Co-worker to me "Do you know about cars?"

ok well first im going to us my sister as an example. my sister used to ask my dad about cars and what to do and how they worked so she would understand. and you know what she got? nothing! was told its not a womans job to have to worry about things like that. ill take care of it untill u get married and then itll be your husbands job., and she has followed that rule. i obviously didnt fall in that situation. and thankfully my partner is almost as much of a car nut as i am. she learned by simply going out to her car when she got one at 16 pulling out the manual and going over everything she could. then picking up a haynes manual and because well it was a used car replacing the timing belt water pump plugs wires. and hoses on a 92 dsm herself all before she was 16 and a half and without anyone showing her how to she just had decided it was best she knew how to do.

GameboyRMH wrote:

dculberson wrote: I think this is it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5EP9StlVA

Aww he doesn't actually say "somebody please kill me." I'll still GIF it up later.

There must be more than one version, the one that ran in Charleston had 'someone kill me'. The first time I saw it I nearly fell off the couch laughing.

In reply to KATYB:

There's a lot of guys (and women!) out there with that 'it's not woman's work' attitude and they'll tell their sons they shouldn't have to do laundry, etc because 'that's not men's work'. It's amazing how that leaves people unprepared for real life.

poopshovel wrote: Meh. Chalk it up to being a good husband/dad. I used to get all bent outta shape about my wife not religiously maintaining "her" car. I gave up being upset about it a long time ago, and just took on the responsibility of taking care of ALL the cars. She makes breakfast in the morning, dinner at night, takes care of the baby and keeps the house clean. The LEAST I can do is take an hour every two months to do a couple oil changes, and I'll be damned if I'm going to throw her into the "Ma'am, I can't legally let you drive out of here on those tires" shark tank. She cares as much about car maintenance as I do about a pair of dirty underwear on the floor or a fart at the dinner table.

Agree, completely.

A whole lot of you are reading way too much into other people.

poopshovel wrote:

I have actually said that I can't let someone drive out of our shop on those tires or those brakes.

I've had someone say it to me. They change their tune real quick when you ask "May I use your phone for a minute? I need to report my car stolen."

I had someone pull that on me, it was with a brake caliper cracked and leaking fluid. I handed them the phone and told them to let the police know the vehicle was at my shop. He went through with it and the police came out.

He took one look at the condition of the vehicle and he said, "I'm not letting you on public roads in a vehicle in this condition. He can't legally hold your vehicle, but I will wait in the parking lot for you to leave and then pull you over and impound your vehicle for being unsafe to drive. It's going to be much cheaper to get it fixed here."

Conquest351 wrote:

poopshovel wrote:

I have actually said that I can't let someone drive out of our shop on those tires or those brakes.

I've had someone say it to me. They change their tune real quick when you ask "May I use your phone for a minute? I need to report my car stolen."

I had someone pull that on me, it was with a brake caliper cracked and leaking fluid. I handed them the phone and told them to let the police know the vehicle was at my shop. He went through with it and the police came out. He took one look at the condition of the vehicle and he said, "I'm not letting you on public roads in a vehicle in this condition. He can't legally hold your vehicle, but I will wait in the parking lot for you to leave and then pull you over and impound your vehicle for being unsafe to drive. It's going to be much cheaper to get it fixed here."

Well, I guess we're just a pair of big internet tough guys, aren't we.

I was on marginal tires. The fronts definitely needed to be replaced...but they sure as berkeley weren't going to be replaced at "Kaufman Tire."

Dragging the police into it is not a good idea. When people start saying they were strong armed by the police into buying something, bad things will happen to the shop.

That doesn't mean I have not wished I could force someone into a repair; watching a minivan with two Honey Boo Boos in the back seat go out into traffic with the brakes scraping so loud I can hear them through plate glass makes me more than a little sick. But at least I told them and that means my conscience is clear.

I have always had my customers sign the invoice and sign declined repairs. Had a lady sign declining a cv shaft basically falling out of her Mazda 626. She left and headed down the road, took a u-turn, came back past the shop and the front end jumped into the air and the car slammed into the guardrail. CV shaft came out and planted itself into the pavement.

I stood there with my mouth open and my manager said, "That the Mazda that was just here?"

"Yup" I said.

"She sign that RO saying she declined the work?"

I still had it in my hand. I held it up to show him, "Yup"

"OK, we're good."

I never liked saying the car couldn't leave, didn't ever say it unless it was an absolute danger and the car SHOULD NOT be on the road. I really honestly only said it 2, maybe 3 times in all my (12) years doing this. They were really dangers to the drivers and everyone around them.

Earlier in Poops day.

There's hardly any cord showin!

The0retical wrote: Earlier in Poops day.

WTF? Side swipped a curb or something?

In reply to The0retical:

Stretch and poke bro! It's all about stance!

I used to maintain my ex's Accord. It would go through a couple quarts of oil every 2k miles or so. Being poor college students, I would just do regular oil changes and top it off occasionally. I did this for roughly 4 years. About 6 months after we broke up, I got an angry call saying that it was my fault her engine ate itself, lol.

When I sold my 1975 Elsinore, it ran perfectly, good compression etc. The piston and rings had been replaced not long before I bought it. The guy who bought it rode it for about 3 or 4 months, then the skirt broke off the piston. He told everyone that I knew it was going to break.

Curmudgeon wrote: There's a whole class of folks out there who will trade cars constantly, generally at the 2 to 3 year mark. They don't want to be bothered with anything other than the bare assed maintenance essentials (oil change and tire rotation), they don't want to buy tires, brakes etc so instead they have a ~$400 monthly car payment nut pretty much in perpetuity. Add to that the higher insurance and property taxes... man, it's so much cheaper to keep a paid for car.

I've known quite a few people like that. The only one I know for whom it makes sense is my brother. He's a car salesman. Buying and selling is kinda his thing. He doesn't often make money on his personal cars, but he can usually pull it off so he isn't out much money on a yearly basis. For everyone else, I don't see the logic beyond "I WANT NEW!!!" Then again, I don't usually talk to everyone I know about their car purchases. I probobly know just about as many people who hold on to cars for an eternity, though, so that's not bad.

Rufledt wrote: He's a car salesman. Buying and selling is kinda his thing. He doesn't often make money on his personal cars, but he can usually pull it off so he isn't out much money.

We have a friend that has sold cars for 30 years. He usually questions me when he sees we have had a car too long. (10+ years).

He is known to sell his own car at the dealer and has told me that he sold the car "before it lost too much money". But he still has to buy another car.......so I don't really understand why you want to sell your current car to buy a newer car to save money.

I've gotten to the point where i've figured out that replacing even an entire motor on any of my cars will cost me well under a grand, and i somewhat trust her to tell me if something is going bad.

If not, oh well. The worst that happens is a blown motor or transmission, right?

She's good about suspension noises and brake noises, so safety won't be an issue.

Just not so great with idiot lights since i've had quite a few cars that have lit up like christmas trees, so she's a bit immune to them.

Curmudgeon wrote: When I sold my 1975 Elsinore, it ran perfectly, good compression etc. The piston and rings had been replaced not long before I bought it. The guy who bought it rode it for about 3 or 4 months, then the skirt broke off the piston. He told everyone that I knew it was going to break.

So why did you sell it if you knew it was going to break?

That's why Honda had a time interval for replacing the piston on all two stroke Mx bikes. RTFM

In reply to e_pie:

'Cuz I'm a dirtbag.

In reply to 4g63t:

He didn't wanna hear that. Easier to blame it on me than on himself.

Curmudgeon wrote: In reply to KATYB: There's a lot of guys (and women!) out there with that 'it's not woman's work' attitude and they'll tell their sons they shouldn't have to do laundry, etc because 'that's not men's work'. It's amazing how that leaves people unprepared for real life.

Absolutely. I got fed this BS too. I believed it for a while, until rebelling ;) I laughed at the initial post, since I (a girl) just arrived at my boss's (a dude) house to fix his truck for him so that it can pass emissions....

I normally get that "Hey, I have this problem with my truck... what do you think?" question. :)

All my co-workers know about cars, we each have our specialty.

My neighbours on the other hand...

I had one guy come over, half drunk, while I was changing the radiator in the Ford. He says " I got a Ford, won't start, I turn the key and all I get is click".

I asked him to make the noise a couple more times so I could be clear about it, then said "sorry, I don't fix cars".

Knowing these folks, six months after charging his battery, his fuel pump would die and it would be my fault.

I have one friend who isn't mechanically inclined that I will do work for, he was the best man at my wedding. the rest, I just tell them "Our relationship is too good to let a broken car come between us, sorry but I won't do it".

They usually understand.

Shawn

poopshovel wrote:

I have actually said that I can't let someone drive out of our shop on those tires or those brakes.

I've had someone say it to me. They change their tune real quick when you ask "May I use your phone for a minute? I need to report my car stolen."

when we see stuff that's legitimately unsafe we'll let them take their car so long as they pay their bill, but we make them sign a waiver saying we made them aware of the unsafe condition.

M3Loco wrote: Do any husbands safety check their spouses cars any more? C'mon guys..

Hell no. She does all her own basic maintenance, and half of said maintenance on my cars (anytime anyone offers to do the oil on the mazdaspeed for me, I gladly accept). Even if she needs help figuring something out for less routine stuff, she's usually the one that does the wrench turning on her stuff.

This includes redoing the fork seals and such on her CX500 mostly on her own as well as the oil/coolant/gear lube/etc. Got a few pointers from someone else here and there, but did almost all the work herself.

I'm not saying I wouldn't check that stuff, just that I have no need to do so.

KATYB wrote: and thankfully my partner is almost as much of a car nut as i am. she learned by simply going out to her car when she got one at 16 pulling out the manual and going over everything she could. then picking up a haynes manual and because well it was a used car replacing the timing belt water pump plugs wires. and hoses on a 92 dsm herself all before she was 16 and a half and without anyone showing her how to she just had decided it was best she knew how to do.

Owning a 92 DSM is pretty much a forced tutorial on vehicle maintenance. Especially one that a 16-year-old could afford.