cylinder brake reservoir (When i did brakes, i added some fluid, from under the grille, no problem, didn't even notice that lid). Dust around it, the foam seal has melted long time ago allowing the area from under the hood to communicate with the cabin through the grill. The whole plastic grill is brittle because of heat, i broke a retainer when i tried to close that lid but that doesn't make a difference (foam seal melted anyways, thing was leaking), especially for the 2+2 miles Angela drives to work and back. Tomorrow i need to study the whole area and add some silicone, but that grille is toasted, needs replacement.

What else do i need to say. The engine filter that was changed in the same time with cabin or before, looks like new.

Day after. The thing has a foam seal but it does not seal by design and/or installation. You open it and  you're done. How can you prove it wasn't you who caught that foam in the edge when putting it back? Can see in the left the heat shield of the exhaust. Heat radiated by that side of the engine will ensure cooking of the grill.

Carbon monoxide from tiniest exhaust leak, oil and dust burning on the exhaust would have you daydream from Portland to Coos Bay and back.

Here it is visible it wasn't done recently. I didn't know of when i've done brakes, and i was the first to do it at this car. Design. The small area by the retainers is not sealed because of the shape of the retainers, not being solid. Why use two different materials, foam and rubber to seal the same area?

The day after i complained about dust they started the work across the street from the parking lot at Eaton which continues to this day. Don't know what that soil is but try to imagine what it does when it burns on the exhaust.

Purge Canister Air Filter Solenoid

It's not your grandpa's car anymore. Since the 70s, they introduced a most puzzling concept followed by a number of devices. PCV. It stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation.

It does pretty much what it says. Releases pressure from the engine. Engine runs, pistons open easier especially on admission cycle if there is no pressure on the other side of combustion chamber. Here's an illustration showing how this occurs. A small percentage of the energized gas during combustion cycle pass the piston's rings and pressurizes the main engine compartment or the area beyond pistons.

Up until 70s they had this relief opening on top of the engine that was ending with a small pipe under. Blowby gas is a mixture of unburnt fuel, raw exhaust (not passed through catalytic converter), water vapor and oil vapor.  Due to pollution complaints, that was not acceptable anymore and they came with this idea. Returning those gases in the intake manifold, mix them with air and gas and burn them again. It was called PCV system.

It was working and nobody complained about for a long time. However, if uncontrolled through design, it may produce a variety of problems, including corrosion and mainly condensation of oil on the cold intake runners' walls and pouring in the engine, affecting valves, spark plugs and creating carbon deposits on the top of the cylinder, etc..

The biggest problem of course is carbon deposit on valves which start to interfere with their functioning. Valves become "sticky" that is they can't open anymore at certain engine stages (low RPM, cold engine) by they hydraulic lifters wichi are designed to fill with engine oil to eliminate any play. Oil gets squished out of the lifters and starts foaming, which is a bad condition for the bearings that are lubricated with that oil.

At non GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection engines) has injectors spraying fuel in the intake runners, or before the valves. This help with cleaning of the valves. However, there are new generation high efficiency engines that use little gasoline at cruise speeds and that is not enough to clean those.

Many gas sellers advertise their gas as having cleaning features. This is what they're talking about and it's a real problem.

There are ways to minimize this phenomenon however not used by any manufacturer i know about. You can install an empty can on the return PCV line and have the oil condensate and fall in it. However, it may not work if the pipe before the can is close to the engine and gets hot. Blowby will still pass and condensates inside the intake. Last version of the catch can i installed on the Hyundai uses a corrugated copper pipe that is passed through an larger pipe (empty can) that allow air to flow and prevent heat from engine to reach for it and indeed it minimized the sticky valves phenomenon, becoming marginal and intermittent.

However, there is another problem. Fuel pump filter is not or hardly serviceable at this car, being in the tank and in time fuel pressure start do decrease. This is aggravated by a bad battery and connectors at the battery, lowering the voltage for the fuel pump, bad gasoline or gasoline without alcohol which usually cleans and especially dissolves water.

Last time i filled the car with gasoline at Spirit Mountain Shell i noticed the noise condition improved dramatically. For the first gallon of fuel used or that 50 miles trip back home. The next day it came back to "normal". I figured, maybe it has something to do with vacuum being created inside the tank by the purging system. Another newer anti-pollution feature of cars which insure that the fuel tank does not have and/or releases fuel vapors in the air, with a charcoal canister and a system of valves that allow the computer to "purge" or literally scuk back in the again intake the extra vapors. However, if too much vacuum is being applied to the fuel tank, it starts to interfere with the fuel pump and ultimately the fuel pressure at the injectors. (Some of) the injectors start to drip and can't clean the valves anymore. On this car computer has the possibility to allow atmospheric air to go into the tank to release the vacuum however through a, you guessed, title of the post, a small air filter. Which is on the service list of 30k and is located under the car next to the charcoal canister.

So i opened and closed the tank cap every time when i noticed the noise and mostly at the beginning of every trip and voia! Noise was gone last night for most of the 150 mile round trip to the beaches.

The ironic part is, i had the filter since 2 years ago when i almost figured the problem. But finding oil and manually purging it from the intake and fiddling with the catch can made me forget about it. Also three years ago i almost went for an appointment to replace fuel filter, which doesn't make much sense to replace at this car without the fuel pump.

So today i went and jacked the car and removed the small air filter. I was expecting to find it clogged (and or the air pipe) with pine needles that were built in that area up to half inch when i got the car (from the road she was doing daily probably). That was not the case. But what i found was a solenoid next to filter again used by computer, that could have been intermittently stuck. I poured some 91% isopropyl alcohol in it and it came dirty. I tested it with a meter and a battery and it works and on the bench it doesn't get stuck. I put it back together with the new filter.

In the image representing the whole purge system, solenoid is nr.6, filter is 7.

I figured it would have been useless to go to a dealer and have it done at service interval, if they didn't check the solenoid as well.

Too many times i noticed all these optimizing devices interfere with the function of the vehicle, in the end making the pollution worse because the conditions they create are hard to diagnose, unsignaled by "check engine light" and sometimes expensive to fix not because of parts involved but because of high quality labor and time needed for diagnose. Most mechanics ignore them anyways.

The Story of the Clamp

So far i discovered 4 major weaknesses at my 2013 Hyundai Elantra.

1st. Electronic commanded throttle is vulnerable to dirt (dust + oil). When dirt gets in the bearings of the throttle it changes their behavior. Don't know if anybody every tried. The suction power of the throttle is so great it will pull your hand inside if you try to cover it with your palm while the engine is idling. There is enough force on those two little bearings to create important friction resistance in the bearings if dirt gets in there that would interfere with the usually weak step motors that drives the throttle. The step motor thus may skip steps unaccounted by the computer, or there is a feedback sensor that signals a position that can not be achieved between two steps as prescribed, or in other words, running out of predicted positions. Computer tries to correct that and cannot and that would create an oscillation of the throttle together with an oscillation of the engine that could lead to serious driveability problems at high speed. A little WD40 seemed to cure the problem, for now.
2nd. The top of the radiator with the filler neck is made of composite materials. The radiator cap is too weak and the two threading flaps bend especially if you are careless when you take it out to look at the level and coolant starts leaking. One threading flap is visible in this image appearing closest to viewer. I did not have problems since i sprang those back last summer. However at Jiffy Lube they took the cap to check the level and filled the reservoir. It smells like coolant every time i pop the hood ever since. Also people start coughing in the lot in the very second i pop the hood, but that is another problem, them working on creating false perceptions for those who listen to live streaming sound from cell phones.

3rd. The intake manifold is installed by design the other way around as in the old vehicles. That is under the engine head and in front of the engine. Condensed oil from blow by gases or simply leaking through PCV valve pools at the bottom of the intake. From there, during certain engine stages it starts trickling upwards through the runners in sudden, larger amounts than if it was like in older types, where it flows at more constant amounts contaminating the valves, valve rings and spark plugs.

4th. The intake manifold is made of composite materials instead of metal. The PVC port of the intake is 5/8 inch in diameter. There is no clamp good enough to eliminate any possible vacuum leak at that port when connecting a flexible hose.

Because of the catch can i added to avoid oil getting in the intake i could not use the original hose and spring type clamp that was too week for the hoses i bough at NAPA (fuel line and PCV type).

So far i tried different clamps. Last time i ordered an Amazon a set of 5 different diameters wire clamps (a type also have a little spring action and can adapt to shrinkage of the rubber, to a certain extent) because of price and thinking it will cover any size and surprise. However, when they got in i was surprised that between two of the sizes there is a gap where was missing the exact size i needed.

So i improvised using my experience with clamps for coolant bought at NAPA that were pinching the hose so i had to put a ring made of sheet metal between clamp and hose. But as rubber was giving in i had to tightened them at almost every longer trip (because if i didn't i would get 10% less mpg). And in the end the clamps' thread bent.

And this is where the story comes. I remember i cut the sheet metal for the ring long enough for the two ends of the ring to overlap. In fact, i was afraid that by overtightening the inner end would again pinch the hose. However, when tightening (the next day, after i slept at the hotel) it i was reaching a point of sudden resistance. Mpg was fine in my way there but i assume that after the rubber gave in, it went down. The two ends of the ring under the clamp touched and there was not enough tightening of the hose and vacuum started to leak again (air from outside getting sucked in the intake in an uncontrolled way, bypassing the  throttle). The computer using the sensors senses more oxygen and adds more fuel, beyond the trash-hold of full fuel efficiency. Capisci?
So today i just built another ring and this time i took a picture and put it here before installing to can prove (including to myself) that it overlaps.

Catch Can III

PCV line is a pipe with a valve that allows blowby gas from a combustion engine to go in the intake manifold and be burnt in the engine instead of letting it in the air as before PCV was invented.

Blowby gas is formed by air, exhaust, unburnt fuel, oil vapor and water vapor. Intention is to burn it in the engine by injecting it in the intake manifold instead of letting in the air and stink.

However, some of it and especially the oil vapor part being directed by PCV in the intake in certain conditions condensates in the intake manifold, and end up on valves and/or even on spark plugs.

Some of the newer cars with transversal engines have the intake manifold installed in front of the engine, right after the radiator and under engine's top level. In these air cools the intake (before the engine and radiator gets hot) more like for the intakes installed the other way around or "after" or "behind" the engine from the point of few of direction of air flowing under the hood.

Because these intakes are colder oil condensates in these more than inside the older types installed "behind" the engine.

Catch cans are empty cans with two connectors that allow some of the liquid fractions of the blowby gas to condensates in there before it reaches the intake. But there is a whole science behind those too and i (and many others) where not aware of.

Since catch cans get hot pretty quickly (depending on where the're installed) and are small in volume compared to the intake, they won't allow condensation of all the oil (oil is the most important cause it does not evaporate once it's in the intake or pools at the very bottom of it).

So what else allows condensation besides lower temperature? A drop on pressure does the same trick. (exactly like for the weather). So you have to add an element in the catch can which will drop a bit the pressure of the gas forcing the oil to condensates. (Like mountains in the direction of air flow, which allow clouds formations after air passing them).

Then you have to take care of the condensated oil and make sure it won't "shortcut" through the other connector by sticking something like a piece of metal between those.

The cheap can (25 bucks) i installed does not have such element. Or it has an empty one with holes at one end which are not enough. But i figured i might be able to fill that empty element with wires or washers (some use a kitchen metal sponge) to allow some increased resistance and create a pressure drop. But it's tricky cause pressure drop always restricts the flow.

So i went to Lowes and bought some braided picture hanging wire but also some small washers i will try to fill the empty separator in my cheap can. (A whole scene in there, with a giant cashier, maybe 8' tall and a Japanese woman half his height with red makeup on her face. He even said to her: Your nose is in my butt, could had been an allusion cause there was a very relaxing song earlier at the speakers and i was very... relaxed. It was done with my involuntary participation but the song was put by them. So she appeared red in her face next to the giant, magically, and he said that at that very moment).

Most advanced catch cans on the market are by far made by Mishimoto. Until last year they used a 50 microns sintered bronze element which to my opinion poses to much flow resistance. Still selling it for 100 bucks on Amazon, it had been copied by others already and it is available for under 20 (don't know about the quality though).

That was probably their opinion too cause last year they came with a new design, (what a coincidence, when i started to play around with those) and they call it "high flow catch can" but they won't say what material the separator or flow resistive element is made of. Some sort of oil resistant plastic (nobody other then them would dare to use plastic cause there is the danger of breaking and flowing... into the engine). Probably a protection from being copied again. That one is over 200 bucks.



A description of the older type here:

https://www.mishimoto.com/engineering/2016/01/blow-by-101-what-is-blow-by/

I suddenly figured out that the piece of sheet metal i put in the catch can does not allow expansion of the gas though condensation, lowering  the volume by 1/3. I think it worked better without. I installed picture hanging breaded wire inside the expansion element and now it's ready to go. But it's too late, i will install it on car tomorrow. I put back the original PCV line.

But it is the first time today i realized it's not so simple. The catch can i have has too stages expanding element i now filled with packed wire. Just trying.

Catch Can

Due to normal wearing of cars' engines after several tens of thousands miles hot gases from cylinder start to escape by the ring of the pistons inside the engine or on the other side of the pistons. Since the engine is closed by seals and gaskets, pressure starts to build up. Depending on how much the engine is worn, more ore less gas have to be released in order to obtain maximum efficiency. Also. Exhaust gases may have water and gasoline in them. Water would emulsify the oil and gasoline would thin it.

However those are exhaust gases and unburned fuel, you can't simply let them escape in the air. Most manufacturers choose an option design called PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation). It's a very simple idea. When pressure builds up (certain rpms and engine output) a valve opens (PCV valve) and lets those gases back into the intake manifold. The parameters of the process are more complicated, cause manifold vacuum that varies with the rpm and output. A simple valve is not the best solution but this is what we got on most cars.

PCV valve is usually placed on the valve cover in the highest point to avoid oil that splashes to escape into the circuit and into the intake with the gases. However that is an ideal that never happens.

Every time when i replaced a PCV valve i saw it had oil in it. And sometimes oil cooks in there and stuck the ball and spring of the valve either open or closed, again decreasing engine efficiency. But i never had a major problem with it until i owned a Hyundai.

Hyundais are different from other cars at least by two accounts. Valve cover is minimalistically low. Main design engineer there who worked at Daimler chose to copy an improvement from Daimler which they also took from diesel engines. The so called swirl flaps. There are two rows of butterfly like valves inside the manifold that open and close according to vacuum (first row) and actuated by computer (second). Those are installed in there to create turbulence and again get you a few percent of more gas mileage.

Now comes the interesting part.

I recently installed a modified filter for water to catch the oil from PCV line. The filter was transparent and i could see inside it's not only oil coming on PCV line. Oil is emulsified by the water present in exhaust. When that emulsion ends in the intake somehow interferes with the functioning of the first row of flaps, those actuated by vacuum. It changes the weight of the flaps on one end and they start oscillating, creating variations in engine's functioning which in the end translate in vibration. Vibration that surpasses the design performance of the exhaust manifold sealing gasket and starting intermittent exhaust leaks. Again vibration transmits to the hood that intermittently opens and let small amounts of exhaust pass by the seal and into the cabin fan intake. Shall i say more?

The filter i installed after a few improvements catches most of that emulsion however it restricts the flow of gasses at certain rpms decreasing efficiency.

The problem is known to car enthusiasts from race cars. There are what they call oil catch cans that costs up to hundreds of dollars. I once found a cheap one on Amazon made of blue anodized aluminum, looking nice and shiny, and... one quart capacity (hard to find a place under the hoos).

The lead's sealing gasket was made of cardboard and looked weak and i didn't want to take the chance for parts of that gasket to get into the intake so i sent it back. Drop of efficiency with installed filter is more severe in town and generally when accelerating when pressure builds up inside engine. I finally decided to build my own catch can. First i went to NAPA to buy some connectors. Had no idea what to attach them to. The idea was to go later to Home Depot or Lowes an buy anything that looked close to a can and had a detachable lead (you need a detachable lead because you have to screw the connectors). However, conveniently next to the connector there was what they call a "brake bleeder".

Don't know, in auto mechanics slang, for some reason they call purging of the brake fluid "bleeding". At Les Schwab they even have the so called "power bleeder" LOL. It's some sort of round reservoir with several gallons of brake fluid in it where at one end you attach a hose with compressed air and the other all sorts of adapters that go in the place of master cylinder reservoir. Pressurized brake fluid would go into the reservoir. On cars at each wheels brake caliper and pistons have a small screws with halls call again... "bleeder". You unscrew those a bit and usually can have someone press on the pedal to "bleed" the system then screw them back when the pedal goes up. With the power bleeder though, one person can do it. But it's very wasteful. The caps would not fit really well on top of master cylinders and much fluid is lost on the floor. However. You could purge the whole brake fluid from lines and reservoir and cylinder and replace it with new one.

The brake bleeder from NAPA works in the opposite way. You are supposed to attach a vacuum hose (supposed you have a vacuum pump) at one end and connect it to the bleeders at the wheels. Or just attach it and use it to just collect the fluid. While pumping on the pedal fluid would not go on the floor but in the can and air would go out on the other connector. Why it was there at NAPA next to the air connectors? Did they know i was looking for something just like it?

Anyways. It has a tight sealed lead, two connectors and it seemed to fit the purpose. However when i came home and cut those connectors which where too small and again would obstruct the PCV flow, i realized it was all made of cheaper plastic, not nylon as i thought. There is a serious chance it would melt at summer. While working at it was thinking of gluing those connectors that i almost self thread in the very tight holes i made in place of built in connectors, an idea came to me. Why not making the whole thing out of a... tin can. Drill the holes, force self thread the connectors, use JB weld to seal them and voila. Only trouble would be i would not be able to see inside and empty the can. Don't know yet.

Focus On Me

After the landscape guys came in Friday they blew some mulch in and partially covered one of the vents of the basement, the one i just cleaned the night before. The nearest to the exhaust pipes from driers where probably there's a broken one. I noticed in the last couple of days no new mole mounds in the yard, don't know about dog poo but it doesn't look like it smells.

Yesterday i vacuumed the apartment. Angela bought Fabreeze bags at Walmart (Bissel nr.7). However the're not as good as Arm and Hammer. Some dust went past them. I vacuum about every month or so, and when i do it it stinks in here about 24 hours. The new Winix filter i bought online from Home Depot has an air quality sensor. But what i call "the after vacuum stink" is not even showing on that one.

The guy with the blue Dodge, after more than two months break started to make the terrible noise again within last two days. Yesterday he started it and went for short trips more than 5 times, including after midnight. I think it stopped the day when i posted the picture of Ariana Grande's ex boyfriend saying he looked like him, the guy with the blue Dodge pickup.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/camp-halfblood-roleplay/images/0/0c/Jai-brooks-luke-brooks-nirvana-sexy-Favim.com-2621588.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150603035502

After the old man upstairs moved in early September i haven't been using his parking spot next to ours. However other people started to use it and random cars where being parked next to ours.

So i decided to better use it myself. It didn't seem right for me to park it elsewhere and occupy a much sought for visitor's spot while others to use this one.

Two days ago a team of three maintenance techs went upstairs for about 10 minutes. It seem they didn't have a place to park their cart.

Yesterday they came again and dusted the garages next to our building. Something i've done once about 2 years ago. There was so much dust, back then it looked like they haven't been dusted for many years. Again they parked next to my truck, in the alley. In three years i haven't seen them dusting any of the building except once. I dusted this building three times only this year.

Today, after using that spot for about a month this morning i found a warning label on my truck's right door's window saying to move it or it will be towed.

I think the Dodge noise stopped after i posted this resemblance she showed herself here walking a dog, i saw here when i took out the garbage.

https://similarities-asemanari.blogspot.com/2018/10/ariana-grande-szilagyi-dorottya.html

I think after what i posted in the last few days the're trying to move focus on myself.

Last time i saw a warning sign on my truck was in the evening of July 4th, when i came back from a trip in California. I came back a day earlier than estimated time because i drove almost 1000 miles in two days. The truck had a slashed tire and was to be towed the next day. A week later, after i put new tires on it, another one slashed. This time the drive of the towing truck looked like that guy from Patriot Prayer, Joey Gibson.

Had big problems with the new car. Oil was getting in the intake manifold through PCV circuit interfering with the swirl flaps, new efficiency additions taken from diesel engines. Oscillating swirl flaps meant engine vibrating, temporary exhaust leaks.

Got the car from an auction, Copart. It was sold under the category of "small dents and scrathces". However it was sold the second time. The car has been in a wreck, somebody bought it, partially fixed it and and sold it back in a different category. When i got at home i saw the engine was vibrating (because of oil in the manifold), there was a broken headlight and windshield reservoir in the trunk, car was painted on the right side including the door. Hood was slightly bent and out of alignment and was not making contact with the seal, exhaust getting in the cabin. Radiator's coolant cap was loose and leaking coolant, there was some sort of salt from the road crystallized on the windshield, etc.. https://www.copart.com/lot/29697838/?eid=email_G2US_mktg_transactional_BT_US_1007_Buyer_Seller_Counters_Rec



A few weeks ago i found a lot of oil in the filter in installed but after i changed oil i think it stopped. Last time at Jiffy Lube on 99 in Tigard they put by mistake 5W30 instead of 5W20 as recommended. Before that at dealerships in Beaverton and Salt Lake City they overfilled it and that caused small amounts of oil to flow through PCV valve. Every time i was getting in tire pressure was changed, including during the trips.

Exhaust and coolant in the cabin, poor driveability, all where potentially safety problems, and i drove it like that more than 5000 miles in two trips across many states in the west.

One of the guys of the maintenance team, the one who speeding with his cart in the parking lot disappeared after i posted this https://similarities-asemanari.blogspot.com/2018/11/radu-almasan-laszlo-barnak.html, and after i thought he just might have looked like him.

I think i've identified some of the others, as being some of the team of Christa Jakobson, ex-Chris Jacobson, ex Chris Brooks (not the famous athlete), a ninja instructor,  her(himself) acting as the handy-woman (middle of the picture). They seem not to be present here all the time. One of the guys disappeared after i posted what i thought to be his picture, he's got his own ninja school somewhere but i forgot his name now but he showed back about a week ago.

In this happy ninja group picture he might be the one on the lower left.


Just remembered now. This ninja dude from Christa's team looks exactly like Matt Bennett. Beware ninja use all kinda tricks with modified teeth.  (All current fighting technics in modern Japanese martial arts derive from ninjutsu which is at least 900 years old, however ninjutsu is much more than this and includes acting, other performing art, person substituting, disguising, infiltrating, mastering psychology, etc..)

Today as i was writing this post somebody went upstairs and starting making noises. That reminds me of the month from hell that started several weeks after the old man moved from upstairs, when they took out all the old appliances fainted, fixed cabinets etc.. for at least 8 hours a day in the morning. They were times when i simply had to leave because of the noise, smell, etc.. Angela just looked online ans saw the add for the apartment was taken out which means probably somebody is moving in and that explains the warning label on my truck. At least there was no squeaking noises upstairs for the last three months but that is about to change.

Unincorporated

It is unclear to me to this day what makes in the US living in a city or county optional. I met with this situation when i tried to figure the county of residence when i was living in Lake Oswego. Though the address was in Lake Oswego and most of Lake Oswego was in Clackamas county my address was showing Multomah county (old Native American names). Apparently one small northern area of Lake Oswego is part of a Multnomah county. But the situation is so confusing even authorities have trouble figuring it out (had trouble explaining to the Police what county i was living in when making a complaint, BTW, there are no forms on which one can make a written complaint to a local Police or FBI) also i once saw a car from Clackamas county sanitation inspection or something inspecting the area. It is also confusing regarding jurisdiction of local polices and courts.
But there are situations when an address is not within neither a city or a county. Apparently freedom or tradition in the US can go to such an extreme where people may choose to be or not to be part of any city or county.

https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0082/twps0082.html

That's why sometimes is difficult to asses the limits of a city or county. This morning i left Tualatin, went through Tigard (pronounced like the word tiger) and ended in Sherwood after a 5.3 miles trip for a... walk in the park. All three cities are part of Washington County, OR but who can really know...

BTW. Talking about city limits and counties, Tualatin, Tigard (pronounced like tiger) and Lake Oswego (which name which doesn't have to do with local anything reminds of... Lee Oswald) and the whole Portland area are built on a lava field called Boring Lava Field with many extinct volcanoes among which most interesting is Mount Sylvania, on which Mountain Park community where i lived 5 years was built in the 70s.

What a feat for the Church of Scientology who have volcanoes at the center of their belief system.

Portland is also built at the merging point of two great rivers so it fits somehow the biblical definition of "city of many waters" though it competes with many other cities in the world for it.

But was my attempt successful? After all the trouble i went through to get there which included passing through the cloud of wood alcohol emanated at the composting factory near 99, near the huge school buses depot, i had to turn around and get quickly into my car because of... smoke.

But not before i took several pictures, in an attempt to figure where the smoke was coming for. Then i drove in the direction of one of the plumes and got lucky and took some video and pictures together with the address.

On my way there i was thinking that last summer about 90% of the time there was smoke during my trips and most of the times it started way after i got there or at the end of it. Mainly, if the wind was blowing from west, then i was done. At time i had surgical masks in my pocket which diminishes aerosols (of which most of the smoke is made of).

Also. Last trick. (i'm editing this post now, i just figured what happened right when finishing it). Before i left the first time i tried again to suck more oil from the intake with the vacuum. Very little came this time. Then i saw a an Asian guy in a on older Kia van idling in the spot next to my car. He turned his big fat head around so i couldn't see his face. His van's exhaust was stinking really bad for 5 to ten minutes (they knew how long was going to last from previous attempts last few days) his exhaust was so strong i actually had to give up. Then at the intersection of 124 and 99 where i was waiting at the stop light there was this huge engine not so big truck that actually went right that was vibrating my car. Right behind me there was a woman in a white older car with out of state LPT. I assume now the vibration of that truck shook the exhaust that probably filled my car (especially the trunk since i left windows open for a while). (suddenly now blogger severely cuts resolution for pictures linked here from drive which became very slow, got to download them and upload them again to be seen at full resolution).

Chapman Rd, Shwerwood?
There is a similar smoke inside the apartment most likely coming from burning asphalt dust on the fridge's coils. (Got to mop the floor every day because i go at the car all the time, still got some oil left in the intake). A couple of hours later went back to the Refuge. On my way there i took some pictures of the compost facility next withing a couple of hundred ft from 99. Interestingly how the big piles of compost are being covered from view by some mounds of gravel and other materials. There is a new Subaru dealership next to it i didn't see before. At the time i took the picture the hole place was smelling nicely like freshly milled pine.
Here's a story from media about it too. Apparently they're too blonde to figure out it's wood alcohol from fermenting wood chips (aka methanol, very toxic BTW).
There in the parking lot i almost didn't see this Verizon or whatever truck parked in the middle of it (if it came there for wi-fi or something should had parked near the main building). (i figure know why that Jap was staring at me while i passed him, the ninja was probably waiting for me to take that shot).

This time i went inside and talked to a beautiful senior citizen of another country judging by the accent. Feels good when you see foreigners helping this country. I saw a couple of scopes next to a big clear observation window at the end of the lobby. She let me point the scope next to the large window to better view one of the three remaining fires. She also said "if it's an agricultural fire they probably have a permit and their permits are going to end soon" (like they never did last year) "if it was that bad the neighbors would complain" bla bla. I think that's a good point, how come the citizens of Sherwood never complain of those (and i have a theory for it, the city is actually deserted and there are only mimes living there that show on streets when someone passes by). I asked  her repeatedly if she knows the approximate address of the fires, all she could say was the're above the city of Sherwood. I told her how the birds are going to come this year if there's smoke etc..

I had the inspiration to put my phone next to the scope and took a picture. But as soon as i got outside that fire was out like it's never been there. Two more to go. Then i realized i should have asked the password for the wi-fi there so i can upload the picture. First she said it wasn't working (i had the prompt screen for the password for a wi-fi called FOR, i assumed it was Friends of the Refuge) then she said she doesn't know the password.
I only took one pictures from outside with the DSLR unfortunately it's blurred (moved), But one can still see the high voltage pillar right in the middle where the fire was behind. However there's a whole city between the pillar and where i saw the fire but most likely the fire is on the Refuge side or near side of the city. I think that pillar is right a the transformer station near Walmart, Target and the other stores.

Most likely the main fire was somewhere on this line.
On my way back home this white cube popped in front of me for some reason. That is the approximate millage of the Hyundai when i got it. Don't know if this is voodoo or something similar.
In the last three days (i actually done the first time Sunday) every day i pulled some oil from the intake. Every day less. Oil got in there through the PCV valve when engine started to wear out (go 40 k miles now), due to blow by pressure increase and overfills. Today i didn't pull much but still some. I figured car sits in the parking spot at a slight angle to the left (much bigger to the rear) and more oil gathers through gravity from the walls of the intake on the side with cylinder nr.1. When i start the engine, the flow of air (1500 rpm during warm up it then drops to half) raises the oil from the puddle in the nr.1 pipe all the way to the valves and makes the valve stick). Now i stopped the flow from the PCV by leveling the oil to normal at Jiffy Lube, installing a filter on the PCV line but i also had to either take the intake apart and clean it or do some successive... suctions out of it. It is visible on the transparent vacuum pipe. I used the vacuum with an attachment made of transparent vynil tubing. No oil got so far as the bag inside. It is remarkable how the famous Hyundai ticking sound stops when i pull oil from the intake.

But it's not only a simple tick. It comes with a partial misfire due to sticking valve ignored by the computer because it has purely mechanical causes. That leads to engine imbalance and small exhaust leaks. That together with the aerodynamic shape of the vehicle that builds negative pressure on the surface, thus also at the seal between hood and body, where cabin fan pulls the air, finally may lead to exhaust in the cabin.

And it can be done selectively, by overfilling at the dealership.
If you own a Hyundai (to my best knowledge newer that 2010 that ticks) this is what you should do.

Find an loose the screw on the clamp on the hose on throttle body and expose throttle (about 1 minute job with a longer Philips screwdriver). Gently push throttle at the bottom end with one finger.


Inspect the intake on the inside with a flashlight. If you see oil on the surface, you can do one of the following:

If still under warranty go to a dealer and asked them to clean the intake from oil and stop the leak.

If not.

While keeping the throttle open with your finger insert in the first intake pipe from the throttle (nr.4 cylinder) (or second or third depending of how much you can see and feel) a piece of tubing from a transfer pump bought at O'Reillys, NAPA, etc.. (around 10 dollars). Have someone pump oil from the intake while fiddling with the tubing inside the intake trying to reach bottom).

Or use a device like the one on top (vacuum cleaner hose will get dirty with oil but it can be cleaned).

Or go to a shop and have the intake taken out and cleaned - at least 300 dollars.

Etc..

Also check oil level and replace PCV valve. If oil level on the gauge is above High sign go to Jiffy Lube and have them level the oil (it needs a crush washer and an experienced mechanic that can replace it fast enough). Some may find it difficult to figure oil level on a Hyundai gauge because of the color and shape of the gauge.

Clean and check the PCV line. If you can see oil after replacing PCV valve and leveling oil and then driving you should install a small compressor filter (7 bucks at Lowes) on the PCV line.

If you can still see oil getting in the intake you can do one of the following.

Get rid of the car.

Sue Hyundai in small claims court.

***Next day***

I think i got the ideal tool for the job. It's got enough flow and vacuum to suck a bit of oil from the bottom of the intake. I will try it later when the oil will settle at the bottom more. And it was all ten bucks and 30 miles drive to two Walmorts. I can now take it in the car and do it every time i want (hopefully one day i will suck all oil from the intake, what happens the thing is very complicated and has numerous places where oil hides and when you drive it some will reach at the bottom where i can pick it from). However it makes alomost as much noise as the vacuum i used until now. It's going to probably spit oil at the output port but who cares since i can remove it from where it shouldn't be (I can maybe use a rag or even a vacuum bag). https://www.walmart.com/ip/Intex-12-Volt-Quick-Fill-Electric-Pump/23894708
It worked as expected. I went in the parking lot at Fry's (too much noise here) but ran into more trouble. Stuck in traffic on I5 (one lane closed due to work), people seem to be curious about what i was doing, i went in one corner of that huge almost empty parking lot to be alone, the started to pop near me. Exactly like it happened with the vacuum, i could only pull a small amount of oil, about 2 spoons or maybe an ounce. Traffic on I5 nearby almost stop and some very bad oil burning smoking vehicle(s) filled the place with so much smoke i had to leave not before getting a headache. In the video i only caught the last few seconds of the flowing before oil finished.

Also got a new theory about the noise. In early google searches about the intake of this car i saw some butterfly like or throttle like valves inside each runners on some diagrams. Can't see them anymore on any type of search i try. Today i found out the're called swirl flaps. Today it felt like i reached some moving parts with the tube (this time guided with a piece of coat hanger wire all wrapped in gorilla tape). Decided to research about those. They are like i said throttle or butterfly like valves on newer engines' manifolds that create turbulence inside the runners in order to improve fuel efficiency and are actuated either by vacuum or by electric actuator. I think somehow oil inside manifold interferes with functioning of those, most likely by unwanted lubrication and/or corroding of plastic parts. The only video i could find about those (very little info as very few know about those) is about a Ford, though it makes a similar noise with my car. Note how the guy seem to completely ignore the fact that his manifold and parts are also soaked with oil which may be the cause of all troubles for the swirls flaps, apparently yet another German invention.

"Early Duratec HE motors had problematic tumble flaps which tended to fail and dump pieces of their metal rod into the engine's intake ports, leading to disaster." (first comment on the video).
After doing all this i felt like going for a walk. When i got at the refuge, surprise. No smoke coming from the hills. Just some... progressive housekeeping going on. A guy first on foot then with some sort of vehicle with a mask and/or helmet was spraying something near the trail near the entrance exactly where the wind was blowing for towards my car. So i just went to the other entrance. There came a woman with small children about the same age or close that didn't seem to be her etc..

2013 Elantra

Here starts the weekend story at the end of which would probably find out why Microsoft shares raised so much starting Wednesday this week. People could have been curious about why i wasn't writing about it anymore. It was a few weeks false hope mixed with despair waiting for a conclusion which didn't happened yet but almost. Cause we spent our last credit reserve to buy a car to replace the 24 years old Sentra.

So one day around the beginning of the month i a signed with Copart, a place where insurances sell cars they bought for customers after reimbursing them the whole market value of the car. I know it sounds strange but here's how it happens. The car gets wrecked and the cost of repair is over the cost of the market value of the car. In which case the owner can't say anything if he is paid that value. Usually with that money the owner can get from a dealer a similar car. Though i don't believe it is 100% moral or equivalent cause buying a used car involves a great deal of stress especially since you don't know how the ex owner took care of. It could probably work with people who don't care much about their cars. Like the owner of this car i bought from auction. The battery was not replaced at the recommended year interval. At 5 years of battery age you could not start it again after it was jump started and run it for an undetermined interval of time. Throttle body was supposed to be cleaned at 30,000 miles on owner's expense but wasn't. At 35 it wasn't and had a hesitation and i cleaned it 3 times, twice with alcohol and once with CRC and finally gut rid of all the gunk built in there.

What happens is car's got an electronic throttle, without cable and a step motor instead. The step motor's power is limited. The computer knows how to open the injectors based on the position of the throttle (and other sensors). When the throttle is almost closed or pedal barely touched like most of the time the dirt counts for a significant amount of opening or extra closing to be more exact and engine gets less oxygen and more fuel contributing to bad mileage and overheating the catalytic converter. Also the dirt could cause the step motor to skip steps and be into a different position or hesitate to open. All these also translate into erratic driveability and bad mileage.

Also. There is no scheduled interval to service the brakes until this mileage. The brakes had a dead interval of about half inch. Which means you applied them and they won't react until you press about half inch. Then they would have a tendency of braking to hard or almost looking. A few days ago with the help of Angela who pressed the pedal i removed a single bubble of air in both front brakes, didn't have time for the rest. Brakes work now normally.

Also. At high speed it had the tendency of pulling both sides, depending on the state of the road (right now I5 between 217 and 205 is a mess in both ways. With deep grooves and now with extra grooves from removing the white markings because of the enlargement work). At the alignment they told me both front toe angles where out of specs, towards the exterior of the car. That is left wheel towards left and right to right.

There was a flat tire fixed with the kit the car had. Fixed that one for free at Les Schwab.

All these things dramatically decreased the driveability of the car and most likely contributed to the accident.

The car was initially sold at Copart by State Farm. On the windshield it had a C and a D which means was on lane C at the first sale and on D at the second. Lane D i think is for vehicles that are driveable and usable or in top shape (for a place like Copart).

The car initially had been in a fender bender which broke the left headlight and slightly bent the hood. There is a few mm misalignment between hood and fenders barely visible. Obviously not visible in the picture above and not by us when we went there at Copart location in North Portland saw it. Also saw a lot of cars that day.

But whoever bought the car the first time from State Farm fixed it partially. That is he put a headlight in there and made it look like it had not been in a wreck. Which worked for us. Than he put it back in the auction with of course the intention to make some money of it. Because the letter C from the windshield was never erased but just put in parenthesis it is possible the car was never taken out of the lot but fixed there and all paperwork faked.

Copart has some qualifications for each car. Probably not legally binding since the cars are sold "as is" and without any warranty. However misleading since you see a car that is qualified with "minor dents and scratches" and in reality had been hit and with mechanical problems and partially repaired. Qualifications that are shown on all the other cars.

We went to see the car about a week before the day of the auction. I remember there was a funny sweet smell brought on the lot by the wind in that day. Some Arab guy asked me a question. When i got home we went and bought Teryaki and had a severe dysphagia episode (the kind that brought me to ER a couple of times but never checked in).

The auction itself took place on 4/4. I added some money on my Copart account. (For each thousand dollars you bid except for the first you have to have 100 dollars deposit). In that day Angela took some hours from work and we both had the pleasure to bid at the first ever online auction in our lives.

It was very similar with a video game at the Casino. You would see the amount raising as people bid by clicking their mice in different location of the world. There was some repetitive music and comments. Finally got to "our" car. After passing a certain amount, i think 3000, it was only me and somebody from Alaska bidding (yes you can bid from out of state and other countries and have the car delivered). That guy was bidding because he had not seen the car. Me because i haven't seen it enough and certainly was not thinking of buying it in the moment i saw it. I won the auction at 3450. With Copart fees of which the biggest is "Internet Bidding Fee" around 800 for that value and other fees total price should had been 4150. But a few hours later i got an email from Copart saying the owner had raised the price with 900. That is because again the car had a qualification on it saying "on approval" which means the seller has to approve the final price. Kinda goes against any idea of auction i particpated in the past, in fact only one. So the seller rose the price 900 after basically winning the auction which i did not accept. To my surprise, got a few more emails from Copart saying the owner had made new offers, lowering the price in the end to 150 dollars more than final bid which i accepted. With Copart fees it bought the car at 4325 dollars or something like that can't remember the exact amount to dollars.

In that day i went to Copart to see the car i didn't look really close to it cause wasn't thinking seriously of buying it. Cause i would have seen:

The battery was dead.

There was a broken headlight and windshield reservoir in the trunk.

The engine was making a ticking sound.

The paint on the hood was corroded by boiled coolant.

There was a C and a D on the windshield (The guy from Alaska would have seen that in the pictures too if he knew what it meant. I guess not. Both C and D are not visible in the pictures).

I brought the car home in the Friday after the auction. That is April 6. In that morning i first drove myself to Copart and paid. They say they can arrange towing for 52 bucks but next week (later i saw it was for 152). I decided to drive the car home in that day.

After buying insurance, a permit from DMV (which was initially wrote with the wrong VIN number). The guy from insurance signed it for liability only and asked him to upgrade it. When he heard the car was totaled he hesitated but in the end he hand-wrote on the initial offer "upgraded to comprehensive and collision" and initialized. Later the paperwork came in the mail with liability only. (After a show last Friday with the owner of the agency and telling him my Sentra was totaled when i bought it and paid full coverage since 1999 until i decided a few years ago to go liability only because the car was not worth it he changed his mind and gave me full coverage for about 80 dollars a month which is a great rate. Don't know if there's any catch yet).

Angela drove me there in the afternoon or i drove with her (can't remember i was very tired from not sleeping enough that night). At Copart a guy drove the car outside the lot and let it running which seemed odd. Angela said she saw some white smoke coming out of the tailpipe which i didn't. For some reason i stopped the engine. I was amazed by the number of options and button and lights and indicators the car had. And the look. Our newest car (truck) is since 98.

Then when i wanted to restart it and it wouldn't. Then i dared and popped the hood and saw it  was missing coolant. Oil looked ok. I added some water and asked the same guys in there to give me a jump start figuring the battery was dead both by age and sitting unused for a winter in the auction lot.

That worried me a bit thinking i have to drive it home with almost no battery having an electrical power steering (EPS). However i did it. But when i started driving it i first heard a noise at the engine.

However it was too late. I came home and checked coolant again. In the radiator it was low again. I noticed by feeling the radiator's hose that softened too soon after i stopped the engine. It should hold pressure for at least about 10 minutes. (I know this trick from mechanics i went to who would check the hose by squeezing in hand before opening the radiator's cap. My car holds pressure for about 3 minutes only.)

The exhaust has a strange smell of ammonia. Could it be the newer cats, or the combination of unburnt fuel from burning reach and small amounts of coolant. Something DEQ or sensors on your car don't even search for. http://www.cnn.com/2000/fyi/real.life/12/18/car.pollution/

Had trouble restarting it. Jumped started it several times before deciding to buy a battery from the dealer (cause the last one i bought one at NAPA leaks so i decided to take no chances with the EPS).

I was driving the car around to see how it does. I even went to the casino a couple of times. In the mean time i realized the noise was from the front of the engine. I replace the belt which had two indentations probably from a foreign object than from jumping. I tried to remove the water pump pulley but there is not enough room between the engine and the frame to do so. However reinstalling the pulley i noticed the wobble was much smaller. But the next day would come back. I did that several times.

In the mean time i read about noises and figured it might be a piston slap. About two weeks ago i ordered an endoscope from Amazon for about 12 buck. That is a small camera with a USB connector that can go inside a cylinder and take pictures. The camera came two weekends ago but i haven't use it until last Sunday. I haven't seen any scoring of the cylinders due to piston slap. I was intrigued by the strange shape of the pistons with valve relief indentations and the fact pistons were made of cast iron instead of aluminum. The whole engine is made of aluminum with cast iron sleeves inside cylinders.

But first think i saw was a drop of oil on one of the pistons. That came right out of the thread of the spark plug in cylinder number one after i removed it. There was oil in the spark plug compartment i don't know from where. Spark plug number one had zero torque on it while the others were very loose. So i took several pictures from inside the cylinders, cleaned the spark plugs and put them back until the next day when i bought NGK irridium only (no laser welded) which have a more irregular shape of the tip.



Most of the ticking noise that was from an exhaust leak in cylinder number 1 was gone. I was quite happy after finding that oil and that loose spark plug thinking my troubles are gone. But i was wrong. Original spark plugs where NGK irridium laser which are good for up to 80 thousand miles. I put in NGK irridum (only) which are 8 bucks a piece expected to work up to 50 thousand miles. But i could not find on the internet the right gap. Original ones were gaped between 38 and 40 mills so i gaped the new ones at 36. However i found out later at the dealer that the specs are 39 to 44. Can't remove to re-gap them cause the built in washers are one use only. The smaller gap accounts for a delay in timing which means worse mileage.

The serpentine belt i replaced in the few days after getting the thing. It had two indentations from two foreign objects. One that passed between the belt and water pump pulley. The other that passed on the other side of the belt between the belt and crankshaft pulley. Both pulley are wobbling a few tenth of mm. That is enough to vibrate the AC compressor to the point of getting the connectors loose and start a leak.

But there's more. I think the belt jumped from the pulleys. The engine might have been run without water pump rotating for a few minutes until boiled and corroded the paint on the hood. Though only on the outside. There is nothing on the inside. With that and the constant disappearing of coolant today i reviewed the pictures i took the other Sunday. And guess what i found in two of them.



The green spots in the lower side of the first picture and middle of the second could be none but coolant.

But there is a whole story with the pictures too. I bought the endoscope which is a tiny camera with LEDs and the end of an USB cable from Amazon being advertised as working with Android which it didn't. But it worked with Windows. So i put the all in one Angela's computer on top of the engine and through the spark plug holes took the pictures. But it was sunny that day and didn't see much on the screen outside. Then i looked at the pictures inside but not at all of them and only looking for cylinder scoring. I didn't see in three of the pictures there was coolant on top of the piston.

Now i figured what would have happened at Copart after coolant leaked in significant amounts inside of a cylinder after staying there for a while. When they started it they might have bent a valve because coolant acted as a hydraulic fluid when engine was turned to be started. But i don't hear any valve ticking with the stethoscope. Only injectors.

Also each morning i start the car the water pump is wobbling severely and makes a noise. If i loosen the belt and all four connecting screws of the pulley and tighten everything back again the vibration is brought to a minimum.

Today i went to several places with the pictures on a tablet. They gave me estimates for a head gasket which would be broken in order for the coolant to leak in there. Starting at 600 and ending with 12 to 18 hundred at the dealer (in case there's a bent valve). It's not that bad but when thinking about the water pump and possibly the crankshaft itself bent for the short distance outside the engine, i don't know. It looks like i got myself in big trouble.

Today when i looked at the pictures and copied them on the tablet i saw the location is... Microsoft One drive. It looks Windows 10 generously moves files from your computer without asking in the cloud from where they can be seen by anybody with a password. And Angela does not have a very strong password for her Microsoft account.

Yesterday i went to Hyundai dealership in Beaverton and changed oil and also serviced the AC. There was a puddle of oil from AC on a plastic cover and the screws from the connector to the compressor showed traces of being turned with tools. When i left the car was sluggish. This morning had a few misfires and i hear new ticks all the way to the bottom of the engine. I think they did things to make that engine worse. Now when i accelerate i hear a bit of misfires. Maybe filled a cylinder with oil and bent some valves which can be blamed on the starting at Copart wth coolant in a cylinder. Just to make it break soon and cover other Hyundai specific defects.

I think the recall with the thing in the brake pedal is to cover the problem of air bubbles in the braking system. They are changing a little plastic thing behind the brake pedal. In reality they are airing the brakes real quick.

There are two technicians there i talked to. Dan and Brandon. Brandon took care of the car yesterday and Dan today was nervous and kinda hostile when i showed him the pictures with the inside of the cylinders.

While i was writing here the place got filled with some smoke that got me a bit high.

When i came back i talked to Angela and considered all options. One is to buy a new engine. When i talked to the dealer again to ask for a price they said they can't give me any cause the company they work with was closed at that time. When i asked for a wild interval or "order of magnitude" they put me on hold indefinitely.

While i was finishing writing above the end the place got filled with some sort of smoke making hard to concentrate. I just went outside for a walk and remembered. The type of the engine. But it's not only this episode that is a set up. I remember the day i drove to Steve, owner of Lucky Autobody where i went with my vehicles for the last ten years with my hands full of foam that i could not clean. I was holding my both hands crossed on the steering wheel and they looked like mummy wrapped when i was waiting at the red light on TV Highway in Beaverton in front of City Hall when a guy passed the red light just to have the camera started and get a picture of me. A few days later i first saw the Gangnam style video on youtube. He was holding his hands the same way i did a few days before when riding an imaginary horse. For a while now i believe Psy and Kim whatever are the same persons.

Also the guy upstairs and at least the woman at Apt.9 here looks Korean.

Daewoo was also present in Romania for a number of years with a factory. Craiova is knwon in Romania as being the center of far right. In 1995 just before i came here i went in Bucharest to a meeting of reverend Moon dragged in there by and ex High Shcool class mate, the guy who looked like Travolta.



"This vehicle is being sold as is where is".

That includes the description for primary damage, MINOR DENTS AND SCRATCHES, secondary damage, none? There are many other cars in there with damage descriptions like MECHANICAL PROBLEMS, FRONT, REAR, PARTIAL REPAIRS etc. The car was first sold from State Farm to Copart then some guy bought it, partially repaired on the spot and reintroduced it in the auction. Copart new about the initial damage and partial repairs but did not disclose them.

Just went to Multnomah County site where the address of Copart 6900 NE Cornfoot Drive, Building 1, Portland, OR 97218 belongs thinking about downloading forms for small claims court. However i feel discouraged to continue. Lately this whole area including Portland feels like under occupation. What do i want with a small claim when there are such problems going on.


https://multco.us/

https://multco.us/https://www.google.com/search?q=mayor+of+portland+sanctuary

Updated 05/07/18

On 04/21 i finally used by borescope camera that arrived about on week before in the mail.

I took several images, looking for cylinder scoring from possible piston slap. I didn't find any of those though. Besides seeing coolant drops on the pistons (pictures above) there were other things in those pictures i ignored. Signs of the piston hitting the valve. Signs of oil on the pistons.


Over the weekend and almost 1000 miles later i took more pictures from inside the cylinders and intake manifold. Old oil dried on the spark plug seat. More signs of piston hitting a valve.

In the mean time more people told me the passenger door was painted. That means the impact from the accident was bigger than i thought. With nobody on the passenger sit side airbag was deactivated by the sensor so it did not blow. None of the 4 airbags was deployed.

Conclusion. During the accident the timing belt jumped. That lead to pistons hitting valves. That bent the valves and caused wear of the valve guides and leaked oil into the cylinder. Valve timing being off intake valves were closed by the pressure during expansion cycle and exhaust with oil from valve guides leaking flew into the intake where it can be seen. (Got more pictures on a phone done also yesterday).

Good news is i realized in time and will not drive it anymore. Further damage could break or bend the pistons and seize the engine. If driving on high speed at that time that could lead to loosing control of the car.

05/08/18

I don't believe anymore i have a jumped chain and the pistons are hitting the valves. In the pictures is just hot gases blowing the oxidation and/or carbon deposit out of the top of the pistons that seem to be made of cast iron instead of aluminum. That is happening because after all the maintenance work i've done so far the engine started to burn more normally and is burning the carbon deposits.

The noise i hear could come from a sticky or bent valve on cylinder nr.1. To make sure, further tests are necessary. Just in case the valve is sticky due to carbon deposits i also added some Lucas injector cleaner additive that is supposed to help do clean those and the injectors.