If it's common sense, then why do so many people lack it?
If it's common sense, then why do so many people lack it?
iceracer wrote:Rufledt wrote:ever here of educated idiots ?neon4891 wrote: I bought my second neon at the same time my wife(then GF) got her first civic. 18 months in, she totals it. All we can afford was another older civic, from the same friend of the family. After an other 18 months, it is getting bad, we just got married and used wedding gift money for a down payment on a newer Accord. We are 18 months in, I'm taking excellent care of it, but she has already racked up 40K on it. By the time I plan to replace my neon in another... 18 months... I think her accord will have higher miles than the neon. So 4 1/2 years in the POS neon has outlasted 2 civics, and who knows what my wife will do to her car in another 18 months.Is she the cause of these problems, or is it just bad luck? My wife's car looks pretty messed up, but she drives it into Boston, parks, and drives home every week day. The only damage I can blame on her isn't even bad enough to notice. I mean, the paint would've been scraped if the previous owner hadn't sand blasted it all off tailgating every gravel truck he could find. The best was a big merc that rear ended her on I93. It left a classy emblem print in the rear bumper, and all of his coolant on the ground. Her family, though. Dang. They destroyed a 2007 camry by 2011. There wasn't a panel on it (roof included) without something scratched or pushed in and a hub cap was missing, and none of them commute. At least they keep buying boring cars. The problem is that they keep driving at all. I just heard from my wife that her sister was complaining about her 2010-that's right, nearly show room new-corolla running kinda funny, and she (my wife) noticed a light on the dash. She asked my S-I-L when she got the oil changed last and her response- "I think a year ago?" argh... Good luck getting Toyota to replace a blown engine under warranty when the oil pan is full of sludge, and they have no record of any work being done to it. Even better- the whole family was driving on I93 and hit some debris, which totally isn't' their fault. It was night time, and bostonians drive like kids on the bumper car ride, so crash debris is everywhere. They drove on it to the next off ramp since the city really has no shoulder to pull over on, and parked somewhere. This ruined the tire/wheel completely. Potholes everywhere, ok, fine, that's understandable. What's not- In the car were 4 people with BA's, 2 of those with MA's, and 1 of those has a Ph.D. The 5th person had no degree at all, as they were 19 and in college. None of them knew how to change a tire. The car had a jack, a spare, 'tools' and instructions. Good thing they weren't in the middle of nowhere with a blizzard coming in. They had some excuse, like the bolts wouldn't come loose (they did for me) but an emergency situation doesn't care about your excuses. It makes me really worry about them.
*hear 
Duke wrote:friedgreencorrado wrote: The nice thing is that folks who make cars understand replacing that can shouldn't be like an organ transplant.You've clearly never changed the oil on a VAG 1.8t 20v
ftfy=]
My wife understands cars well enough to know to start nagging me to change the oil 500 miles before it is due.
When she owned a Cavalier, she was also instrumental in those oil changes, because whoever designed the oil filter location didn't expect anyone with big hands to ever try to remove the oil filter from the car. She still has her greasy "oil change" clothes, too.
That said, she currently can't be bothered to learn any more about cars than she already does. She isn't interested and knows I'll do it.
The tire changing stories reminded me of a fairly recent incident at work. I was on my way through the parking deck at the end of the day when I discover my female coworker, her carpool friend, and a guy from the office helping her change a flat. I was thinking, "ok she's got help, but I'll wander over and see someone else do the heavy lifting for once". Nope.
Dude had the scissor jack UPSIDE DOWN... ON AN INCLINE. I quickly remedied the situation before anything bad happened. I then thought I could give my female coworker a small lesson and showed her how to put the lug nuts back on. Bad idea. She apparently thought they'd go on at a 15 degree angle and promptly stripped the threads on the first one. Oh well.
As far as teh gate coming down on the car while entering a parking garage...
I just did this about 2 weeks ago. My Mom was having surgery and I was trying to get in to see her before the surgery. I followed the car in front of me without thinking about the gate.
The gate smacked right on my hood (it didn't leave a mark!).
Even observant people can do stupid stuff when they are frazzled.
Rob R.
Fav story #2.
Helped a friend fix up a party barge he picked up cheap. Apparently it had been run one season and sat in the yard for 3 years and rats ate some of the wiring. $20,000 pontoon boat for $3000 spent 2 days and $300 and had a blast for a few months.
WELL....friend decides to sell it and A fine older gent and his whole family show up and check it out. Crawls all over it and lastly asks about the engine condition. Friend reaches under the seat and gets the earmuff looking things to hook up the garden hose. Explain that it is a water cooled engine and usually it cools with lake water, but needs to be hooked up to the hose for cooling here.
He's happy, I take the earmuff things off and store them, money changes hands, paperwork done...zoom off for the 4th of July weekend.
Monday I get a call from the friend because the gent just finished ranting over the phone about blown motor and getting his money back. I gotta see this and am better a "customer relations".
When the gent pulls up we talk a bit and I notice that he had put the "earmuff" adapter back on. With a few simple questions I discovered that he put them back on and ran the crap out of the motor all weekend. When I pulled the manual from the plastic bag that we gave him and showed him that the first page has several steps to do before starting the engine and #4 was to insure the inlet and outlet ports were not obstructed and the adapter was removed he stopped screaming and drove off with a final threat of legal action. Never heard a peep.
Best offer we could make him was refund whatever money was left over after a new motor plus $200 for me to do the back and forth with the repairs.
Not to mention the 67,000 mile Honda that my niece mutilated and killed, broken cam, ghetto tags scratched into the paint, radio removed with a backhoe and the interior half burned up. Car lot guy that she still owed money to came by to repossess the car and after a brief once over signed the title over to my brother because it was not worth his time to even tow to the scrapyard.. Bruce
Duke wrote: *NOBODY* knows how to change a tire any more, or is willing to do it. On my way to work the other day, I passed a 20-something guy in a Wrangler, off the side of the road in a safe place, with a flat. There was a spare on the back door and one can only assume a jack inside. He looked bored and pissed off and was poking at his mobile phone. He could have changed the tire in under 10 minutes total.
That is just down right embarrassing. I mean, how berkeleying hard is it to change a tire? You can say all of the get off my lawn comments you want, but if you are a guy and can drive, you should be able to change a flat. berkeleying kids these days. What use are you going to be to a wife/girlfriend/son/daughter. Embarrassing!
Anti-stance wrote:Duke wrote: *NOBODY* knows how to change a tire any more, or is willing to do it. On my way to work the other day, I passed a 20-something guy in a Wrangler, off the side of the road in a safe place, with a flat. There was a spare on the back door and one can only assume a jack inside. He looked bored and pissed off and was poking at his mobile phone. He could have changed the tire in under 10 minutes total.That is just down right embarrassing. I mean, how berkeleying hard is it to change a tire? You can say all of the get off my lawn comments you want, but if you are a guy and can drive, you should be able to change a flat. berkeleying kids these days. What use are you going to be to a wife/girlfriend/son/daughter. Embarrassing!
My daughters weren't allowed to get their licenses until they proved they could change a tire.
Anti-stance wrote:Duke wrote: *NOBODY* knows how to change a tire any more, or is willing to do it. On my way to work the other day, I passed a 20-something guy in a Wrangler, off the side of the road in a safe place, with a flat. There was a spare on the back door and one can only assume a jack inside. He looked bored and pissed off and was poking at his mobile phone. He could have changed the tire in under 10 minutes total.That is just down right embarrassing. I mean, how berkeleying hard is it to change a tire? You can say all of the get off my lawn comments you want, but if you are a guy and can drive, you should be able to change a flat. berkeleying kids these days. What use are you going to be to a wife/girlfriend/son/daughter. Embarrassing!
This dad's rule is simple: If you want to drive, you better know how to fix it because dad ain't berkeleying fixing it for free. No matter what mom says.
In reply to RealMiniDriver:
That is cool.
But if they didn't know, no big deal. A boy/man, should know how to do this basic automotive skill. Even more so than changing oil.
wvumtnbkr wrote: As far as teh gate coming down on the car while entering a parking garage... I just did this about 2 weeks ago. My Mom was having surgery and I was trying to get in to see her before the surgery. I followed the car in front of me without thinking about the gate. The gate smacked right on my hood (it didn't leave a mark!). Even observant people can do stupid stuff when they are frazzled. Rob R.
Anti-stance wrote:Duke wrote: *NOBODY* knows how to change a tire any more, or is willing to do it. On my way to work the other day, I passed a 20-something guy in a Wrangler, off the side of the road in a safe place, with a flat. There was a spare on the back door and one can only assume a jack inside. He looked bored and pissed off and was poking at his mobile phone. He could have changed the tire in under 10 minutes total.That is just down right embarrassing. I mean, how berkeleying hard is it to change a tire? You can say all of the get off my lawn comments you want, but if you are a guy and can drive, you should be able to change a flat. berkeleying kids these days. What use are you going to be to a wife/girlfriend/son/daughter. Embarrassing!
I've changed a spare in boxer shorts before because I didn't want to get my suit dirty.
Brett_Murphy wrote: My wife understands cars well enough to know to start nagging me to change the oil 500 miles before it is due. When she owned a Cavalier, she was also instrumental in those oil changes, because whoever designed the oil filter location didn't expect anyone with big hands to ever try to remove the oil filter from the car. She still has her greasy "oil change" clothes, too. That said, she currently can't be bothered to learn any more about cars than she already does. She isn't interested and knows I'll do it.
i assume you are talking about a pushrod 2.2 powered Cavalier?
i can do the filter from the top side on my 98- and my hands and arms aren't exactly what one would call "tiny".. it's all about the angle and making sure you don't go all Mongo when you put the new one on so you can actually remove it when you want to change it.. my 97 was slightly easier because of the slightly different intake manifold design.. in either case, i also put a plastic bag over the exhaust pipe flex joint right below it to keep the oil from saturating that..
Yes, it was a 2.2 Cavalier. I could do it from the top, but it was just easier for her to help me with it. It took her 10 seconds to get it out, she didn't scratch up her arms and didn't spill oil everywhere.
I'm all for the "no license until you can change your oil, check the fluids and change a tire" school of thought. Count me in that club, too.
Got a text from a girl this morning asking for car help.
Conversation so far:
Me: "So what is wrong with it?"
Chick: "It's making funny noises...."
Me: "What does it sound like?"
Chick: "I dunno... Sounds like an alien and monster having sex"
In reply to DukeOfUndersteer:
Any chick that knows the noises an alien and a monster make while having sex is probably worth a roll in the hay. Pics? 
on a related note, coworker's GF this morning had to have her mini towed to the dealer as its been making bad noises for about 3 weeks now and finally gave up the ghost. he says he thinks the turbo let go, but when it went up on the roll-back, it was pissing oil all over. sounds like the negligence has turned into a stupid tax. worst part: she has free maintenance through mini, but never wants to take it in because you have to call ahead to reserve a loaner.
In reply to Javelin:
Strizzo wrote: she has free maintenance through mini, but never wants to take it in because you have to call ahead to reserve a loaner.
First World Problems...
In reply to DukeOfUndersteer:
You gonna tap that, right? 
DukeOfUndersteer wrote:Strizzo wrote: she has free maintenance through mini, but never wants to take it in because you have to call ahead to reserve a loaner.First World Problems...
I'll presume they'll be horrible people there when they refuse on grounds that she didn't follow proper maintence(which was EFFIN FREE)
In reply to Javelin:
Years ago 
DukeOfUndersteer wrote: In reply to Javelin: Years ago
What, when she was 15?
In reply to tuna55:
Hahaha! Nah, we were both in our early 20's. She went her way, I went mine. I've been in a relationship with my current girlfriend now for 5 years and have a daughter together.
You'll need to log in to post.
