Usually if the lights work I look for a blown engine management fuse. In my car it’s linked to the dash lights so there’s a clear indicator when it’s blown. (2000 Saturn SL1)
Seriously. When I got my license, say, 1998 or so my dad walked me out to the car in the driveway and told me “Show me how to change the flat.” and I did it and I have changed NUMEROUS flats since then.
When I managed a movie theater in the mid-ninetys I stopped at Jack in the Box for some grub before work and went back to the car to find a flat tire. I put the doughnut on and drove to work and told my asst. manager “Sorry I’m late but I had a flat.” He looked at me all bewildered and said “HOW DID YOU GET HERE!”
sometimes it baffles me, but two reasons pull me back:
- I spend a good bit of time as a wrench, so changing a tire is NBD for me, and
- the real thing is that tires have become so good that blowouts and flats are actually rather rare. back in the day when cars came with bias-ply donuts on their wheels, being able to change a tire was an essential skill. now, not so much.
in the '50s and '60s, it was unheard of to see a set of tires last much past 10,000 miles. now people bitch if they need tires before 100,000 miles.
You know I totally believe this. The Sentra I had just out of high school I had to change the tire like 6 times over…hmmm…like nine years? I’ve been driving a Honda Fit for two years now without issues and before that a Civic for like ELEVEN years and I never had to change a tire. WILD.
Statistically speaking, batteries never die when in constant close proximity of jumper cables…
Tires likewise will find every puncture producing object known to man, if one does not invest in a repair kit and/or a spare.
:dubious:
I was never taught to change a tire, but I was taught to read, so when I got a flat, (which to this day I believe was induced by the owner of the car wash next door to the garage…) I parked my car out of the way, pulled out the owner’s manual, and read the instructions. Honestly, the worst part was getting to the spare and the jack. I was traveling and my trunk was full of luggage.
I’ve changed at least 3 tires since then, and only once did someone offer to help (in the parking lot at work) but I wasn’t going to be that wussy girl who couldn’t change her own tire. The only time I had to call AAA for a flat was at night while driving my husband’s 'Vette while he was out of town. I couldn’t break the damned lug nuts free, and rather than risk damaging them, I called for help.
As for all else automotive, I’m thrilled to have a couple of great local mechanics. OK, I can change my own wiper blades and headlights, but in general, the best tool for car repair jobs is my VISA.
I jumped off my truck last weekend. I rarely drive it, but needed to haul some stuff for somebody. Turns out, I hadn’t started it up in at least a month, probably a couple months, so it was dead, dead, dead.
Slightly amusing: I had to pick up my BF and haul some stuff for him, so I went out to the truck a few hours before I needed to be where I needed to be to make sure it was going to start. I had to drive my car around the block, park it nose to nose with my truck and jumped it off. Later, while driving the BF around on some more truck-related errands, I told him how my morning had started. I said, “A lesser woman would have just called you crying and said, 'I’m sorry, I can’t pick you up; my truck is dead and I’m heeeeelplesssss. sob sob sob” He laughed and agreed and we both gave me props for solving my own problem before calling him up to add to his.
I bought jumper cables about ten years ago because that whole waiting for the auto club thing? Not gonna happen. Why, oh why, would I sit stranded by the side of the road for 2-3 hours when A) I could jump start myself in about 30 seconds or change a flat in about ten minutes or B) call a friend who has jumper cables or a jack or whatever. I can’t be sitting around wasting my life waiting on some overpriced auto club when I can do it myself for pennies on the dollar and in a fraction of the time. So what, my hands might get dirty and I might even * gasp * break a nail. pfffft.
That said, if I had enough juice to run the lights & wipers, I’d think jumping off the car was not what was needed. That’s when you wait for the tow, because it could be the alternator or something that you can’t just fix in two seconds and be on your way.
When we lived in Okinawa, my husband was driving through a major intersection, and released the clutch wrong, causing the engine to die. And it wouldn’t start back up. The car had started easily when we got in, and we’d been driving 20 minutes or so.
Of course, not being morons, we immediately pushed the car out of the intersection into a nearby parking lot to figure out what was wrong. Everything looked fine, we couldn’t locate the problem (this was a '94 Celica, and the engine was pretty accessible.) Husband checked everything he could think of, and eventually we had the car towed to a shop. Where it turned out that the battery was dead. All had needed was a jump (and obviously a new battery), but it never even occurred to us that a car could just suddenly run out of battery after driving it all over town.
I guess everyone has differing levels of fragility and clumsiness. For me, I really am not worried about hurting myself or damaging the car. To say that AAA is just a phone call away is not entirely true: you place a phone call, and then typically they’re typically a half an hour away, longer if you’re in the middle of nowhere. This assumes you are in a place with cell phone reception. If you’re not (e.g. rural Utah), then you may find yourself waiting (possibly a long time) for a helpful stranger.
I had a flat a couple of years ago. Wife wanted to call AAA. I didn’t want to sit by the side of the road for half an hour, so I changed the tire myself in about ten minutes’ time.
I’ve never seen a car that didn’t come equipped with its own special jack. The jack points are usually well-marked, too, and if there’s any doubt, the owner’s manual tends to make the jacking procedure very clear.
If you don’t mind sitting and waiting for help to arrive, that’s cool. Me? My time is valuable. I’d rather fix the problem ASAP and get on with my day.
My own limit is replacing exhaust systems. My last DIY exhaust system was 15 years ago, and I don’t plan to ever do one myself again; that’s a serious pain-in-the-ass job. But that’s hardly ever an emergency job you do by the side of the road.
Mostly I can’t change my tire. Yes, I know how. But you know, those lug nuts are usually on so tight that even by standing on the jack I can’t turn it. Plus, you know, this is something I’d like to be a little bit girly about. If I blow a tire, I have an SO who is happy to come change it - it makes him feel like a little bit of a hero, and I feel happy I didn’t do it.
That being said, it’s only happened once to me.
Jumping - I’ve never seen the behavior in the OP, either. I’ve had to jump my car a couple of times. Back in college I left the lights on more than once!
What pisses me off more than anything is when people stall out and don’t even make the least effort to push their car out of the intersection. It’s damn selfish is what it is.
what probably happened is one of the plates or interconnects inside the battery broke. When that happens the battery is now an open circuit and it’s completely dead.
I once tried to jump my sister’s car and mistakenly connected to the opposite posts than I was supposed to (not even a rookie mistake, I’d jump-started cars at least a couple of dozen times before this happened.)
“Hm… Why isn’t it working?”
“Hm… What’s that smell?”
“Hm… Why are my jumper cables melting?”
They come from the factory like that, yes, but during my most recent tire change, last…March? April? I found out that on a used car that’s no always a guarantee…luckily I was coming back from a work trip and was able to finagle the company car’s jack to work…it’s lug-nut wrench, which my car was also missing, did not fit, though…so I had to drive the company car to a nearby auto parts store and buy a four-way.
Hey, I should at least be thankful that the spare tire was there, right? :rolleyes:
And all of this reminds me I still need to get a jack for my car, lest this happen again in a less hospital location… (I had bad luck with flat tires…had current car for about a year when that happened, car before that had two in less than three years,back in 2004, less then a month after getting a new job with a company car to drive, THAT got a flat tire, and in 2006 I moved back in with my parent’s for a summer, was driving my dad’s truck to run an errand for them, and THAT got a flat tire.)
I’ve also been in the car for three of my friends getting flats, so…yeah…
I bought my truck as a Credit Union repo. Between the day I test drove it, and when I bought it (had to arrange a loan) someone else test drove it and stole the jack. Yes I am sure. There was no dust where the jack had been setting and the wing-bolt that secured the jack was still setting on the fender liner where the thief set it down. No junk yards had the appropriate jack (I am told that tow-truck drivers routinely steal them) so I ended up special ordering a new one from the dealer for over $100. I have used it 4 times in 10 years or so, once in a remote area that AAA would have just laughed if I had cell coverage to call them.
I’ve been asked by clueless people to give them a jump…after watching them crank the engine. The battery is nowhere near dead, the starter turns, but they think the jumper cables will magically fix whatever is wrong with the car.
Many new economy cars have an optional jack and spare to save weight…you have to pay extra for the jack and spare. If you don’t pay for that option, it comes with a small air compressor and a can of fix-a-flat.
Back in the 70s and 80s I worked for a big motoring organisation in the UK and my job often involved taking breakdown calls from members. Other parts of my job involved manually checking all the mechanics’ breakdown slips against the control room records.
‘Cut out/won’t start’ was by far the most common reported reason for calling for help. As I recall, most of these callers got a jump start that enabled them to get on their way, hopefully to a garage to get the problem checked more thoroughly.
Cars have changed a lot since then though, so I don’t know if the same is true today.
i CAN change a tire, I HAVE changed tires, however, i have NOT changed the tires on the van that we have. I’m not allowed.
This is probably a good call on my Wife’s part.
heck, i cut myself badly enough to need stitches on a piece of bread…
Not really important to the overall story, but, was the car through the intersection or was it in the intersection?
Geesh… I’ve changed my own flats, when I was a teenage girl.
I had a great one a few years back- a guy offered me a lift from a remote backpackers into town to meet the bus, except his car wouldn’t start- so a helpful guy on the other side of the car park offered us a jump start- only to discover his car wouldn’t start. Had to find a third helpful person to come jump start both cars- I tell ya, I’ve never been so convinced a battery would be flat.