Cat Radio's on the fritz again. · 3:30am Sep 16th, 2020
One day I’ll tell you about how Union Pacific’s takeover of Southern Pacific went. In a nutshell, at the height of the catastrophe, if a railcar went into Texas, it didn’t come back out for six months.
I mention that because T-Mobile took over Sprint recently.
And broke my cat radio.
My regular phone is still having issues, frequently forgetting that it ought to be listening for 4G signals from cell phone towers. Last Saturday, it updated and broke again (I knew it was going to; I was working in Lansing and did the update at the end of my shift so after it broke I could drive to Sprint T-Mobile and make them fix it). They did, and the fix lasted nearly a full day before it decided it only wanted 3G, that it should reset its antenna mode to CDMA, and then that it shouldn’t bother with cell phone signals at all.
So I gotta go back to Lansing and make them fix it again, and we’ll see how long it lasts next time around.
Or convince them to send it out and get it fixed for real (which probably means ‘replaced with a refurbished phone’). Because at this point, it’s just like ‘repairing’ a car by clearing the check engine light . . . it’s gonna come back; turning off the light doesn’t fix the problem.
Luckily, I have a plan B, in the form of a second cell phone, which is newer and shinier and does all the things that the old one doesn’t, mostly. It’s not as good; the old one was a Cadillac (now 3 years old, which is like 30 in car years), whereas the new one is more of a Chevy Sonic. It’s got doors and an engine and wheels and what more do you really need in a car, amirite?
A road to drive it on. You need that. Especially for a Sonic, which is less good off-road than a Caravan (they’re okay offroad and my insurance agent was in equal parts horrified and amused that I’d offroaded my Caravan).
The analogy isn’t great, but the point is that when the cell phone tower stops working, so does the cell phone.
I mean, it sort of works. I get one bar of LTE service, and that’s one more bar than no bars. Yeah, it used to be three or four, but in the interests of cost-savings or maybe the hamster than ran the wheel finally died, the tower that used to serve my house isn’t doing it so well any more.
They’re trying mighty hard to sell me a new phone, but if they can’t fix the old one and can’t make the towers work, why should I?
On the plus side, the older phone which is much better overall than the new one is really good at picking up a faint cell tower signal and getting every ounce of performance out of it.
As long as it remembers that it should be looking for cell phone towers, that is.
In work-related news, I got to put a cylinder head on a Toyota Land Cruiser (fun!) and an engine in a Silverado and just yesterday and today an engine in an Explorer. The Explorerer was kind of interesting diagnostically; it quit while running and when I checked it, it had zero compression on both banks (I didn’t check all the cylinders, just one on each side). It’s a E motor, a SOHC 4.0L, which has I think four timing chains overall, and because Ford had a better idea, you have to pull the motor to replace the one on the right rear.
The customer was on a budget, so some things that ought to have gotten replaced didn’t. That might come back to bite us later, honestly. And some things that should have gotten transferred also didn’t--the old engine had a new harmonic balancer and crank position sensor, and now the Explorererer is rocking the ones off the junkyard motor instead, which are functional I guess (it does run, so that’s a win). In fact, after only two days it’s ready to drive except that the hood still isn’t put back on.
Anyway, the point is that my internet’s unreliable at the moment and I’m working stupid amounts of overtime so expect some delays for the next little bit.
Also I’m tired and should sleep.
Routers are a pain in the butt. Remember to reboot it every few months to refresh the routing tables and DNS caches and stuff. And use OpenWRT firmware if available. They're actually pretty sensitive to temperature, so if the signal starts getting flaky in midsummer, it's not necessarily time to panic. But if it does it a lot, it might be nearing the end of it's lifespan.
As for phone carriers, all telecom companies are scumbags to some extent, but T-Mobile has been less scummy than most. We have to continuously remain on guard against them all re-amalgamating back into Ma Bell.
edit. I hear Straight Talk is an exceptionally fair carrier, but being affiliated with Wal-Mart and Verizon should make one cautious.
Sleep is God. Go and Worship.
It does help (sometimes) to unplug your router for a minute & let it reboot itself. Also, *IF* you have the patience, you can call tech support & have them send out a signal to reboot it,
I mean, I off-road my wife’s Chevy sonic and it does okay.
5356277
It is, after all, easier to beg for forgiveness, then ask for permission!
As long as you don't tell her, it's all good!
Trying to sell you a new phone? When so many of their competitors would just give you one for swapping services?
The noive o' some folks, oi sweah!
You use a cell phone for your internet? That would be painful. I mean I worry about hitting the 1TB limit that Comcast has, to be tied to like 16GB would... What happens when your computer updates.
Not like we have the best 4LT here either -- I get 1 or 2 bars, and occasional disconnects. My phone also is down to where it kicks out at about 40% battery life directly to shut down and lasts all of 20-30 minutes of light use from 100% to 40%. Try changing the battery in a phone these days.... Sigh. I figure in under 6 months it won't turn on at all unless it is plugged into an external power block.
They really don't like you using your phone for too many years. I have a Motorola Pure X that I bought back in June 2016 on sale as the model was first started in 2015. If the battery worked well, I wouldn't be considering a new phone that probably won't do as much as this one does. I mean it has a quite nice camera in it, and despite their only supporting to android 7.0 still does enough. Again something THEY decided to not let you update the OS further not something that you choose not to.
What series of Land Cruiser, out of curiosity?
I've seen what a job it is to replace the Timing chains on one of those engines... And we have a second one needing to be done.
For some reason, I read that as "Today an engine exploded", and I panicked for a moment. Then I realized you probably wouldn't be writing this blog if you were dead, and I felt a bit silly.
Then I realized I also mis-read it, and felt even sillier.
Ah, sorry. :D
More seriously (and it's hardly my fault I laughed at the way you presented it :D), I hope the cat radio situation improves for you soon.
Good luck with work, too!
People are going to think I'm weird for saying this, but... so glad I don't have a smartphone.
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She’s in the passenger seat half the time. If I do the maintenance I get to mess it up. Besides. Paint jobs are totally overrated.
5356388
Yep, I'm still rockin' a 10 year old flip phone. Calls, texts, and an alarm are all I need.
5356717
Sounds like it still works, so props to you. 🙂
Sleep good.
5356302
I'm curious too!
I'm guessing 80 series, since he said 'head' and 'fun', implying that there's only one, and implying it's not a 60 because those are cam in block, so 'fun' would be the wrong sarcastic remark...
My 80 has a head gasket leak, right now, and I'm planning on fixing it by myself in the alley behind the house, someday soon. I wonder if he has any pointers, aside from "Don't."
5357178
Mine has less of a head gasket leak and more of a head gasket gradual seep. Had it replaced once, marginal improvement. You can tell by the grime where it's coming from, though.
5357384
Yeah, mine’s a combustion chamber <-> coolant system leak.
Persistent Misfire, sweet smelling exhaust, and high coolant pressure
Probably a #6 fire ring failure, if the info I’ve found is anything to go by
5356266
Yeah, I don’t have one of those (I realize that the ‘cat radio’ reference implied it). I’ve got a Samsung A51 “router” (that’s the new phone) and a Samsung Galaxy S8 plus “router” running a tethering program and that combo’s been reasonably reliable for the last decade or so.
I never had any trouble with Sprint, and I’m gonna miss ‘em. I even got them to take me off their ‘calling to offer upgrades’ service.
Yeah, I might have to change providers if T-Mobile keeps having service issues out where I live. The good news (and part of the reason I’m getting an older phone fixed rather than replaced) is that I’m off-contract, all equipment is paid for, and I can just cancel my service with no penalties if I want.
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It’s not technically a router; it’s a cell phone and a length of USB-C cable. And a tethering app.
But I agree in principle, and I try to reboot my phone every couple of weeks at the most, and likewise for my computer. Just to keep the leftover data from clogging up the RAM or whatever it does.
5356277
Like, they’re all right for some off-roading, but they’re not Jeeps. I rallied a mostly-stock Ford Fiesta, and it did okay.
What’s really bad at going off-road is a standard wrecker. Stupid heavy with skinny tires, they sink into just about anything. Even our four wheel drive truck wasn’t that great off road.
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I don’t know what kind of deal they might have offered; the conversation went like this:
T-Mobile: “Have you considered upgrading?”
Me: “No.”
T-Mobile: “You’re eligible--”
Me: “I have a phone with a warranty through you and I want it fixed.”
(I think at one point, they did mention the hundreds of dollars I could save on a new S20, if I wanted to go that route. And there’s an ad they have for a stack of phones for only $100/month when you get four lines, but I didn’t read the fine print to see if that was $100 per line or for all the lines together, and anyway since I’ve never traded in an old cell phone, I already have a stack of phones).
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We’ll see how it works out with T-Mobile. It was never a problem with Sprint; I bought unlimited internet and I used unlimited internet, usually over 100gb/month. As far as I know, they never throttled me, but the internet’s sketchy enough out here they might not have had to. I can watch YouTube at up to 720p if the tower’s working right, and I can write all the ponyfics I desire, and that’s good enough for me. Plus, I can of course use it anywhere I have a cell signal, which means that my laptops can also get the same internet when I’m out and about.
That’s what killed my old phone (a HTC 1, IIRC), not only was the battery sketchy, but the charging port went, and I made the mistake of trying to get it fixed after I’d already pre-ordered the S8, and they would’t, since I had a new phone on order.
This time I’m not making that mistake again; if and when I upgrade, it’s going to be with a fully-functioning S8+ in hand.
It’s not just that they don’t want you to do it (although of course that’s a factor), but as the phone gets older it’s less and less capable of interacting with the internet in its current state. I’ve got an older netbook (remember those?) that’s only useful as an iPod; it can’t handle the internet at all. And I’ve also got a decent Samsung laptop that’s also barely internet capable any more--it just hasn’t got the RAM to handle modern webpages. Plus battery performance degrades, and so on.
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I don’t know their serieses, but it was a 97 with an inline 6. Which was an engine I didn’t know Toyota made until I worked on this thing.
(I did know about the one they had in the 70s, ‘cause one of our former customers had a late 70s or maybe early 80s Land Cruiser.)
As with most cars, there was some really smart design stuff and some really dumb design stuff. And not counting the time it took for the machine shop to do its magic, I spent more hours putting a head gasket on this thing that I did replacing the engine in a Ford Explorererererer.
5356317
I didn’t look up the procedure, but it looked less involved than putting a chain on a GM 3.6L (step 1, remove engine) or a Ford Explorererer...er with a 4.0L SOHC (also step 1, remove engine).
5356320
I’ve only ever got a boiling coolant shower from a engine malfunction, luckily. Not that I recommend that, mind you. If the cooling system is making weird noises, run away.
5356388
As with anything, they’ve got their pros and cons. While I held off for a long time, if I didn’t have a smartphone, y’all wouldn’t be getting ponyfics from me, so . . .
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I don’t mind laughing; sometimes that’s all you can do. I’m not totally up a creek without a paddle, there are other options (would be even more if it weren’t for the pandemic), and I’ve still got semi-functional internet, just not super-reliable.
Thanks! We’ve already set a new academy record for September, and the month isn’t even over yet.
Next week I’m going to get to put hydraulic lines on a dump truck, which I already know I’m going to hate.
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Scratches and dents just mean that you use your car. And doing your own maintenance is both a blessing and a curse--you save money, for one, and you’re also sometimes more cautious because you know who’s going to have to fix it if it breaks. On the downside, you have to fix it if it breaks.
The only repair I ever had done at a shop was a rear feed line on my 78 Chevy. It blew in the winter, and there was an immovable car in the garage, so if I was going to do it on my own, I would have to lie in two feet of snow, and I didn’t think that that was worth it. Instead, I stayed warm and paid someone $140 to do it.
Edit: and a couple tire repairs before I started working in a garage
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thank you!
5357178
It was a 97, with an inline 6 and DOHC (I can’t remember the displacement, but I’m sure that Toyota only had one straight six they put in those in the 90s).
Unless you’re super familiar with the engine, take lots of pictures so you know where things are supposed to go. It’s something I always forget to do (I took some, but not as many as I should have), ‘cause I was raised in the film days and pictures cost a lot. I usually put all the bolts back in the part they came out of (for example, the alternator bolts go back in the alternator once it’s removed) so I don’t get mixed up on what goes where. For bigger jobs, I like to arrange parts in a ‘start to finish’ manner, so I can reverse the process when it goes back together.
We used an engine hoist to pull the head and intake manifold as one assembly, and that’s the best way to do it if you can (on the inline 6, Toyota recommends pulling the head and intake off as a unit). You can put the intake on after the head’s installed, that’s how it went back together ‘cause my manager was getting antsy, and that probably cost me a couple extra hours of assembly time I didn’t need to spend. Although, admittedly, the head was easier to drop back in place without the intake on it.
5359049
Yep, that's the last year of the 80 series, and the last year of the inline six. Mine's a 96. I'm fond of it.
5359053
To each their own, whatever works. 🙂 I just chose not to get one because it's one more thing I'd have to pay for and carry around with me everyday.
5359056
at least it's probably not as bad as the Mercedes dump trucks my retired air force mechanic friend had to work on in Germany?
They had a parking brake linkage that was affected by suspension loading. set the brake so that it'll hold an empty truck, and it won't release when it's loaded. set it so it'll hold on a loaded truck, and it won't hold when it's empty.
5359060
You're mostly right about that. They did have a cam in block engine (the 3FE) in the early 90's, swapping to the 1FZ in 93.
(The 3FE got used in several other trucks in Japan, things like ambulances, while the 1FZ only appeared in the Land Cruiser, the Lexus rebadge of the Land Cruiser, and some forklifts.)
I learned to take pictures on my other big project, a '73 GMC MotorHome, so I know how to put the engine back in, once I get it back from the rebuilder.
I do the thing with the bolts too, but i've never had a job big enough to arrange the parts like that. it sounds like a good idea.
and I have a hoist, so that's me all set then.
Thanks!
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Ah, glad it's working out not too badly, it sounds like. :)
Ah, nice. Er, I assume?
Ah, sorry about that; particular good luck with that, then.
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Well if you could replace the battery, it would be less of an issue. I actually took it to a place last year for them to try. They failed and refunded the money. The phones just aren't meant to have them replaced in general now. As for the OS, they COULD have updates, they just choose not to.
It will be sad to see it go because other than battery life, it works fine.
I also have an ancient laptop that barely manages the internet. Oddly enough my current PC is 10 years old. It is an i7-950 which originally came with a 580 and was replaced by a 1060. I JUST bought an LG34WL85CB monitor that was on deep sale for $430. This replaces the U2412 monitor I had (So I went from 1920x1200 to 3440x1440. I know still 60hz. I considered going for something like 120 but then you end up with a va panel instead of ips, worse color, etc. and double the price. Never had a computer for 10 years before. This will be the year it gets replaced, when the 3060s become available. Maybe 3070 -- who knows. Depends upon what kind of deals happen around black friday.
5359123
Never been a fan of Toyota for many reasons, but I gotta say having worked on this thing, I could see why people would like them.
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I went with a smartphone in lieu of paying for internet the normal way, and thus far it’s mostly worked out for me.
5359151
That’s . . . not a great design.
I would assume the 3FE was the older design and superseded by the 1FZ . . . I might be wrong, dunno know Asian cars all that well. In GM, you had to go back to the early 80s to have two inline-sixes offered in the same platform (the 250 vs the 292), both were mostly the same. Likewise, I don’t think that there were any major difference between Jeep’s normal 4.0 and the 4.0 HO [obviously, there were some, but both were essentially the same architecture with displacement or component changes].
From everything I know, those were awesome motorhomes.
One of the difference between being a hobbiest and a professional generalist. There are cars where I don’t bother, where I’ve done the job enough times that I can just dump everything in a pile and sort it out in reassembly (intake gaskets on a GM 3.8L for example), and others that I’ve never done (like a head on a Toyota 1FZ) where I’m not gonna remember a month later where all the bolts went.
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Yeah, to a point you can have updates, then the OS just gets too big . . . that’s a problem I had with one of my bargain-basement laptops, it didn’t have enough HDD to update Windows (not even a 30GB SSD).
And battery life is, as far as I know, a physics and chemistry problem that’s not so easily solved. A lot of smart people are working on that. Replaceable batteries are good on one hand, and not so good on another; it depends on the end user. AFAIK most new(er) phones aren’t meant to be upgradable or even practically repairable.
It wouldn’t hurt to replace mine as well; it’s one of the cheaper models I could get at Best Buy (some kind of Lenovo). All the expensive bits are external (keyboards, monitors) and could be carried over to a new unit. Still, she does well enough with what I ask of her, so I’m not really motivated to upgrade yet.
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All of ours have the 4.0L SOHC Cologne V6.
5364417
Oh, gotcha. I thought you were talking about the Toyota inline 6 DOHC, which doesn’t look all that bad as replacing timing chains go.