This item is for discussions of repairs, maintenance, modifications and other
things you do yourself or would like advice on, relating to vehicles.

16 responses total.

Could whoever is the fw of the Cars Conference link this item to the 
said conference.

I have some cans clamped around one of the (now two) breaks in my exhaust.
That keeps it from heating the floor under the passenger until the plastic
begins to smell hot.  As soon as I get around to it I'll get it fixed.

Sort of on the subject, does anyone want to attempt a definition of vehicle?
I propose it be something which moves, not necessarily under its own power,
and is designed to transport persons or other loads.  Ordinarily a lawn mower
is not a vehicle, but I saw a riding mower used as one by someone with poor
mobility.  While biking on the bike path along the river, we noticed signs
saying no vehicles on the paths.  There were lots of other bikes, so I presume
these were not considered vehicles, as this is an accepted bike path.  Are
roller skates or skateboards vehicles, and if not, why not and how do we change
the definition?

The sign was too vague. The usual phrase is "no motor vehicles". If you
do (or don't) want other kinds of vehicles to use a path, the signs should
say so. 

Today Jim fixed my right brake, which has not been operating properly for a
month or longer.  It seemed to be catching on something, and I had to raise
the lever up a bit before squeezing it.  I looked all over the brake lever
mechanism and could not find the cause.  Jim took one squeeze and told me the
lever was hitting the side of the front basket, and he banged hard on it to
rotate it up a bit.  No more catching!
        He also fixed a thump in the wheel, which was not a pebble stuck in
the tire, or a deformed rim.  Turned out that the tire threads in the sidewall
were mostly gone and it was ballooned out in that area.  The fix was to put
on a slightly less used tire.
        The neighbors had their car towed home after it would not start.  Jim
suggested that the battery was not getting charged.  He cleaned the contacts,
borrowed a charger cable for them from across the street, and the next morning
they no longer had to decide whether to keep the car (which they say was
assembled for them out of some other vehicles by a hillbilly).  We were
rewarded with a fresh home-made apple pie.
        There are many advantages to being able to do your own repairs.  You
save a lot of time as well as money, and get it done when you want it, and
know that it is done right (or at least know how it was done).  Jim also often
redesigns whatever went bad so it will not happen again.
        (He is out now working on designing and building a glassed-in porch
so that it will not later need rebuilding due to broken seals between the two
panes of glass.  If this porch is done right, it could cut the annual heating
bill in half so in theory the six months or longer he is spending on this will
pay itself back.  I hope.  It is difficult to get wood to go absolutely
straight and all the same size.)

"He cleaned the contats, borrowed a charger cable for them from across the
street, and the next morning they no longer had to decide whether to keep the
car."

Wow, that statement could have a couple of meanings...

> (which they say was assembled for them out of some other vehicles by a
> hillbilly)

Gotta love Michigan.  If it has a VIN number, they'll give you a license
plate for it.  You'd never get away with that in California.

Yea, they even build cars especially for California.  New cars they sell
us here in Michigan would be illegal to sell in CA.

That's the case for new vehicles.  Once the vehicle has 7,500 miles on it,
it can be bought by a California resident as long as it can pass the smog
inspection (although I think there are some considerable extra fees involved).
The DMV website is rather vague on what happens if somebody becomes a
California resident while an out of state vehicle they own has less than 7,500
miles on it.

What is the official definition of 'California resident'?  Here in Michigan
you have to convince them you are really a resident even if you live here and
work here.

California, for vehicle registration, uses a broader definition for
"resident."  Because their emission-control regulations are so strict, folks
try hard to avoid them.  Registering a car out of state is an easy way around
them, so folks will (try to) find an address-of-convenience in Arizona, Nevada
or Oregon, whichever is closest.  So California tries to classify everyone
who *works* in the state as a "resident" for vehicle registration purposes.

I don't know how *successful* they are, though.

BTW, last I heard, it was only the UM that made proving residency difficult;
for all the purposes I know (income and property taxes, voting), Michigan is
no more difficult than any other state: 30 days.  (Remember, Michigan has
lots of part-time residents.)  The U wants those out-of-state tuition bucks.
So students have to prove they were residents *before* they enrolled.

California says that if you are in the state with intent to stay here, or have
a job here, you are a California resident, and are required to get your
California drivers license within 10 days of moving into the state or
accepting employment.  I don't know how successful they are at enforcement,
but I've heard that putting down on the car registration form that the car
has been in the state more than 20 days, or admitting that you're on your way
to work when being pulled over and presenting an out of state license, is a
bad idea.  Still, I'm guessing that if I tried to become an in-state student
at the University of California right now, they would probably suddenly start
claiming that I'm not really a California resident.

I haven't seen may Nevada, Oregon, or Arizona plates around here.  I've heard
that Nevada is considerably harder to register a car in than California, due
to much longer waits at the DMV there.  There are a huge number of Michigan
registered cars around here.  I'm guessing the ease of registering a car in
Michigan, not to mention that it can be done by mail and doesn't even require
the car to exist, let alone be in the state, probably has something to do with
it.  I did end up getting a California drivers license, and registering my car
here, but there are enough other cars here with Michigan plates (which I
already had) that I sometimes wonder why I bothered.

I've also heard of people moving from Canada to California getting Michigan
drivers licenses.  California says Canadian licenses are from a foreign
country (which they are, technically), and requres people with Canadian
licenses trying to get California licenses to essentially start over at the
beginning.  Michigan will apparrently give licenses to holders of Canadian
licenses very easily, and California will easily license holders of other US
licenses.

The 1986 Subaru wagon in which I just replaced the rear wiper motor (see
recent entry in item 8, "What I did")  has reached the end of its road. An
exhaust pipe also needed replacing but when the shop started to lift the
car on its hoist, the jack pads started to crush, and they refused to
continue. They said the frame was collapsing, due to rust. Probably not
far from the truth.  Klaus, could you clarify what might have occurred?
There are what I just called jack pads on the frame just behind (say) the
front wheels, and they do indeed look like they have been partly crushedw.
However the car is not obviously distorted or misaligned, so I am not sure
what really did happen.

I'm now seeking a used (but newer) wagon for my daughter, but that is in
the announcements item in agora. At least it has rained so the new used
wiper motor was used once..... (the tires also have only about 7000 miles
on them, the the horn is new...and the radio works...if anyone is
interested). 

The frame can get pretty weak before there are any obvious symptoms.  I used
to have a 1985 Ford Crown Victoria, and one day I noticed one of the two
main front-to-rear frame members had rusted completely through.  The car
wasn't sagging, listing, or pulling to one side; I assume the bodywork was
providing enough stiffness to keep that side from collapsing.

On old Porche 914s, I'm told the classic test for a rusted-out frame was to
remove the detachable roof panel, then have someone sit in the car.  If the
doors jammed shut, the frame was shot. ;)

Your Subaru uses unibody construction.  That means that the body serves as
both the frame and the body.  The jack-points are the areas where they
reinforced the body so that the car can be jacked up without damaging the
frame.  If the jack-points are failing due to rust, it's pretty certain that
the rest of the body is suffering similarly.  Hence, it probably would not
hold up as well as it should in an accident.  Many suspension and steering
components also attach to the body to similarly reinforced points.  It's a
good bet that those too have weakened to the point where they could break
loose by hitting a pothole or some other normal stress.  The bottom line is
that the car is unsafe to drive.

A classic failure on old VW Beetles is for the firewall to rust out where
the brake master cylinder is attached.  (Brake fluid makes a great paint
remover.) If you let it go long enough, eventually the master cylinder can
tear loose when you stomp on the brakes, with unfortunate results.  VW vans
have a similar failure mode with the swing lever arm mount in the steering
linkage -- it has a design that tends to trap water, causing rust. 
Fortunately those tend to come loose at low speeds, since that's when you're
putting the most force on the steering linkage.

This kind of thing isn't really unique to old VWs, it's just that people
drive them long enough for things like that to happen.  Some GM cars have
similar problems with the engine mounts breaking.  For a while Ford
motorhomes were breaking rear axles on a regular basis, too.

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