"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/07/2014 at 13:45 • Filed to: None
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"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/07/2014 at 13:45 • Filed to: None | 3
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Yesterday while my gf and I were taking a stroll around her neighborhood, I heard two long blasts of a car horn. When we turned the corner we saw this old lady standing with her cane next to her '98-'02 Accord with handicap tags, stopped in the driveway of her row of townhouses, shouting "HELP!" to nobody in particular.
I walked over and asked her if I could help. She said she was having trouble getting the car up the driveway and asked if I could get it up into her garage, and she would ride in the back seat. I said sure. Turned on the car, of course the check engine light comes on, and when I tried to put it in gear the engine just died.
After a couple more tries I was able to get it into gear without dying, and pulled it into her garage for her. It died again when I put it in park, and there was some kind of burning smell. I showed her the CEL and explained this means she needs to take it to the shop where they can hook up a computer to the car and see what the problem is. She goes,
"THAT LIGHT IS ON ALL THE TIME!"
This, combined with the burning smell, led me to believe that if she tried to drive it to the shop there was a good chance of her getting stranded. I explained with the way the engine was dying like that, she should have it towed to the shop, and also that she should call her insurance to see if she had roadside assistance coverage in which case she could probably get a free tow.
She thanked me, but was pretty upset and said "THIS IS THE LAST THING I NEED RIGHT NOW!"
Anyway, I know it was nothing major, but I pictured one of my grandmas having a problem like this and had to do something.
Also, this is a perfect example of how car companies need to do something more than just the check engine light to alert drivers of problems with their cars.
Hopefully she got to the shop alright.
jkm7680
> Textured Soy Protein
04/07/2014 at 14:03 |
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That's a very generous thing to do.
My last vehicular good deed was helping some random guy with a spare tire. I wasn't robbed/murdered so I'm all good.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Textured Soy Protein
04/07/2014 at 14:20 |
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Burning smell - very likely oil burning due to low/no coolant, no power/stalling - possibly blown head gasket and worse. Yikes.
You can propose something "better than the check engine light", but some people for anything short of a "you fool! this car is about to completely self-destruct!" are still going to ignore it.
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Textured Soy Protein
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
04/07/2014 at 14:23 |
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Yeah I know many people are going to ignore idiot lights no matter what.
But I think the problem with the CEL is that many people see it, don't feel like they're qualified to check the engine, and don't know that they can just go get the code pulled.
There's also the "service engine soon" or "maintenance required" warnings that are just scheduled maintenance alerts which people universally ignore, and can be easily confused with the CEL.
Maybe something like instead of just turning on the CEL, having a screen that reads out what the code actually stands for. If someone sees a screen with something ominous sounding like catalytic converter fault, O2 sensor error, cylinder 4 misfire, etc, they might be more likely to take it in to the shop.
I'm no expert of course, but the CEL seems inadequate for a good chunk of the non-car-savvy public out there.
NaturallyAspirated
> Textured Soy Protein
04/07/2014 at 18:25 |
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I think the biggest issue I have with the CEL is that it's the same light that illuminates for minor emissions system malfunctions (my Subaru kept throwing a CEL for what amounted to "EGR valve probably should have been actuated by now" - I had a bad diaphragm in my EGR relay) and serious problems (like my sister, who cracked the block in her Nissan). I'd suggest at minimum a "you won't pass emissions next time" light, a "there is a serious problem with your car" light, and a "if you don't stop driving soon, there will be a serious problem with your car" light.