13 different ways you can destroy your vehicle

seb said:
A friend of mine who is a steam cleaner and cleans restaurants, didn't know you were supposed to change the oil on a vehicle at regular intervals and only added oil as needed. When his work truck hit 60,000 miles he decided it was time to change the oil and only got about a quart and a half out of the engine. He ended up taking the motor apart to clean all the gunk out of it and decided the steam cleaner with caustic soda would do a faster job than soaking the parts, so he went to work with the 600 degree water with caustic soda and proceeded to basically destroy what was left of his engine. He put it back together and he and his dad drove it ( sounding like a bucket of bolts) to a car lot and traded it in on a new truck. Lucky for him the dealer didn't test drive his truck because he never would of gotten the 3 grand in trade they gave him if they had.
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Stream cleaner with caustic soda? To me is No No No....:-o
 
ChicagoBlue2 said:
Hey, Derek. If you parked in my old Rogers Park neighborhood, you would have to deploy that parking brake, as putting it in neutral might not be enough, with how steep some of these hills are in that area.
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It's not safe to park and leave a vehicle in Neutral gear, period. If you have an automatic transmission you put the gear into Park. If you have a manual transmission you put it into First gear and then set the parking brake.

At our previous residence, a person visiting our neighbor across the street parked in his driveway without setting the parking brake. His car ended up rolling into our front yard. Thankfully, it wasn't a steep grade and the car rolled slowly. It didn't hit anyone or anything except the soft ground of our yard.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I thought it was safe to have a station gas check my window washer fluid , they did a full service and I thought what the heck . I when auto the was know to good recommended independent shop and I told the owner I think my starter is going on me. The jerk said I was getting paranoid and , I also told I needed my brakes fixed . He came back and said I need needed a new brake shoe and I said So I am NOT paranoid after all . His face got :Oops: and he said nothing. A month later my car would not start and I called AAA and guess what the guy it was my starter. So I was right . When you're a single woman and an older one some auto shops think you do not know what you're talking about and thy try to rip you off. There is no honest auto shop where I live. There was one but the guy retired.
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Some of our local dealership maintenance managers are women, so they are slowly coming around.
 
Reba said:
It's not safe to park and leave a vehicle in Neutral gear, period. If you have an automatic transmission you put the gear into Park. If you have a manual transmission you put it into First gear and then set the parking brake.

At our previous residence, a person visiting our neighbor across the street parked in his driveway without setting the parking brake. His car ended up rolling into our front yard. Thankfully, it wasn't a steep grade and the car rolled slowly. It didn't hit anyone or anything except the soft ground of our yard.
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Oops. I meant put it in park. Thanks for correcting me. Didn't realize my mistake until you pointed that out. And noted on the correction.
 
ChicagoBlue2 said:
Why do I get the feeling you know who I'm talking about? Yes, he is.
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I heard the story of a deaf mechanic in your location by thru my friend. He is from Mexico, lives in Chicago, did fix my friend(HS classmate)'s car, did good job. Is this him?
 
deafsmogtech said:
I heard the story of a deaf mechanic in your location by thru my friend. He is from Mexico, lives in Chicago, did fix my friend(HS classmate)'s car, did good job. Is this him?
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Nope. My friend is younger than I am. He grew up in Delaware, spent a lot of time in Iowa, and moved back to DE some time ago.
 
Angel1989 said:
Many many years ago I went to Jiffy Lube, stupid mistake. They ended up draining my transmission fluid but never replaced it.
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I hope you went after them for a new transmission.
 
Very difficult to prove and often won't work. Why? Cause they can say, once that car exit our premises anyone can drain them themselves so it is beyond our control. End of story.

seb said:
I hope you went after them for a new transmission.
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diehardbiker said:
Very difficult to prove and often won't work. Why? Cause they can say, once that car exit our premises anyone can drain them themselves so it is beyond our control. End of story.
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Yes, that is pretty much what happened. Jiffy Lube paid to have my car towed to the Mazda dealership. The Mazda mechanic could not tell if there was any permenant damage, so basically nothing was done. Jiffy Lube did pay for that service charge. Luckily my car had no issues and we traded it in a few years later. I never went back to Jiffy Lube, any service needed I go to the dealership only.
 
I never work for Jiffy or Midas. Good thing I or my wife never been went to this place for oil services.
 
Angel1989 said:
Yes, that is pretty much what happened. Jiffy Lube paid to have my car towed to the Mazda dealership. The Mazda mechanic could not tell if there was any permenant damage, so basically nothing was done. Jiffy Lube did pay for that service charge. Luckily my car had no issues and we traded it in a few years later. I never went back to Jiffy Lube, any service needed I go to the dealership only.
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It was an auto or manual transmission?
 
Angel1989 said:
You know I can't remember, probably manual since most my cars were manual back then. I believe it was a 1986 Mazda 626, I bought it brand new.
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If no ATF in the auto transmission then car WON'T move at all. ATF acts like hydraulic fluid. If no gear oil in the manual transmission then you still can drive it but awful noise and gear burn out and probably cracks so easy if drive too long.
 
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