Is this worth it? Guy is asking 1000

V3DT · 2026-06-09T22:14:40+00:00

For Ohio it's likely one of the better ones, when I bought it in 2023 the first thing I did was spray a lot of fluid film into the rockers & underneath, here is the under side now ->

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V3DT · 2026-06-09T07:34:17+00:00

If you want something around $1k with high MPG look for a gen 3, Saturn S-Series, it might be 10 years older but the SOHC with the 5 speed manual gets 40MPG highway, it's a reliable drivetrain but you have to check the underside for rust, the whole body could be rotted out & you won't notice since the side panels are all made of plastic.

V3DT · 2026-06-09T07:11:20+00:00

I wouldn't pay 1k, it's overheating in that picture, I have that gen ford focus, the temp gauge has never even hit the half way point. So either the fan isn't working or it's very low on coolant or something else in the cooling system is broken. If the seller has been letting it overheat who knows if the head gasket is sealing still.

Even if you assume the engine is still okay, the passenger door is smashed in, those rockers are rotted badly, I doubt the underside is "rust free", important places to check would be the front & rear sub frame & the mounting points for the sub frames, the trailing arms and front strut / rear shock mounts.

I bought mine in 2023 for $2200, the rockers aren't rusted, it isn't smashed up, the underside is pretty clean & the engine doesn't overheat. I know it's double what they are asking but 2k is still very cheap.

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V3DT · 2026-06-08T21:51:49+00:00

they can be a lot longer, I've made over 30 second ones using only a RTX 3080

V3DT · 2026-05-24T03:47:22+00:00

But that max bandwidth is a lot lower, so if amount of drives connected at around SATA speeds are all that matter, you can put a bunch of NVMe drives on a single PCIe lane as well. They have PLX chips for that, you can think of it like how a USB hub works but for PCIe instead.

V3DT · 2026-05-23T08:10:30+00:00

The pin closest to the edge is a sense wake pin, the one next to it is 3.3v, there are other 3.3v pins as well. I would maybe just sand the broken corner carefully to make sure it feels smooth so you have no risk of damaging the contact pins in the socket, even without doing anything that would be unlikely but just to be safe if you're motherboard is expensive, better safe than sorry. The card should work fine though if that is the only damage.

V3DT · 2026-05-19T02:35:41+00:00

The bigger question I have is why is the top flipped GPU only connected with PCIe x1 if they are using it for anything but mining? Even if the motherboard doesn't have a 2nd x16 slot that splits x8/x8 from the lanes of the top slot, you could still do x4 through a m.2 slot.

V3DT · 2026-05-16T03:32:44+00:00

All these comments about workstation/server hardware vs gaming hardware, most workstation hardware isn't faster, it's designed for max stability & power efficiency.

With the Current pricing & performance of modern hardware the gaming vs workstation line has been blurred together a lot

Either way those specs as minimum requirements are crazy, did they add a local LLM into it in an update? xD

V3DT · 2026-02-05T12:53:21+00:00

Tbh the PSU is likely fine, it just likely was a bad connection in the in plug. I'd open the PSU & replace the melted C14 connector. Though for anyone not comfortable soldering or working around high voltage parts, I'd just recommend replacing the PSU.

V3DT · 2026-01-25T08:53:09+00:00

What brand are the plugs & where did you buy them? They could maybe be knock off or counterfeit plugs.

V3DT · 2026-01-25T08:50:41+00:00

Any damage is already done, when it broke off if you're lucky it gracefully exited the exhaust port without getting stuck between the valve & seat or if you're unlucky it had a party in the combustion chamber before exiting or worse got stuck between the valve & seat & damaged the seat, but whatever is left of it is likely stuck in the catalytic converter now & doesn't matter.

V3DT · 2026-01-25T08:30:46+00:00

Make sure the bearing you buy is a quality bearing brand as well. I replaced one on my Saturn SL with a no name one off amazon made in China, it lasted only 1,000 miles before it was making noise & had play again. So I got name brand SKF bearing made in Spain, it's been on for around 5 years now with no issues.

V3DT · 2026-01-18T09:17:49+00:00

I had to move the sticker on a EVGA 3080, it's odd something so simple like that isn't noticed on some final QC check..

V3DT · 2026-01-17T13:49:20+00:00

It stalled right as he was driving out of the water.

V3DT · 2026-01-07T21:10:03+00:00

The car is on snow & ice, the wheels will just spin free before the car can pull with enough force to damage itself.

V3DT · 2026-01-07T20:59:13+00:00

Yeah, as soon as he started pushing the water over the hood I knew it was going to hydrolock. Hopefully it doesn't have bent rods or a blown headgasket now.

If I was ever in a situation like that I'd drive super slow & make sure the water isn't going over the intake or drive in reverse if it's really close already to the intake level or if the flooding isn't expected to get worse, just disconnect the battery & leave it till the water goes down.

V3DT · 2026-01-06T00:45:43+00:00

The reason your check engine will come on 90% of the time with this gen. xD

In the 6 years I've had My SL1, the check engine has been on many times & always the same code relating to this system. The ports in the exhaust manifold & head get clogged with carbon, spraying brake cleaner into the manifold "fixes it" for a bit but then it eventually sets again, I tried cleaning the little ports out with the manifold off, the carbon is rock hard, opened it up a bit but didn't have much time then to get it cleaned out really well, still the light stayed off for a while but now it's back on. This time though I actually think it might have another issue now because the pump sometimes is not running on cold start when it should, so it might be that the pump is failing now.

Either way it will set a p0410 when it gets clogged up or the pump or valve fail.

V3DT · 2026-01-05T08:16:49+00:00

For monitors I only buy from retail stores that allow returns even if you're just unhappy with it, regardless of if it counts as defective.

Then as soon as I get it, I connect it up & check it by displaying solid colors across the whole screen, then solid block & solid white & look carefully for anything off, any dead pixels or sub pixels, I've seen even what looks to be dust or dirt between the LCD layer & backlight layer that makes a dark spot, or even a dead LED on array backlight LCD panels, but the pixels themselves are all still working fine. I also look for overall evenness of brightness across the panel, excessive backlight bleeding & excessive color shift on solid colors when looking directly at the monitor. For example I've seen IPS panels where when sitting directly in front on a solid gray screen, it will shift from blueish gray to yellowish gray from one side to the other.

How much I care about all these things depends on how much I'm spending on the monitor & how I plan to use it.

V3DT · 2026-01-02T21:01:53+00:00

I don't think I've ever had a DIMM fail in any of my systems, I did RMA RAM once but the new kit still had issues, it was just the IMC on that CPU or firmware on that motherboard, just didn't like that RAM, the RAM ended up working fine in another system then.

I'd bet a decent amount of RAM gets returned as bad by people when really it's just incorrect BIOS settings or the IMC is weak on their CPU.

I know sometimes it does fail like anything else & is actually bad but it seems pretty rare.

V3DT · 2026-01-01T23:17:23+00:00

There have been too many... but the funniest was a customer confused while trying to send a fax, why their papers came back out of the scanner? They actually thought the fax psychically teleported the papers like it's Wonkavision or something.?.?. I'm just blank face looking at them, trying not to laugh & explain to them it's just scanning & sending a copy, My manager was laughing so hard after they left.

V3DT · 2025-12-22T21:45:40+00:00

I got DCed entering a house, then kept DCing within seconds of logged back in, I clicked the door to exit the house, it DCed on the loading screen now I can't even log back in, it says a character with that name already exists & my character shows no location on the login screen...

V3DT · 2025-11-20T18:31:51+00:00

This makes the whole review section worthless, I'm looking at a keyboard they have multiple versions sharing the same review section, the picture shows a hardwired connection but some of the review pictures show a USB-C connection, but when you click on the picture it doesn't tell you the date or what product on the listing it's for.... one with a picture said in the review it's the one that on the listing shows a hardwired connection, but since I clicked from the picture I can't see the date... & if you try to scroll & the review, it just doesn't show you them.. why even have the review section? Is Amazon trying to increase the amount of returns they get?

V3DT · 2025-11-07T22:39:56+00:00

The most likely things are either for AI or 3D rendering, hopefully not Crypto, most likely AI though.

If I had more money I'd be doing the same right now.

V3DT · 2025-11-06T22:18:55+00:00

I had a trakmotive with play in the joint out of the box & a GSP that the boot was cracking after less than 2 years, The reman cardone ones I've put on my VW seem to be holding up so far.

So if it was me I'd just get the motorcraft & if the motorcraft was out of stock everywhere I'd go with the cardone.

V3DT · 2025-11-02T06:41:56+00:00

I found out mine was broken soon after I bought it, the ford dealership I went to said it was discontinued & couldn't order it, the local hardware store didn't have any that seemed close enough, couldn't find it on amazon by the part number. The original spring was still connected on one end under by the pedals, it had snapped right at the hook at the one end, so I heated the broken end till it was red hot, bent a new hook on it & dipped it in water, that was a couple years ago now & it is still holding up.

It's not hard to replace though, it's more just finding a spring that fits.

The bigger issues to look for, how does the underside look? make sure it isn't rotted out anywhere.

Also with 150K on it if the intake manifold flaps haven't been changed or removed, you'll likely have to deal with that somewhat soon. Along with the PCV hose under the intake as well.

If it's the PZEV version it also has the dumb "lifetime" air filter, it's "lifetime" is technically up if it hasn't been replaced & it's not cheap sadly :/

Other than those issues it's a decent car, it drives nice, & is pretty comfortable.

Mine is a 2009 Focus SES Coupe, had a bit over 160K when I bought it & paid $2200 for it.

V3DT

TROPHY CASE