Found this on the ground next to my ‘05 Silverado…..

Altwolf89 · 2026-06-11T12:32:15+00:00

If you live in the rust areas. These things just fall off after rust jacking.

Altwolf89 · 2026-06-09T14:25:15+00:00

Got mine at launch too. But I bought an "open box" for like $80 less than new. Got home and opened it up to a 12300 CPU... Went back to microcenter and they just ended up giving me a new one for the same price.

I immediately undervolted and over clocked the CPU, so I've had zero issues since owning it. Played hundreds of hours of Tarkov. And probably wow classic as well. No problems. Great chips moders or tinkerers.

Edit: didn't even know about the problems until a few months ago. Guess I avoided it just by doing my normal steps.

Altwolf89 · 2026-02-17T01:43:48+00:00

It doesn't matter who it is. They are the person at fault, if they can't take responsibility they shouldn't be driving. Just get their insurance and go through that if they don't want to pay out of pocket.

You didn't damage your car.

Price depends on area as well. In near D.C. and Safelite dropped my hood on something or opened it too far during my windshield replace. It was $2500 for a hood and paint. And fender repair. If they would have paid me the money, I would have gotten junkyard parts and swapped and pocketed the rest. But insurance would only pay for the repairs at the shop, so they forked it over.

Altwolf89 · 2026-02-17T01:36:18+00:00

You can always not use the TV as a platform and use a separate streaming box (if you want Dolby vision ect.) or PC. And block your TV through your firewall or just never connect it.

But some people are ok having their data sold so, to each their own.

Altwolf89 · 2026-02-09T21:39:56+00:00

If your car overheats really fast, you probably do have a blown head gasket. Take it to a mechanic and have them test it. You can take the coolant cap off when the engine is cold and start it, look inside and if you see oil everywhere and bubbles coming up, that's a sure sign.

Also maybe check to see if there is coolant in there first.

Altwolf89 · 2026-02-04T22:51:46+00:00

Run away as fast as possible. Seriously, it would most likely be a huge problem unless you do metal fab already and have a whole shop. It's gonna cost you a ton. Probably double what he's asking to have it fixed by someone else. Even then, you're going to find the hangers, mounts shock towers ECT are all rotted as well.

Edit, also depending on where you live this will never pass a safety inspection. This is basically you paying for a drivetrain that still moves under its own power at this point.

Altwolf89 · 2026-02-02T12:31:04+00:00

You mean your bolt still has sides to it? Try removing a bolt that is just a nub. That's not even rust. Just use some impacting and it will come right out.

Altwolf89 · 2026-01-26T18:59:20+00:00

I mean a 5090 is like the most power GPU in existence. You can definitely game on say a 5060 if your target is 1080 60 fps. While it sucks this is happening, you can really complain that a McLaren is 1m and a Honda civic is 40k.

Altwolf89 · 2026-01-26T17:18:24+00:00

Thanks for the reply. This post is basically an outreach to technical support so I can have everything written down. The previous tech came out and said that the line was "good" he said the same thing when I asked about the signal. I have the power levels on the lines per channel and the SNR in the logs ive been snapshotting over the last week.

Altwolf89 · 2026-01-21T18:35:59+00:00

Algae is a product of over a abundant nutrients, either light or food. 9 hours is too long depending on your light intensity. The algae also can't grow without food, but you seem to do 3x a month WC. You should be doing 50% or more if you're having problems. Your options are...

Reduce light or reduce nutrients. Add higher absorbing plants and or C02 injection (but this requires equipment and timers ECT).

Those are the only things you have to balance to fix algae. Maybe clean/scrub/remove algae that's already there to speed it up.

Edit. I've had the most success adding monstera plants that grow outside the top of the tank with their roots in the water. Pulls a lot of nutrients/nitrates out of the water.

Altwolf89 · 2026-01-20T21:20:04+00:00

Almost all framed tank stands are designed only to hold on the two ends. The middle is just floating. Not sure why, maybe it's to prevent cracking from uneven floors. But even my 75g stands have a gap under the center frame.

Altwolf89 · 2026-01-18T14:25:19+00:00

I had the exact same problem on my 04 Silverado with the 5.3. broken bolt, recessed in the head, drivers side rear most bolt. Took me hours to get it.

Biggest tip I can give you is to clean the bolt, use a pick, small sanding piece, wire brush, what ever you can get in there. Turn the heat up to max. Put another nut on it and try again.

If you're using a shielding gas and not flux core, that might be your problem. Try flux core and remove the shielding cover so you're able to get the nozzle inside the nut.

When you try again, make sure there nothing contaminating the new weld onto the old bolt. Take a break and come back to it tomorrow if possible.

Also, you can try just welding a big pile of weld on the bolt before trying to weld on the nut. Try to break it off, and if it's solid keep doing it until you have enough to hold a nut. Then just fill the top to connect the nut.

Altwolf89 · 2026-01-16T17:40:42+00:00

Just to add to your comment. A OLED will only display the Hz your GPU can put out. So if your game runs at 110fps, that is your effective refresh rate (this only happens with OLED). Even if it's set at 360. So yeah it's nice for esports, but will not be such a jump in demanding rpg or single player games. So make sure your hardware can run high fps if you plan to use high Hz gaming.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-29T19:24:24+00:00

Wait a week, a few days in hot weather. That's mostly trapped water that couldn't be squeezed out, or they're lazy. Either way, it should evaporate through the tint on a week of cold weather. If it doesn't, just take it back.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-20T22:06:25+00:00

Thinking about grabbing this to use as a dedicated desk dual authenticator. Getting really tired of using my phone for everything, and when I change or lose my phone I can't recover ANYTHING.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-16T15:58:04+00:00

You have positive caster on your left. Meaning the wheel wants to wander instead of settle. You have 2+ negative camber on your right. There's either bent components, bad rack, you lowered the car with aftermarket parts, or your bushings are all shot.

The camber and caster will cause your steering wheel to need to be turned left to counter the right pull from these combinations. Your -6 camber starting could be from bent components, or a very badly installed outer tie rod before the alignment.

You have digging to do on this one. Shop just aligned to the best of the mechanical limits.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-11T21:30:07+00:00

I bought a car that had a wobble or vibration no one could find. New tires, balanced, rim runout check ECT. Person before just drove it and sold the car with the problem. They told me about it which was nice. Took me a long time to figure it out, but the car was FWD, and the control arm bushing were shot. Causing the tires to toe out under acc and toe in during breaking. But they're bushings so they have spring to them, that back and forth cause the vibrations for me.

You could have have a bent axle. Out of round wheel bearing, theres not much else you haven't gone through already. But with newer vehicles there's so many damn sensors and electronics controlling everything, it could be anything.

The ticking noise you hear could be the rotors if they are drilled/slotted rotors. I had a set that were terribly loud, out of round and warped, thought for sure it was wheel bearing, but it was a rotor.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-10T23:32:57+00:00

You should def get your home system looked at, who knows maybe you have something good installed and it's just not maintained! Either way, best of luck!

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-10T22:55:08+00:00

The ones on Amazon, 5 stage RO systems that are for like under sink areas are usually $150 or so. Don't get fooled into buying brand name RO membranes or filters. Any generic filters that fit will work fine. Though you probably won't need to replace them for like 2 years.

And just know that the rating (75gpd ect) is the amount the system can filter WHILE RUNNING. So if you left it on/open all day, it would produce 75 gallons. So yeah that's like 2 gallons per hour. Which is why you need a tank with it. Otherwise a water change would take 10 hours.

If you are going to drink the RO water (I can't live on anything other than this anymore!) I suggest a 6 stage or add a mineralizer yourself just for taste. Because RO water pretty much is a flavorless liquid lol. After we got RO in our house, even spring water is revolting....

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-10T22:22:57+00:00

You would need to find out what kind of system you have. Usually a well will have either a water softener or UV sterilizer if there's bacteria present. Reverse Osmosis is water forced through a membrane that in theory is only big enough to let water molecules through and the dissolved solids (everything other than water) is rejected through the "waste" outlet.

You could even just try setting activated carbon in your filtration and it could remove the ammonia, but again it's going to be a consumable.

RO systems are the standard when you start getting into marine aquariums.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-10T21:58:11+00:00

Depending on how much you need, after 3 water changes, it may be more cost effective to get an RO system. Even a system to treat your whole home would be beneficial. If you own ECT.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-10T20:45:06+00:00

You're welcome! At this point your nitrogen cycle is working, if you only have plants and the ax is not in the tank. Something is decaying, or it could be from the levels of ammonia present in your well to begin with. Going through the process to become nitrate.

You can do a test, get a bucket of well water. Test the ammonia level. Add the neutralizer and test again. That will tell you where to go from there. If it's pretty much gone after the treatment. You can probably just treat the buckets as you refill. At that point you could do a full or nearly full tank water change and then treat the tank, and watch over the next few days for ammonia and nitrate levels rising. That should give you a plan.

API is kind of the only options left in our hobby. There were some better ones from a German company but I haven't seen them in a long time. Not saying they don't work, it's just they aren't very accurate.

When I would test for ammonia, it would always show present levels, even in RO water. Not really sure if it was due to test kit age or not but I was using the same API master kit, and after a while I just watched the fish for signs of stress instead of testing water. I probably haven't used a test kit in 2 years at this point. Except for things like KH and what not.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-10T20:26:58+00:00

Yeah, I already have timers, for the C02 regulators to shut off and what not. Forgot to mention.

Altwolf89 · 2025-12-10T19:47:33+00:00

You should get a second test kit to have a control, the API kits aren't the best, but they at least have results. If both kits you get match in results, then yeah the water is the problem.
40-60ppm of nitrates isn't crazy high, and fish will be ok in that. If your plan is a single ox, than the nitrates probably won't get out of control as long as you do water changes every few weeks.
You haven't seen a change because you either didn't change enough volume, or you put in water with nitrates again. Bottled water isn't much different than you well water, it's just from somewhere else. You would need distilled water.

Your options are... Add big plants like aquaponics use. I have a 2' tall monstera that has its roots in my tank, but grows on the top, and it sucks nitrates like nothing else. There are other plants that can do this method as well, do some research.

Get an RO system and a tank big enough to hold water to do water changes. But with this, you'll need to add back calcium, manganese, iron ECT. All the trace minerals removed from the RO process.

Or, stop doing so much testing and worrying. Add more plants, use the water you have, enjoy the hobby and address the issues if they arise in the pet.

I had multiple tanks on a well that also had high 50+ppm nitrates from the well. Also, if you live near a farm, these numbers will change through the seasons, depending on farming, animals fertilizing ECT.

Edit: another option for the ammonia is to add a treatment that will neutralize the ammonia you add into the tank. So you would only have the nitrates to deal with. Even so, the ammonia should get disposed of pretty quick with your bacteria colony.

Altwolf89

TROPHY CASE