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Post by ganews on Nov 5, 2020 22:28:10 GMT -5
We get into car conversations from time to time, I don't know why we've never had a dedicated thread. So here it is.
Last Sunday I drove back to Maryland from Georgia. And I got a shy-of-shredded tire on I-85 in South Carolina, as part of my lifelong bad luck with tires despite fanatical devotion to correct inflation. I got to a gas station to put on the donut, but being Sunday in the South there was no place open to get a new tire. I drove all the way to Chapel Hill at 60 mph or less to find someone open with a 14" tire in stock. (I had the foresight to check the donut inflation at the start of the trip.) Then I got gas in Virginia, and with hundreds of miles at interstate low speed and another couple hundred at 75 mph I set a new mileage record: 48.2 mpg.
If only that wheel well were deep enough, I'd buy a wheel off a wreck and have a full-size spare.
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Post by nowimnothing on Nov 6, 2020 10:44:36 GMT -5
I had a Ford Ranger for a while with a full size spare. Man that was the good life. Just pop that sucker on, throw the flat in the bed and drop it off at the mechanic. When it was fixed, just put it in the well as the new spare.
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Post by ganews on Nov 6, 2020 12:20:04 GMT -5
I just counted off on my fingers, and it really is seven flats in 16 years, across two cars! Five of them somewhere on the I-85/95 corridor. Only the first one was a full-on tread separation when I was in college, which was scary and made me an inflation Nazi; other flats have been from random spikes, cheap tires, bad valve stems (twice!).
The car I had in high school had bad tie rod ends when I got it, so I have never gone more than a week without hovering over-without-holding my steering wheel to check for pull.
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moimoi
AV Clubber 
Posts: 5,002 
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Post by moimoi on Nov 9, 2020 23:53:12 GMT -5
How badly does one need liners for a car's wheel wells? My car is 8 years old now, and though it only has about 40K miles, it has gotten dented and dinged with city driving. Most recently, the wheel lining started to come loose on my right front tire so we had to take it off. I'm thinking this could either be bad, come winter, if chunks of ice fly into my engine or good if snow and ice can't collect around that wheel. How urgent a repair is this?
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Nov 10, 2020 0:16:35 GMT -5
I've never had too much trouble with flats or blowouts, although I've had a few, but...
The car I learned to drive on was a 1968 VW Squareback sedan. It looked sort of like a little tan station wagon. It was an air cooled 4 cylinder rear engine 4 speed manual shift. It was a weird little car that was my dad's. After I got my license, I begged for a car. My folks were fine with that, simply asking "How do you intend to pay for it?" That summer I got my first job, and worked out a deal to take over the payments on it, and it became my car. There is a steep, twisty hill with deep ditches on both sides, about a mile from the farmhouse. One day I'm coming home from somewhere and as I start down the hill, I suddenly have no steering. The wheel was just turning freely on the column. One second, everything is fine, the next, instant chaos, terror, and possible doom. Frantically, I spun the wheel, and after a full 270 spin, it catches and over-corrects. I spin the wheel the other way, and the same thing happens. Fortunately, there were no cars coming up the hill. I went down the entire length of that hill frantically spinning the wheel clockwise, then cpounter-clockwise, careening across the road, back and forth, believing that at any instant I was going to fly off the road and plunge into one of those deep ditches. Probably burst into flame, too. Honestly, I don't remember now why I didn't just throw on the brakes, but there must have been a good reason. Anyway, I was scared shitless, but I still managed to not panic (barely) and steer that sucker down and survive. That experience was in instant education, and has proved to be a metaphor for a great many other things I've experienced over the years.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Nov 10, 2020 0:20:26 GMT -5
How badly does one need liners for a car's wheel wells? My car is 8 years old now, and though it only has about 40K miles, it has gotten dented and dinged with city driving. Most recently, the wheel lining started to come loose on my right front tire so we had to take it off. I'm thinking this could either be bad, come winter, if chunks of ice fly into my engine or good if snow and ice can't collect around that wheel. How urgent a repair is this? Are there also inner fenders on your car, or without the liners would there be an opening directly into the engine compartment? I'd say that if there are other body panels blocking ice and debris from getting into the engine compartment you would be OK, but if it would be open, you might want to look for a replacement liner. |
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Post by nowimnothing on Nov 10, 2020 8:55:09 GMT -5
I've never had too much trouble with flats or blowouts, although I've had a few, but...
The car I learned to drive on was a 1968 VW Squareback sedan. It looked sort of like a little tan station wagon. It was an air cooled 4 cylinder rear engine 4 speed manual shift. It was a weird little car that was my dad's. After I got my license, I begged for a car. My folks were fine with that, simply asking "How do you intend to pay for it?" That summer I got my first job, and worked out a deal to take over the payments on it, and it became my car. There is a steep, twisty hill with deep ditches on both sides, about a mile from the farmhouse. One day I'm coming home from somewhere and as I start down the hill, I suddenly have no steering. The wheel was just turning freely on the column. One second, everything is fine, the next, instant chaos, terror, and possible doom. Frantically, I spun the wheel, and after a full 270 spin, it catches and over-corrects. I spin the wheel the other way, and the same thing happens. Fortunately, there were no cars coming up the hill. I went down the entire length of that hill frantically spinning the wheel clockwise, then cpounter-clockwise, careening across the road, back and forth, believing that at any instant I was going to fly off the road and plunge into one of those deep ditches. Probably burst into flame, too. Honestly, I don't remember now why I didn't just throw on the brakes, but there must have been a good reason. Anyway, I was scared shitless, but I still managed to not panic (barely) and steer that sucker down and survive. That experience was in instant education, and has proved to be a metaphor for a great many other things I've experienced over the years.
When I was in college (mid-90's) my car died and my grandma gave me my great-grandparent's 1968 Dodge Dart. It only had 60,000 miles on it, but it had been sitting outside for several years. The brakes were especially bad, they would go all the way to the floor before they even started to work. One day I parked on a slight incline at a busy strip mall. When I got back in my car and put it in reverse it just started rolling backwards. I was pumping the brakes like crazy and trying to steer clear of other cars. I managed to miss a couple before hitting two parked cars which in turn were pushed into three more cars. I managed to damage a total of six cars that day including my own. The worst part was waiting in the cop car for the other owners to come back to their damaged cars from their shopping trips so I could try to explain what happened. I really liked that car but I never had the money to get it properly running. The tires went flat from dry rot the next year and my apartment complex had it towed away. It looked like this with the concave back window but a bit darker blue/green body and a black interior:  It also had a straight 6 engine that sounded like a sewing machine (tik tik tik tik.) I was told that is exactly how it was supposed to sound. |
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Post by ganews on Nov 10, 2020 22:12:29 GMT -5
I have many stories from my 1989 Caprice, but it was actually my *second* car. My first car I got the summer before junior year of high school (2000), a dark red 1991 Mercury Sable that looked like it would be driven by your aunt (my dad bought it for me from my aunt). I never would have been given a car if it were up to my mom, but my dad's own father was a mechanic and therefore my dad had a beater in high school himself, plus I already had a job to pay gas and insurance. Tape deck and AC didn't work.
That was my car for the rest of high school. Then came senior prom one week before graduation. I was driving in the rain to the next town to pick up my tux rental, and instead of waiting or pulling into the the center turn lane a pickup truck with no headlights pulled out right in front of me on the five-lane highway. I hydroplaned and went into the SUV to my right, and everybody else missed. No injuries to anyone except the airbag burn on my arm. That was it for that car, and as a result I ended up driving my date's grandmother's Cadillac to the prom.
The weekend after, it was all worked out that I was being gifted the Caprice from my own grandmother who was unable to drive. Nobody else wanted that car, but it had wheels so I took it. Then I drove it everywhere between Florida and Canada over 14 years.
Also, my phone died this weekend. I was able to get service shifted to my old phone temporarily, and I saw in the old contacts list "Caprice Buyer". I'm half-tempted to text that guy.
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Post by ganews on Dec 15, 2020 18:59:27 GMT -5
I intend to drive my Fit until it caint drives nuh more, but I was thinking about the carbon footprint of new car production. Estimates vary widely, looks like maybe 6 metric tons for a comparable car.
Every gallon of gasoline burned creates about 8,887 grams of CO2, according to the EPA. At a high estimate for me of 8 gallons a week for 50 weeks, that's 3.55 metrics tons of CO2 plus fraction for parts and tires. The EPA also estimates the national average at 22 mpg for 11500 mi (output 4.64 metric tons CO2). I'm only making 76% of that, double-checking against my own mileage estimates.
I thought I was doing a lot better than 2 years worth of emissions conserved by driving the same car, though I suppose I'm reducing footprint by having bought a used car instead of new. (If the former owner buys a new car, what are the ethics there?) I'll have to look for some more estimates.
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Post by ganews on Dec 16, 2020 23:41:30 GMT -5
The EPA also estimates the national average at 22 mpg for 11500 mi (output 4.64 metric tons CO2). I'm only making 76% of that, double-checking against my own mileage estimates.
Oof, that’s surprising. That has to be DC traffic, right? I’ve done some checking against that little monitor (easy for me I have a ten-gallon tank) and I’ve gotten a fair amount of range—dropped down to that during a period when I was getting lots of drive through/take out. Otherwise I’ve tended to get 25-27 in a Miata. I take into the mountains every ~ every month (so a lot of time at 35-5000 rmp). Maybe it’s a consequence of mostly driving on weekends or off-peak times—I don’t like the highways here so I generally take arterials (a Chicago habit I’ve carried over, I guess) and—formerly, obviously—using the bus when I could for commuting.
Is ~40-50 mph still the sweet spot for IC efficiency? There’s so much Atkinson cycle (expansion in power stroke = atmospheric pressure) stuff around nowadays that I’m not sure if that’s still the case (and obvs. different for hybrids).
Bad phrasing on my part. I meant I'm outputting 76% of the carbon, because I estimate 36 mpg. I think the lowest I've ever had was 30 mpg when I got caught in serious bumper-to-bumper for a week straight.
ETA and of course the high water mark for my mileage was 48 mpg just a few weeks ago, when I drove for hundreds of miles on the interstate at under 60 mph on a donut because there was no place open to get a new tire. I have a theory that we could save a lot of gas and a lot of lives just by mandating that the noon position on all circular speedometers be 50 mph. (On my Fit it's 70, which is completely ridiculous.) I think people intuit that 3 o'clock on the speedometer is way too fast, and it is - but that position should be 90 mph instead of 120.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Dec 17, 2020 17:30:55 GMT -5
I once blew up the engine in a 3 cylinder Geo Metro with about a quarter million miles on it*, coming back from Chicago, loaded with tools and ladders, driving about 85 on the interstate. It puked a rod right out the side of it's little aluminum block.
*I had an "in car rebuild" done on the engine maybe six months before, against the advice of the mechanic who did it. Turned out he was right.
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Post by ganews on Feb 25, 2021 14:20:19 GMT -5
The most outlandish car-related thing that has ever happened to me, happened yesterday morning: about one mile from my home I was pulled over during daylight hours for having one headlight bulb out.
It was a bit after 7 am, so about 50% of cars actually had their lights on. Good idea but not 100% necessary at that light level, but I turn my lights on because I am a good citizen. I passed by a state trooper who was on the side of the road, he threw his lights on just before I went by. It took a few beats to realize that he meant me because I certainly wasn't speeding. Told me a headlight was out, I asked which one and he went up to check. (I already knew because 11 hours earlier I had driven to pick up from a restaurant and noticed I wasn't at full brightness). He poked his head right in my window and gave me a repair order - 30 days to fix it and get it certified (in a cop waiting lobby, just where I want to be in a pandemic) or my registration suspended. I would have dealt with it soon enough anyway, but this is the bullshit of bullshits when cops try to pump up the numbers before the end of the month.
Weather is supposed to get into the 50s this weekend so I won't mind going outside to replace it myself.
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Post by ganews on Feb 27, 2021 14:43:25 GMT -5
The most outlandish car-related thing that has ever happened to me, happened yesterday morning: about one mile from my home I was pulled over during daylight hours for having one headlight bulb out.
It was a bit after 7 am, so about 50% of cars actually had their lights on. Good idea but not 100% necessary at that light level, but I turn my lights on because I am a good citizen. I passed by a state trooper who was on the side of the road, he threw his lights on just before I went by. It took a few beats to realize that he meant me because I certainly wasn't speeding. Told me a headlight was out, I asked which one and he went up to check. (I already knew because 11 hours earlier I had driven to pick up from a restaurant and noticed I wasn't at full brightness). He poked his head right in my window and gave me a repair order - 30 days to fix it and get it certified (in a cop waiting lobby, just where I want to be in a pandemic) or my registration suspended. I would have dealt with it soon enough anyway, but this is the bullshit of bullshits when cops try to pump up the numbers before the end of the month.
Weather is supposed to get into the 50s this weekend so I won't mind going outside to replace it myself.
Now I have to make two extra stops: one at an inspector who can say "yep your lights are on" and one at a cop station to drop off the form. Except the state website to find a licensed inspector doesn't work! |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Feb 28, 2021 22:05:17 GMT -5
I bought a regular car to augment my previous regular car. It’s a 2014 Santa Fe, in what is officially Canyon Copper, with 44K miles on it. Nice and shiny with a cream leather interior that my kids will ruin. No AWD because I don’t really care about AWD and this was the one that hit all my other criteria. Should do yeoman’s work for years toting two children hither and yon. Plus it’s old enough to have a CD player which is a net win IMO.  |
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Post by ganews on Feb 28, 2021 23:16:41 GMT -5
I bought a regular car to augment my previous regular car. It’s a 2014 Santa Fe, in what is officially Canyon Copper, with 44K miles on it. Nice and shiny with a cream leather interior that my kids will ruin. No AWD because I don’t really care about AWD and this was the one that hit all my other criteria. Should do yeoman’s work for years toting two children hither and yon. Plus it’s old enough to have a CD player which is a net win IMO. Do new cars not have CD players anymore? Someday (far in the future I hope) when my Fit dies I feel like I'll be living in futureworld when I have a car with 2020-ish features. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Feb 28, 2021 23:52:51 GMT -5
I bought a regular car to augment my previous regular car. It’s a 2014 Santa Fe, in what is officially Canyon Copper, with 44K miles on it. Nice and shiny with a cream leather interior that my kids will ruin. No AWD because I don’t really care about AWD and this was the one that hit all my other criteria. Should do yeoman’s work for years toting two children hither and yon. Plus it’s old enough to have a CD player which is a net win IMO. Do new cars not have CD players anymore? Someday (far in the future I hope) when my Fit dies I feel like I'll be living in futureworld when I have a car with 2020-ish features. My 2015 Sonic didn’t come with one. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Mar 1, 2021 14:50:26 GMT -5
I bought a regular car to augment my previous regular car. It’s a 2014 Santa Fe, in what is officially Canyon Copper, with 44K miles on it. Nice and shiny with a cream leather interior that my kids will ruin. No AWD because I don’t really care about AWD and this was the one that hit all my other criteria. Should do yeoman’s work for years toting two children hither and yon. Plus it’s old enough to have a CD player which is a net win IMO. Do new cars not have CD players anymore? Someday (far in the future I hope) when my Fit dies I feel like I'll be living in futureworld when I have a car with 2020-ish features. Both my 2013 Elantra and my husband's 2015 Prius have one, but they are a lot less available in newer cars. And I have no idea when the last time I listened to a CD in the car was - I have SiriusXM, Bluetooth to run Spotify and a USB cable I could run an iPod/iPhone to. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Mar 1, 2021 15:04:28 GMT -5
Do new cars not have CD players anymore? Someday (far in the future I hope) when my Fit dies I feel like I'll be living in futureworld when I have a car with 2020-ish features. Both my 2013 Elantra and my husband's 2015 Prius have one, but they are a lot less available in newer cars. And I have no idea when the last time I listened to a CD in the car was - I have SiriusXM, Bluetooth to run Spotify and a USB cable I could run an iPod/iPhone to. I have two full wallets of high-quality early-aughts rock and roll cds that I am just itching to go put back in the center console. It's easier to think of interesting things to listen to when I'm flipping through pages of discs than if I'm staring at the home page of spotify looking at the same 6 albums I listen to every day. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Mar 1, 2021 15:09:33 GMT -5
Both my 2013 Elantra and my husband's 2015 Prius have one, but they are a lot less available in newer cars. And I have no idea when the last time I listened to a CD in the car was - I have SiriusXM, Bluetooth to run Spotify and a USB cable I could run an iPod/iPhone to. I have two full wallets of high-quality early-aughts rock and roll cds that I am just itching to go put back in the center console. It's easier to think of interesting things to listen to when I'm flipping through pages of discs than if I'm staring at the home page of spotify looking at the same 6 albums I listen to every day. I mean, a lot of those albums are probably on Spotify too, or you could rip them to computer and put them on a playlist... I get it, I spent a lot of time putting mix CDs together in the early aughts, but now my CD collection is just taking up space and collecting dust. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Mar 1, 2021 16:10:15 GMT -5
I have two full wallets of high-quality early-aughts rock and roll cds that I am just itching to go put back in the center console. It's easier to think of interesting things to listen to when I'm flipping through pages of discs than if I'm staring at the home page of spotify looking at the same 6 albums I listen to every day. I mean, a lot of those albums are probably on Spotify too, or you could rip them to computer and put them on a playlist... I get it, I spent a lot of time putting mix CDs together in the early aughts, but now my CD collection is just taking up space and collecting dust. Yeah, but on spotify I don't think of them. With a cd wallet I can flip through and be like OH SHIT Hot Fuss is exactly the right cd for right now! which would never happen with spotify. |
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Post by 🐍 huss 🐍 on Mar 3, 2021 2:33:32 GMT -5
Thank you to Djse (and a Sack of Cats) for being helpful and supportive while I panicked about the radio not turning off with the rest of the car. I successfully found the fusebox and the correct fuse to unplug/replug! |
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Post by haysoos on Mar 3, 2021 15:23:27 GMT -5
I mean, a lot of those albums are probably on Spotify too, or you could rip them to computer and put them on a playlist... I get it, I spent a lot of time putting mix CDs together in the early aughts, but now my CD collection is just taking up space and collecting dust. Yeah, but on spotify I don't think of them. With a cd wallet I can flip through and be like OH SHIT Hot Fuss is exactly the right cd for right now! which would never happen with spotify. I have a memory stick with about 3000 songs burned on it in my car. I usually have it on shuffle play, but if I want, I can play by album, or artist, or alphabetically, or do a voice search for the exact track I want to hear. I haven't bothered with radio or CD or Sirius or any of that nonsense in years. There's also another memory stick with about 50 audiobooks on it, but I rarely listen to it. I keep meaning to, just never get around to it. The 3000 songs works well enough. Every so often I bring it in the house and update it with new tracks/albums or take off old ones I'm tired of. |
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Post by ganews on Apr 4, 2021 16:30:24 GMT -5
I moved seven 11' split-rail fence slats with my Honda Fit (plus three ratchet straps, rope, and a bandana) and am extremely pleased with myself. I'm single-handedly disproving the idea that it's reasonable to buy a large, inefficient truck or SUV "just in case".
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Post by ganews on May 12, 2021 22:20:01 GMT -5
Jesus, I had to make an 11-mile roundtrip through town today from 5-8 pm and every gas station was backed up into the street ten cars deep. The pipeline is back to operations as of 5 pm today. People are apparently putting gas in bags. Folks, chill out.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on May 20, 2021 6:52:14 GMT -5
I think new cars should still play cassette tapes.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on May 20, 2021 10:39:24 GMT -5
I think new cars should still play cassette tapes. Need to support the local noise bands (and promote them when I roll the windows down) Oh, that’s the other thing. Car windows should still be manually operated. |
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Post by Floyd D Barber on May 21, 2021 10:55:34 GMT -5
Need to support the local noise bands (and promote them when I roll the windows down) Oh, that’s the other thing. Car windows should still be manually operated. Wing events. There is no excuse for any car not having wing vents. |
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LazBro
Prolific Poster 
Posts: 10,008 
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Post by LazBro on May 24, 2021 14:21:06 GMT -5
I definitely prefer more modern and electric features in cars over manual, but one thing I do miss is bench seating in the front seat. My first car was my grandma's Chevy Lumina (the sedan version, not the van) and gosh I miss that bench. So much more inviting than these stuffy cockpits they stuff you into these days.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Jun 3, 2021 22:39:39 GMT -5
I spent the morning at my favorite junkyard getting parts for my 47 Willys jeep and a couple of our Ford work trucks. It was a good day.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Jul 14, 2021 21:00:50 GMT -5
I just ordered parts to convert the 47 Willys Jeep from the original drum to disc brakes. The current brake system is completely shot, and it would cost about as much to restore them as it does to upgrade to the much more effective disc brakes. Wish me luck.
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