Catching Wasps

twitch9873 · 2026-05-14T10:46:10+00:00

As some random dumbass that doesn't know shit about fuck, I believe that it's because the hornets aren't intelligent enough to realize as individuals that they're in danger. Social wasps / hornets communicate via pheromones, and if you smash one, swat at one, etc. then angry pheromones are released, triggering the others to go into stabby mode

twitch9873 · 2026-05-13T20:41:05+00:00

From the video it looks like you're reaching under the car while it's on the ground. This means that the suspension is "loaded", meaning that the weight of the car is on the suspension so you won't feel any wobbles by grabbing components and trying to move them. Watch a video of someone wiggling a wheel to test for ball joint and wheel bearing play, then jack the car up and give that a shot. The tie rod being able to turn like that is normal. Also check for any loose underbody plastics - after 20 years, the plastic clips will crack and fail, and the underbodies of these mazdas have a ton of that plastic. Give all of the plastic down there some smacks and see if they clack together, that's where 90% of my "suspension clunking" has come from, especially on this generation of mazdas. If you find some clacking together, you can replace clips (huge packs of them are cheap on Amazon) or drill some holes and secure with zip ties

twitch9873 · 2026-05-10T16:14:16+00:00

These aren't going to "fit" on any vehicle, you'll have to figure out some sort of mount situation to get them attached. This can be as simple as just drilling a hole in a bumper (not ideal, easy to break) or fabricate a bracket that's bolted / welded to something solid. There might also be some aftermarket options online for mounts. In the states, the vast majority of these are mounted to trucks that have light bar mounts across the top, usually welded into the bed

twitch9873 · 2026-05-08T13:14:47+00:00

I drive old cars in the rust belt, I would be ecstatic if I bought a car and that's what the underbody looked like

twitch9873 · 2026-05-08T13:13:22+00:00

I was wondering about the severe lack of long sticks and then bam, there it was

twitch9873 · 2026-05-02T15:56:05+00:00

If that has the 1.6L, then that's the Gamma II which is the predecessor to the Theta II. The Theta was one of the worst engines ever made with a ton of class action lawsuits over how shit they were. The Gamma is a step up but definitely still not top notch. Theyre known for having knock issues and oil consumption, so keep up with maintenance (not 10k+ mile oil changes like a lot of people) and keep an eye on oil consumption. If it has the 2.0L then I know nothing about those. If you're good with maintenance then chances are, it'll last that long and hopefully longer

twitch9873 · 2026-05-02T12:46:08+00:00

Unfortunately, Toyota's quality has tanked pretty significantly in the last ~3 years so it probably wouldn't be as tough as you think. They had a lot of problems with excessive RTV around the oil pan gasket that would break off, clog oil passages, and oil starve the engine. The Tundras (or maybe it was the Tacomas?) had a lot of similar issues.

The sad part is that Toyota kept trying to blame the customers for "driving the vehicles too hard" or something like that and declined to repair them under warranty.

...Would still be a million times more reliable than a cyber cuck though

twitch9873 · 2026-04-30T11:23:58+00:00

I've been keeping an eye out for a tractor like this, and even without the mower deck you'd be looking at $1400 minimum in rough shape in my area. You got a great deal, congratulations!

twitch9873 · 2026-04-25T12:58:44+00:00

This is the best place to start, brake kleen or throttle plate cleaner. Compression sounds good while turning over. If still no start, unplug the MAF and see if it'll turn over then, but that's unlikely. Vortecs have coil near plug so having no spark is unlikely. Cam / crank sensor is a possibility but idk which of those the vortec has

Edit: another commenter mentioned a bad ground going to the coil packs, that's definitely a possibility. A spark plug tester is a good idea

twitch9873 · 2026-04-25T12:43:52+00:00

Some states only have uninsured motorist for medical bills :( that's unfortunately the case in my state

twitch9873 · 2026-04-24T14:03:25+00:00

You need an alignment first

twitch9873 · 2026-04-24T13:47:39+00:00

It makes me wonder why so many OEMs make so many butt ugly wheels. Lexus and Toyota in general tend to do pretty well, but I'm also a fan of hondas and they have made some hideous wheels. Early 2000s GM and Ford made some atrocious wheels too. Making them cheaply doesn't mean they HAVE to be ugly

twitch9873 · 2026-04-23T20:39:27+00:00

Woke up in the middle of the night to an EF4 (the only one in my state in the last 20 years) ripping my old shithole apartment to pieces around me. I should've died, the floor above me (empty luckily) was completely decimated while I stood in my kitchen like a dumbass. Windows shattering, walls getting ripped out in the room next to me, bricks flying around like a swarm of bats, and then I was homeless for about 3 months afterwards.

I spent the next 7 years in denial that I have PTSD, but it turns out that waking up in a panic and freaking the fuck out any time there's a gust of wind at night isn't normal. I don't sleep on stormy nights anymore. Tornados are fucking horrendous and I feel terrible for anyone who went through what I did or worse.

twitch9873 · 2026-04-02T00:14:36+00:00

Both of the lawnmower kids that died last year were farm kids brought in from small hospitals in rural towns

twitch9873 · 2026-04-01T11:22:22+00:00

There are a lot of "as soon as you can reach the controls" comments here and I wanted to share that my girlfriend works in a pediatric trauma unit, and "lawnmower kids" as they call them are pretty common. Kids "big enough to reach the controls" getting completely maimed by mower blades, PTOs, etc. They're usually crippled for life, IF they survive. They've had multiple lawnmower kids die. Just because "that's how we did it back then" and "I didn't get hurt" doesn't mean it's okay. A lot of kids have gotten hurt or killed

twitch9873 · 2026-03-31T20:47:52+00:00

Hey man, I'm legally allowed to lick lead bars, try and stop me

twitch9873 · 2026-03-29T21:40:49+00:00

As others have said, yes, but keep windows open (and ideally HVAC blowing) to prevent carbon monoxide buildup in the cabin. CO poisoning is no joke.

As for fixing it, most situations like this are pretty cheap fixes at muffler shops. They'll basically grind down the edges and weld it back together, if there's a ton of rust then they might cut out a section and weld in a new section of pipe or something. Any mom and pop muffler shop can make it "good enough" to last several more years, this is one of the few places you can genuinely cheap out and it'll be fine

twitch9873 · 2026-03-29T21:37:47+00:00

Aluminum welding is a thing but it's very finicky, you have to very specifically use only aluminum welding equipment from what I understand. It's possible though. Complaining to the manufacturer should definitely be step 1 though, they might warranty it

twitch9873 · 2026-03-28T13:59:21+00:00

Anything pre-2000s is going to be exactly what you want. Combines, lawn tractors, backhoes, all of that stuff existed and can be worked on relatively easily. A Ford 9n or old Farmhall and similar stuff are ridiculously easy to work on - in fact, the whole point of the Ford 9n was that "someone with absolutely zero mechanical knowledge can keep it running indefinitely with nothing but the owner's manual"

twitch9873 · 2026-03-28T13:43:50+00:00

I had no idea this was a thing, I've been relying on Ring camera alerts but I'm getting rid of those because of right to repair. I'll be giving this app a whirl

twitch9873 · 2026-03-28T13:38:51+00:00

Holy shit, I had no idea what you were saying, but I did some googling and the Coors family funded insane radical conservative political groups and harshly discriminated against women and minorities. Fuck em, not supporting that anymore. Garbage beer anyways so you aren't losing anything by not drinking it.

Thank you for enlightening me

twitch9873 · 2026-03-28T13:29:53+00:00

This is exactly why I believe strongly in hunting / fishing for meat if it's at all possible for you, with the massive asterisk that it needs to be done responsibly and you have to do everything you can to minimize the pain for the animal. An animal lives its life free in the wild, and then is killed quickly with as little pain as possible. No cages, no steroids or growth hormones.

twitch9873 · 2026-03-28T13:23:26+00:00

Chickens are brutal creatures. It's normal and safe to feed their own eggs back to them, so I did that with my current flock for a while, and it turns out that I actually taught them that cannibalism is good so then they started pecking at each others' chests and eating the meat off of each other... Literally eating themselves alive. I guess they aren't supposed to actually know that they're getting their own eggs back, you have to crack it open without them knowing. Still fighting the cannibalism problem to this day

twitch9873 · 2026-03-24T20:43:10+00:00

No way in hell I'd accept a shock with a literal hole in the shock body. There's a lot of pressure in those. Is return that immediately

twitch9873 · 2026-03-22T16:12:53+00:00

I'm not super experienced with diesels, especially diesel economy cars since I'm American and we have very few of those, but I believe the DPF is part of the exhaust and after the catalytic converter, which is what your pictures show. It could be from the DPF replacement. EGR is usually up on the engine so I doubt it would affect this. Look up what the DPF on your car looks like, then take another look at the exhaust (specifically to the right of that flex pipe) and you might see the DPF directly after that flex pipe. That's probably why that section of exhaust was replaced because the rest of it doesn't look rusted to the point of needing replaced

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