(no subject)

[featherynscale]

Sooo....
Asmodeus blew up this afternoon. Well, not actually blew up, I guess. Lost all the water in the radiator suddenly and without warning. That's more accurate, but less concise. Anyway, he had to be towed to the shop, and I'll have to go round to the shop tomorrow and ask them to take a look. For those of you playing along at home, yes, in fact, he *was* just in the shop, and yes, in fact, they *did* say nothing was wrong with his engine.

*sigh*

You know what the worst part is?
I know more than one joke that centers around the phrase "It looks like you blew a seal".

Comments

[lordkalkin.livejournal.com]

Same thing happened to my car. I had just brought it into the shop for an inspection. They declared nothing wrong, so I set out, fully confidant that I would have no problems in my near-3000 mile drive from Vancouver to New Orleans.

I learned otherwise when smoke started coming out the engine in Seattle.

ACK!!!

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

*crosses fingers for ya*

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

And in this month's Popular Mechanics - 25 skills every man should know.

NUMBER ONE - Patch a radiator hose! Granted, it sounds like yours slipped off. And they're right, nothing is wrong with your engine, it's your cooling system that failed. Semantics. 8-)

FWIW, I was really put out that they listed "skills every MAN should know. I found it irritatingly sexist. Ironically, I had a Girl Scout leader meeting tonight, and one of the Council ladies thought an auto repair clinic would be awesome. I won't get into the fact that only the one man in the room was nudged about this idea, but I do think that PopMech's top 25 is a good list for ALL genders.

Funny side note - I had a friend in high school that did blow a "Seal" (Navy type) on the way home from a gaming session. I'm sure you can imagine the jokes.

[leiandra.livejournal.com]

Given that the readership of Pop Mech is likely 90-something % male, I can see how they can get away with it. Similar to Cosmo's "20 Things Every Woman Should Know about her own body". Irritating, but both are aimed at their majority.

The article is here - http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4221635.html

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I think they are seriously underestimating their demographics...or perhaps they are targeting a demo that is much easier to work with from a 1950's mindset. 8-)

Granted, I am a guy, but I am a younger guy who doesn't want my daughter stuck as a homemaker who can't unclog her own toilets or change her own tire.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured the hose had come off. I'm hoping that's all it is, anyway.

Also, I totally had car repair when I was in Girl Scouts. We learned to change a tire, a battery, oil and oil filter, air filter and so on. Unfortunately, this was when I was 13 or so, so I had forgotten some of it and had to re-learn it when I actually got the car. Mostly I learned by having to fix my old Volvo, though.

I'm constantly annoyed at various media outlets for that sort of thing, too.

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

My first year of driving was in an old air-cooled, dead simple to fix 1969 VW Bug. I was constantly repairing something on the damn thing. My dad said it was one of the best ways to learn, and after a year of keeping it running (and actually mostly enjoying it) he gave me a newer and slightly less in need of repair car to make up for it.

One of the few things where I can say I think my dad did it totally right.

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

Of course, the newer car promptly lost its oil pump and I had to blow all the money I'd saved over the summer buying a new engine for it, but that part wasn't really his fault...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Funny. I dumped my Volvo for a new car, and the head gasket blew out every 7500 miles. I'm highly unlikely to ever buy a new car of any sort again.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

My first car was an ancient Volvo 240, which I learned how to do a great deal of maintenance on, and was able to mostly keep running. Eventually, a valve went bad that neither I nor any of the parade of mechanics I visited could diagnose, and I had to trade it in. Very sad, it was a very solid little car and I was getting pretty good with it.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I keep the old Aerostar for the same reason... you need to top off 5 different fluids every month because they all leak. AND you can learn troubleshooting to figure out which fluid is leaking faster than others. 8-) Besides, if anyone wrecks the van, it has zero trade in value and maybe $400 private sale value? ANYTHING is a trade-up after that.

[leiandra.livejournal.com]

It's likely something as simple as a blown hose. Alternatively, it could be the water pump. Either way, shouldn't be a major deal to have repaired.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, shouldn't be any big thing. Mostly just irritating.

[jtigermoon.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about your car acting out again. I love your icon though. =)

[starrthinks.livejournal.com]

Aw, darn! Here's hoping it's something relatively cheap to fix!

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

Lost all the water in the radiator suddenly and without warning.

That's pretty much exactly what started the whole Eclipse Upgrade Project. A one-inch-long crack in a six-inch-long coolant hose == over $5000 in work for now, with another $4-5k to come.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my threshold for junking the car is about $800 -- once we hit that, I'll be in the territory of "With what I've spent in repairs over the last 2 years, I could almost have been making car payments again."

Of course, I think that the Civic is a little cheaper to fix than your Eclipse, and I'm pretty sure that I didn't jack it up further once it blew out. Maybe. 60% sure. We'll see, I guess.