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Oak Ridge, NC Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Batten down the hatches. [avalon02wh]

by shipo on Mon May 26 12:14:27 PDT 2008

"As far as the BTU content goes, gasoline is 124,000 BTU and diesel is 139,000 BTU." Per the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Regular unleaded has 115,000 BTUs per gallon, they also say that Diesel has 130,500. Further more, the DOE says that Regular unleaded has 115,500 BTUs per gallon: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/rtecs/nhts_survey/2001/tablefiles/c0464(2005).pdf I'm thinking that 124,000 is wildly optimistic. The thing is, in most parts of the country, Regular unleaded gasoline is hard to come by, if not impossible, and instead, the motorist is allowed to buy E10 (gasoline containing 10% ethanol by volume). Assuming that the DOE figures are correct, one gallon of E10 will contain only 111,550 BTUs, a considerable drop from the nominal 128,000-130,000 BTU number I usually see for diesel. Best Regards, Shipo

ORNL / PHEVs

by kdhspyder on Fri Mar 14 11:10:45 PDT 2008

From GCC.. Oak Ridge Natl Laboratory studied the potential effects of PHEVs on the power generation system. "ORNL Study Explores PHEVs’ Impact on Power Generation Requirements 13 March 2008 Sum for all 13 regions of projected 2030 generating capacity (top left), base generation (top right), and new generation dispatched (bottom) to meet demand for each PHEV recharging scenario. Click to enlarge. A recent Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) study examines how an expected increase in ownership of plug-in hybrid electric cars and trucks could affect regional power generation requirements depending on what time of day or night the vehicles are charged. The researchers concluded that supporting a 25% market share of light-duty (cars and SUVs) PHEVs in 2030 could require either major new power generation resources or no new resources at all, depending on when people recharge." Interesting..I'd plan on there being some restrictions on recharging times. link to the whole article Here's an interesting nuance also. Somebody commissioned this study giving them certain assumptions/parameters. One of which apparently is the national fleet being as much as 25% PHEVs by 2020. Hmmmmm

jeep just blows air

by dandcsmom on Tue Nov 13 09:48:20 PST 2007

My 2004 jeep grand cherokee blows air, but no heat. The factory wanted over a thousand dollars to fix the blend doors. I read where disconnecting the battery cables and reconnecting them fixes the heat problem temporarily. It did. TEMPORARILY. Everyone with this problem needs to contact Chrysler. This should most definitely be a recall. This is a factory defect!! You can e-mail them at the JEEP.COM website. Go to the bottom and click "contact us" or call 1-800-853-1403 or mail them at CHRYSLER LLC P.O. BOX 4639 OAK RIDGE, TN 37831. Do not give up. Chrysler created this problem. Now they need to fix it!

Re: Am I getting a good price on Mazda3s? Buying this week!! [maribeln]

by mp6466 on Wed Jun 13 22:15:06 PDT 2007

before you go to the dealer, try to find the lowest APR% car loan from a bank, such as bank of america, chase, etc. you tell them the estimate of the car value and they will give you a blanck check. don't let the "mazda" dealer connect you with a bank that will give you some high rate loans. i had good credit and mazda was so stingy not to give me a car loan. i had to go to bank of america to get a nice decent rate loan. 5.6% for 5 years. to tell you the truth i recommend you the mazda 3 hatchback 5 door, 2.3 engine. trust me alot of people are gonna turn heads when you drive by. the hatchback seems to have a lexus type of body style more than the sedan you are trying to buy. besides the sedan doesn't look too attractive. yellow, black mica, or charcoal gray colored are the hottest colors right now.. silver is nice but its played out. listen, i bought a mazda 3s hatchback. tag price was $20,500 and lowest they gave me was $18,900. it was well equipped with moonroof, sports seats, etc. but with no leather seats, no navigation. not including taxes, extra warranty, documentation. this was back in 2005 DECEMBER, dealer was located right by chicago ridge mall, oak lawn. my car drives great, no problems, etc. i get alot of envy at my workplace. love my car. by the way make sure the car you buy is made 90% or so directly from japan.

Inverters

by toyolla2 on Wed Mar 28 12:19:26 PDT 2007

This is another sack cloth and ashes post about some speculation I made close to the beginning of this forum that inverters for automobile usage may approach 1000vDC. In the US most industrial inverters are run on 660vDC because diode input bridges on 3-phase 460vac will produce this voltage across the main bus. In Canada the powers that be because they generated so much electrical power looked into the future and advocated a 575vac system. Although the higher voltage would seem to allow savings with thinner copper conductors savings were nefarious at best. It certainly made equipment, switchgear etc, more expensive because of the smaller market in Canada to meet this new standard. It also did not forsee that the day of specifying large electric motors would be over. Today the trend is towards multiple smaller machine drives simultaneously controlled through digital comm. links. Inside these smaller drives higher voltages have become more of a problem than a virtue. Low cost 575vac inverters available off-shelf, assuming they are not front ended with a 3-phase SCR half-bridge soft start, will have their IGBT devices working off an 800vDC bus. The problem is that these relatively new inverters have not been found to be as reliable as the established 460vac inverters used previously. It turns out that maybe, just maybe, 650vDC may turn out to be the sweet spot for silicon IGBT technology after all and that going forward, the use of voltages above 650vDC should be avoided if possible. This was triggered by seeing a inverter die posted on the Yahoo prius_stuff board. There was a query on the terminations and I suggested to them that this would appear to be a SENSEFET fabrication on the internals of an IGBT ! There are donuts on two of the power leads, but sensefet outputs are likely to be much faster than current TXFMRS and may be a way that Toyota is making their circuits more secure. This will be probably be checked out soon. ORNL (Oak Ridge National Lab) also mislabeled the polarity on their pic. I hope they don't make mistakes like that with other stuff they work on up there. :) T2 Sensefet is a Motorola trademark name

Stear Clear of Reno

by knoxvilledavid on Sat Oct 21 08:27:55 PDT 2006

I "found" my Reno in Oct '05. It seemed like a decent car with lots of extras when I test drove it and the folks at Oak Ridge Suzuki were great until I brought it in for service and they acted like I was complaining for nothing when I told them I couldn't get it started. I literally cranked the thing two dozen times one afternoon in the lot at work trying to get home for an appointment. I was so embarrassed about having been suckered into buying this car. I had owned an Alto (a mini car not imported to this country) fifteen years ago and loved it, so thought I'd go with another Suzuki. BIG MISTAKE!!! The fix for the starter problem resulted in a 10% reduction in already poor gas mileage, from 22 to 20 (I had gotten 17 over the exact same terrain with my '02 Silverado Reg Cab!) It also seems to have caused the engine to rev to 2500 and ease down for several seconds immediately upon starting it, definitely not something I wanted it to continue doing into the winter months! So they recently reprogrammed it to 2000 rpm. Is that normal starting rpm? I have gotten 35 mpg with this car on the highway, so it's a great car in that regard. But as I do most of my driving on hilly, twisty, and tight east Tennessee roads I have no confidence whatsoever in it's performance or handling. If you have an extra few grand and are wanting an AWD car, I would strongly suggest considering the Impreza wagon. I owned a FWD Impreza from '94 to '02 and it handled great!!! Plus it was RELIABLE. I spent no more than $500 on repairs until it hit 150,000 miles. Not even a brake job! But you do give up back seat space. I wish I had stuck with a good thing when I went back to a car after losing my Silverado. So far my Reno has had a new catalytic converter, and will soon get a new rack and a new cruise control switch. I'm wondering what will be next. Odds are the entire car will be replaced before it goes off warranty.