Had that last year on mine, a '97. Just pulled the EGR, put a short section of dog cable in a drill, and cleaned the port from there. I had picked up an EGR gasket at a parts store for a buck or two, but could have used the old gasket. Hardest thing was finding the dog cable. I had read that thick weed whacker cable would work, but only had thin stuff. Don't think ANY weed whacker cable would have cleared it, as it was almost solidly plugged. Then I spotted the old kinked dog cable behind a box in the garage, It's stranded, and about 3/16" to 1/4" thick. Think about having something like that when you start. Even if you pull the throttle body, you need to clean that passage..
On Mar 4, 5:14=A0pm, "Leroy N. Soetoro" wrote: [ . . . ]
[ . . . ]
-- To review, . . . GM management resisted applying electric car technology. They even made an electric car before, when the State of California demanded it, the EV 1, and scrapped it after they bought the state government out.
Toyota, and other foreign firms, have been developing electric cars, like the Prius, for years. When environmental concerns demanded electric cars they just went to work. They did not try to bribe the government so that they could continue business as usual.
-- Now, the situation is . . . GM is way behind the foreign car makers, in electric car technology. The used to be number one car maker, has gone bankrupt and tried to recover with government help. GM is still slipping.
It's frustrating talking to you guys. It's always the same thing - everybody knows the major problem is with the batteries. It's the reason we all ain't driving electric cars. WE GOT THAT, OK?
Thanks for the tip. I had tried using a coathanger wire as mine, also a '97 was so plugged that the idle didn't even change much when I pulled the valve with it running, it helped for awhile and made the light intermittent but it has been solidly on since the beginning of winter. Luckily I have access to a 2 post lift and an OTC 4000 Enhanced scanner with the Pathfinder 96 software and it shows GM specific stuff. Having both always helps.
Agreed about the taxes, but the price I was mentioning was because our news is full of 73 oil crisis doom at the moment and I just wondered how it would play over there if fuel went to the prices that we pay. Also remember that the duty we pay on fuel is fixed so when fuel goes up, like you we pay more, but much lower increase in proportion.
Most of those taxes, though, go for maintaining road infrastructure that you use when you burn gasoline. Whereas in the US we can't seem to keep specific-use taxes segregated.
I don't mind high gas prices if it means roads are maintained better. I only mind paying a gas tax which gets used for something totally unrelated.
Are you aware that the US government is driving the cost of labor up by taxing it at the rate they do?
By not taxing workers wages heavily and by providing national health care European countries don't add as much to the cost of labor that means manufacturing jobs tend to not migrate away This is because of reduced labor costs and increased transportation costs
The US government drives the cost of fuel down by not taxing it heavily and using the tax from labor to finance expensive foreign policy to keep the price of fuel low
Some of the consequence of this is that jobs migrate to other countries and fuel is used wastefully
If instead of that taxation scheme fuel was heavily taxed for government revenue and labor was cheaper due to reduction in payroll taxes and health insurance costs
Then
More of the goods that people buy locally would be made by workers with local jobs instead of workers half-way around the world
Lithium batteries are very sensitive to heat, and degrade quickly in high temperatures. In the summer, the Chevy Volt may very well get 40 miles per charge, at the expense of battery life, and high-capacity lithium battery packs are VERY expensive.
Other problems include the fact that China currently controls most of the world supply of lithium deposits, and also controls most lithium battery production. If electric cars do catch on, we will replace our dependence on Arab oil with dependence on Chinese lithium. At present, the U.S. electrical grid can't handle the load of tens of millions of electric cars charging at the same time, and even if it is upgraded, new power plants will have to be built to supply all the electricity. The idea that a few windmills and solar panels can produce enough electricity to power national transportation is pure fantasy, so the power will come from coal, natural gas, and nuclear.
One final thing to consider is that the U.S. has no coherent national energy policy, meaning we are unlikely to get the new grids or power plants we need for electric cars. For example, thanks to the drilling technique known as "frakking," the U.S. has a huge surplus of natural gas, and several terminals are under construction to liquefy the gas for export. Rather than using this natural gas to power vehicles or generate electricity, we are going to sell it to China, and use the money to buy even more oil from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela. We let the energy companies destroy the U.S. environment while drilling for gas, and we still wind up being dependent on foreign oil. This is so outrageous it should be criminal.
The cost of electricity in CT is hovering around $0.25 a KWH, so cost savings is virtually nil for this vehicle. Add to that that 50% of electrical generation in this country is generated through burning coal, the carbon footprint savings are marginal, at best. A hybrid makes much more sense.
50% of electrical generation in the US is through the burning of coal. This negates "green features" of this car. Depending on where you live, the electrical costs could be equal to or higher than the equivalent fuel costs. As we (the general American public) buy into the liberal hysteria about these types of vehicles, electrical distribution costs will go even higher as new infrastructure is needed. Imagine a few million of these in Cal, where rolling brownouts are the norm. If anything, the hybrid is a better choice, IMO.
I did realize that the electricity would have to come from a factory although I'm not so sure that it's cleaner to convert oil to gasoline using coal or oil and then transport it in some way using more coal or oil or gas or diesel and then use some electricity to pump it into our tanks and then finally burning the gas in a piston engine. My guess is that you'd be able to go a lot farther on a buck of electricity vs a buck of gas - although that's just a guess on my part. The way we distribute electricity will have to be rebuilt but I'm assuming that we can do it.
I will wait for the "watt", and luxo Cadillac version the "Kilo-watt". Maybe they will replace the Corvette with the "amp". But it still see great "resistance" from the general public. "Inductance" into the car hall of fame is doubtful. It will be helpful to have a large trunk "capacitance" for gear. When the electric owners get that large home electric bill, it will be "Power Factor" time in figuring out if its practical at all. Turning on the "AC" will have a whole new meaning.
Folks had trouble accepting seat belts, fuel injection, air bags, disc brakes, radial tires etc While I find the resistance to EV's silly, I guess I should have expected it.. Ben
No kidding, a proper EV is about 4 miles per KWh (250Wh per mile), that makes 16 miles per dollar for you. Current gas prices mean a 50MPG vehicle is about 15 miles per dollar.
True.. I dont resist them, really, as a concept. I resist them personally and I think that they are, at this time, a rather poor choice of technology. Why do I care at all? Because lurking in there, I know I will be paying a part of this.
really cares about how "clean" the GM VOLT is.Except for CT residents, nobody cares that people are stuck in CT.Coal plants aren't a problem as long as the prevailing westerliescontinue to drop most of the acid rain on the libs in CT.GM is a right wing company.As you can see from the above electric rate chart, their target market isn't the left-wing "Blue" states with high electric rates. Their main goal with the Volt is to piss off the lib suckers in CT and other "Blue" states who are paying high electric costs by making them jealous when they see a Volt, and turn them into supporters of nuke power generation. Then with more nuke plants they will sell even more Volts. Ciao!
The bottom line is that it is not the cure all, and not as cut and dried as either side would like you to believe. We Still will need a huge investment in distribution as well as generation, and an alternative to coal is needed.
Maybe we can switch to natural gas power generation, what with all the hydrofraking that has been legalized it must be in abundance.
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