"I pulled up to the oil change place and stayed in the car. A couple minutes into the change I feel a jarring / ripping sensation through the floor of the car."
Hmm, maybe that's why the aeropan is missing on my Passat. I thought it was because the previous owner creamed the front end of the car. My mechanics said, "Don't fuck with it"
Not surprising, probably 90% of the cars those guys see are the same - Accord/Camry/Altima 4-cylinder, or one of those with the optional V6, or one of the countless minivan / SUV variants using the same engine. The filter and drain plug are visible from the bottom, oil goes in on top (through the cap that says either "OIL" or "710" on it) and you're done - nothing to it.
Then you pull in there with some European car they've never seen before, and it has all-wheel-drive and they sold maybe a thousand of them the year it was built, and it's like asking a chiropractor to do something for your pet octopus.
My wife had to phone me to come get her from a Jiffy Lube a bunch of years ago, because they were closing soon and they couldn't pull her Subaru Forester out of their service bay. It started and ran, but when they put it in "Drive" or "Reverse" it wouldn't go anywhere. If you have read the guy's Audi story or have ever been underneath an automatic-transmission Subaru and looked up, you can guess why.
I don't care who you are, that is funny.
Even at a reputable shop, stuff happens. Decided to change my own oil, after a shop did it - not a quickie lube joint, a real shop owned by a former neighbor. Well, the oil plug would NOT come off - tight as a tick. Ending up stripping the head before I was finally able to remove it. At the last oil change, they had re-installed it with an impact wrench - you could see the marks even after I'd butchered it. Fortunately the threads in the pan were ok (lucky!), a new plug and plug gasket solved the problem.
What really burned me was, the owner is very hands-on and has a system for working on cars - he shows the guys exactly how he expects it to be done. Including tightening lug nuts BY HAND, with a (gasp) torque wrench! Even I don't usually do that. So for one of his guys to slam the oil plug on with an impact, when I KNOW they know better, really chapped. Owner was very apologetic and fixed the training issue - we still take our cars there and haven't had another problem. c.
Just finished doing a welding repair on the outer cover of the unibody under the drivers side of my 2008 Buick so I can get it inspected this week. I hope it holds when they jack up the car to check the front suspension.
Finished ripping off the nose to replace the radiator, hoses, thermostat and did the serpentine belt and an oil change too at the end of last month.
The tires are marginally questionable with some dry rot, but still has decent tread left. If I had to I will replace the front ones. I just need to get it through winter and trade it in next year if I get a job. Car was off the road since March when it started leaking antifreeze and the inspection was due then, and since I still use my 2013 Hyundai as my main wheels there was no rush. If I put 1000 miles on it last year would be extremely over stating that.
And now this week I got to do a 4 wheel break job on the Hyundai for December inspection. Not fun working on it in the cold outside. Maybe by next Saturday the rain and cold might end and it’s projected to get up to 60 I hope and pray.
God I no longer have the will or energy to do car repairs anymore.
Wow. They jack the car up and inspect? All they do here is plug into the computer and an external visual.
Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday. Gender:
Posted:
Nov 15, 2020 - 9:25am
Just finished doing a welding repair on the outer cover of the unibody under the drivers side of my 2008 Buick so I can get it inspected this week. I hope it holds when they jack up the car to check the front suspension.
Finished ripping off the nose to replace the radiator, hoses, thermostat and did the serpentine belt and an oil change too at the end of last month.
The tires are marginally questionable with some dry rot, but still has decent tread left. If I had to I will replace the front ones. I just need to get it through winter and trade it in next year if I get a job. Car was off the road since March when it started leaking antifreeze and the inspection was due then, and since I still use my 2013 Hyundai as my main wheels there was no rush. If I put 1000 miles on it last year would be extremely over stating that.
And now this week I got to do a 4 wheel break job on the Hyundai for December inspection. Not fun working on it in the cold outside. Maybe by next Saturday the rain and cold might end and it’s projected to get up to 60 I hope and pray.
God I no longer have the will or energy to do car repairs anymore.
I went to the supermarket the other day and when I came out this old guy was parked next to me standing there with his door open and he says you're car's been beepin' the whole time I been standin' here and I been here a while, it just stopped just now. Well, my car doesn't beep. Nothing on it beeps. It can't beep. So I said that's weird it's never beeped before. I noticed some fluid underneath the engine but I didn't want to mess with it while the old dude was there so I left and when I got home it was leaking pretty bad. I naturally assumed I had a cracked engine block and went inside to have another panic attack. So today after my meds I got up the nerve to crank it up and check it out. I was just barely able to scootch underneath enough to see fluid dripping down from a coolant hose attached to the water pump. I was hoping to finally able fix the oil leak so I don't completely destroy the landlords driveway with oil stains. I can't fix the leaking hose myself, besides - it might be that the dang water pump's gone out. I'm hoping it's just a hose leak and not very sure I can afford to fix the oil leak as well but a while back when the jeep was at Dirk's for something else, they said the oil leak looked like it was the oil filter flange which sounds cheaper than a new engine so maybe with a bit of luck I can get my rig repaired and won't have to smell that stinky burnt oil smell anymore. I don't know what the old guy meant - maybe the leak was whistling like they sometimes do sometimes or maybe he was referring to the sound of dripping and just called it beeping. Who knows?
As long as you don't have water in your oil or the stink bug alarm doesn't beep you should be good on a hose or maybe just a clamp, champ...
The oil is clean and no loss of compression that I can tell so... pshooo, lucky! thanks
I went to the supermarket the other day and when I came out this old guy was parked next to me standing there with his door open and he says you're car's been beepin' the whole time I been standin' here and I been here a while, it just stopped just now. Well, my car doesn't beep. Nothing on it beeps. It can't beep. So I said that's weird it's never beeped before. I noticed some fluid underneath the engine but I didn't want to mess with it while the old dude was there so I left and when I got home it was leaking pretty bad. I naturally assumed I had a cracked engine block and went inside to have another panic attack. So today after my meds I got up the nerve to crank it up and check it out. I was just barely able to scootch underneath enough to see fluid dripping down from a coolant hose attached to the water pump. I was hoping to finally able fix the oil leak so I don't completely destroy the landlords driveway with oil stains. I can't fix the leaking hose myself, besides - it might be that the dang water pump's gone out. I'm hoping it's just a hose leak and not very sure I can afford to fix the oil leak as well but a while back when the jeep was at Dirk's for something else, they said the oil leak looked like it was the oil filter flange which sounds cheaper than a new engine so maybe with a bit of luck I can get my rig repaired and won't have to smell that stinky burnt oil smell anymore. I don't know what the old guy meant - maybe the leak was whistling like they sometimes do sometimes or maybe he was referring to the sound of dripping and just called it beeping. Who knows?
As long as you don't have water in your oil or the stink bug alarm doesn't beep you should be good on a hose or maybe just a clamp, champ...
I went to the supermarket the other day and when I came out this old guy was parked next to me standing there with his door open and he says you're car's been beepin' the whole time I been standin' here and I been here a while, it just stopped just now. Well, my car doesn't beep. Nothing on it beeps. It can't beep. So I said that's weird it's never beeped before. I noticed some fluid underneath the engine but I didn't want to mess with it while the old dude was there so I left and when I got home it was leaking pretty bad. I naturally assumed I had a cracked engine block and went inside to have another panic attack. So today after my meds I got up the nerve to crank it up and check it out. I was just barely able to scootch underneath enough to see fluid dripping down from a coolant hose attached to the water pump. I was hoping to finally able fix the oil leak so I don't completely destroy the landlords driveway with oil stains. I can't fix the leaking hose myself, besides - it might be that the dang water pump's gone out. I'm hoping it's just a hose leak and not very sure I can afford to fix the oil leak as well but a while back when the jeep was at Dirk's for something else, they said the oil leak looked like it was the oil filter flange which sounds cheaper than a new engine so maybe with a bit of luck I can get my rig repaired and won't have to smell that stinky burnt oil smell anymore. I don't know what the old guy meant - maybe the leak was whistling like they sometimes do sometimes or maybe he was referring to the sound of dripping and just called it beeping. Who knows?
Not surprising, probably 90% of the cars those guys see are the same - Accord/Camry/Altima 4-cylinder, or one of those with the optional V6, or one of the countless minivan / SUV variants using the same engine. The filter and drain plug are visible from the bottom, oil goes in on top (through the cap that says either "OIL" or "710" on it) and you're done - nothing to it.
Then you pull in there with some European car they've never seen before, and it has all-wheel-drive and they sold maybe a thousand of them the year it was built, and it's like asking a chiropractor to do something for your pet octopus.
My wife had to phone me to come get her from a Jiffy Lube a bunch of years ago, because they were closing soon and they couldn't pull her Subaru Forester out of their service bay. It started and ran, but when they put it in "Drive" or "Reverse" it wouldn't go anywhere. If you have read the guy's Audi story or have ever been underneath an automatic-transmission Subaru and looked up, you can guess why.
"I pulled up to the oil change place and stayed in the car. A couple minutes into the change I feel a jarring / ripping sensation through the floor of the car."
Kid started to nut up a brand new oilpan with an impact. My car blew up a day later.
"I pulled up to the oil change place and stayed in the car. A couple minutes into the change I feel a jarring / ripping sensation through the floor of the car."
oops. Air, fuel, spark - Nothing optional unless it's a Diesel. I've learned on my big Detroits that just having fuel there isn't enough - you actually need a fair bit of pressure for them to work.
only car I ran dry was my first BMW. when that low fuel light comes on, it's not kidding.
So. Out of gas. I may be stupid but at least I didn't spend money to find that out!
I may still have problems, since my back-of-the-envelope math said I should have plenty of gas but y'know, the instrument cluster was in Alabammy so I didn't know for sure. I got the cluster back yesterday, hooked it up and the gauge said E. So anyway the needle always used to go way below that tick mark but the cluster was just rebuilt so maybe it reads different now. So tonite I got the lawn mower's gas can and put in as much as I could, maybe half a gallon (awkward angles etc) and turned the key and it fired right up! Oh, man. Drove to the nearest gas station and put in 25.3 gallons. I didn't know it could hold that much!
So I still think it may be leaking or burning way more gas than normal, so we'll see. But anyway, I guess false alarm on the fuel pump thing.
I've done that. Spent the better part of a day looking at spark, fuel pressure, etc. and trying to figure out why the car wouldn't start.
So. Out of gas. I may be stupid but at least I didn't spend money to find that out!
I may still have problems, since my back-of-the-envelope math said I should have plenty of gas but y'know, the instrument cluster was in Alabammy so I didn't know for sure. I got the cluster back yesterday, hooked it up and the gauge said E. So anyway the needle always used to go way below that tick mark but the cluster was just rebuilt so maybe it reads different now. So tonite I got the lawn mower's gas can and put in as much as I could, maybe half a gallon (awkward angles etc) and turned the key and it fired right up! Oh, man. Drove to the nearest gas station and put in 25.3 gallons. I didn't know it could hold that much!
So I still think it may be leaking or burning way more gas than normal, so we'll see. But anyway, I guess false alarm on the fuel pump thing.
oops. Air, fuel, spark - Nothing optional unless it's a Diesel. I've learned on my big Detroits that just having fuel there isn't enough - you actually need a fair bit of pressure for them to work.
I haven't actually experienced this one *cross fingers*, but my dad is forever warning me not to run too low on those in-tank fuel pumps because they rely on fuel to cool the pump. Running it dry can overheat the pump and kill it, I guess. Meh. If it's working now, roll with it. So to speak.
Location: right behind you. no, over there. Gender:
Posted:
Feb 12, 2014 - 7:29pm
ScottFromWyoming wrote:
Sure, fire away!
I haven't actually experienced this one *cross fingers*, but my dad is forever warning me not to run too low on those in-tank fuel pumps because they rely on fuel to cool the pump. Running it dry can overheat the pump and kill it, I guess. Meh. If it's working now, roll with it. So to speak.
So. Out of gas. I may be stupid but at least I didn't spend money to find that out!
I may still have problems, since my back-of-the-envelope math said I should have plenty of gas but y'know, the instrument cluster was in Alabammy so I didn't know for sure. I got the cluster back yesterday, hooked it up and the gauge said E. So anyway the needle always used to go way below that tick mark but the cluster was just rebuilt so maybe it reads different now. So tonite I got the lawn mower's gas can and put in as much as I could, maybe half a gallon (awkward angles etc) and turned the key and it fired right up! Oh, man. Drove to the nearest gas station and put in 25.3 gallons. I didn't know it could hold that much!
So I still think it may be leaking or burning way more gas than normal, so we'll see. But anyway, I guess false alarm on the fuel pump thing.
I may be stupid but at least I didn't spend money to find that out!
Sometimes stupid is the better alternative.