buttonjockey308–with all due respect, your beloved is a ninny.
She is what makes us women look bad. I’ve worked on cars for 15 years and even I would be laughing at her. Tell her that you know a female mechanic (from this board–you wouldn’t be lying!) that is having a good chuckle over the story.
I remember one man coming into this dealership I worked at, every four or five months for a front brake job on his Jimmy. WTF? No, the calipers were not stuck. What was the problem? After several brake jobs, him cussing US out, and a little detective work we found out his wife drove the SUV and they lived near the top of a hill. You guessed it. Mama-san was riding the brakes.
A little driving lesson from him to her and the problem was solved.
I think she is acting extremely irrational.
Yes there are unscrupulous men out there who rip clueless women off in the automotive field, but this surely doesn’t sound like one of those times.
pointless story…
My wife sends me out to help the neighbor who had run out of gas. I put in a couple gallons and explain that she should go right to a gas station and get $2 of gas. Then look at the gauge and she’ll know what it reads when it’s dangerously low. She’ll never run out of gas again.
I’m with Lola your wife is making the rest of us look bad. I take excellent care of every car I’ve owned, gas, oil, breaks, tires the works and have never been towed or stuck on the side of the road. I can’t stand anyone who doesn’t take care of their vehicle. Even if you don’t have the unnatural attachment to it that I do, it is your mode of transportation, you wouldn’t catch our ancestors letting their horses starve or go unshoed.
That being said I have also been on the receiving end of the mechanic’s boys club who see blonde hair and boobs as an excuse to tell you your discomthingamagig is frayed and it’ll cost you a couple hundred to fix so I can sympathize with her suspicions. Still, if your husband and your dealership agree independently of each other, it’s time to suck it up, admit your mistake and not trust the gauge anymore. Me, I always zero my trip odometer when I fill up, that way I can keep an eye on mileage as well as the tank gauge and have a double warning when it’s time to hit the pumps.
Good luck resolving it. Maybe it’s one of those things that just needs to be dropped so she can lick her wounds.
Two stories:
My very first morning working on Volvos at the dealership. I go to dispatch for a job. The dispatcher asks me if I have worked on Volvos before. Lying through my teeth I say sure lots.
He give me a car that was towed from an independent garage, who said the computer was bad, and needed to be replaced under the 5/50 emissions warrenty. It seems the car died on the freeway.
I go out to the car and sure enough it won’t start.
I push it into my stall, and decide that before I replace the computer that perhaps I should do some diagnosis. Part of the reason for this was I had exactly zero idea where the computer was on this model (it was my first day)
Let’s see, to start I need air, fuel and spark, in the right amount, at the right place, and at the right time.
Air? All the under hood plumbing looks OK
Spark? I pull a wire and hook up my spark tester. Crank the car> Plenty of spark.
Fuel? Jeez, how do you check this? Wait there is a bolted connection I can undo. Remove the fuel line and place the end into a bottle. I crank the car and nothing comes out! Now we are getting somewhere. I check the fuse for the pump and it is OK, so I get someone else to crank the car and I reach under and feel the pump, yes it is running. Let’s see Pump runs, nothing comes out = NO gas.
I ask for some gas and the lot lizard brings me 5 gallons. Pour it in and car starts up and runs like a watch.
I go to the service writer and explain that the car was out of gas. He counters with the fact that the independent said the car need a computer. My response was, “how could he tell? The car was out of gas.”
The writer says he will call the customer and get back to me.
About 20 minutes later the writer returns and says that the customer told him that the car “Just died on the freeway” I then asked him isn’t that exactly what happens when you run out of gas?
“Oh yeah” was his reply
Late summer 1988. Very hot San Fernando Valley day. My service writer calls me to the drive to look at a tow in.
I go out and there is an almost brand new 740 turbo being dropped off the tow truck with a very pissed off looking business type woman standing near it. What seems to be the problem I ask.
It died on the road she replies.
Well I tell her give me a minute and I will see what I can find.
I return to the shop to get a screwdriver and a fuel pump relay (a common failure for this car) I return to the car and proceed to tear the center console out to access the relay, and try my test relay.
Test relay in, still no start.
As I am removing the test relay, I notice that the gas gauge seems to be awfully low, I check the trip Odo and it reads about range of a full tank of gas will give on this car. Light goes on in my head.
I return to the service office, where customer is verbally removing large chunks of my service writer’s ass. She sees me and demands to know if I have fixed her car. I reply that I think I have a good idea, can I ask her a quesiton?
Sure.
Do you reset your trip Odometer every time you buy gas? I ask.
Yes I do comes the reply.
Well in that case you are out of gas.
WHAT? THAT CAN’TBE!
Took her outside when the lot lizard brought the gas, poured it in and the car started. Pretty much took the wind out of her sails.
Yes button people run out of gas. Yes they often assume that it is a much more complex problem. Yes people deny that the only problem was the car being out of gas.
… don’t other people’s cars have little “warning! Your gas is really low!” lights? Is this a feature that has not been implemented on any cars other than my particular vehicle?
Our car does. It just makes the game more fun to see just how far you can push a tank of gas. We also have a little computer thing that shows how far you can drive before the gas runs out. That thing is way off when the fuel is low though. That’s been proven on at least 2 occasions …And yes, I am one of those kids who take their parents car and give it back with an empty tank.
Pointless story: Once, I went on a little overnight roadtrip with a girl (who later became my gf) and when we were heading back, my parents needed the car. So, I drive in to town where they are, and give them the car. They drive off home (about a 1 or 2mi. drive maybe, so not very far). Next morning, dad takes the car. Dies immediately. So, he has to walk to the gas station and get some gas. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem too upset about this. In fact, he barely mentioned to me at all. Very similar situation has happened another time as well. I love being an irresponsible kid.
(Not to mention the amount of physical damage I’ve caused as well. Why my parents still let me drive? I have no idea.)
Logically, if the problem was fixed by putting in more gas, the problem was that it was out of gas. Second problem is that your wife didn’t want to hear any damned logic at that point. Tough situation; she needs to know that the car was out of gas so she doesn’t do it again, thinking the car has an 1/8 tank when it doesn’t, but she obviously isn’t enjoying having her nose rubbed in her booboo.
And yes, she is making the rest of us women drivers who look after our cars look bad.
elfbabe, I’ve never had a car with the “low gas” light, but my husband always has. When we got our new Tercel (which doesn’t have the “low gas” light), guess who ran it out of gas?
I don’t know if this statement is in defense or collaboration, but the Taurus’ gas gauge is indeed about as precise as a sundial in a disco. Mine would fluctuate wildly between reading about 1/8 full to 1/4 full. Drove me nuts, and I could never relax unless there was more than a half a tank of gas at any point. At least that way, the fluctuation was between 1/2 full and 1/4 or so.
One of the most amusing things I saw (and really, it shouldn’t have been funny) was at a gas station nearby. A car pulls into the entrance, which is actually up a slope. Halfway up the entrance, the car suddenly shuts off. Girl gets out, calmly walks inside, buys a gas can and pumps oh, maybe two gallons into it, puts it in the tank, and takes off.
Yes. She decided, apparently, that two gallons worth of gas was enough for now, and left. Meanwhile, she spent more on two gallons of gas and a gas can than she probably would have if she had just filled the damn thing up at one of the five gas stations that she would have had to have passed to get to this one.
Really, she’s the reason there are a million and one blonde jokes out there.
That’s unbelievably childish. I really hope you left her at the dealer to pick up the car by hersefl and “make a scene”. :rolleyes: I can’t believe people are actually suggesting pretending something was fixed. Your wife needs to learn to be responsible for her actions, IMO.
My brother ran out of gas once because he was used to judging when he needed to get gas by the milage since he’d last gotten gas. Worked well when driving 50 miles to and from work each day, worked not so well in the rain driving in the mountains. He called Mom and Dad to say “I made it back to college safely, but I ran out of gas because my gas gauge wasn’t working correctly” (or words to that general effect). Mom tried very hard not to laugh at him while talking on the phone with him.
You say things like “fuck you” to each other when arguing? Honestly, I think the least of your problems is the fact that your wife doesn’t keep enough gas in the car. She seems incredibly immature and rude, at least during this episode. I hope she’s not always like this, for both of your sakes.
Yes… but 2 weeks ago, I managed to drive a car 50 miles after the point the “give me gas, now!” light started blinking. (Before anyone asks, that was the closest gas station. I had no idea that I was about to drive into a gas free area, and knew that I had a better shot going forward than turning around and going back.)
So, you know it doesn’t really mean “now,” but “soon,” and that makes it possible to ignore it for a mile or two (which for some people can stretch out to many many miles.)
A cousin of mine did the same thing. The oil light came on and it didn’t occur to her to ask someone what it meant. She destroyed the engine in her brand new car. Very expensive lesson…
I’ve been driving for ten years this July. I’ve never run out of gas. I’ve never even gotten all that close – and you know, it’s not that hard.
I’m sure she’s just pissed at herself and doesn’t want to admit to you that she screwed up. At least there was no harm done this time.
Concerning towing charges, did she have to get towed a long way or something? I have AAA and if you run out of gas, they’ll bring you a gallon or two so you can get to a station. No towing charges for running out of gas, and I get free towing for five miles. (I could have gotten more, but I didn’t want to pay that much a year.) Might not be a bad idea to get it if you don’t have it as long as it’s clear that this doesn’t mean running out of gas is a good thing.
No kidding. I’d be too embarrassed to ever show my face in public again.
However… I did run out of gas once, but I did have a stuck needle. I had a '74 Volkswagon, and thought I had about half a tank. I remember thinking that very morning that I’d been getting verrrry good gas mileage. On my way home from work - yep, I ran out of gas. I called AAA, and when the guy came, he had gas with him and gave me a gallon, after checking quickly to see if anything else was wrong. He stuck a long tube thing down in the tank, told me I was dry, and only charged me for a road call and a gallon of gas. No towing at all - this was years ago, though; maybe the policy has changed.
Before the guy left, he reached into the car, slammed his fist on the dash, and the needle then fell all the way down to “E.” He said VW’s were kinda notorious for getting stuck needles.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have tried to make this point to a certain someone repeatedly, but it just doesn’t take for some reason. When she runs out of gas it’s somehow always my fault anyway.
A former girlfriend ran my car out of gas and it wasn’t her fault because “the little light didn’t come on.” It was really difficult to keep my composure while I explained that a low fuel indicator light wasn’t an included feature on a 1989 Ford Escort (my first brand-new car, and I hated it).
On the other hand, my F150 does have a low-fuel light and it’s next to useless. When it comes on (after someone else has been driving the truck for a few days) there’s in excess of five gallons in the tank. Five freaking gallons. A warning indicator that gives that much leeway is begging to be ignored.
