Cars and car troubles

[Warwick C]

I will start this for a place where we can complain about our cars and offer help as well.

I hope you are starting to get on top of your car now Butterfly Lady.

I hope you are not having to much trouble with your car Grapesicle

 

[Manuheleku]

Never let your truck sit with gas in the tank, it'll turn to varnish and screw everything up...

 

[Manuheleku]

Try Sta-bil. I use it in all of my gasoline powered equipment. In fact, my mower had been sitting with gas for several months. However, the Sta-bil kept it from turning to varnish. If you add it in a vehicle that has been sitting, it will dissolve the varnish. The stuff is great and I've never had a minute's trouble.

Thanks, I will definitely remember that in the future.

 

[jimited]

My car, well the power steering works intermittently and the engine has a slight rattling noise. I think the problem with the steering is that the angle sensor is faulty and seems to not work when its wet outside, so maybe the is moisture getting into the connections. Hmmmmmm

 

[Bookmaker]

Today's project is replacing the cracked radiator on my 2008 Silverado. While I'm at it I'll change the iridium plugs and do the oil and filters. 117,000 miles and still runs perfectly.

I'm very OCD about my other car (Challenger). It has a small ding inside the door jam that can only be seen when you open the door. Someone closed the passenger door on some object to cause this. I will likely take it to a painless dent repair wizard, because, even though you can't see it with the door closed, "I know it's there!"

 

[Warwick C]

Sportster what are your hub caps made from? upto the eighties citroen was still using Stainless steel ones, full 15 inch rims.

 

[grapesicles]

Yay, we have a whole topic for our many, never-ending car problems now!

Mine is doing alright so far, I wanted to take a photo of the miscellaneous, non-essential exhaust bracket part pulled of my car that turned out to be completely disintegrated and making such a horrible noise. Unfortunately my boyfriend has taken it to kindly source me a new identical one.

Just glad I have a (vintage) BMW E36 and not a Peugeot 306 anymore! Genuinely thought I'd die in that tin can.

 

[Warwick C]

I had a citroen Ax fore a while that would be about the same size as a peugeot 106 I felt in the tin can as well.

the citroen Gsa feels a whole lot safer, decent metal in it, and sharp brakes. these are what the Pallas hub caps are like all stainless steel and a center bolt onto a bolt on cage.

 

[wyverary]

I have a 93 Camry wagon with almost 350k miles on it. It has its oddities, like, I can roll down the passenger side window from the driver's side, but can't roll it back up--have to lean over to get it back up...the cruise control only works when it wants to...The radio--it's from that very small window of time where they made retractable antennae--is stuck, so the radio doesn't work (whatever, my iPhone can handle that just fine)...the hatch handle is rusted, so I have to push it back into place before I shut the hatch...

It runs beautifully, but...The only worrisome thing about it is that the reverse gear is starting to go. It takes more and more pressure to get it to engage; I almost smashed into a metal gate once! It's an automatic, and it's something that seems to have afflicted many Toyotas of that vintage.

I'm wondering whether it's worth getting it fixed, or if whatever they do to the transmission, if they screw it up in any way, if it will just cause other problems.

Hmm...

 

[Judge]

Eventually I suppose I'll take care of my noisy gear box bearings in my 2000 Celica GTS. Doesn't impact the gears...just makes a buzzing sound whenever I accelerate or decelerate. The hatchback struts went out a few years back....I keep a cane in the trunk to prop it open when I load it with groceries. I just figure things could be a lot worse....otherwise it gets me from one end of town to the other.

 

[Warwick C]

I perfectly understand you wanting to keep it as original for as long as possible.

what next a blues mobile ala blues brothers

 

[Manuheleku]

Sportster, nice ride!

 

[Warwick C]

Judge is it not possible to get the gas struts re-gassed?

The spheres on my car can be re-gassed with nitrogen

 

[Butterfly_Lady]

yay a thread just for US gear-heads!!!

My car is doing much better then it has been in a long time, just fixing that cooling problem. now I need to get my new O2 sensor installed and doing an oil and filter change and a transmission fluid change (got the supplies, just need the time with the car cold) Hopefully I can get all that taken care of Monday.

My next task after that will be to figure out why one of my tail/brake lights works sometimes and doesn't work other times, it's like it has a mind of it's own. I think it might be the wires going into the bulb socket being loose.

 

[Judge]

Judge is it not possible to get the gas struts re-gassed?

The spheres on my car can be re-gassed with nitrogen

I have no idea. Just assumed Toyota would tell me they must be replaced....maybe I should look into that. Thanks Warwick.

It sure would be nice to have the door remain open instead of clamping down on me like a shark.

 

[Warwick C]

toyata would probably would tell you to replace them, but you might find re-gassing to be cheaper.

 

[tlc]

Always too much to do with cars. Main one now is a Geo Tracker and last week when trying to free the frozen lockout hub I see I have a blown axle boot. Need to replace some gaskets too because it leaks oil, would like to do a lot of things but not till the snow is gone. I'm thinking at least June. I want to weld up some replacement panels for the body, redo some wiring, maybe even drop in a lower mileage used engine depending on what shape the current one is really in. Kinda hard to do a proper compression test when it's this cold. Try pouring gear oil when it's -20F (which it was this past week). My summer car is a Chevy Celebrity and some years I've had it out in March but right now it's still buried up to its windows in snow.

 

[Warwick C]

You got a good buy there sportster, what and it should be just about bullet proof as well.

 

[grapesicles]

Just as I thought all my car problems were behind me, something else happened! I think someone tried to break into my passenger side window, as I tried opening it this morning (electric windows) without realising, and the glass almost fell out! The rubber on the outside is forced upwards, like something was attempted to be stuck inside it to jam the window open. Very annoying and strange!

Luckily I managed to get the window secured so I could carry on with my journey - it seems okay for now. As long as no one opens the passenger window, it's not a major problem!

 

[Butterfly_Lady]

that sucks grapesicles, at one point or another (not sure if since I have had my car or before I got it) it seems someone has tried that on mine to except they tried to remove the "trim" piece on the back edge of the window so it has never sit flat since I have had it. it seems like it may have gotten worse then it was when I first got it like someone else gave it a try.......