I hate cars

[marki]

This morning I was driving to work and about 100m from the school gate the car started making loud banging noises. I have been around enough race cars to know what a broken conrod sounds like and that was very similar to what I was hearing. I got a workmate to tow me into the school carpark and spent the day organising a new motor and tow truck to get the car home in between classes. My old bloke came around tonight to see what I had done. I started the car .... bang, bang, bang turned it off quickly. We opened the bonnet and started it again and the noise was gone but the motor was rough. The old man said one of the spark plugs was jumping up and down with it's lead and must have been smacking into the bonnet . A quick check showed it had worked loose and bashed the crap out of the top of the thread going into the cylinder head. I managed to carefully insert a tap and clean it up replacing the plug with a new one and hey presto all was well . I just hope I have not removed too much metal but will be carrying a plug socket around and checking frequently. I really hate cars.

Mark

[matt]

Nice work, though. At least you were able to fix it to an extent.

[FredSnerd (Claude)]

Well at least you seem to know your way around them Mark. I know very little about them and like you i hate them

[leon]

That's incredible Mark, but at least cheaper than a new engine.

leon

[Benno18 (Ben)]

Sister-in-Law bought a used car yesterday arvo, 1998 suv thing, drove it home and then drove it to her sisters house 30kms away. So all up she has driven around 50kms.
Went to drive home and get ready for work and bang...... rumble, rumble..... stall.

Works out the local mechanic had done the motor up enough to get the car running. Luckily we have a mechanic in the family and he was able to diagnose it and state the case.

Full refund was given luckily. SO im guessing by that response that they knew about the cars problems and sold it anyway.

[marki]

This is one event in a string of weird happenings in the past year. Today was the first day of term 4 and my car crapped its dacks. On the first day of term 3 I could not go to work as I had the swine flu. On the first day of term 2 on the way to work some little swine had removed a grate over drain and guess whose car fell in . New rims and tyres all round, cost 2.5K to go to work. On the first day of term 1 I could not go to work because I had unknowingly eaten a piece of 6 month old ham and had food poisioning . Roll on 2010 .

Mark

[DavidU (Dave)]

Marki, what sort of car was it???

Leon, was it a ford Exploder (Exporer).???? The cam shaft drive and tensioner are a real problem.

[TrevorW]

When you think about it mechanically with so many moving parts cars are frought with problems

do you really think the motor industry wants alternatives too pretroleum fuelled modes of transport

Ben, private sale I assume ???

[FredSnerd (Claude)]

Originally Posted by marki

This is one event in a string of weird happenings in the past year. Today was the first day of term 4 and my car crapped its dacks. On the first day of term 3 I could not go to work as I had the swine flu. On the first day of term 2 on the way to work some little swine had removed a grate over drain and guess whose car fell in . New rims and tyres all round, cost 2.5K to go to work. On the first day of term 1 I could not go to work because I had unknowingly eaten a piece of 6 month old ham and had food poisioning . Roll on 2010 .

Mark

Just when I thought it couldnt get any worse you tell us you ate a piece of 6 month old ham. Now thats the pitts.

[DavidU (Dave)]

Originally Posted by marki

I had unknowingly eaten a piece of 6 month old ham and had food poisioning . Roll on 2010 .

Mark

That is really dangerous Marki. I have done this once and have never been so sick in my life. It can kill you.

[TrevorW]

Mark didn't you notice the green fungus and maggots or did they just add to the flavour????

[matt]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Mark didn't you notice the green fungus and maggots or did they just add to the flavour????

[marki]

Originally Posted by DavidU

Marki, what sort of car was it???

Leon, was it a ford Exploder (Exporer).???? The cam shaft drive and tensioner are a real problem.

David, it is a Honda CRX. The dam thing has been so reliable for the past ten years I just did not suspect anything. I run iridium plugs in it so they rarely get touched (maybe every 80000km) so it was a complete suprise.

Mark

[marki]

Originally Posted by DavidU

That is really dangerous Marki. I have done this once and have never been so sick in my life. It can kill you.

Don't I know it. Bloody sick as hell and it can cause septicemia. There was no fungus or any other indication that the meat was old. I had bought a new packet and assumed it was that. It wasn't until I looked at the useby date that I realised I had stuffed up.

Mark

[DavidU (Dave)]

Originally Posted by marki

David, it is a Honda CRX. The dam thing has been so reliable for the past ten years I just did not suspect anything. I run iridium plugs in it so they rarely get touched (maybe every 80000km) so it was a complete suprise.

Mark

Yeh, a great car, I suspect it had an Ultratune or such?? I have seen a few cars serviced without the plugs tightened correctly.
The 4cly Honda cars are excellent.

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by marki

I managed to carefully insert a tap and clean it up replacing the plug with a new one and hey presto all was well . I just hope I have not removed too much metal but will be carrying a plug socket around and checking frequently. I really hate cars.

Mark

Nice save, but how did you keep the swarf from the tap from dropping into the cylinder?

[Benno18 (Ben)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Ben, private sale I assume ???

Believe it or not trevor it was from a second hand car sales yard. The guy buys the cars, does them up a bit and then resells them. But we have bought cars from there before and have had no trouble

[erick (Eric)]

My gearbox has started to make a noise - gear teeth whirr. I'm ignoring it until the next service in several more weeks time. I just keep fanging down the freeway and around the ring road to work. Fingers crossed. I just don't want to know.

As long as it breaks down AFTER I get everything to the Snake Valley Camp, I'll be OK.


Glad it ended better than you had thought, Mark.

[FredSnerd (Claude)]

My daughter has had 2 cars (Daihatsu Charade 94 and Hyundai Sonata 97) die on her in the last 6 months. I actually sent them both to the wreckers a few days ago. Got $100 each for them. So is there any model you guys would recommend for around $3000

[marki]

Originally Posted by DavidU

Yeh, a great car, I suspect it had an Ultratune or such?? I have seen a few cars serviced without the plugs tightened correctly.
The 4cly Honda cars are excellent.

How did you guess? I always service and repair my own cars but in January this year I just felt lazy and thought I would get someone else to do it for once. A few things needed doing including the timing belt so I booked it in at the local ultratune. 5 days later I get a call asking if my gearbox had problems previous to them touching the car. No I replied, the gearbox is and has always been slick and a joy to use. 2 weeks later they were still stuffing around with it and had removed the gearbox 6 times and completely stripped it finding nothing wrong. I was getting pretty angry by then and suggested we just put a new one in so I could get my car back. Next day I get a call saying my car is ready to go and I can pick it up. Turns out they had put the wrong reverse light sensor in the box which was locking it between reverse/ 5th gate and 1, 2 ,3 ,4 gate. But thats not all. They serviced my aircon compressor which has now seized . And now this, even tightning plugs seems to be a challenge. Guess I won't be lazy from now on. Repeat business? .



Mark