Things I don't need to know about cars

Edmonton Sun ^ | 2004-11-29 | Patrycja Romanowska

[TexasCowboy]

For a leaky radiator, that Copenhagen you dip won't work.
Too fine.

[TexasCowboy]

OH, MAN!! Stop it! I'm laughing my butt off here!

I'll bet he's still got that stick!
He'll show it to his grandkids someday.
I'll bet there's a picture of it in Popular Mechanics!

Heck, you're famous!

[LizardQueen]

Ask him if he's ever put sawdust in one of those old 4-11 rear ends to quieten down the pinon howl.

That sounds familiar LOL, I think I remember him telling me that once. He also made a head gasket out of shellacked cardboard, and there was some other part he wrapped in bacon just before he sold the car, but I can't remember what it was. May have been something in the transmission.....

LQ

[HairOfTheDog]

I'll bet he's still got that stick!

Of course he still has the stick. That stick is a carefully designed prop they show every delinquient customer. It's the "unidentified goop in your neglected engine" scam ;~D

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Normally I would believe you Hair - I do think there are many scams out there - but I think I had gone about 30,000 miles without an oil change so I'm not the least bit suspicious...................

Ok Cowboy - no need to put a plastic cover on your keyboard - I won't make another mention of my car maintenance record......... ;^)

[pageonetoo]

Aerostar...eeeewwwwww! One of Ford's disasters. I own a Windstar, as well, which my dad drives (he lives at the Armed forces retirement Home in DC) to church. It has 130k, and is going good. The transmissions on the Aerostar are shoddy, and fail constantly. the Windstar isn't much better. I owned an '88 Aero, bought new,, and one day stopped for a sudden red light. When the green came, the van went nowhere...until the tow truck arrived!

The new VW beetle is not the same as the air cooled ones. they were simple. Even I, with ten thumbs, used to take out the engine by dropping it on a soda crate, and a friend and I rebuilt it...

Better than a VW, find an older carburated Benz. We just sold our '88 420 SEL, which was easy for small stuff. they last a long time, and are much safer than the VW Bug. I still have my Towncar, for road trips, but drive a volvo wagon everyday, except when I need 4WD. Then, I pull out my Explorer (yes, we own 14 cars, and a motor home). Its a 95, and has 147k... I drive all of them. A LOT! We live in WV, but also have places in NM, AZ, and NC. I love road trips!!!

Be careful opening electronic things. Many times, there are live electrical storage things, called capacitors, which can bite you pretty bad, even when the device is unplugged...

but, nothing ventured...!

[RandallFlagg]

LOL!! Bookmarking.

[TexasCowboy]

Yeah, that was in the transmission.

If a seal is leaking in an automatic trans, you can pour a little brake fluid in with the transmission oil to swell the seal and stop a leak.
Won't last long.

[Erasmus]

Being the driver of British Leyland's finest, I was able to help her.

It also made you an electrical necromancer, having become an acolyte of Lucas, the Prince of Darkness.

[bewitched]

I stuck with reading this thread only because I thought I would learn something out of it (I'm a complete car idiot). However, all this car language has me stumped.

I think I will stick with something simple I can understand...like computer language.
:0)

[pageonetoo]

I have used Chiltons for years. Recently I have been buying Haynes.

We have factory shop manuals for all of our cars... We use the others sometimes, but rely mostly on factory stuff! My wife gets them off eBay!

[MeekOneGOP]

LOLOL! I love it. Thanks for posting that B4!

And for the ping, Happy! :^D

[HairOfTheDog]

Heh.... I know... I just love how every time I go to Jiffy Lube they bring me some card with grimy gritty sludge on it which they say came from my car, and right beside it is a pretty smear of clean oil, transmission fluid, whatever... "This came out of your transfer case" they say. For all I know, they wiped the card in the puddle on the floor of the shop ;~D

Sometimes I am in the mood to play along, and sometimes I'm not.

[TexasCowboy]

"I think I had gone about 30,000 miles without an oil change"

Well, they say oil never wears out, just gets dirty.

You were definitely testing that theory.

[TexasCowboy]

"(I'm a complete car idiot)."

I've torn many cars down to the ground and put them back together, but I can barely change spark plugs in one now.

[TexasCowboy]

I like it when the bring in a new air filter and say, "This is an air filter".

Then they show you yours and say, "This is an air filter on dirt."

[2Jedismom]

I sure don't want a new Beetle! We want one of the old air-cooled. I have such a great shop...it's sheetrocked, carpeted on one side...has heat and air and a bed and a TV even! On the side that isn't carpeted, you can drive into it through a sliding door. A very comfy place to work on an old Bug!

I would like one like this...a 1966. Just to putz around town in. Gosh, I only really consistently go to church and Walmart! And if I got it fixed up nice and running well, I'd like to take it on road trips! The back roads of America, you know? Stay in little mom and pop hotels with my family...

[2Jedismom]

Granted...sometimes the TV doesn work. But sometimes it does!

[Boiling point]

I once owned a 1960 chevy Impala. HUGE car. I called it "Puff the tragic wagon" I thought it was possessed by the devil because for what seemed like no reason at random times, it would down shift itself and the gas peddle would go all the way to the floor and you would burn rubber and take off like an MX missile. This was a pre computer anything car and I couldn't figure out what was causing it or the reason the transmission would down shift at the same time the peddle went to the floor. One day while doing a U-turn, half way through the maneuver, it happened, causing me to do a couple donuts in the middle of the road before it settled down. I HAD to figure it out before it killed me. By using one of those long railroad pry bars, I was able to lift the drivers side of the engine up off the frame. Broken engine mount. Under acceleration load, the engine torque would lift the engine up, pulling on the transmission and throttle linkage, causing the out of control acceleration. It would continue until the torque could no longer hold the engine up.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Dang. And I've got CASES of the stuff.