Kelleytoons

Yeah, I changed the headlights on our Durango in about 5 minutes. Easy-peasy. I now CAN change the headlights on the C-Max, but even with what I know it will take 30 minutes or so. Not incredibly difficult, just a royal PITA. The worst is that stupid screw there is no access for anywhere. I know engineers don't particularly care how common folks will deal with things, but you'd think at least one designer would get it right.

+1 (Hot food is *way* overrated :>)

I'm not sure a burned out bulb would be warranted -- I guess it depends on what kind of warranty you got (most standard warranties don't cover such items, but I suppose it's possible...) I'm glad I did it, though -- taught me a lot about the car and made me confident I can change all the various bulbs there (there are a lot of them in that assembly). Plus I found a lot of leaves and crap that I needed to clean out. Oh, and anything you read that *I've* done you might as well take as "if he can do it, ANYONE can do it". I'm NOT a mechanical person by any means, and changing the oil in my (old) car was about the highest form of car maintenance I've ever felt competent to do (I'm a software engineer -- and the old line about "how many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None -- that's a hardware problem" was never truer than in my case).

Yep, that is correct. While I WAS able to do it (and all is working) I had an issue with one of the torx screws fitting into some weird sort of plastic nut thing that came off underneath, with almost no access to it possible. I did (finally) get it back into position using some angle nose pliers, but I fear if I ever have to replace a bulb again I will have to let the service folks do it just to fix this issue (either that or try and figure out another way to secure that screw). It's also WAY more complicated than it needs to be -- as with most engineering things (as a PC specialist I was always amazed at how engineers didn't think through the process of designing something to make it easy to work on. Nowadays things have actually gotten much easier, as opposed to cars, and you can open up a PC without needing any tools for the most part. Why cars have gone in the opposite direction I don't understand).

Ah, nevermind -- just needed to do a search on the interweb. Off tomorrow morning to Advance Auto Parts to get the part and then make the replacement (which is INCREDIBLY more complicated than it used to be on my (old) vehicles).

Okay, apparently now my signal light has completely failed, at least to *some* degree, which is to say that while it turns on (when the lights are on) the element that "signals" in the front bulb will not signal (there are at least two elements in that same bulb). Assuming it IS just the bulb (for a long time it wouldn't work, and then would work again off and on) I'd like to replace this myself. How hard is that to do? Anyone have a video link somewhere on how to remove the turn signal lens and replace the bulb themselves? And I assume I can just go to an auto parts store and get this bulb, but I'm speaking as an old man who is used to the old cars and easy bulb replacement. Anyone know if this is a highly specialized bulb or something Pep Boys would carry?

Nothing says driving more than alcohol!

I couldn't find a bluetooth one that works with my iPhone (lots for Androids, though) and even the ones that said Wi-Fi seemed to plug in *somewhere* (so I'm not sure I get it, exactly). But given how little I'll use this (maybe only once or twice a year if that) I don't really want to overthink this. I was thinking about getting this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W0SDLRY/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2M1HZFLRXD6KD&coliid=I105O47Z7U5H9E&psc=1

Ah, silly me -- right after I wrote that I went out to play tennis and just happened to reach down on the left and see this little panel which, when opened up, revealed what is surely that OBD port (so much more convenient than it is on our Durango, where it's hidden away). Thanks for the idea -- I think I will get one of these readers just for fun.

Okay, so this old man is vaguely familiar with the concept of OBD and devices to check the car's computer in general (when I actually worked on cars, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, they did not have computers in them :>) but is the place this plugs in to our cars easy to get to/find? I see that you can also buy extension cables for this and am wondering if I will need one as well.

Yeah, that's been my experience in the past with other makes and models, but I've never had an intermittent problem like this. After doing it pretty consistently for a few weeks (although never were I could stop and check) it now hasn't done it again for another week. I'm also thinking it *might* have something to do with the weather -- the temp here in Florida has been in the 100's, which is unusual, and now that it's slightly cooled off (in the 90's, which is more usual) it has stopped misbehaving. So perhaps the heat was causing something to loosen/tighten incorrectly and now all is well. For sure if/when it does it again (and I can stop safely) I'll check and find out where the bulb is so I can get it replaced (or replace it myself -- with these new cars I'm not sure how easy that is).

My two year old Maximis has at times started to cycle oddly when I use my right hand signal -- it either cycles fast or fast two times and then slow once or twice. In the past my experience with cars tells me this is due to a light being out, but it's one of those "this problem will NEVER occur when you are stopped and can actually check it" because every time I try it works fine (I HATE intermittent problems, particularly those that only seem to arise when you are on a long trip on the highway :>). In any case, it has happened on and off over the last few months and I'm pretty sure I'll eventually be able to stop and check it when it IS happening, but in the meantime can anyone confirm the source of this problem? I mean, am I likely to find that a light HAS gone out somewhere? (Although it's odd that it would go out and then come back on again -- perhaps the bulb is loose or something but until I find out what bulb it is I don't feel comfortable even taking it into the shop). Or is there something else I might have to consider?

I make it all the time, but most of my driving is in town (where I average around 50mph, and 55mpg). Fairly easy to do if you are driving in mostly flat places, without using the heater (IOW, Florida :>).

I have a really bad back (surgery to repair it 25 years ago but even as I type this I'm sitting in a very nice chair that I have to use a lumbar pillow behind just to be able to sit for more then 20 minutes in) and the seats in the C-Max are fine, at least in front. They are the most comfortable I've had in ANY car (and that includes about a half-century of car/truck ownership). But... I've never had a Volvo and I suspect you get used to certain things and it's hard to adjust. I have the base SE model and have no problem getting them comfortable for me (but with a bad back you should be aware that in most cases it's very important to have your legs MUCH closer than most people like to drive -- valets are always readjusing them just to be able to get in, since my legs are so bunched up and I sit so very close to the wheel). I think experimentation is in order for you.

As well as change your companies periodically. While it seems counter-intuitive, it actually pays to shop around even if you have a great record and a history with a particular company, as there is (generally) no "loyalty" benefit from staying with them. I had my home and car insured with Allstate for a couple of decades, with never even a single claim (and my agent was a tennis buddy). Filed one claim for theft (my car was stolen, although eventually recovered) and they cancelled me. My "buddy" eventually told me it was because I had insured all my expensive camera equipment (also in the car). He basically told me "you should NEVER file an insurance claim. Never. The only exception is catastrophe coverage, like your car or house being totalled. Other than that, just eat it". He's no longer my friend and I'm no longer with Allstate. But, unfortunately, his advice holds for any company.

I hate to say it, but that's why I like the hitch on the back of our Durango -- just as added "insurance" for folks who don't keep proper distance (I'm a nervous nellie and ALWAYS drive with at least two-three car lengths per 10mph).

And that's why you have insurance... (hopefully it was the other person's fault although it doesn't sound like it).

Not "babied" and not driven particularly well (didn't someone say less than half of the miles were highway? Heck, my lifetime is in the 40's and I rarely drive without A/C). No wonder the trannys failed.

So are we saying the tranny is covered until 80k? (I think it's only California that extends the warranty to 100k for the hybrid systems. I think I remember at least here in Florida it's not as long as that). And that failure looks to be often at 90-100k? If so, I'm okay with that. While I intend to keep Maximis for many, many years, personally I don't put many miles on any vehicle (two years in and I'm at around 13k, which looks to give me another 10 years before I have to worry -- I'm guessing I will DEFINITELY be in the market for something by then). I realize that, literally, YMMV, and that this will not be good news for many, though. On a less personal note, I wonder how hard these cars were driven. Putting that many miles in only a few years means they must have been almost continuously in service (that's like 300 miles a day every single day for three years). That MAY have had something to do with the failures..

If so that's contrary to the (very) large study done by the DOT when they did lower the National limit to 55 (auto fatalities when WAY down). My guess is the study is too small to be of any use (or the sample size is skewed -- no offense to my Utah buddies, whom I have several, but that whole state skews very oddly demographically, for reasons you can probably guess).

This is why the insurance rates for under 25 year old males is appropriately insane (although then a lot of them drive uninsured). As to the other poster, yes, you need to accelerate in order to merge into traffic, which was what I first said early in this topic (why the Prius is, in my mind, unsafe). I think the other poster, though, was talking about just accelerating in general (which doing fast isn't a good idea and wastes gas -- I was taught VERY early on to drive carefully and as a result have always gotten great mileage even out of vehicles that weren't supposed to do so. Accelerating slowly, anticipating signals and taking your foot off the gas before you come to them is just common sense. Amazing how my wife can't tell that a mile from where we are going at 60mph the light is red and thus she has to slam on the brakes when she gets up to it. I've given up even trying to educate her).

Which is fairly crazy. In my youth, in Nevada (when we had no speed limits on the highways) I drove in excess of 130mph between Vegas and California (once you got over the line you needed to be careful). And that was insane -- statistics here don't lie, and speeds in excess of 55 promote highway fatalities in almost an algorhymic fashion. Yes, I'm an old man, but I drive 5mph over whatever the posted limit is and if folks don't like it they can go around me (I do stay in the right lane when possible).

It's a bit hard to program just HTML for a forum -- you need to understand how to do data management which ain't easy (heck, there are programmers which ONLY do database stuff. Was that person for a few years). I don't blame forum owners for using one of the many canned packages out there (can't really tell which one this is). Just a normal web page is easy-peasy with HTML.

:) Or at least in the right hand lane with all the other traffic at your left. (Personally, I like the "less agressive heating and cooling". I'd have to say Maximis is just so DAMN agressive with the heat and the air. Why can't it just get along?)

They may not know -- owning and running a web site is a major effort that a lot of folks do not take the time to do right. You really need to test it with ALL major browsers, as well as both Macs and PCs (and all browsers for both of them, as Chrome on a Mac operates differently than on a PC). And you need to keep testing, as your advertisers will change the way they serve ads (assuming you generate revenue from ads, which is why I do NOT do this on the sites I run). It's a job that takes at LEAST 10-20 hours per week and most owners will not do this. Even with all that work I get thrown by the changes (mostly by IE) that come my way, but I because I don't serve ads (and thus no popups or otherwise annoying junk) it's a whole lot easier. Then again, I'm a former IT manager, so I know what I'm doing.