87Six

I hope y'all can see him too

I had hella technical issues with this game.

• Don't use external framerate limiters. YMMV. EDIT: I turned my RTSS FPS limiter back on to 60FPS and now it works perfectly...I don't understand anything anymore.
• Disable VSync and make sure it's not forced from your GPU's control panel
• You can't fix the stutters in the city. At least not as far as I can tell.
• VRR / Freesync / GSync may give you issues as well, if your PC can handle the game you can probably just turn them off for this game only.
• Don't switch to DX12 using the advanced graphics settings. It makes things WORSE. Use Vulkan.
• Generally don't touch those advanced settings. Idk why they're even there if they break the game so much.
• Make sure Windows didn't install a GPU driver that doesn't even exist yet via Device Manager. Fuck Windows btw.
• You can't play the game without internet if you get it...officially. FYI. Do with this as you will.

I hope I saved you some headache. It took me getting all the way to 40% completion to figure out all this.

Game's awesome but the technical BS kinda ruins it.

EDIT: Also why the hell is every cougar that spawns a 1 star? Every time I find one, I scope it, and I see 1/3, god damn, I've found like 7 by now and ALL have been 1 star. It's getting to the point I'm not even bothering to kill them. I just want a nice outfit damnit.

Video with multiple angles and before and after shots:

• Archive.org: https://archive.org/download/map-sensor-clean
• Torrent from archive.org: https://archive.org/download/map-sensor-clean/map-sensor-clean_archive.torrent
• Direct archive.org video link: https://archive.org/download/map-sensor-clean/MAP_Sensor_clean.mp4
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x27Xi6P5Oac

I cleaned this thing using electrical contact cleaner. AFAIK that's the only thing safe on this sensor. I sprayed that stuff in there really closely on the inside and outside everywhere.

Then I let it dry for 40 minutes before installing, then I probably took a few hours installing it back in and putting the car back together. (I'm slow don't judge me.)

If you do this, be careful with the valve cover screws. 10 Nm is the torque spec on those.

Also be careful that you fully seat the screw that holds the airbox onto the throttle body. I didn't torque it enough at first and air was leaking into my throttle from around the airbox. Idk the torque spec, but do just a lil more than hand tight I'd say.

It's REALLY tight in there. And this is coming from a guy with tiny racoon-like hands. I tried moving the oil dipstick out of the way, but it wouldn't really budge even after I removed the screw that holds it on the engine. The rest are fuel tubes and injector wiring that I'm not comfortable touching.

My advice is:

• Do this while the engine is cold.
• Put a long driver almost reaching the screws.
• Get your fingers in there and feel the screw.
• Guide the driver in both from the outside past all the hoses and from the inside. I couldn't for the love of crap remove those screws any other way. I was at this for like an hour. Total was about 8 hours probably, minus the waiting.
• Don't use a wrench. You'll mess up the screws really fast.
• Don't take out the sensor wire out of the sensor. I personally don't even have a damn clue how to remove it because it wouldn't budge even while pressing on the tab. You also don't risk breaking the brittle plastic if you don't touch it.
• When you've unscrewed the sensor and go to pull it out, it's kinda hard to take out. Wiggle and pull. I think it's a bit difficult because of the gasket.
• Press in the sensor real well when you put it back. It has guides for fitment. Make sure it's in place before you lose your mind trying to put the screws back in.
• Don't touch or brush the inside of the sensor, where the actual sensing tips are. (This is just passthrough.)
• Spray the cleaner right in there. I don't think the spray itself can damage anything. Mine isn't clean fully even after spraying it right in there like 6 times with dry time of a few minutes in between.
• Don't let it get this way in the first place. Replace your oil separator every now and then. Idk how often exactly.
• It's a PITA to get to it and replace. In hindsight, I'd just replace the sensor.

I will update with whether it fixed the issue or not.

Symptoms were:

• P0172 (system too rich - latest, seen right before this cleaning)
• P0170 (generic fuel trim malfunction - cleared at some point and didn't come back even before this fix)
• Jerky acceleration especially in lower gears. I could always reproduce it climbing from 1800 to 2200 RPM in 3rd gear with AC off. Also in 1st gear.
• Hunting at idle (RPM goes slightly up and down by about 50-100 RPM, continuously, in this case)
• Pretty bad, visible engine vibrations. Much worse than I've seen on other 1.4's online.
• Sometimes it would even fail to start, but very rarely. Idk if it's related. I haven't had this issue in a long while now. Never happened twice in a row.
• All only happened after a few trips after clearing OBD codes. Right after clearing the codes, the car always felt mint. Hence why I think this sensor was reading bad data and the ECU was adjusting the fuel trims incorrectly.
• What I would call a pretty high fuel usage for this little twink engine: 5.67l / 100km inter-city (90kmph whenever possible on a long 300km+ trip) and 10l / 100km in the city (not combined). (No AC in both, both during spring or autumn, measured full to full tank when filling at around 10-15 liters probably, that's how much I usually put in.)

Seen previously:

• P0401 (EGR circulation insufficient - probably fixed by EGR system cleaning, it's been like 2 months I think)
• P0134 (Front lambda sensor no activity - replaced)

Already done, either to fix this or other issues:

• Replaced the fuel pump
• EGR system cleaned, EGR replaced and calibrated (I shouldn't have replaced it I think...a proper cleaning should've been enough but whatever...)
• Replaced spark plugs, cleaned the coils, throttle calibration
• Replaced oil separator (don't even try to clean it. It's a maze inside. You'll never get all the gunk out, it's a PITA, and it's just a cheap piece of plastic anyway.
• Replaced air filter, replaced damaged airbox parts, properly secure the oil separator -> airbox tube because it was loose
• Replaced a bunch of engine sensors that were leaking oil according to my mechanic (how the frick does that even happen?)
• Middle and final exhaust replacement (had mad holes)
• That's about it for the stuff relevant to this issue I think, tho I did others too.

Thanks for reading my rant. I found NOBODY online showing or talking about how to clean this specific sensor on this specific engine (AXP engine from VAG). I could find 1.9 TDI's, 1.6's, Skoda engines...whatever. But never this specific one. And it seems this one is a fair bit harder to get to because of the location.

I'll edit the post after a few trips and let you know if I get another check engine light. It will be a few months until then.

Cut it in a nice shape, drilled the holes.

Painted the whole thing, including some foam I cut up for a better seal.

(Ignore the giant mess lol...my family neglected this garage)

I think it turned out nice. Should prevent some spill damage doo.

Temps before and after in the same exact test conditions (same tune, benchmark, no background apps etc). I used Furmark and Cinebench 2024)

GPU before: 62 GPU, 85 Hot, 76 Mem

GPU after: 55 GPU, 78 Hot, 66 Mem (adjusted for +3C ambient)

CPU before: 62C

CPU after: 63C (66C recorded, but ambient was +3C)

No benchmark score improvements but the GPU temp dropped a lot.

Hi

After a thermostat / potentiometer replacement, my fridge produces ice / snow at the back even on the minimum ("min" setting, the one next to OFF).

The thermostat was replaced because the fridge just never turned on anymore.

The cooling plate is INSIDE the fridge because the one in the back wall of the fridge no longer worked. The same person did this too and worked for years with no ice, and we were really happy with it.

I thought this was caused by a clogged drain pipe so I found it, chopped it off completely because it was a botch job (or seemed like it) and replaced it with a catcher so the water still falls in the evaporator tray

Before:

Cleaned it with a long cable and by pouring water with dish detergent down the hole...

After:

But the ice formed back to the same amount within 1-2 weeks :-/

I took apart the old thermostat and found that it has these 2 screws in it.

I destroyed the whole thing to take out the screws completely from inside it, but I could turn them from outside too. What is the use of these? Can I adjust the cooling by turning them somehow?

I suspect that the fridge is now cooling more, therefore is creating more ice. What else could be the issue?

This ice did not use to form before the thermostat replacement.

The fridge / freezer is about 20 years old I think. It's labeled Arctic but according to the guy that fixed it for us, it's actually a rebadge, but I don't remember exactly what brand he said it was. May have been Gorenje or Beko. It has 2 compressors for the fridge and freezer and they're completely separate from each other.

Ideas?

The cap was 1.5 euro.

The flashlight is a Sofirn SC13a.

The last mechanic I went to torqued these to hell...what are the chances he also tightened my spark plugs this much?

Never again...my other mechanic never overtorqued things this much.

Ignore the massive crack...I hate plastic body parts.

Thorough wash + Chemicalworkz (or in2detailing) DA9 polisher + blue small pad + Meguiars Ultimate Polish

Didn't even clay it, just went in there with polish. No finishing pad either. The blue is the 3rd most abrasive.

AFAIK that meguiars polish is very very light but it got the job done. Only like 3 passes were needed anyway.

There's still a bit of scratching left but I didn't want to sacrifice clear coat hunting for them.

The DA9 is really nice to use, I really recommend it so far. Used it a few times.

Everyone I've told about this said it was a waste of time because it will get scratched again. YEA, YOU CODGERS ARE THE ONES SCRATCHING IT WITH YOUR LUGGAGE! :-)

(the "didn't fill" from above are all from AFTER the fix)

I did this a long time ago but I only posted it now because I wanted to make sure the issue is gone. And it is!

I finally found the culprit that's been filling up my damn air filter, making the car run like shite and using oil like diddy.

It's this at #4, the oil separator.

This car hasn't had an oil change in a LONG time before I got it, gunked up the oil separator, clogged it, and the oil started going up instead of back down into the engine. Swapped, and you can see in the photo above how it was immediately fixed after. It's actually pretty easy to remove, it just takes time to take off the airbox first, or at least that's my mechanic told me. How he didn't figure it out when I asked why I had oil in my airbox is beyond me, but whatever.

The whole job is almost as cheap as the oil I had to keep adding.

If you have this issue, you will see oil coming out from this tube that goes in the airbox at #36.

You didn't ask for an auto troubleshooting tip? Well too bad!!!!

Mine's a Golf 4 1.4 petrol AXP by the way. Though, I think many cars have similar things.

If you know a community that could use this info lmk, I'm still trying to figure out lemmy.

I've just realized that in some countries in the EU you have to opt in to be able to donate organs in case of death. In others it's the default and they offer opting out.

I see that as an automatic opt in from my POV.

Are there any other such simple things we should be opting in for in Romania, or the EU in general?

I'll start: If you're Romanian you should choose an ONG to redirect 3.5% of your tax to, otherwise it goes to the semi-corrupt government.

Context: ~3.5yo Drupal / Prestashop / Plain PHP dev

I tried Cursor because our company paid for it, and it does bloody everything near instantly.

If I need to write a module for some custom data report UI, or a data importer of some variety, this thing just needs to know the detailed spec and it gets me probably 80% of the way to the feature in minutes. It's ridiculous. The rest is just me picking some UI libraries, fixing bugs, and probably optimizing the code a bit.

I really don't know what to do with the information that this thing can do what it took me so long to learn, in minutes, rather than hours, while I stumble around plugin declarations as if I just started to code.

Even the off-usage limit Cursor works really good. I can just keep coding with it past the $20 mark and it's fine.

Of course the code it generates is pretty shit and full of comments...but it works.

I've integrated it into my work almost entirely along with the rest of the team. We all spam it daily. We pretty much never write a feature ourselves anymore. From what Cursor says, most of our code in GIT from the past few weeks is AI generated (like 70-80%...)

Before you say it, yes, our codebase is shit, and was shit. We have practically no devops, no real team structure, and something is always on fire, though I'm under the impression that this isn't very uncommon nowadays.. (For context, we just wrote our first documentation for a project more than 4 years old, and it's all generated by Cursor, and there's more hardcoded shit in our code than configurable stuff)

I keep trying to manually write code that I'm proud of, but I can't. Everything always needs to be shipped fast and I need to move on to the next thing. I can't even catch my breath. The only thing allowing me to keep up with the team is Cursor, because they all use it as well. The last guy that refused to use AI was just excluded from the team.

How the hell do I deal with this information? Where do I go from here? I'm fucking terrified and I need some advice from somebody that isn't all up in the latest Opus model paying $80 (tax included) monthly to code with AI... I love my team, they're great people, but our obsession with AI is REALLY concerning.

PS: If somehow I leaked who I work for somewhere and this can be crossreferenced to my company please let me know. I don't want to be found talking about this, just because I don't know how they would react, but I really need a different perspective.

EDIT: Thanks all for the responses. You're confirming my fears. Idk how to feel about it...

EDIT2: I'm a bit overwhelmed by the attention haha. I'm trying to reply when I get free time. Thanks everyone