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I thought it would be fun to briefly drop our tough, cigarette flicking exteriors and share our most ignorant automotive moments. 1. Back when I was 14 or 15, hanging out with and older friends who could drive, I was convinced that "overdrive" kicked in when you tilted the gas pedal forward. What I thought was overdrive was just downshifting to a lower gear (and has nothing to do with the god drat angle of the gas pedal), which is pretty much the exact opposite of overdrive. I was riding around in a 4cyl mustang convertible, probably the slowest car I've ever been in, and I thought we were so cool. 2. This is pretty embarassing, but I can't park our 2015 hyundai sonata very well in our work parking lot. I over-correct and end up crooked if I'm not parking next to another car. I think it's a combination of being fairly short, new car high beltlines, and the window/beltline sloping up slightly that has me screwed up (could previously use that as a guide to judge how parallel I was). 3. While I have a fair amount of automotive knowledge kicking around in my brain it's almost entirely trivial/superficial, my actual mechanical abilities are non-existant compared to most of the AI posters. The most complex stuff I've done myself is like brakes/alternator, and I don't even do that anymore. I pay my mechanic to do my repairs / oil changes these days because I'm lazy and have kids so my tinkering time is limited. In conclusion I think I am 32% a car-guy fraud.
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May 27, 2015 15:54
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 22:14 |
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Pretty solid OP. I'm a big fan of a noise showing up in my car and turning on the HVAC / radio to ignore whatever the gently caress it is. Then two months down the line I'll replace 5x more things because I'm a complete idiot for not attending to it sooner.
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May 27, 2015 21:34
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Sehnsucht posted:Pretty solid OP. I'm pretty much the car noise hypochondriac. Any little noise I think I hear is justification to take the whole car apart and find nothing.
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May 27, 2015 21:56
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1500quidporsche posted:I'm pretty much the car noise hypochondriac. Any little noise I think I hear is justification to take the whole car apart and find nothing. To be fair you drive a VW. I'm the same way with suspension. Everything that's wrong with the car driving must be the fault of the suspension hard parts, it can't possibly be because I do my alignments on my unlevel garage floor by hitting my ancient camber bolts with a hammer, eyeballing it and touching nothing else.
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May 27, 2015 21:58
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dreesemonkey posted:
Are you me? Because that sounds like me... Related - back when I was first really getting into cars, my car wouldn't start, just rapid clicking. I'd NEVER heard it before, only a slow crank into nothing-ness whenever a battery died, so I just instantly assumed "Welp, starter took a poo poo" Some humble pie later, and my new battery let me take the starter to be returned! huzzah!
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May 27, 2015 22:00
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Seat Safety Switch posted:To be fair you drive a VW. Holy poo poo this is exactly how I do it except with a $10 leveler magnet that has the needle stick in place and doesn't really fit on my wheel hub properly.
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May 27, 2015 22:05
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Im confessing I dont bolt the rear bracket back onto the intake when doing any job that requires taking it off on v6 Toyotas.
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May 27, 2015 22:12
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When I was a teen I'd drive like a teen, manually shifting my automatic 1988 camry, drifting it around corners as best I could. I am absolutely mechanically retarded. My crowning achievement was a timing belt job on my GF's Integra. I needed professional help and took over a week to do it. A radiator drain plug confused me. I have a 4x4 toyota Tacoma and don't know the first thing about driving off road. I bought the TRD Offroad model because I thought I wanted a locker. Forgive me my sins AI
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May 27, 2015 22:23
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Preoptopus posted:Im confessing I dont bolt the rear bracket back onto the intake when doing any job that requires taking it off on v6 Toyotas. When changing a cracked exhaust manifold on a friend's van i snapped a bolt on the turbo brace. Very awkward thing to deal with, let alone pull the turbo, drill out, etc. "Oh well, not my van." I bought that van off him about 6 months later. 
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May 27, 2015 22:23
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Mooseykins posted:When changing a cracked exhaust manifold on a friend's van i snapped a bolt on the turbo brace. Very awkward thing to deal with, let alone pull the turbo, drill out, etc. That's just the cosmic whirlpool called life bringing that turd back around to you. When I was in high school I destroyed the gently caress out of a brake lathe. Because 14 year old me couldn't believe there was reverse threads on the end. When I was 19 I had A SOHC focus. The water pump started leaking I figured cant be too hard I did the pump on my Taurus. Que to me getting the teeth on the timing belt off. So I took it all apart. When I was putting it all back together my dad offered to help so I could take a bowl break. I came back out to my dad trying to heat the broken bolt out of the side of an aluminum block. 
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May 28, 2015 00:01
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A while ago, while doing brakes for the first time on my Impreza, I had to really go to town on one of the bolts holding the caliper bracket on - breaker bar, beating on it, the works. I live in the rust belt so I figured it was just stuck as hell. I finally get motion on the bolt, only to find that I sheared the fucker off. Ended up getting it out with an extractor, but that's not the point of the story. After my anger break, when I went to work on the other bolt and get the job done, I got the ratchet on it and realized that I was retarded. The bolt heads were facing away from me and I was thinking about it backwards. I had tightened the first bolt so hard that I sheared it.
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May 28, 2015 00:09
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I'm kind of bad at driving stick, probably because I left foot brake. In fact I probably have tons of terrible driving habits because I taught myself to drive basically and I rarely have passengers when I was younger and dumber, I bought a 2g eclipse and i thought the turbocharger was driven by an engine belt for some reason
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May 28, 2015 00:19
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you ate my cat posted:A while ago, while doing brakes for the first time on my Impreza, I had to really go to town on one of the bolts holding the caliper bracket on - breaker bar, beating on it, the works. I live in the rust belt so I figured it was just stuck as hell. I finally get motion on the bolt, only to find that I sheared the fucker off. Ended up getting it out with an extractor, but that's not the point of the story. I know an experienced qualified mechanic* that does this. And does it somewhat frequently. *Experienced & qualified =/= good.
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May 28, 2015 00:25
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I sold a euro e30 for $1200 CAD in 2012 because I misdiagnosed a bad ECU and it turned out to be the CPS. These days it would easily be a 6-8k car, only had ~105,000 on it when I got rid of it. No rust, euro bumpers, etc.Mooseykins posted:I know an experienced qualified mechanic* that does this. And does it somewhat frequently. I got into the habit of making sure the ratchet is going the right way before I put it on the bolts since I've come close to doing this before.
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May 28, 2015 01:13
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Crustashio posted:I got into the habit of making sure the ratchet is going the right way before I put it on the bolts since I've come close to doing this before. I can be found often sitting in front of a wheel hub turning a wrench around in my hand trying to imagine which way it should go to get a bolt off on the backside. After so many years of wrenching this is still my kryptonite.
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May 28, 2015 06:33
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8ender posted:I can be found often sitting in front of a wheel hub turning a wrench around in my hand trying to imagine which way it should go to get a bolt off on the backside. After so many years of wrenching this is still my kryptonite. I do the same anytime I'm about to touch a bolt, and doing the "righty tighty, lefty loosy" chant. And that's just from the front... if I'm having to do it backwards like you describe then I have to reverse the chant. Preoptopus posted:Im confessing I dont bolt the rear bracket back onto the intake when doing any job that requires taking it off on v6 Toyotas. Pretty sure not even the dealership mechanics bolt it back on.
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May 28, 2015 07:05
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Crustashio posted:I sold a euro e30 for $1200 CAD in 2012 because I misdiagnosed a bad ECU and it turned out to be the CPS. These days it would easily be a 6-8k car, only had ~105,000 on it when I got rid of it. No rust, euro bumpers, etc. Ouch. I once bought a Miata in the dark without a flashlight (forgot it), the interior was perfect so I just glazed over the rest of the car, drove good, ran good and they said it was a Florida car so no worries, right? Took it home and the next morning went to wash it, discovering the horrible rocker rust and later finding out it was a loving car from Ohio. I was so pissed at myself for stupidly failing to notice a deal breaker issue, I would have never even considered buying the car for even half of what I paid for it.
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May 28, 2015 08:05
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I didn't find out until after I bought my car that it was from Utah.  At least it seems like it was garaged, and possibly put away in the winters - it had incredibly low mileage for its age (still below average), and only a little surface rust on bolts.
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May 28, 2015 08:24
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I drove into a bog hole without checking the depth once... Filled the radiator, intercooler and AC condenser with mud and ran it hot (not overheating)for a few hours trying to get to enough water to clean the radiator out. Ended up causing the oil to overheat and thin out. So far thats cost me: Big end bearings (replaced- $150) and a lightly scored crankshaft that i need to pull the engine out to fix ($$$$$$) Turbo bearing shat itself due to oil thin out, touched the turbine into the housing and wrote the entire turbo off- $1200 Front axle seals $50 Every drivetrain fluid and new coolant cos i had to pull the radiator to actually clean it out properly- $120 New viscous fan hub because it got so drat hot it cooked the silicone fluid and seals and started to leak- $140 EVERY uni joint on both driveshafts- $150 Pull the transfer and replace both output and the input shaft seals- $100 All four door speakers- $200 (upgraded tho) Full alternator rebuild with new brushes and bearings- $100 Full starter motor rebuild with new bearings and contacts- $80 Rear axle seals are leaking and they leak straight into the drum in disk handbrake, contaminating the handbrake shoes too. The axles are semi floating and have the bearings, seals, seal retainers, ABS tone rings and other bits pressed on and are destructively removed. Kits cost $200 a side for just the seals. Handbrake shoes are $100 and the dust being attracted to the oil has ground out the handbrake drum out past spec. The'yre $180 a side. I was a loving idiot and im STILL trying to fix issues caused by it a year later
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May 28, 2015 08:29
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- I once told a buddy of mine "there's no such thing as a 1 cyl engine. You need at least two to make it work" - couple months later I told that same friend "you can't paint carbon fibre. paint doesn't adhere to it." - When I was a kid I used to grab ratchets by the socket, and then spin them around like a noise maker because I liked the sound they made. Then the ratchet flew off the socket and straight through a window. - I once stole the distributor and plug wires off of a friends Pymouth Sundance in high school as a prank. Neither of us knew the firing order when it came time to put it back on so we would trial and error it putting them back on in different orders until it started and ran again. - I used a paper clip as a cotter pin to hold a throttle linkage together. I held for a good 10ish km, at which point I just used a fuckload of tape. - I bought a 1988 RX7 for $100 from a guy who has it sitting in his driveway for 5 years, had lost the keys, did a very dubious stereo install, and still believed him when he said it ran when it was parked, but the battery is dead. MustardFacial fucked around with this message at 08:38 on May 28, 2015 |
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May 28, 2015 08:32
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May 28, 2015 12:31
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8ender posted:I can be found often sitting in front of a wheel hub turning a wrench around in my hand trying to imagine which way it should go to get a bolt off on the backside. After so many years of wrenching this is still my kryptonite. I do this every time. The day I saw a friends snapon ratchet that has off and on labelled on it I nearly bought one for that feature alone. I'm sure I could save myself enough time on routine maintenance to justify it even.
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May 28, 2015 15:56
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MustardFacial posted:- I bought a 1988 RX7 for $100 from a guy who has it sitting in his driveway for 5 years, had lost the keys, did a very dubious stereo install, and still believed him when he said it ran when it was parked, but the battery is dead. I can blow this one out of the water. Bought a 1984 Scirocco for $1000 from a 17 year old kid. Wouldn't run without being boosted. Everything in the engine bay had pick n pull marks on it, the wiring looked dubious at best. The stereo system was real ghetto with a subwoofer that wasn't actually bolted to anything. And this is despite the fact that my dad has never had any luck working on VAG products, he owned an old Beetle that my only memories of it were being on the side of a highway. Edit: Oh yeah the odometer didn't work as well. Tony quidprano fucked around with this message at 16:17 on May 28, 2015 |
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May 28, 2015 16:14
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I stopped using wheel chocks after the fourth one I backed over. Now I just use a chunk of 2x4. I also somehow closed the garage door on my Subaru's bumper last weekend, putting a huge gouge in it. The garage door detected the collision and attempted to reverse, putting more gouges in the bumper, but got stuck against the bumper and decided to finish closing instead of opening fully. I had to dismantle the garage door's stress bracing to give it enough room to pass over the Subaru's bumper so I could roll it off the ramps it was on.
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May 28, 2015 16:14
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Ferremit posted:I drove into a bog hole without checking the depth once... Holy poo poo, why all the problems just running through some water? I get the alternator and starter, but why would all those seals go bad? And why did you have to run it to clean off the radiator? I'm confused, I'm not an off roader.
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May 28, 2015 16:17
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leica posted:Holy poo poo, why all the problems just running through some water? I get the alternator and starter, but why would all those seals go bad? And why did you have to run it to clean off the radiator? I'm confused, I'm not an off roader. Going to guess that he had to drive out of where he was to get clean, though that water looked clear enough to remove enough mud to prevent the overheating. Don't sit and idle in water, though, as he found out: it ruins viscous fan clutches. Did you buy the replacement at a dealer, kind of hard to believe that it really was $140. Thinned out oil will let seals drag on the shaft they ride on, loosening them up and allowing more liquid transfer. Seals always leak, it is a matter of microscopic leak or dribbling on the driveway; lots of seals on passenger vehicles aren't designed to keep water/mud slurry out, that grit causes lots of problems with seals and bearings. Some of that damage could have been avoided. The u-joints probably didn't need to be replaced, just cleaned and repacked. After a swim like that, replacing all of your fluids is prudent.
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May 28, 2015 21:26
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I thought Subaru was an Australian car company for the longest time (because of the Paul Hogan commercials)
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May 28, 2015 21:31
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8ender posted:I can be found often sitting in front of a wheel hub turning a wrench around in my hand trying to imagine which way it should go to get a bolt off on the backside. After so many years of wrenching this is still my kryptonite. I use my hand (right for right hand threads). Point your thumb in the direction you want the nut to go, and curl your fingers in. Turn in the direction of fingers.
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May 28, 2015 21:34
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I unironically like the the Prius.
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May 28, 2015 21:45
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i was washing my car one day and i decided to see if i could scratch a tenacious bit of bird crap off gently with the tip of the nozzle i scratched the paint, of course.
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May 28, 2015 23:20
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one of my molded heater hoses exploded and I replaced both of them with a length of stiff universal heater hose looped over and around the intake, because the OEM hoses would have cost $110. my heater valve has been loosely ziptied to the firewall for 8 months now.
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May 28, 2015 23:23
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atomicthumbs posted:one of my molded heater hoses exploded and I replaced both of them with a length of stiff universal heater hose looped over and around the intake, because the OEM hoses would have cost $110. my heater valve has been loosely ziptied to the firewall for 8 months now. You need these little hose bending spines, friend. Formed hoses are for chumps. http://www.gatesunitta.com/unicoil-hose-bending-system
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May 28, 2015 23:27
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Seat Safety Switch posted:You need these little hose bending spines, friend. Formed hoses are for chumps.  it's a volvo, it'll be fine forever
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May 28, 2015 23:28
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leica posted:Holy poo poo, why all the problems just running through some water? I get the alternator and starter, but why would all those seals go bad? And why did you have to run it to clean off the radiator? I'm confused, I'm not an off roader. It wasnt the 3" of water that did the damage, it was the 2' of sandy slurry underneath it that did the damage. I'll see if i can find the pic of what the engine bay looked like but basically I dropped a hot vehicle into cold water, the axles and gearboxes cooled rapidly, air in it contracted and sucked poo poo past the seals, which ground out the seals and makes them leak.  Basically that sludge got into EVERYTHING. As for having to run it to clean it, We were in the Ngarkat Desert in South Australia, bout 50km from a township, and the nearest water bore with tanks we could access was 40km away- i had ZERO airflow through the radiator and we blew through 80L of our drinking water just getting it to the point it wouldnt overheat at idle.
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May 28, 2015 23:34
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1500quidporsche posted:I can blow this one out of the water. Did you ever get to look inside the car or under the hood before you bought it? I didn't. The door were locked. After I bought it, it coughed into life for 20mins and then never again.
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May 29, 2015 00:19
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Ferremit posted:It wasnt the 3" of water that did the damage, it was the 2' of sandy slurry underneath it that did the damage. I'll see if i can find the pic of what the engine bay looked like but basically I dropped a hot vehicle into cold water, the axles and gearboxes cooled rapidly, air in it contracted and sucked poo poo past the seals, which ground out the seals and makes them leak. Ok, that makes a lot more sense now. Must have sucked knowing that all you needed was a hose to wash the poo poo off with nothing around for miles....Is there something you could have done for the oil, like some sort of additive to keep it from thinning out? Do you take different poo poo with you now in case it happens again?
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May 29, 2015 01:06
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leica posted:Ok, that makes a lot more sense now. Must have sucked knowing that all you needed was a hose to wash the poo poo off with nothing around for miles....Is there something you could have done for the oil, like some sort of additive to keep it from thinning out? Do you take different poo poo with you now in case it happens again? Oh yeah- Even something like a super soaker would have allowed us to get the water through the radiator a lot more effectively... and no, theres not much you can do apart from running a full synthetic that can handle higher running temps, but considering Delo 400 mineral 15w40 is around $7 a litre and the things got an 11L sump, it would be a very costly exercise. I just start to twitch and drive around bog holes now!
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May 29, 2015 01:14
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you ate my cat posted:A while ago, while doing brakes for the first time on my Impreza, I had to really go to town on one of the bolts holding the caliper bracket on - breaker bar, beating on it, the works. I live in the rust belt so I figured it was just stuck as hell. I finally get motion on the bolt, only to find that I sheared the fucker off. Ended up getting it out with an extractor, but that's not the point of the story. Right hand rule: Make a "thumbs up" with your right hand, Thumb points the direction you want the bolt to go, your other four fingers point the direction you need to turn it. I have to use this method frequently. 
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May 29, 2015 01:40
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I owned a Yugo. 6 festivas 11 land rovers 1 jaguar xj6 3 mercedes benzes a porsche 924 several acvws a lovely luv with a 9" rear and a bay for a tree fiddy' a hillroded mark VII lincoln couple burbans and a lovely bus. The shitloads of others were not embarrassments.
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May 29, 2015 01:54
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I was very excited to use my AC recovery machine that I got secondhand for my shop. Was doing a compressor job on a car. Installed the new compressor, and then did a quick vacuum on the system. I didn't let it pull as long as I should have. Once I turned the machine off, I noticed it wasn't holding vacuum (Becasue I hadn't pulled for long enough). I figured there must be a leak at the compressor, so I started to undo the lines to the compressor. I noticed the slight hissing as I was unscrewing the line, so I tried to very slowly separate the line from the compressor. WHOOSH and in the blink of an eye the sealing o-ring disappeared from the line and into the abyss. The vacuum in the system yanked the o-ring off and sent it god knows where. I attempted to go fishing with a pick, but couldn't see where I was fishing. Reluctantly I dismounted the compressor and looked inside. Nothing. I then tried blowing some air though the compressor, nothing. Finally I resorted to dismantling the brand new compressor. Still nothing. I still don't know where that o-ring got sucked to but either it was somewhere else in the compressor body or it went back out one of the a/c lines. I put another compressor on and the system is operating fine now - hopefully if the o-ring is in the lines it stays put and doesn't move somewhere where it causes problems.
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May 29, 2015 02:07
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