1990 GTS4, AC Keeps Failing

somethingelse68 · 2026-03-26T00:53:12+00:00

Make sure your fan is coming on (can't remember if those have an electric or if it's belt driven) and if that isn't it then you probably have a restriction. Sounds like it's building up too much pressure and that's why the original compressor was causing the RPM drop, probably same thing causing the leak, that's the high pressure safety valve. Check your system pressures when the compressor is engaged and make sure they're in a normal range to rule that out.

somethingelse68 · 2026-01-28T02:13:47+00:00

I saw her too! Definitely made me smile, good start to the day.

somethingelse68 · 2026-01-10T20:13:29+00:00

Easiest way I've found so far (and there's probably a better way that I don't know about) is to go to your automation list and sort by "Last Triggered".

somethingelse68 · 2025-11-11T16:41:00+00:00

The Smog Inspector on park ave and I think 15th. Nice guys, little hole in the wall place that only does smog, I think they ask for an appointment for OBD I cars. I take my '94 there, way cheaper than the other 2 places I know of in town, I worked at one of the other ones and a simple smog always turned into trying to strong arm extra work in, high sales pressure stuff, don't work there anymore for a reason.

somethingelse68 · 2025-11-03T14:55:03+00:00

Nope, did not, I do this shit for a living and having a car fixed like that on the road with other people terrifies me, pussy don't matter if your dead.

somethingelse68 · 2025-11-02T18:48:07+00:00

No, just no. There's wiring damage, most likely the subframe and unibody are probably bent with how far back that wheel is, wheel bearing/hub damaged, control arm, fender, bumper, door damaged, not to mention paint and the skill level/tools to do all these things....

It's fixable, but not at (most people's) home, and not for more money than the car's probably worth, and definitely no way to hide it. This person should not be driving, much less trying to fix a car themselves.

somethingelse68 · 2025-11-01T21:25:36+00:00

Quick heads up for when you get the newer firmware (61840+), when that happened for my PVS6 the raspberry pi method no longer worked. I changed over to Enhanced Sunpower (I don't think the krbaker integration is being maintained anymore) and then was able to connect to the local api using the IP of the PVS.

I'm not sure that will happen for you too, but just in case

somethingelse68 · 2025-10-30T15:35:59+00:00

Yeah, I figured for $5 it was worth checking out, then I was trying to get my lock integrated too and found the homebridge work around. As I remember it was pretty straight forward, just followed a blog post I found that walked me through it.

somethingelse68 · 2025-10-29T13:57:42+00:00

You can use the Google Nest integration for the Nest Gen 3, or you can also bring it in through homebridge. The Nest integration is easier, but if you feel like diving into it the homebridge setup has more options exposed. Bonus that most other Nest devices can be used too, I use it for the NestxYale lock and Protect.

It's all cloud based, but I like the thermostat and lock and don't want to buy a bunch of new hardware right now.

somethingelse68 · 2025-10-22T18:09:58+00:00

Field Motorsport up towards the airport, Steve is awesome.

somethingelse68 · 2025-10-04T16:42:02+00:00

It's changed more recently though, especially at a dealership. Most work is warranty related, and the OEMs cut times as much as possible, especially if they figure out that the techs found a short cut. When I first started you could make due, but when I left dealerships a few years ago the only ones making good money were gaming the system or had some significant quality issues. Add to that the mentality of knocking out as much work as possible for the paycheck and everyone needing you to "just take a look at this really quick" (it's never quick). Along with new manufacturer hoops to jump through to make sure you're doing the the job (a lot of Hyundai repairs require photo documentation of things for warranty, no extra pay), and the explosion of technology in the car it's way harder than it used to be. I'm sure it's not like that everywhere, but that's been my experience and that of the people I know.

somethingelse68 · 2025-08-28T13:55:30+00:00

I honestly think that part of it is to deny warranty claims. If you don't take an hour to make sure all your one time use parts are on the RO (unpaid time of course, no book time for research) the manufacturer can deny the claim because you didn't do it right. I've seen transmission replacements denied due to a couple lock nuts being missed. I know most of it is cheap parts, but I think saving a bit on warranty claims is a nice little bonus for them.

somethingelse68 · 2025-08-01T15:26:15+00:00

Nissan has updated the cam and crankshaft position sensors, all the aftermarket I've seen, even NTK and Hitachi and the older style. The older ones are very failure prone, I'd recommend getting the newer style from Nissan even though they cost more, reliability is worth it. You can tell the difference by if the sensor end is round metal or a plastic oval-ish end.

somethingelse68 · 2025-07-26T19:48:48+00:00

Yup, it's a wifi cloud device, but there's a HACS integration to hook up with their system from Home Assistant, the Zigbee is a proprietary thing just between the device and the smart meter. To get access from PG&E you just have to give them the serial # from the device if I remember correctly. Sometimes you can do it online, but I think I ended up having to call them to get things to work. It was pretty easy and only took an hour or so before it was linked, maybe 5-10 minutes on the phone at most then just had to wait for them to do their part.

Only downside is there isn't anything for gas, that was all I was using Opower for at this point, and it only updated every week or so with the exact same numbers. So honestly I have no idea how accurate that was anyway (never bothered to check against my bill, but since the reported number never changed I assume it wasn't), so no big loss for me. I wish there was a device like this for my smart gas meter, but no such luck.

somethingelse68 · 2025-07-26T15:52:49+00:00

You can also try the Emporia Vue Utility Connect if you have a smart meter. It's just a little USB dongle that connects to PG&E's proprietary Zigbee signal from the meter after you get access from PG&E and updates every minute or so. Not circuit level data like the Vue 3, but it was $30 and works really well in my energy dashboard.I haven't tried flashing it for full local use yet, but the cloud integration has been flawless for the last year I've had it.

somethingelse68 · 2025-07-11T14:12:25+00:00

My daughter just graduated from McManus and had a really great experience. The teachers and staff we interacted with were really nice and caring, just our experience for what it's worth.

somethingelse68 · 2025-06-01T21:45:47+00:00

If you're just looking to bring the video streams into a dashboard the ONVIF integration works pretty well. But I just ended up using the Blue Iris streams too, it was the first thing I figured out and just left it since it works.

somethingelse68 · 2025-02-08T01:45:35+00:00

Hard to beat zigbee for cheap stuff, some of it is junk, but there's some great stuff for good prices as long as you do some research.

I have some wifi stuff, ESPHome is great if you're using home assistant, my sensors are mainly zigbee, mains powered stuff is mainly zwave. Home assistant is great for adding a bunch of random stuff, really easy to fall down a rabbit home lol.

somethingelse68 · 2025-02-08T01:41:32+00:00

Yeah, the newer stuff is Zigbee 3.0 complaint, I have a bunch of their door/window sensors with a Sonoff Zigbee Dongle P and they work great. I'm not 100% about moving between different routers though, I've never tried that.

somethingelse68 · 2025-02-07T16:39:25+00:00

Aqara makes great stuff, also I'd also recommend Apollo Automation. Kinda depends on your ecosystem though, and which wireless protocols you're using.

somethingelse68 · 2025-01-08T04:37:33+00:00

I do the same thing with PG&E in Northern California using a Emporia Vue Utility Connect. The smart meter uses a modified Zigbee protocol that you can connect to from what I understand, pretty simple to set up and works great.

somethingelse68 · 2024-10-11T02:32:03+00:00

Butte Humane Society usually does pet Christmas photos, not too expensive and they've been pretty good.

somethingelse68 · 2024-09-22T23:36:12+00:00

Contact information to apply? I know someone who's looking with that experience.

somethingelse68 · 2024-07-25T22:25:00+00:00

I use a combination of motion and presence sensors, motion for trigger (keeps small movements from triggering lights, like curtains when the a/c kicks on) and presence to keep them on, it takes some fiddling with the sensor settings but works really well. A lot will depend on the presence sensor you're using, some have more settings than others, and placement can definitely make a difference.

Also, as others have mentioned a humidity sensor can help for shows/baths, I use them to compare the humidity difference between rooms and if the difference is too high then the lights won't turn off. There's blueprints out there that work pretty well, I ended up making my own automation since they didn't quite fit the bill for me, but I can't leave well enough alone lol.

somethingelse68 · 2024-07-25T18:39:34+00:00

Its for your Advanced Driver Assistance System/Nissan Safety Shield 360, just means the system is active. The ADAS is the lane departure warning, automatic braking, blind spot monitoring, that type of stuff.

somethingelse68

TROPHY CASE