What did you do today?

[C.J.]

I decided that instead of looking over and staring at the gauge to put the needles straight up so when you glance briefly at it if it's pointed straight up it's where it's supposed to be. Don't race car drivers do stuff like that.
My truck is now a NASCAR truck. 160 raw horsepower. grrrrr!

That’s what I was thinkin especially when it’s dark and you just look over at the needles to see if they’re pointing the right direction.

Half of my dash lights are burnt out but the needles still light up so I’m in the same boat. I can see if they’re pointing in the right general direction. This was about 70k ago but you get the idea.

 

[Mark Brown]

Hell, I would be happy if half of my dash did light up.
On the Mercedes, they took all my gauges away and made it all digital, but not the good kind of digital, I have to sort through menu's to see what is what and the Van is kind enough to tell me what I need to know. Or at least that is how it is supposed to work.

My honda, well that is a whole 'nother story. There isn't anything I need to know other than put oil in, more OIL.

 

[Floorist]

When my MIL passed 3 years ago she left us her 2007 Nissan Versa, 206,000 miles now and no problems.

 

[C.J.]

I’m glad my van is simple. Less stuff to break. I’ll do an oil change on the wife’s car then spend 10 minutes trying to remember how to reset the damn oil life thing. Same thing with changing the clock on her car radio. I’m so glad AZ doesn’t do daylight savings time cus that’s just dumb. I already have enough stuff in my pea brain to keep track of.

 

[Jon]

I hate it when I take my wagon in to get serviced
They must un program everything which shows on the dash, a compass shows up showing which way I am heading which has changed from the digital speed reading, I dont like the speed o as in a clock type as the needle swings around too much, the lane assist has gone etc
There are two buttons on the steering wheel you have to spend a long time scrolling through lots of different options to get the readings back to how I like it
Too much effect to find the average fuel consumption etc etc. I get frightened to push the buttons as I can never find what the setup was. Give me the old Falcon, a radio, clock, air conditioning and that was about it One thing I like about the Falcon was with the mirrors you could see the back of the car unlike the new one the mirrors only get to the rear door handles due to the shape and not the back of the wagon
I am to scared to try the auto parking along with lots of other things this wagon has got

 

[highup]

That’s what I was thinkin especially when it’s dark and you just look over at the needles to see if they’re pointing the right direction.

Half of my dash lights are burnt out but the needles still light up so I’m in the same boat. I can see if they’re pointing in the right general direction. This was about 70k ago but you get the idea. View attachment 12861

I'm thinking of making a dedicated switch that needs to be turned on to activate the lights in the guages, the volt guage, my electric fans and everything in my 'some day I'm gonna make a console' unit.
It would be easier to run a single hot wire to run this new stuff than dig around trying to find the "appropriate" or correct place to wire this stuff from the wiring harness.
For the gauge lighting, I could incorporate a dimmer switch that looks nice in the console.
....the someday I'm gonna make a console, console.
If I do this, I'd like an audio alarm like the one that yells at me when I forget to turn off the headlights .
I'd use that to shut down everything on the guage cluster and console.
The console would need a head unit with a radio and a couple USB ports for charging a cell phone and bluetooth speaker.
Im still in the dreaming mode.
...maybe an amp and side speakers?
....drink holder, cell phone pockets....
.....ice maker, paper towel dispenser. Still pondering.

 

[Jon]

I'm thinking of making a dedicated switch that needs to be turned on to activate the lights in the guages, the volt guage, my electric fans and everything in my 'some day I'm gonna make a console' unit.
It would be easier to run a single hot wire to run this new stuff than dig around trying to find the "appropriate" or correct place to wire this stuff from the wiring harness.
For the gauge lighting, I could incorporate a dimmer switch that looks nice in the console.
....the someday I'm gonna make a console, console.
If I do this, I'd like an audio alarm like the one that yells at me when I forget to turn off the headlights .
I'd use that to shut down everything on the guage cluster and console.
The console would need a head unit with a radio and a couple USB ports for charging a cell phone and bluetooth speaker.
Im still in the dreaming mode.
...maybe an amp and side speakers?
....drink holder, cell phone pockets....
.....ice maker, paper towel dispenser. Still pondering.

What about the heated seats?

 

[zannej]

Highup, the wires aside, the dash looks good!

Rusty, I hate when the government officials make appointments and don't keep them. My friend's gf had to go to another town about an hour away to do a face-to-face meeting to renew her food stamps. They set her appointment at 12:30. They were at lunch from 12 to 1. So we got there and the office was locked with a sign about the hours. Why the hell did they set an appointment when they were closed? We had to sit there and wait (and I got her there early just in case there were problems).

Jon, heated seats are great for back pain.

I'm going to need to wait until next month to get the truck maintenance done because the septic tank draining price is setting us back. But I'm getting dental work next month too. Ugh. $700 worth of dental work. And the truck probably needs at least $500. The transmission fluid alone is $200. I know how to get the oil changed, how to inflate the tires, how to fill the wiper fluid, and how to change the cabin air filter on that thing. I lack the arm strength to remove the nuts to change the tire because they get tightened with a power tool at the shop. I've broken a few tire irons trying to remove them in the past.

My friend confirmed my pump is set to 230v. Still trying to choose the correct controller. 3 out of 4 people said I need Normally Open and one said Normally Closed. I think I will go with open since that was the consensus and would make sense. Pump won't be turned on until the connection gets closed from a signal telling it to turn on when the pump is low.

 

[Jon]

Highup, the wires aside, the dash looks good!

Rusty, I hate when the government officials make appointments and don't keep them. My friend's gf had to go to another town about an hour away to do a face-to-face meeting to renew her food stamps. They set her appointment at 12:30. They were at lunch from 12 to 1. So we got there and the office was locked with a sign about the hours. Why the hell did they set an appointment when they were closed? We had to sit there and wait (and I got her there early just in case there were problems).

Jon, heated seats are great for back pain.

I'm going to need to wait until next month to get the truck maintenance done because the septic tank draining price is setting us back. But I'm getting dental work next month too. Ugh. $700 worth of dental work. And the truck probably needs at least $500. The transmission fluid alone is $200. I know how to get the oil changed, how to inflate the tires, how to fill the wiper fluid, and how to change the cabin air filter on that thing. I lack the arm strength to remove the nuts to change the tire because they get tightened with a power tool at the shop. I've broken a few tire irons trying to remove them in the past.

My friend confirmed my pump is set to 230v. Still trying to choose the correct controller. 3 out of 4 people said I need Normally Open and one said Normally Closed. I think I will go with open since that was the consensus and would make sense. Pump won't be turned on until the connection gets closed from a signal telling it to turn on when the pump is low.

zannej we dont need heated seats here None of that white stuff. The seats actually cool down as well
I just wonder where the man sits under the bonnet to work everything out

 

[C.J.]

I'm thinking of making a dedicated switch that needs to be turned on to activate the lights in the guages, the volt guage, my electric fans and everything in my 'some day I'm gonna make a console' unit.
It would be easier to run a single hot wire to run this new stuff than dig around trying to find the "appropriate" or correct place to wire this stuff from the wiring harness.
For the gauge lighting, I could incorporate a dimmer switch that looks nice in the console.
....the someday I'm gonna make a console, console.
If I do this, I'd like an audio alarm like the one that yells at me when I forget to turn off the headlights .
I'd use that to shut down everything on the guage cluster and console.
The console would need a head unit with a radio and a couple USB ports for charging a cell phone and bluetooth speaker.
Im still in the dreaming mode.
...maybe an amp and side speakers?
....drink holder, cell phone pockets....
.....ice maker, paper towel dispenser. Still pondering.

Wonder if it would be worth the cost of going to a car stereo place or some other kind of outfit that could find the correct wire to hook up to so your gauges power on and off with the ignition switch. Knowing me I would forget to switch off the lights on the gauges then come out to a dead battery after a long weekend of not using my vehicle. The headlights that stay on for a few after you exit the vehicle still trip me out cus I gotta make sure they turn off.

I’m a firm believer in leaving things stock because I’ve fiddled with things before and had less than stellar results, dead batteries or someone now wants to break into my van and steal my radio. I wanted to upgrade the radio in my van so I could play my own music through it but I wasn’t about to go to the level of Mark Brown town with my stereo. This is about as stock of an upgrade as one can get without taking chances. Best part is I already know how to set the stations and change the clock.

 

[Mark Brown]

Best thing you can do if ignition in is just tie into ignition. Easy peasy.
I've got my volt gauge tied into mine, car off... voltage off, car on... well you get the idea.

There are lots of good ones to use, its simple to do. Under the hood I use the fuse for the blower motor, its something silly like 40A maybe 30A so drawing an extra amp or two to run some gauges won't hurt a thing. Cigarette lighter is one close to the cluster that works great too.

Never stop searching!

 

[highup]

I know you're concerns with accidentally leaving the switch on, CJ. I had a small rocker switch with a red LED in it and it's installed next to that new gauge cluster but I just put in. It's right below the cigarette lighter. That's the switch I used to power the old Honda radio that I had in there.
I also have an electric fan that came off of a Dodge intrepid. I tossed the factory clutch fan that wasn't working and went electric.
I never got as far as installing a temperature switch for it. If you're going to sit in a traffic light for more than a couple of minutes I'll flip it on and once I get moving I'll flip it right back off. It's something you're easily get used to.
The Dodge intrepid dual fan and shroud is a very common swap for these s10s. With a few slight chops here and there if it's the radiator like a glove...... Ok, a mitten.
I'll take a look at that switched ignition wire Mark. It's been so long since I looked at the fuse panel I don't even know what's available in it. In at least first generation s10s it's an absolute nightmare doing any work up under the dash. It's even difficult looking at or pulling a fuse because the fuse block is so far up under the dash.

 

[Mark Brown]

Welcome to my nightmare!
I need to pull my dash, steering column, heater core, harness.... well you get the idea... because rats got into my shed and devoured my old firewall blanket, now I have a donor car in the driveway that I have removed one from but I am dreading the weekend I have to pull all this apart again. It was a gd nightmare getting everything to work the first time, let alone again.

My ignition on is easy to reach, just a plastic shroud and I tie right into the ignition switch in the steering column, then routed a 14 gauge down to the volt meter.

 

[C.J.]

I know you're concerns with accidentally leaving the switch on, CJ.

Yep. I’d turn it off 99 out of 100 times but that one time I forgot to turn it off would hurt.

 

[C.J.]

I had some time to kill this morning before I showed up to my job so I hung out in a parking lot for a half hour. All I have to say is that judgement free zone is BS because I judged every pair of spandex and yoga pants I saw. It was better than counting golf carts.

 

[Mark Brown]

...no there isn't anything creepy about a middle aged man parked outside planet fitness in a rape van, perfectly normal. Nothing to see here, move along

 

[C.J.]

No free candy for you one year!

 

[Floorist]

I have a neighbor. We have tried to work with him about his dog. It is constantly loose and tries to bite. My daughter was here while we were gone today and it would not let her out of the house. The mail carrier maced it. She called animal control. The officer told him, council member or not, it would cost him $100 if it got out again. Today was the 8th time it had tried to bite someone.

 

[C.J.]

The trick with dogs is to (accidentally) step on their feet. Trust me, they will stay away from you after that. Works with customers dogs.

 

[Floorist]

The trick with dogs is to (accidentally) step on their feet. Trust me, they will stay away from you after that. Works with customers dogs.

You would be bitten by this one before you got that close.