…not “Kick Driver in the Junk.”
Dear Lord. $1600 for everything wrong with my car. I’m a graduate student. That’s ri-goddamn-diculous. Thats’…
…3 Spring Break Trips
…2 Desktop Computers
…10 DVD players
…A Month of 1 Day Passes to Disney World
No more bars for me this semester.
DAMMIT.
(Sorry. Not very topical. Just had to vent, folks.)
Well, I donated my car to the Kidney Foundation and now take a bus to and from work, 1.5 hours each way.
There are always options other than repairing. 
PS - tough break - perhaps you’ll get a surprise bursary or something.
Okay, my husband has started using this terminology. Is “junk” a widely accepted substitute for groin or genitals or balls now? I just need to know. For my own edification.
BTW, suck to hear about the car. At least it is repairable. Is there anyone that you routinely give car rides to that would help you out in the booze dept, in return for keeping their transportation functioning, too?
FB
…is another man’s “jimmy.”
Yep. Junk. Jimmy. Groin. All the same. Consider yourself edified.
Not really…although I guess I could be a quasi-designated driver. “I’ll drive you folks to the bar…just keep me to no more than three drinks…your treat.”
You don’t happen to have an older Audi, do you? This is the very reason I sold my Audi. The “Check Engine” light comes on every time there’s a problem with the “0[sub]2[/sub] sensor.” These are sensors that only function to determine that the car is getting its best gas mileage due to aerodynamics or some such crap.
Some clown tore off my fuel door so I got another one in a junk yard and put it on myself. Problem solved, except that the “check engine” light came on. Yes, there’s one that measures the seal on the FUEL DOOR. These are little components that have to synch up with the car’s computer, so I wasn’t able to do it myself, nor were the garages I tried to use. The Audi dealership told me that when one goes out, you have to replace them ALL - replacing one sends some signal that detects that the other ones are older and they can’t behave together. They are EIGHTY DOLLARS EACH, plus installation and labor. So I said “screw you, I’'ll just deal with the light being on, I know there’s nothing wrong.”
Can you guess the fun end-of-the-story?
CA refused to allow it to pass vehicle inspection unless the “check engine” light wasn’t on. They didn’t care what the reason was. I paid the ~$1000 bill (stupid dealership parts / labor rate) and sold it immediately. I’ll never, ever buy another Audi.
That’s the sort of stuff which totally ruins the joy of owning a modern car, in my opinion. In essence, for all of the complexity and superior build quality, the bottom line is that most modern cars are actually HARDER to keep in tune (over the long haul) than say, a mechanical fuel injection car from around 1982 prior to the advent of micro-chips. Certainly, they’re infinitely harder to work on due to the specialist tools and diagnostics being used - which effectively translates into “please let me buy a car which only a qualified mechanic can lie to my face about…”
It wouldn’t be so bad if companies like AUDI, or BMW or Lexus, or Mercedes provided a workable website system which allowed home mechanics to perform a series of Q & A tests which you then fed into the website. This would allow (in theory) the home mechanic to at least obtain an informed guestimate themselves. But as it stands the moment? Most of us are utterly hijacked at the mercy of people who can swing us any old line of bullshit they want, and we’re powerless to do anything about it.
In short, I’d say 90% of modern cars are actually less safe, and less clean burning, after just 10 years of use than cars prior to the micro-chip era. That’s quite a claim, I know - but when you consider the amazing amount of resources which go into making a car (from the cradle to the grave), I remain unconvinced that we’ve actually come that far forward to be honest.
As an example - a dear family friend owns the local Alfa Romeo franchise in my local town. I often hang out in the workshop. They had a new 156 in the workshop over Christmas for 3 weeks. Only 3 months old. It would drive down the highway, and literally, without warning, it would kill the engine as a safety feature. In the middle of the freeway. The workshop boys tried everything (and some of 'em are really talented dudes). They changed the engine management boxes. The sensors. The CPU’s. They had new ignition systems and serial number ID stuff sent out from Italy. And STILL the problem manifested itself.
Eventually, the owner was simply given a brand new car - but holy fuck… what a story! And it’s so typical of this modern era nowadays. Not even the official franchise workshop guys can fix some of these phantom problems - and they’re actually trying to be as honourable and as noble as possible. Imagine what the rip-off merchants are able to get away with?
The check engine light comes on in my cavalier every time I slow down, I put some black electricians tape over it, problem solved.
Electrical tape fixes Oil Pressure problems too.
If you own a Hyundai, there is www.hmaservice.com
It is intended for repair shops, but you can find lots of info there!
I don’t know of another car manufacturer that offers a similar service. For most cars you can buy their diagnostic equipment(not very expensive). This will give at the very least an error code and you can look it up on the manual to identify the problem. There are also several specialized magazines that offer “insider information” concerning car problems.
Enthusiasts use aftermarket ECUs that are fully customizable.
Afraid not. A 1996 Geo (now Chevy) Prizm. I miss it. Sniff
A funny thing I noticed while waiting in the “customer lounge” at the dealer…so very much like a hospital waiting room. Everyone sitting around, looking up expectantly when the mechanics came in. Months-old magazines sitting on the table…
Oh, and the fact that I felt like they’d ripped a kidney out after I heard what the “operation” was going to cost me…
Speaking of which…can you volunarily donate kidneys for money?
The “Check Engine” light came on…
… So I opened the hood, and, sure enough, the engine was still there.
A co-worker and I were just sharing car woes this week. He owns an Audi, I own a VW. Last week I spent $200, this week $400, and there is about $6-800 more to be done. That’s if we can do some of it ourselves. If we had it all done it would be over $2000.
This is for relatively minor stuff, we’re not talking about replacing a transmission or engine work here. Just a list of stuff, but when a transmission flush alone costs $200, you know you’re not getting out cheap.
We have a good mechanic and he’s not ripping us off, either. Quotes from other places are 1/3 or more over his cost.
I hate spending money on cars. Hate it.
Wouldn’t it have been cheaper, easier, and more fun just to figure out how to disconnect the damned light?
Ah, the "check engine’ light.
There is nothing as precious in the family of idiot warning lights as this one.
The check engine light is used to convey the broadest range of possibilities and can mean a cost of nothing straight on up to a total engine replacing six grand.
At one end of the scale, "check engine’ means “ignore me, I might go away in a minute.” It could mean, “check that your gas cap is tight, dummy”, or it might mean, “HEY! The electronic engine management system is crippled, and the timing and fuel mixture is slowly destroying your engine!”.
On VWs and Audis, it usually means nothing more than a loose gas cap or overly sensitive, er…sensor. But it COULD (and this is why we lose sleep) mean you need 800 bucks worth of engine electronics.
An amusing little light.
Don’t forget “candy,” as in “hiding one’s…” as in tucking to do drag.
My “low coolant” light comes on to remind me that I just topped off the anti-freeze a few minutes earlier.
Several things here, first off why would a company do this? What you are suggesting would require tens of thousands of man-hours to set up. Where would the money for this come from? Secondly if the “guesstimate” pointed to a $500 sensor that needed replacing, it gets replaced. Then it is found out that the reason the code was there was due to a broken wire. Who eats the $500? The retailer? Wasn’t his fault, he just sold the part requested by the owner. The carmaker? Not their fault, the diagnostic system cannot (in many cases) tell the difference between a dead sensor and a broken wire. Oh you want the system to be able to tell a broken wire? Sure, that can be done but it will wind up making the car more complex and harder to fix, something you were trying to avoid.
You are not powerless. You can go find a honest competent technician to work on your car, and keep going back to him, rather than playing auto repair roulette every time your car needs something.
I know that we are not in GQ but I would need a cite for this. Here in the US one of the problems we are facing is trying to get cars from the late 70’s and early 80’s off the road as they run so much dirtier than new cars. Furthermore some car makers are currently selling cars in California that have a 15 year 150,000 mile emission warranty. Which would kind of blow holes into your argument.
No offence, but when it comes to electronics and reliability Alfalfa Tomatoes are the Huffy’s of the automotive world. Alfa’s even make British cars look reliable. The surprising part of your story is not that the car stalled, but rather the fact that it started in the first place.
Had I known they weren’t going to pass it, I would have, but once they failed me it was too late. In CA once they “don’t pass” you the inspection record is entered into some sort of system, so no matter where else you try and take it, they know that one place failed it b/c of that. Garages can get into big trouble for passing you unless you get it fixed.
Well Rick, be aware that you and I often enjoy our car related threads, and as such, I’ve come to respect your insights and observations immensely. Certainly, I agree with you… after I wrote my original post it occurred to me “Shit Boo Boo, if a major company set up a website like that, and if someone set themselves on fire because they disconnected a fuel injector lead, can you imagine the friggin law suit which would happen?” So with hindsight, it’s a silly idea, I agree. Aint no way a major company is going to expose themselves to DIY lawsuits.
Certainly, I myself am not powerless - insofar as I’m sufficiently knowledgeable to be able to ask certain mechanics to perform certain tests on my behalf BEFORE moving on to greater costs. However, I drive a LEXUS ES300 nowadays, and as you know, reliability is their company mission statement (even if excitement isn’t :D) and to be honest, the car runs like a Swiss Watch. My other car (you might recall) is a 50,000 miles 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350, and well, a car like that obviously needs some very specialist pampering.
Guilty as charged. My observation was purely a guess based on personal anecdotal evidence. In my defence, please bear in mind that I live in Queensland, Australia - and we Australians have a well earned reputation for keeping old cars on the road. My earlier observation primarily related to mechanical fuel injection cars compared to modern ECU injected cars. Obviously, old clogged carby cars are just fuel sprinklers and they should canned ASAP. But once, I owned a simply awesome Alpina BMW 323i with a 2.7 litre straight six using Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection. Man, even after 20 years the exhaust pipes on that car were bright silver. It was very impressive how well it stayed in tune without any adjustment.
Very funny. 
I agree with you too. Although, to be fair, the same yard also sells Peugeots and Citroens - and it has to be said that they too suffer weird glitches occasionally. But nowhere near as prolifically as the Alfas. That’s for sure. Interestingly, the yard was also the Lamborghini franchise as well - and believe it or not, the Lambo’s were in the workshop even more often than the Alfas. They were so workshop intensive that the owner’s canned the distributorship after doing a profit analysis.