Plan B Forum

-"BB"-

My '66 Mustang frequently had blinker fluid in the driver's side rear light.

This whole thing reminds me of a high school stunt we pulled on some kid we did not like, mostly because his parents had given him a car and none of use had any more than restricted access to the family sedan. He had a 10 year old plymouth. He was hearing a funny noise that I now think was a slipping fan belt. We told him it needed the exhaust bearing lubricated. We all in our adolescent expertise (we all read Hot Rod magazine every month at the drugstore) agreed that was the problem.

He took it to a shop somewhere AND THEY CLAIMED TO HAVE LUBED THE EXHAUST BEARING ! Charged him twenty bucks, back when gas was less than a quarter a galleon. The noise had stopped. I suspect they just applied a bit of belt dressing. We all avoided him there after in the cafeteria, out of guilt that we had enabled such a rip-off.

Frankly, BP, if he was any kind of a friend at all — even one you didn't particularly care for — I would have told him that he had gotten shafted immediately.  If a repair shop will take advantage of a dumb kid over something like that, you have to wonder what other kind of crap they would pull — or had been pulling — on other equally-trusting people.  Selling refurbed parts at new-part prices comes immediately to mind, or perhaps doing an oil change but not bothering to replace the filter?

-"BB"-

I remember in high school one was considered a "dork" if you couldn't, at the very least, change the oil and be able to spot a "prank" about cars and their needs.
I think my son (30yo) and daughter(26) are the only ones of their groups of friends who can change the oil in their cars and change a flat tire and how to jump a battery and fill a tire with air.
They didn't get to drive my car until they mastered those tasks. And they learned how to do all that when they bought their own cars. I had to go back to changing my own oil when they no longer borrowed my car.

oldr--I can do all those things, but oil changes are cheap enough now that I do not do them myself. After paying for the oil and the filter, using a garage to change the oil doesn't really cost all that much more (so long as you don't start replacing other parts because they say it's about time), and I don't have to deal with disposing of the oil. The other things are clearly useful skills to have, although most jacks now supplied with cars are pretty useless, and are the tire "irons" (more like tire soft white metal wrenches that deform when they're used once. Better to get a small hydraulic jack and a heavy duty lug wrench and keep them in the trunk.

and, if course, when everyone has run flat tires, we won't even have a spare.

Have no pleasure in doing those things now ,used to really like doing routine maintenance,hoping for a trouble free auto one day ,that you dont have to dump expensive fluids in every few thousand miles.
Out of blinker fluid ,anybody have some to spare ?

Just a good lug wrench is not enough. Steel wheels are nearly extinct. You better have a torque wrench for the lug bolts if you do not have steel wheels.

What do 'run-flats' do with road debris? I lost one tire when I was five wide on the belt-way around Baltimore during rush hour when a piece of something appeared in front of me with no where to go. Ran over it and it broke a sidewall on a front tire but did not do any other damage. More recently I was on the outside lane of a four lane in each direction divided with a median. A stake-bed truck loaded with junk in the other direction hit a pot hole and a bunch of stuff bounced off. Suddenly a big old rusty brake drum is rolling and bouncing high in the air on my side of the road. My judgement was not good enough to predict where it was going and it ended up hitting my front bumper, chewing up the plastic, and then getting one tire and aluminum wheel.

I carry a couple of short 2x4's in the trunk to put under the jack. The side of the road almost always is not enuff to support the jack.

snailgate

I still like changing the oil and while I am there I check tire pressure and other fluids. Only fluid I need (as long as nothing is wrong) is windshield washer fluid.
Keeps me in touch with the vehicles.
Thge scissor jack that came with the PT cruiser doesn't suck, neither does the lug wrench that came with it. My first pt got totalled so I have the jack from that as an "around the house" jack.

The side of the road almost always is not enuff to support the jack.

I have a 1/8" (maybe 3/32") thick steel plate for that.
ETA
Dad was a tool and die maker and I inherited all this good steel stuff.

Here is just one small example of why I don't believe in "chain store" auto shops.

From the car talk site: http://community.cartalk.com/discussion ... experience

I change my own oil, not because it's cheaper, but because I like to be able to get under my cars and check the blinker fluid level, muffler bearings, CV boots, brake lines, oil, antifreeze, and transmission fluid leaks myself.

Find yourself a good shop and develop a good working relationship with them. I have a shop that I use for stuff I can't do, like alignments. I've used them for at least 35 years, and sent them tons of customers. They are into their third generation of ownership at the same location since 1955. You can't buy a good reputation like theirs. I took a car to them that needed new ball joints. The ball joints were not replaceable by themselves. They were only available along with the lower control arms at about $300 a side from AutoZone. They called the dealer to see if the parts might be cheaper there. (It's rare, but it happens.) The dealer told them that the ball joints and control arms were part of a safety recall, and would be replaced for free. Even though my favorite shop had time and effort involved, they charged nothing.

I change my own oil also. As MG does, I check the muffler bearings but I take it one step further. I do a digital exam on the tail pipe to check for an enlarged converter or the existence of mufflerhoids. Either of those can lead to expensive repairs so catching them early is important.

Since my engine hasnt swapped piston bores lately ,I wonder if there is anything wrong with my "piston swapper" ? Comments please ,(BTW ,THE "BLINKER FLUID " was fine along with the "buzzer lube " )

Joe Guy wrote:I change my own oil also. As MG does, I check the muffler bearings but I take it one step further. I do a digital exam on the tail pipe to check for an enlarged converter or the existence of mufflerhoids. Either of those can lead to expensive repairs so catching them early is important.

Be careful not to burn your fingers Joe. Those latex exam gloves offer little protection.

Also note that mufflerhroids are often caused by sitting still for long periods. They are especially prevalent on police cars that tend to sit idling for long periods.

The Donut fumes cause the convertor to overheat .

BB, I don t think the guy got shafted, if he got the problem fixed for 20 bucks it was probably a fair deal.

why grudge the mechanic a belly laugh?

that reminds me of the secretary who was asked to order some masonry rod to weld up the sidewalk cracks....