[SOLVED] OT: Engine failure

[Clare Snyder]

In over 50 years of driving - and most of it on older higher mileage vehicles, I've never been left standed and only had 3 let me down that I couldn't drive them home. One left my daughter on the side of the road, and she even managed to get it off the 401 onto a secondary road.

On those little Limey psiscutters it's not as bad as on an American beast - where you loose the power steering and power brakes when you lose the engine. But then they are a lot more dependable than the Limey Pisscutters - even if not as dependable as the Japanese stuff.

[Terry Coombs]

  I should buy a new car instead of spending less than a hundred dollars and a few hours to repair it myself ? Or , in the case of the Harley , it was more like 600 bucks or so for parts, but both repairs would have cost me multiples of what I spent to do it myself - and the Harley ended up with a basically new transmission . Apparently you have more money than brains if you can't/won't do even the most simple repairs without a prompt from the car . I have a feeling that deep down you fear all machinery because you just don't understand it . You poor baby , you'll never feel the thrill of a big block Ford motor firing on the first revolution after a major performance rebuild/upgrade . Nor will you have the satisfaction of seeing the surprise and respect on the faces of sportbike riders when you dog them thru the curves - on an 800 pound touring machine . I pity you .

[Terry Coombs]

  That's totally wrong ! Blown spark plugs are a known problem for some Ford motors - that 3.2 V6 is one of them . I repaired it on the car for less than a hundred . You , on the other hand would have probably gotten ripped off by the shop and paid more than the car was worth . Being stupid costs !

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Bob F writes

For once, there may be a rare partial grain of sense in what JWS says.

IIRC, several years they did a test using a fleet of taxis. I believe it was in Hungary - or maybe Czechoslovakia (or later either The Czech Republic or Slovakia).

The test was to find out what really mattered - regularly changing the oil, or the filter, or both, or neither. Otherwise, all that was done was to keep the oil level topped up.

Again, IIRC, it was found that the best thing (least wear, fewer breakdowns, longest engine life ????) was simply to change the oil filter.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

GM are fine in the UK.

Every time I'm behind a Hyundai it's some OCD moron doing PRECISELY the speed limit. I actually followed one through three limits, and he accelerated and braked as hard as he could to change to EXACTLY the posted speed.

He got really pissed of when I hooted at him, then gave me several explanatory gestures on safety gaps and speed limits, and started doing a third of the limit. Silly bugger, I just overtook him.

Try driving a car in Scotland. Wet weather all the time, rusts immediately.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Rule 1: Never ever buy a car from, or get your car serviced at, a dealer. They overcharge. Buy privately then get servicing done at an independant garage.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2018 02:47:32 +0100, Clare Snyder wr= ote:

Either you have much more reliable cars, or the weather is a major facto= r.

-- =

Two fish are in a tank. One says to the other, "I'll man the guns, you d= rive".

[James Wilkinson Sword]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2018 03:00:16 +0100, Clare Snyder wr= ote:

.I've seen a car with 47K on the clock for =A3500, 12 years old,

Even cheaper is to buy a =A3500 car, only fix what you have to to keep i= t running, then scrap it after 4 years for =A3120. So that's =A3100 a y= ear in depreciation, plus a few tyres and brakes and stuff.

-- =

Isn't Disney World a people trap operated by a mouse?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Maintainence is pointless. Replace the part AFTER it breaks.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

"Never been left stranded"

"Couldn't drive them home".

So which is it? Did they break down or not?

We have those power things too, but you don't lose them, they become stiffer, you just push harder.

We don't make our own cars, they're all German, Korean, Japanese, or French.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

:

ac.am

I can't be bothered learning all that shit. If I knew how to fix that, = I'd have a job as a mechanic and be ripping people off.

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Health and Safety Officer required to start ASAP, circa =A335K: Your main duties will include: Hampering other staff and preventing them from carrying on with their du= ties. Handing out huge quantities of pointless paperwork consuming approx 1 ra= inforest per year.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2018 03:43:00 +0100, Terry Coombs wrot= e:

:

Good reason to get rid of it incase it keeps on doing it. There's 5 oth= ers still waiting to blow....

I go to non-dealers. Independant garages charge you for their time and = the part, and no more.

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A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night. It was her turn. She rol= led the dice and she Landed on Science & Nature. Her question was "If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, ca= n you hear it?" She thought for a time and then asked, "Is it on or off?"

[James Wilkinson Sword]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2018 01:59:58 +0100, Uncle Monster w= rote:

He's got shaky fingers after all the hand injuries caused by working on = engines. The trouble with working on cars is when the spanner slips and= your hand is thrust into a sharp nearby part.

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Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing ov= er a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2018 02:49:44 +0100, Clare Snyder wr= ote:

m

So you were changing clean oil. How stupid are you?

-- =

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformit= y; and there you have the trouble today is conformity: People acting lik= e everyone else without knowing why, without knowing where they're going= . -- Earl Nightingale

[James Wilkinson Sword]

:

am

The old mucky oil burns off. It's replaced when you top it up.

-- =

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformit= y; and there you have the trouble today is conformity: People acting lik= e everyone else without knowing why, without knowing where they're going= . -- Earl Nightingale

[trader_4]

for the metal

Oil changes aren't expensive even if you have them done professionally. Huge range of choices, everything from the dealers to JiffyLube and local gas stations. It's the cost of a dinner at a typical restaurant. But JWS says he doesn't change the oil. I think he said that he just puts oil in when it's half empty. On the BMW here, that would be when it's down 4 quarts. And then he gives advice on how to work on cars? ROFL. No wonder he thinks cars only last 130K miles.

[rbowman]

Any country that made the Vauxhall Victor and Humber Super Snipe should leave automobile manufacturing to someone that knows what they are doing.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , James Wilkinson Sword writes

I do believe that's official standard procedure for some modern vehicles

- or at least maybe they tried to introduce it 20 or 30 years ago.

>

[Ian Jackson]

Even if the old oil still looks clean, it does get thinner with age - partly because it gets 'ground down' between the rubbing surfaces, and partly because of contamination by unburnt fuel in the cylinders (that gets past the piston rings into the sump).

If the oil is dirty, it's because of burnt fuel (carbon particles) getting past the piston rings, and metal particles being scraped off the various rubbing surfaces. The oil filter should remove the worst - and if it really does its job well, the oil will remain pretty clean - but somewhat thinner.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2018 15:04:24 +0100, trader_4 wro= te:

.am

h.> I've seen a car with 47K on the clock for =A3500, 12 years old,

Someone else said at their oil change the oil was still clear, so obviou= sly it's being changed unnecessarily.

And if I'm topping it up every so often, it IS getting changed!

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