How do you mess a motor up this fast?!?

[IndyFan]

It is not a matter of intelligence. It is a matter of education. The first part is learning how to communicate with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The second, is recognizing the importance of it for clear communication.

As important as it is, be careful not to underestimate someone's intelligence based on written communication. Also, be careful not to overestimate your own based on the same criteria. There's always someone out there pushing a mop or cleaning toilets that is smarter than you.

And now, back to the car stuff!

 

[JohnBrowning]

I do not know if it was being raised in a Military environment or being poor or what????? I just know that as a kid it was made quite clear to me that men should be handy and have knowledge of the world!!Their are some basic skills that every man should have and if they do not have them they need to learn!Same thing applies to women...Their are some skills that idealy both sex's should learn.

I cannot imagine going through life being dependent on other people for my most basic needs!We waste so much time that could be spent makeing us better people.

 

[Auto-Union]

I try to convey the high points of auto ownership to a number of people I know, but maybe 1 in 3-4 grasp the basics and adjust accordingly.

I make the analogy of the gifted brain surgeon who has to cut someone's head open to fix his leaky roof, rather than just fix the roof.

 

[1sttruck]

"...Keep in mind there is a small percent of the US population that never ever changes the engine oil."

When the older Taurus had about 140k or so miles on it I had a dealer do a transmission fluid flush. When we picked it up the mechanic asked what kind of job I had, and I said quality engineer. I asked why he was interested, and he said that the car was in very good shape, that blue collar folk tende to take care of their cars but a lot of white collar people didn't do the regular maintenance, and just brought the vehicles in when they had problems.

 

[Big O Dave]

Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Most Women are horrable owner of car's and truck's!!!


Over 60% of my customers are women. My experience is far different than yours, JB. I find that, unlike men, they are willing to admit when they don't understand something, and that for the most part they are highly diligent and organized when it comes to maintaining their vehicles.

Most of them may not be car freaks, but they know enough to make sure their investment is protected and that they are kept safe from being stranded on the side of the road.

P.S. My bet is that the Honda owner was in the midst of a MMO/ATF regimen!

 

[flatlandtacoma]

Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Most Women are horrable owner of car's and truck's!!! I do not care who does not like my saying it but most of them are ignorant of what their vechile needs as a minimum to stay healthy and reliable...Few women will ever read the owner's manual and would not know what the factory recomended OCI is or what weight of oil to use.....I have runinto a lot of women that did not even know where their hood release was on their vechile.... We will not even get into checking the oil between oil changes or coolant and powersteering fluid and ATF etc......Just the other day I picked a woman up on the side of the road she ran her truck out of gas!!! How hard is it to check the fuel guage???? Same thing goes for the rest of the guages people do not check them freq. and most wouldnot be able to spot a problem in the makeing!!! Just about everyone in the USA is getting dumber and dumber all the time!!! Just stop and think of how few people you know that can change their own oil or set up a carberator or read their spark plugs or start a fire with out a lighter or match's or process their own meat like a rabit or deer if the need arise's!!!! Our country is becomeing soft and ignorant in almost every area that you can think of!!! Even computer's think of how few people can do even the most basic stuff to their PC???? I see all kinds of PC's in the trash that still work but it was easier for the person to buy another one instead of repairing their old PC.... SO this is the trend.... Everyone is becomeing a consumer with a [censored] service job and no one can do anyting themselfs...So if you need to rotate your tires you better go to a tire store....if you need brakes you better go to a brake place.....you need to replace the wax ring on your toilet you better call a plumper......oil needs changeing better go to a mechanic or an oil change place etc.....


I guess that is saying something when the self-proclaimed smartest man in America can't spell or construct a proper sentence...

 

[Tosh]

Originally Posted By: IndyFan
As important as it is, be careful not to underestimate someone's intelligence based on written communication. Also, be careful not to overestimate your own based on the same criteria. There's always someone out there pushing a mop or cleaning toilets that is smarter than you.

And now, back to the car stuff!

Needed to be said again

 

[caprice_2nv]

Oil changes make or break an engines longevity. I just recently had the fortune of someone elses diligence and caring. I was rebuilding my 84 Olds Cutlass and looking for a larger engine in the junkyard to install or rebuild and install. I found a 1974 Olds 350 in a badly rusted, smashed up, multicolor 1981 Monte Carlo. Engine looked all there except for missing the air cleaner. Turned over by hand, oil looked okay. Looked in the trunk and found among other junk about 15 or 20 used oil filters most looking like they belonged to that engine. Got the engine for a song, got it running, checked oil pressure and compression all in spec, changed the gaskets and inspected the inside which had no sludge, very little bearing wear, and appeared to never have been apart before, threw it in the car and put 20k on it this summer and even drag raced it about 10 passes in the 1/4 mile, with no problems and very little oil usage. Wish I could thank the previous owner if I knew them.

 

[Max_Wander]

maybe some punk at the dealership gave it this treatment
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HqwSHHBDvCU

You'll be surprised how stupid some people out there can be.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: caprice_2nv
Oil changes make or break an engines longevity. I just recently had the fortune of someone elses diligence and caring. I was rebuilding my 84 Olds Cutlass and looking for a larger engine in the junkyard to install or rebuild and install. I found a 1974 Olds 350 in a badly rusted, smashed up, multicolor 1981 Monte Carlo. Engine looked all there except for missing the air cleaner. Turned over by hand, oil looked okay. Looked in the trunk and found among other junk about 15 or 20 used oil filters most looking like they belonged to that engine. Got the engine for a song, got it running, checked oil pressure and compression all in spec, changed the gaskets and inspected the inside which had no sludge, very little bearing wear, and appeared to never have been apart before, threw it in the car and put 20k on it this summer and even drag raced it about 10 passes in the 1/4 mile, with no problems and very little oil usage. Wish I could thank the previous owner if I knew them.

The previous owner of my Explorer was like that. The truck looks like absolute [censored], but with 154K miles, it does not burn or leak a drop of oil between changes. Seriously. The oil level never goes below the full mark on the dipstick. I have not seen the internals, but it runs great and still feels pretty strong.

 

[road_rascal]

I have seen a few late model imports that have the 'riced-out' look driven by a 'younger' crowd that smoke after leaving stoplights. I wonder how much abuse these vehicles take on a daily basis.

 

[brianl703]

Some of that "younger crowd" apparently tries to make their engines burn oil because they think it's cool to leave a trail of smoke wherever you go. At least this is what I was told by someone far more in tune with "Generation Why" than I am.

 

[Thorn]

Was it cold outside that day? Living in the Northeast, it is very common to see cars driving around with a huge, mostly white, plume of exhaust gas during the winter months. For whatever reason (fuel not vaporized, cold exhaust system, etc.), it takes a while for the exhaust to disappear from a cold engine when the temps are low.

 

[01rangerxl]

We have that here too, but this was different. The temp was in the mid 50s (IIRC, I know it was mild) and this was a short, acceleration related, burst of smoke. Not the constant cloudy trail from condensation. I think it must have just been a heavily abused car.

 

[eljefino]

I remember noting the same thing back in 1990 when the new body style hyundai excel came out. Fairly ok looking car. Saw one 6 months old blowing smoke like crazy. The taillights were significantly darkened by soot! The car also managed to make a horrible clanky noise like the wheel bearings were shot from curb jumping or whatever else. I felt like I had travelled forward in time to see such a nice new body style desecrated so.

Yes at the time hyundai was a low-buck car, so the owner probably treated it as disposable, which should not reflect on the company itself.

Every now and again I take note of the first of a previously classy body style being beaten to death... dents, smoke, missing hubcaps, unpainted replacement body panels, etc.

 

[Anduril]

I see plenty of sh*tty Lincolns and BMWs around these parts. The people who think they can afford them can never afford to take care of them properly.

 

[TLAR640]

I once over-oiled a cotton-gauze K&N air filter and that made my truck smoke upon acceleration for a short while afterwards. Maybe that was the situation here. When I see a car "too new to be smoking", I wonder if it has been overheated at some point.

 

[BuickGN]

There are some reports of the brand new TL-S smoking initially upon acceleration. Weird for a ULEV car to do that.

My GN on the other hand will blind you for a second before the turbo spools.

 

[wileyE]

As if the cars we drove when were kids didn't smoke? And we never beat on them either, LOL.

What is sad is when they get a hold of something nice and systematically ruin it in a few years. My niece did it with a Acura, complete waste of a wonderful car.