The Driveway: COBbies talk cars

So I learned a few things recently.

I drive a 1999 Saturn SL2 and it's developed a really bad coolant leak. It would only leak once the coolant reached normal operating pressure: about 10 minutes into the drive. I had actual smoke coming out from under my hood and was filling the stupid thing up before every drive. Turns out it was leaking from the head. I have yet to find out if the head gasket is cracked, or if there is a fault in the engine itself, or what. (I haven't seen any white gunk in the oil, in case you were wondering.)

The first thing I learned is that burning engine coolant gives off a distinctive sweet smell.

The second thing I learned is that there's this stuff called Bar's Leaks Radiator Stop Leak, which is made of ground ginger and walnut shells and looks like six fat pills/corks, and which is available at any parts store, and you put them directly into the coolant system. Since doing that, I drove for a week all over town (and the next town over) without any sign of a leak at all.

It's in the shop this week for a proper fix, but I thought I'd pass on the part about Bar's Leaks, in case it's useful to anyone else. At least it'll keep your car running until you can work out a rental/rides/etc.

edited 10th Dec '14 2:41:46 PM by scionofgrace

You know, I thought I had been hired by a pizza place.

After tonight, I've come to the conclusion that where I work is really a daycare center for manchildren, with food as a side business. Horseplay, babbling silly shit at one another at volume (including, tonight, one particularly brilliant outburst of "he's got a rash!" while there's a customer in the lobby (from which one is able to see and hear much of the store; cue the facepalm), and generally doing anything but store upkeep type stuff when things are slow.

Nope, that sounds like a pizza place...

Whoops, the above was supposed to go in the work thread. D'OH!

Now for something intentionally posted here, for lack of anywhere more appropriate. It kinda-sorta involves cars, namely the traffic they're a part of.

Anyway, I've noticed, over the years, that at red lights a lot of people will start edging up past the stop line, like they're anxious to jump off once the light goes green, but when it finally does change they just stroll off all casual-like.

What's the point of that edging ahead if you're not even in a rush off the line once the light changes? The extra foot or so head start can't be all that much of a time-saver.

Probably for visibility reasons. Trying to see more, or make sure you are seen.

Quite a week for my car. On Thursday I got the oil change it'd been nagging me about for a week or two, then on Friday I got a tire punctured on the way in to work and had to have it replaced. Tomorrow morning I need to get up early and take it in to have a groan when I turn the wheel looked at, and probably also just get an overall inspection for ~100k miles.

Also, just before I went in for the oil change, I did something dumb and burned out the fuse for my cigarette lighter outlet, and just tonight I went to Auto Zone and got a new fuse (as well as a set of pliers so I could get it out) with an old giftcard I never had occasion to use. It was nice to be able to actually do a repair myself. I didn't even put the spare on myself because I have AAA.

I got my car washed for the first time since before I moved here. I got used to conveyor-style automatic washes back home, but I can't find those here. I only know of one bay-style automatic. I don't like the idea of getting a hand wash because I'm more comfortable with an impersonal machine.

I thought the place by where I worked today had a conveyor automatic, but they don't. I thought I was getting the basic wash, but when I took the ticket to the counter, I found out I wasn't. Full service, plus "manager's special", plus interior and exterior "a/a". Total of $40. More than twice what I was intending to spend.

I can't be too upset though. It included a lot of interior cleaning I'd been meaning to do myself for weeks.

Mine will be betting a trip through the car wash tonight, before its service and MOT tomorrow. No funny noises or squeaks, so I'm not expecting anything expensive.

Had a minor bit of hassle about my front brakes, in which I found out that the Firestone auto care place I had take a look at my breaks are apparently a bunch of fuckwits.

Late last year I was getting squealing from the front brakes, and not realizing it was the squealer thingy used to signal "replace shit soon" I took it in to the only place I knew of that would be open early the next morning, which was the aforementioned Firestone store. They replaced the brakes (or so I thought), and life goes on.

The other week I go in to the Goodyear place where I got new tires for a tire rotation (under warranty) and an oil change (least expensive place in town), and was told that the front breaks were almost gone. Since they were under warranty from the last time, I took them to Firestone and had them look at it since it was their work that was the issue and it was under warranty still.

Fast forward to next week, where I'm noticing it requires distinctly harder pressing on the brake pedal to actually stop. Given that Firestone had already a strike against them (I drive a lot thanks to my job, but not enough to justify needing new brakes not even 4 months later), I had the Goodyear place mentioned above look at it.

Turns out that Firestone had just replaced the pads, but did nothing with the rotors, which not only weren't wearing evenly but had worn down so much that said rotors were way past the point they should've been replaced, and required more pressure to get the pads to grab the rotors (they even took me into their work bay and showed me the problem children before explaining what needed to be done, instead of just telling me "X needs to be done" sight unseen).

So now I'm short ~400 bucks plus the $170 for the original brake work last year, but at least I can stop in a reasonable amount of time now.

(Tangentially related, there was another car at Goodyear who was getting work done for insurance purposes. The car owner had gone to Firestone for new tires, but they didn't secure one of the wheels. Said unsecured wheel fell off while the car was driving around, which as you can imagine didn't do the hardware any favors.)

TLDR: Fuck Firestone Auto Care.

Jeez, makes me glad I have a competent mechanic. Granted they charge a bit more than the chains but if it means getting the job done right the first time, whatever. It's worth not having to deal with shoddy fixes and upsells.

Okay, motor oil has a definite change in appearance between fresh and old, right? I could look at it and know if it was actually changed, or at least take it to a mechanic I trust and they could tell me?

I went to the Walmart garage tonight, was asked for my phone number, was told I'd get a "call" when it was ready, waited two and a half hours, came back to a deserted desk, went to customer service to settle up and get my keys from the manager, walked all the way around the store to get my car (because the garage entry was closed), and the OBD still thinks the oil needs to be changed.

The only evidence I have of actual action by them is that my car wasn't where I left it and there's a new "next oil change" sticker. I don't know if they just didn't clear the message in the OBD or if they actually charged me $40 to not change the oil.

Well you took it to Walmart, there's your problem right there.

Yeah, I know. I wanted to do the oil change at my trusted mechanic along with transmission upkeep, but I'm working all day five days a week and in the evening the two other days, one of which they're closed and the other they close early.

Be glad it's only $40.

A bunch of stuff involving the airbag system on my car went kaflooey, and it ran me over $1700 to get it all fixed.

I'm not going to be bankrupted by it, but nearly $2K isn't exactly pocket change, either.

Man at that point I'd just buy a new car.

I still owe about $10K on it (2010 Honda Civic LX, as I don't think I've mentioned it much in this thread over the years), out of an initial loan for almost $19K (IIRC on the values).

Now that I have decent money coming in I have looked at a new-new (not just used but new to me) car, prior to the airbag system thing, but even accounting for that in the end it's more of an expense than I want to take on. There are things I'd like to have for features/functionality, especially given the newer cars I've driven in temporarily while mine was in the shop, but with a bit of decent care it will last for a good while and it serves my needs reasonably well for a 5 year old car. Hondas aren't exactly known for shoddy workmanship nowadays, after all.

edited 24th Apr '15 12:56:51 AM by Nohbody

Damn it. My precious land yacht is now making this horrific grinding noise whenever it moves. No idea what's causing it but it sounds bad.

Whew, dodged a bullet.

For the past few months (at least) there's been a clicking noise coming from up front when I turn while accelerating from a stop. Had it in to the dealership earlier and they couldn't reproduce it, but this time they did, and it's the CV joint going bad.

Fortunately, it's still covered under the powertrain warranty, so I won't have to pay for the replacement, just have to wait a few days for the delivery to the dealership so they can install it.

(Apparently the warranty is either/or, and not "whichever comes first". Powertrain warranty is 5y/60k, but my car was made in March 2010, which I would have thought would make it out of warranty coverage. Could just be that the dealership is hooking me up, though. Have to ask about that later.)

edited 2nd Jun '15 7:21:49 AM by Nohbody

Following up on : Got it replaced yesterday morning, everything's going fine as far as the car goes.

I did ask about the timing, and they said the warranty was measured from when I bought the car... on June 16. So all it had to do to hit me in the wallet was wait another week or two to start crapping out.

I've got a very good auto service shop. I came in thinking I needed transmission service, new tires, and stop-leak in the power steering pump. He told me I'd miscalculated how many miles between transmission services and I shouldn't need it for months even with all the driving I do for work, that my tires were fine, just in need of rotation and pressure adjustment (two were ten pounds under, one was 20 pounds under, and one was 10 pounds over).

It's just too bad he's stopped doing full mechanic service. I first came to him because I needed a broken part replaced, but now he just does fluids, filters, tires, and state inspections.

When it rains, it pours...

Had my breaks replaced about 8600 miles ago, pads and rotors. Started squealing earlier this week, and took it in to the local Goodyear service center, who did the brakes last time after Firestone's service center fucked things up.

Anyway, replacements were covered under warranty, though the way the team supervisor kept saying "this time" I suspect that barring a proven failure of the parts to meet standards there won't be any more freebies.

Now, I find that my driver's side sun visor has broken, and won't fold up against the roof. I did a little digging around, and apparently it's a known problem with Honda sun visors, enough so that there was a class action lawsuit settlement for 2006-09 Civic models.

Too bad mine's a '10 model.

Wound up getting an '07 Corolla like a month ago after I got sick of pouring money into my '00 Outback. Wasted about $1k on the thing in less than six months and it was going to need at least another $500 or so to not be sketchy to drive, plus another $600 if I wanted to have A/C. There comes a point where keeping it turns into sunk cost fallacy, and I definitely hit that with the Outback. This one had 94k on it when I bought it, but Corollas from that year range can easily hit the 250k marker with no major hiccups if you put in basic maintenance. Can't say that I miss the Outback one bit.

I don't know much about cars, but I am super attached to my 1991 Camry. She is from the year I was born

So my car no longer has a splash guard under the engine cavity. My problems with coming too close to curbs that my car is just at the right height to not bump into or pass over but scrape on finally knocked the front of it loose, and by the time I could get it to a shop the next day, there was so much of it torn off by the road that they recommended just tearing it off and throwing it away.

They didn't charge me for anything though, because I deliver auto parts to them and they're one of our best customers, and they gave me a family discount even though I've only been working here for less than six weeks.