[MasterONaniFiqh]

oh dang, radiator stuff! i salute you. (and you for your crazy car-shaking problems, shadha, respect!)

yeah. i had to change my radiator a couple three months back, too. fricking sucks! someone had dinged it whlie it was parked somwhere my little brother had taken it. and then the ding had loosened one hose completely out, so i had took it to get an oil change at jiffy lube cause i thought maybe all the stalling was cause of some oil issue or whatever, but also, secretly to try and get them to give me a relatively free diagnostic if they could see what was wrong with it.

well, i was already planning on taking it for that oil change, cause it was due, but then that day my little brother takes it to his school and it gets dinged. (come to think of it, maybe this was months ago.) so, luckily i get like the one helpful mechanic at jiffy lube who tells me that my big hose connecting to the radiator is completely jacked and it's leaking out all the fluid. so i have to take it right away to another shifty mechanic, who changes that but then also says he found a small hole in my radiator which is apparently why it had--before the ding at the high school--already been stalling every month or so, once a month. cause of that slow leak.

and then he also said some mumbo-jumbo which "accidentally" lead me to believe i needed some more work done while they were changing it, which, oopsy, i would of course have to pay for also in the end, when he clarified that that stuff actually wasn't enitrely necessary, but since i had said "ok" to it when he had started with his nonesense jibber jabber at the start, i would have to pay for. i complained a bit, so out of the goodness of his heart he reduced the unexpected 500 price tag (when it was only supposed to be 280 something) by 80 bucks. what a swell guy. grrr.


and please, people, let's try to keep our car buying tips for the car buying tips thread. this thread is for PURE AUTOMOTIVE PAIN!!

[wheelworks]

Originally Posted by MasterONaniFiqh

and please, people, let's try to keep our car buying tips for the car buying tips thread. this thread is for PURE AUTOMOTIVE PAIN!!

Driving my car is pure automative pain. I suffocate and smell all sorts of toxic fumes. Plus it feels like my blood is gonna rot in my body cause im just sitting in one place and just using my big toe to push the gas pedal. Plus sometimes I have to wait in loooong lines going one block every half hour (and this is in the freeway too ) Not to mention paying for gas which bores a hole in my wallet and lightens it considerably.

Almamdulillah for Bicycles

[MasterONaniFiqh]

Yeah, I mean pain from when the car ISN'T working properly, not when it IS. although gas price problems do count, because what the junk man! it's crazy expensive and completely unexpected with all the jumping around.

anyway, your anti-car crusade is simply unfeasible for people living in cities without good public transport that require driving. AND it's off-topic. seriously, just start a bicycle thread. you're like a heckler on a suicide hotline over here. it's just improper!

also, it sounds like you have issues with fat people you need to work out. get help.

[wheelworks]

Originally Posted by MasterONaniFiqh

anyway, your anti-car crusade is simply unfeasible for people living in cities without good public transport that require driving. AND it's off-topic. seriously, just start a bicycle thread. you're like a heckler on a suicide hotline over here. it's just improper!
also, it sounds like you have issues with fat people you need to work out. get help.

You got me all wrong yo. It's not the fat ppl I got issues with. It's clogged highways and lazy people. Plus it's extremely unhealthy for people to be boxed up in metal cages when ever they're outside.

You don't even see kids playing outside anymore cause there is less people outside looking after them which make em a bigger abduction target

[MasterONaniFiqh]

AUTO REPAIR CRISES.

kids are better off inside, so that they don't get hit by my CAR!

also, air conditioning is GOOD for you if you've got to be driving around all day in florida!

[Ilikemyscarf]

My car makes weird noises. I think it's the brakes. What is it??

[YOUSUFofSD]

lets see. when does it make the noise, braking, turning, accelerating? does it sound only when the engine is cold, or only warm? does it sound like its underneath the car, or in front, in the engine bay? am assuming its while braking but do you hear it at any other time?

oh and does the pedal thump when braking? or the steering wheel shake when braking?

[RestlessSoul]

my car screams like godzilla for ~five seconds when I turn it on. many a passerby I have scared when I turned the ignition. I don't want to get it fixed

[Ilikemyscarf]

Originally Posted by YOUSUFofSD

lets see. when does it make the noise, braking, turning, accelerating? does it sound only when the engine is cold, or only warm? does it sound like its underneath the car, or in front, in the engine bay? am assuming its while braking but do you hear it at any other time?

oh and does the pedal thump when braking? or the steering wheel shake when braking?

I suspect it is the brakes. I hear the noise when I brake. My steering wheel doesn't shake or anything (thank God ) Sometimes I hear it when I'm driving but it's mostly when I'm at a red light or stopped. The pedal is fine.

[YOUSUFofSD]

yea if you just hear it squeeling when stopping, its most likely just the brake pads warning you to change them soon. Since the wheel doesnt shake when stopped, then your rotors are most likely fine.

[Ilikemyscarf]

Originally Posted by YOUSUFofSD

yea if you just hear it squeeling when stopping, its most likely just the brake pads warning you to change them soon. Since the wheel doesnt shake when stopped, then your rotors are most likely fine.

Thanks for the advice. Is there some place where they teach people how to change a tire? And like teach you basics about your car and how you should take care of it?

[MasterONaniFiqh]

well, everyone pretty much knows how to change a tire after the first time they have to do it. so you could probably just ask anyone around you to show you how once.

basically you just have to get the spare tire, the jack and the wrench that come with your car out of the trunk where the spare is. use the wrench to loosen the nuts a little on the flat tire you need to change (usually by standing on the wrench to just get them loose one half turn). position the jack it where the manual tells you to position it (it's often a pretty obvious place). then crank up the car a bit until the tire is off the ground. you then finish loosening off the nuts (if you were not to have loosened them already when the car was on the ground, it would be dangerous to try to get them loose from complete tightness now cause the car might come off the jack by the force). haul off the flat tire and roll it aside. lift up and put on the spare tire and tighten the nuts a bit (not completely for the same reason, so the car doesn't fall off the jack). then lower the jack (which is much easier going down than up, usually). once the car is on the ground, you finish tightening the nuts on the tire, again by standing on the wrench if you have to to get them on there nice and tight. you put the flat tire in your trunk and off you go to the tire shop or walmart, to see if they can either put a patch on the tire (which is just 10 bucks), of if you're going to have to get a new tire (which is more). they'll put it all on for you there. road hazard warrantees are a waste of time, in my opinion, btw. they don't tend to cover anything at all and don't help much when they do cover the kind of flat you got. it's a scam.

[MasterONaniFiqh]

I should have stopped. I know that from the start, let me just say.

I was running late this morning in the big, black conversion van that the theatre compay keeps all the stuff for the show in. Now, I've driven big cars, vans, RV's, SUVs and the like for years, on and off, so I'd been getting kind of a glum satisfaction over how easily I had been handling this van over the course of the two-month engagement I had signed on for. This as opposed to my three fellow cast-members, who seem to dread it. For me it was no big deal.

This morning, by 8:15 am, I was running late, and, though I didn't want to be any later, I had overshot the intersection I needed to turn at, so I ended up having to turn around at the next light, take a right there, do a U-turn and get in line to turn back left toward the turn I missed. Waiting to do so in the turning lane, all I could think about was how the reassuring rush of the big, heavily loaded van's weight would feel as I lurched it forward at a good speed to get back to the last light and make it to this school.

Instead, after the light turned green and I'd gunned the engine, mid-lurch, what I suddenly felt and heard a was a loud POP of a bang from the right side.

Glancing to the side-view mirror, I saw a flutter of something black and small and plastic rolling around on the asphalt--perhaps part of a side-view mirror casing--and the people in one of the cars lined up in the lane beside the turning lane wide-eyed in shock.

I think my eyes met a pair of theirs.

But my car was already moving, already half through the turn. I gunned it, giving the van a little waver in a weak attempt at making it a harder target to see. I told myself it wasn't too bad. I hadn't seen any of the cars in the side-view visible mangled, or turned by the impact. Hell, it was probably just some of the props or stage-dressings in the back falling over. That stuff was always bopping noisily around back there. Sure.

And in less than a second the turn was done and I was speeding to the next intersection, eyes glued to the rear-view to see if the SUV I think I bumped was giving chase. In that instant I envisioned high-speed pursuit, abruptly and anticlimatically truncated by a red-light. A couple of burly, mustached hispanic youths stepping out of a car to come up beside my window and demand I step outside. Followed shortly by a roadside discussion with a police officer. Instead, I reached the intersection, turned and proceeded to the elementary school without incident. The slight adrenal bump that followed the vehicular one already fading.

In the back of my mind began the murmur that is still there, whispering and waiting for a call that will unwravel the shroud covering the incident.

The cast-member who's also the assistant director and semi-official authority figure over our group-of-four doing these performances of a children's theatre production at elementary schools noticed that the one of the double doors at the side of the van wasn't closing "right." There was also a quite visible little dent next to the lower hinge. At this point I got the "Uh, Fawad...did you hit something?'

I spilled immediately and frankly. "Yeah. I did." But not enitrely forthcomingly.

"What did you hit?"

"Ah. I don't know. Something. I heard a pop when I was turning at the light. I looked back but I was already through the turn. So I didn't see what I hit."

Now, I'm much more non-chalant about automotive gaffs like this, as this thread's existence should portend. I'm no stranger to vehicular ups and downs of a non-locomotive variety. My first urge with incidents like this is always to spill the beans, ingrained in me since the very first time I ever took a car out for a spin the first day I had my restricted licence when I was 17 and ended up with a pair of tickets to explain when I got back home. But the girls in the cast (I say girls, but one's thirty, the assistant director is my age, and the other, annoyingly patronizing one is 23), were a bit more frazzled.

So after a little pow-wow amongst the four of us, there in front of the school cafetorium we'd just done the show at, it was decided that we would keep it a secret. "Could just say it got hit in the parking lot," I offered, which they all seemed to take to excitedly. Though, partly I was wondering why we were being secretive about it at all.

Apparently the biggest concern was that the couple that runs the theatre group wouldn't let me drive the van anymore. Because, I guess, then they would have to get up a bit earlier in the mornings to pick up the van themselves. Actors.

Actually, worst case scenario would be that I'd tell the couple that runs the theatre company I hit someone, to expect a call from the police or an insurance company and let me know. I'd pay for the dent, I'd get a ticket. Things would go as they inevitably, inexorably, inertially do when you spend most of your free time in the place I like to call...automotive hell.

[RestlessSoul]

Originally Posted by RestlessSoul

my car screams like godzilla for ~five seconds when I turn it on. many a passerby I have scared when I turned the ignition. I don't want to get it fixed

UPDATE: the car makes this screaching sound not only when I turn it on, but randomly everytime I slow down below 20 mph. people walking up the street can hear me coming from a block away. a van in front of me had some kids inside who turned around and started laughing at me.

I always dreamed of having a car that turned heads, but not like this

[Kona_Silat]

Originally Posted by shadha

From Honda, I'd get the Honda Fit. It's sooo cute. Oh so is the Toyota Yaris.

...yeah, I need a small car.


shadha-

As a Honda Fit driver..its a very good car. I have the car paid in full so no payments except gas and insurance. The alternative to consdier is the Scion XD which is pretty nice.

MasterNOF, consider getting a new car.