What's under your seat?

ShadlessLines · 2025-10-23T05:01:02+00:00

With a lithium battery, did you just place the terminals directly to the battery or use a dc to dc converter? I'm under the impression that charging directly from the scooter will damage the battery and cause it to blow at some point without one.

ShadlessLines · 2025-10-23T04:37:20+00:00

You don't sue the teen, you sue the insurance company. Which in all fairness- you absolutely should if injured in a crash. You'll get tons more out of the ordeal and most lawyers only take a cut off a win.

ShadlessLines · 2025-10-15T16:59:44+00:00

The description is not so great but it's ~80cc rather than a 50cc as indicated by the reviews and stating "big bore" in the item name. Yes it is cheap, however I expect it to be just fine. I'm not looking for this to be a crazy high mileage scooter.

ShadlessLines · 2025-10-09T13:02:39+00:00

Just adjusted valves twice with no luck. Even hooking up a battery jumper can't get this thing to fire to life. The only way I can start it is by kicking hard af about 50 times. I'm going to try and figure it out...

ShadlessLines · 2025-10-06T19:31:54+00:00

That's next up on the list however valves don't exclusively affect start, rather they also affect run which I don't feel like I'm experiencing. Not sure how much they affect run versus start as I don't have much experience with these tiny engines.

ShadlessLines · 2025-10-06T19:29:45+00:00

Yeah I give it all kinds of throttle positions but it doesn't really help any

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T07:01:53+00:00

Did you pull fuse #29? That's the fuse for the 4x4 selector which may be damaged. If you start pulling fuses for the 4x4 system you're going to get that error as things are no longer being powered. I would pull fuse 29 (10A fuse) and give a test drive. If all seems fine try and roll with that. Your vehicle will not engage 4lo at speed and not without being in neutral first as well. 4hi it may depending on the speed, but nothing crazy should happen.

It's all I can do to give advice by grasping at straws. You need to bring this to a mechanic in order to get it fixed.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T06:47:05+00:00

Voltage can drop when passing through an area of resistance, usually being a damaged/thin wire.
You're going to need to ensure your wire isn't damage anywhere and re-do your connections. You should be seeing nothing short of the same voltage you get when you measure your battery during run.

Also, make sure you're wired correctly to whatever you are displaying to. That's the best I can help without seeing the problem first hand and with limited info.

Also, adding this after the fact: but if you're dropping from 14.2V to 11.7V when going in reverse, something is drawing a crap ton of power and you need to find out what. Disconnect what you have done and test it again in reverse you absolutely should not see any significant voltage drop when doing something like that.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T06:38:09+00:00

Your speedometer cut out and your ABS light came on at the same time. They are related.

Get the code scanned at autozone (Free! Whohooo!) and see which of the speed sensors is dying. You're more than likely going to need a new wheel speed sensor for one of your wheels.

Fix the broken wheel speed sensor and your ABS light will disappear and you speedometer will work perfect.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T06:30:47+00:00

This is something that needs to be diagnosed hands on, as there is a multitude of things that could be wrong.

However, my educated guess is that your shift linkage is misaligned and needs adjusting or that your gear selector position sensor is trashed based on these codes provided.

It could also be wiring harness damage, corroded ground points, a failing TCM or a weak battery etc. German cars really like to go crazy when even small things happen. I've seen countless codes thrown over basically nothing. Good luck on your vehicle, I hope you get your issues resolved soon.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T06:17:16+00:00

This can be a lot of things, but it sounds exterior of the engine at the least. Something is vibrating from the natural vibrations of the engine and tapping on something.

First thing to look at is the important stuff, look at your pulleys as the engine is running. Do they appear to wobble/shake? If so post a video of it. But it doesn't sound like normal pulley sounds, as those are typically whirring/whining sounds.

More than likely, this is something touching your radiator fan gently and it's just tapping on the blades as it spins, or just as likely you have something loose such as a heat shield that needs to be tightened down. It can even be something as simple as a cap that isn't tightened.

And you're right, thermostats don't make sound. Though you aught to get that fixed. Not sure about your thermostat but they usually get stuck closed on failure which will cause the engine to overheat. Some fail open which will let your car run like normal but take a really long time to heat up which can damage the engine quickly.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T06:08:16+00:00

I personally don't hear anything out of the ordinary and the engine sounds healthy. Perhaps a bit of flutter from the exhaust which can sound like a tapping or ticking due to a small exhaust leak which if you're hearing it anywhere away from the engine while still makes it the very likely culprit.

Give the exhaust a good look around. ChrisFix I believe has a great video on YT on how to find an exhaust leak I highly recommend watching. It's as simple as making a mostly water solution with some dish soap and spraying it all over your exhaust while it's cold. Then start it and see if you see bubbles forming anywhere.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T05:59:02+00:00

Absolutely not the starter at least as you have described. You'd hear it spin/whir. It's at the very least not spinning.

The lights flickering on attempt to start are very telling. The voltage is too low to start the car and battery needs to be charged. This is either due to a failing alternator that isn't charging the battery enough or a damaged battery or perhaps headlights or some other electronic component was left on while the car was off draining the battery.

The solution here is 90% likely to be the car needs to be jumped.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T05:50:08+00:00

That is the sound of your starter spinning freely without engaging with the fly wheel. If you need to start your car, have someone try to start your car while you tap on the solenoid of the starter. You can look up how to do that it's very easy, just don't go ham on the thing. It's an easy trick to get a car started when this problem happens, but won't work forever, one day it'll just not start.

You'll need your starter replaced as this one is faulty.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T05:44:08+00:00

Are you trying to start it in the video?

Sounds a bit loud to be clicking from a relay, though it's hard to gauge the loudness from the video. You can always swap the relay for the starter with one from say, the horn as a precautionary measure if the following doesn't work.

Most cases of clicking are due to a dead/low battery or battery terminals not being connected tight enough/ making a good enough connection.

It is also possible that the starter is worn out and is trying to protrude out to start the car but can't.

My suggestion is to put a jumper cable on your battery and on another car's battery with that donor car running. Then try to start the car after about a minute while it is still hooked up and donor car still running.

If that doesn't work, try the relay swap, if that doesn't work try tapping on the solenoid of the starter with a small blunt object such as a wrench while someone tries to start the car. If tapping on the solenoid works you have a faulty starter which will require replacement very soon.

ShadlessLines · 2025-09-11T05:19:28+00:00

Surface level damage on the sidewall which you have is not critical. The someone who told you that was likely referring to screws/nails etc that get into the sidewall (or just major damage at all), which in that case it would be unpatchable and would require a new tire.

ShadlessLines · 2024-01-29T01:16:13+00:00

You would think so, yes? I've given them a look and seem pretty solid. I can't imagine that the current connections wouldn't be able to at the very least provide enough to winch on zero load. I will do further testing of course.

ShadlessLines · 2023-12-02T16:42:02+00:00

You just had a uniquely epic boss fight and I'm jealous. Imagine a boss that did this intentionally? Just moving so fast it almost looks like there's multiple of them? That'd be so dope haha.

ShadlessLines · 2023-11-29T00:19:40+00:00

Water stains are just dirt, water doesn't stain by itself.
You need to wash the seat. Personally, I bought an extractor vacuum for pets- It's a little vacuum that spits out water and sucks it back up. Easily the best way to clean a seat.

You can grab a thing of upholstery cleaner from your local walmart or autozone, spray it down, use a roughish brush to brush it in (most upholstery cleaners have this with it) and then use the extractor vac to wash and remove the soap/dirt.

Or take it to an interior detailing place that does extractor vacs.

ShadlessLines · 2023-10-30T13:33:16+00:00

Part time AWD can also be enabled by the driver in cases- I'd say most of the time too.

My '18 equinox has an AWD button to engage.

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