I Own a Wheeled Toilet! Vent About Automotive Nightmares

No need to warm the truck up unless your checking the fluid. If it slips, you know your low. Toss half a quart in & go.

EVAP in no way affects mileage. It's a 100% treehugger friendly "feel-good" system that has absolutely ZERO bearing on the operation of the vehicle in any way, shape, or form. Emissions (gas fumes) collection is it's sole purpose.

Can't do that with the Dakota. For some reason they had a check valve in the lines to prevent the torque converter from draining. If I don't put it in neutral and let it get warm the TC won't have fluid. I only have to do it if the truck has sat for a while. If I'm driving it I don't. But since the truck gets driven only a handful times a month then I do it.

Next time I do an oil change I'll replace the lines so I don't have to warm the truck up in neutral.

Dodge .... different.

SMITTY wrote:When was the last time you read of somebody dropping dead from a whiff of gasoline? There's people out there that HUFF the *censored*, & they still walk among us!

I huff more of it now that it contains ethanol, saves on my liquor bill.

Too late to get all the details...
Short version...
First day back to work and her car dies...
No start...
Battery or a starter...
7 years old must be the battery...
nope...
Have her and the 3 month old twins in my truck...
call AAA for the tow...
Customer retention holds me ransom for an hour with screaming kids...
And my AAA does not need renewal for 2 weeks...
And they charge me an extra $35...

This spring/summer has been bad in vehicle related things for me....
First, my saturn that I was selling, the trans went bad so I sold it for a loss(it was and extra car). The 94 astro needed a water pump(It really was not that hard to do surprisingly). At state inspection, the astro needed steering column bolts tightened, and the brackets that hold the rear axel to the leaf springs rotted away. The shop said I was close to whole axel falling off while driving. I know these didn't just rot in 1 year so it was missed on the last inspection by the same shop. I'm glade they found it though, we were planning a trip to GA! I was able to do that repair. The 99 silverado... the pulley bearings on the water pump went bad, I was able to replace that water pump too....the fuel pump would not hold pressure so the check valve on the fuel pump was bad. I dropped the tank(not much problem there) and noticed the rear brake lines are rotted really bad. In fact, I pulled the 'u' clip out in the back end and the line fell apart. While inspecting that rear line, I found all of the lines are bad and need replacing! If you have a GM product from 1999 to 2003, Check you brake lines! A national recall is being considered now.

Yep - just did one last fall on my brother's '02 Silverado. Whole length of the rear line going BEHIND the diesel tank was gonzo. What a pain in the ass that was! I yanked the old one out, not realizing that 4' of it was busted off and still in there ... so I bent up and flared a new line to mirror the old one ... 4' short! Was sooo pissed!

Nothing new there though. Been dealing with this on GM's since the 80's. Always blowing brake lines ... and shocks ... and front-ends after a few winters on MA roads.

Yeah Cape we dumped AAA a while back. I bought a flatbed trailer instead. If we break down, worst-case scenario I'm not home, someone can fly to my house, grab the trailer & haul me back. Last time AAA towed my wife, the driver lost her car off the wrecker trying to negotiate a steep hill-to-level-street transition, and smashed her whole front fender in. They fixed it, but no car for several days. Plus the fact that if you break down on the pike, due to the racket the state has set up, AAA will NOT tow you from there - you have to fight for reimbursement later. After that I cancelled. We were lucky for a few years with no coverage until I bought the trailer in '10.

SMITTY wrote:Yeah Cape we dumped AAA a while back. I bought a flatbed trailer instead.

I have towing insurance with my auto insurance policy. I think it only costs about $6 per year per car. I have used it three or four times over the years. Of course what you DON'T get with the insurance is a 1-800 number to call, you have to figure out for yourself who to call.

How much does your rate go up the first time you use it???

No thanks.

Best Thread Ever !!! Nothing says "Victim" more than Vehicle Ownership !!

I'd be a millionaire if I never owned a car. That's the truth too!

SMITTY wrote:How much does your rate go up the first time you use it???

It has never gone up. My biggest claim has probably been $75, for a tow of about 15 miles. If you do the math, 2 cars X $6 per year X 50 years means I have paid State Farm $600, and they have reimbursed towing fees let's say 6 times at $75. So State Farm is still ahead of the game by $150. If I had owned Jimmys all those years they would be in bankruptcy.

Brake lines rotting apart are not just a GM problem. I'm seeing it more and more here on just about everything.

Had my own brake line blow apart on my 2000 F 250 SD. Luckily it was at the end of the driveway as I was leaving the house. My route of travel to the shop leads me down a pretty steep hill that dead ends with a guard rail. That would not have been too pretty if the line had failed there......

Everyone seems to be blaming it on the brine solution they now put on the roads PRIOR to it even snowing. Past several weeks we have been getting in Rangers that the frames are rusting quite heavily. Our solution is to pull the bed, scrape off the scale and apply POR-15 to it. Pulling the bed is easy enough and makes it damn nice to not have that CHIT falling on you. Now under the cab is a different story..................

Rick

Brine Pre-treatment in Ohio seems to be the equivalent of Battery Acid put on our roads. It attacks everything. Folks have been resorting to a Winter Pre-treatment of a storage type oil sprayed on the under-carriage after a pressure wash cleaning of said under-carriage. I'll find the name of it and let you know....Ham..

Oh thanks a lot guys; this is guaranteed to jinx my luck on the two old trucks. Now I have to get under the trucks and have a look see. Had lots of brake line problems on the GMC last year, better check it out before it gets too cold outside!
I took the bed off the GMC a few years ago, and had a ladder going from the garage flat roof to the crook of the oak tree 10' away. I lifted the bed up with my old Sears comealong and some rope That was when I put in a new gas tank. I brushed it out pretty good with Rustoleum rusty metal primer, seems to be holding out OK. It all can rust out pronto. I'd like to get a cheap needle-scaler might make things easier.

The old 93 Ranger has been so reliable I've ignored the maintenance like a yuppie

Last time I used AAA was when my truck quit in the front area of Home Depot, with a new washing machine for the church house in the back. ( The Admiral washer was bad out of the box, but somebody else handled that...) A couple tough guys teased me by saying "You always haul merchandise that way?" The driver was totally cool, I tipped him when he said his wife was deployed overseas in the service. I got no problem with them, but I stay pretty local these days.