On a cool, cloudy afternoon, the GLI rolled 40,000 miles westbound on I-94, coming back from Lansing:
Madeline had her lacrosse tournament in the morning, and it felt good to be steaming west, ensconced in the VW's climate-controlled cabin, seat heaters cranked up and radiating warm through my chilled body.
The milestone passed as they tend to do, uneventfully putting miles into the mirror.
This morning consisted of a 5 am departure to Lansing, Michigan, for a lacrosse tournament. I have to give it to these girls, they are dedicated and working hard, getting loose on the 46 degree morning:
For me, there's something magical about a pre-dawn departure. There are multiple paths to get from South Bend to Lansing. Most of them consist of some two-lane work before getting to I-94 and then I-69. Since it was so early, I plotted a simple route that would hopefully avoid wildlife: I-80 to I-69, corners of a square with no diagonal shortcut.
Anyway, wheels were turning at 5. Madeline fell asleep by perhaps 5:10. That left nothing but the inky darkness, the path illuminated by my headlights, and the quiet glow of the cockpit lights. I put in my AirPods, listened to The Car Podcast by Chris Harris and friends, and enjoyed slipping through the pre-dawn darkness.
There's something lovely about pre-dawn driving. The GLI is so good, has such plentiful torque, that it's easy to get into the rhythm of setting the cruise at 77, then toeing into the torque to shrink distance between taillights. Progress is fluid and fast, resulting in a lovely and invigorating trip.
I enjoyed the blissful solitude of a sleeping passenger, black to grayscale, and the feeling of being in partnership with a magnificent machine. It was a lovely and efficient morning.
The grey van is getting closer to the moon:
As with the CR-V, I don't know where or when that heppened. Thanks to AirTags and the valet key, I can satisfy my monthly OCD by finding the van, sneaking in, and getting the odometer picture. Based on my observations, I'm guessing Olivia was driving when it rolled 230K, as she seems to be using the van more than Luca.
Speaking of the grey van, it's worth sharing a story about AI. A week or so ago, Olivia texted me this video when I was sleeping, wondering what the sound might be:
I'm no mechanic, but I do know that given the van's vintage, it has a habit of consuming a bit of oil. I texted her that I wasn't sure what the sound was, but had she by any chance checked the oil level?
No response.
That's fair, she was probably at class or something. Once again, the van's AirTag came to the rescue. I knew where it was, so I picked up some power steering fluid (it consumes a bit of that these days as well), some oil, grabbed my funnel, and proceeded to the van's location.
When I popped the hood, it was definitely low on power steering fluid. I checked the oil, it was a bit low, so I topped that off as well. The sound went away, and I figured it must've been related to low oil pressure. I texted Olivia that she should be in good shape and went on with my day.
But...then I got really curious about the world we live it. When I got to my office, I uploaded the video to ChatGPT and said, "You're an expert mechanic. You are working on a 2008 Honda Odyssey with more than 229,000 miles. Diagnose this sound and come up with possible solutions. Here's its response:
I pulled the audio out of your video and analyzed the spectrum. Here’s what I can tell you:
• The sound in your recording is a sharp, metallic ticking/knocking that tracks with engine RPM.
• After you added oil and it went away, that strongly suggests it was low oil pressure causing valvetrain noise (lifter/tappet tick or VTEC rocker arm noise).
• At 229k miles, if the oil gets low, the hydraulic lifters and camshaft areas are the first to complain—they’ll tick loudly until oil pressure comes back up.
Diagnosis:
• This wasn’t likely a rod knock (those don’t just disappear with oil top-off).
• It was most likely valvetrain noise from oil starvation due to low oil level.
What to do:
1 Check oil weekly (or every 500 miles). Your Odyssey is consuming oil. Never let it get low again.
2 Stick with a high-mileage oil (5W-30 HM).
3 If noise returns even with the oil full, then you may have weak oil pump output, worn lifters, or clogged oil passages—but given it went away right after adding oil, it’s almost certainly just low level.
👉 Bottom line:
That sound was your Odyssey begging for oil. Keep it topped up, and you’ll avoid much bigger engine damage.
So I reflected on how hard of a problem that is to solve. It's actually a very hard problem, in which the system extracted audio from video, compared it against its training data, and came up with a reasonable description of the situation.
And that got me thinking. At some point, I'm going to die and my kids won't be able to ask me these kinds of questions. However, with this kind of technology, they have a new superpower: the ability to establish context. Instead of, say, going to a mechanic and asking for help, my kids can use this kind of technology to help themselves. I mean, Olivia knows how to add oil. This kind of technology can help her learn when it's necessary to do so. Ideally, it's the kind of thing she'll be proactive about going forward - checking and topping off the oil so the pressure doesn't get low. Experience, coupled with technology, leads to greater personal capabilities. What a powerful concept. The platforms our kids get to build from keep getting higher and higher.
The CR-V hit 63,000 miles last month:
I'm not sure when or where it happened. What I do know is that Madeline is really enjoying the independence and freedom of being able to drive herself. It's a wonderful thing to watch! She's so confident and capable, and relishes driving herself to the barn to ride, or to school, or to lacrosse practice, or just...anywhere. I see some of my love for and delight in driving in her. It definitely makes me happy to see her come home, sunroof open, windows down. Driving really is one of life's great joys.
