Car Karma

"Cajun Ginger" (CajunGinger) 05/29/2014 at 22:03 • Filed to: None

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So a friend of my son kept telling him how stupid it was for him to get the truck we bought for him because it wasn't practical and needed work. Then her "practical" car died. The "practical" car she got to replace it? She can't drive it anymore until it has $2,500 in repairs made to pass emission testing. She bought a car that had a check engine light without knowing why. Face meet palm.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Cajun Ginger 05/29/2014 at 22:12

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*Not practical + needs work

*Buys car with check engine light lit

There is not enough face for the required quantity of palms.

MitsubiShe > Cajun Ginger 05/29/2014 at 22:17

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Just...wow. The mind, it boggles.

Cajun Ginger > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/29/2014 at 22:19

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Oh yeah. I forgot to mention this is the same girl who when she had a flat tire I told her to put her spare on and she told me she couldn't because she's a girl. Sigh. Then said she didn't know if she had a spare. Children should not be allowed to drive unless they can handle basic car shit.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Cajun Ginger 05/29/2014 at 22:23

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Anybody older than 8 and younger than 80 should be able to change a tire. There is no wizardry there - other than "you may have to use your weight to get it tight enough" and "you might get mildly dirty". No. Excuses.

In fairness, some spares are a pain in the ass to access/make use of: exhibit A, the Ford F-150 of the 90s. Not that I suspect Miss Special, Dame of the Snowflake Empire would ever drive such a thing, even without previously stated truck antipathy.

Deven > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/29/2014 at 22:24

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not even if the world face palmed at once

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Deven 05/29/2014 at 22:26

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The problem there would be insufficient concentration of palms for quantity of face. It's enough palm, but not at high enough potency.

Cajun Ginger > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/29/2014 at 22:29

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Oh I've had to stand on wrenches before to knock lug nuts loose. She did not know if she had a spare. Did. Not. Know.

The problem she has with his truck is that it's a '63.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Cajun Ginger 05/29/2014 at 22:34

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Let's say, for a moment, that she might be right. Same price point, maybe get a mid 90s truck. Which of these trucks is more likely to fuck up in impossible-to-diagnose ways: the one with maybe a two-barrel carb, dirt simple trans, and all manual controls, or the one with byzantine 2nd gen EFI, smog controls, all-electric controls and power steering, and an E4OD or 700R4 trans (depending on maker)?

The defense rests.

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Cajun Ginger 05/29/2014 at 22:36

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Would your friend be interested in a bridge. too? I know a guy.....

Cajun Ginger > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/29/2014 at 22:37

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There is so little that can go wrong on his truck. We also own two "modern" cars plus our project cars. There is very little I can do on the modern cars myself.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Cajun Ginger 05/29/2014 at 22:44

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My Land Rover has spent a lot of time sitting, these past few years. Getting it to a semblance of running okay has entailed... wait for it... cleaning out the carb/swapping fuel filter, re-adjusting the brakes, tightening a bearing, and fixing a bad hydraulic part and bad oil pressure line that should have been fixed before it was parked.

Meanwhile, a friend has a 90s F-series at his folks' farm that... doesn't run right. Semi-arbitrarily how badly. Also, runs down batteries, refuses to start, and otherwise acts gremliney. Contrast with the other friend having an early 90s F-series that runs like a top, the lesson is: "don't let early 90s/late 80s EFI sit. EVER." I'm pretty sure it needs a wizard or an exorcism at this point - a professional shop monkeyed with it, replaced some parts and said idunnolol.

Abomination to God > Cajun Ginger 05/29/2014 at 22:54

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That's carma for ya.

...

I'll leave now.

Slave2anMG > Cajun Ginger 05/30/2014 at 07:28

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KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Cajun Ginger 05/30/2014 at 07:43

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God help her if something goes remiss with her iPhone. Or anything else for that matter.

Like the defective lamp message/light on most German cars. "But which one is it?"

"Have you thought of turning the lights on, getting out, walking around and seeing which one is out?"

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/30/2014 at 07:48

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Point of order: mid 90s Fords were on the fourth rendition of electronic controls and fuel injection.

Also the nightmare truck would be from the early 80s with the variable venturi carbs. Because engineeringzzz.

Agreed on the E4OD transmission. And I own one.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/30/2014 at 07:52

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Another point of order, Mr. Speaker. The truck you refer to (as a clarification, not my truck) of our mutual friend is a 1988 model. That was one of the first years after Ford ditched throttle body injection.

They got port injection figured out by the time they built my 1995.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs 05/30/2014 at 09:32

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I used the "2nd generation" term loosely, mostly to mean 1st gen = easy carb replacements/2nd gen = attempts to get fancy/3rd gen = fanciness that actually works. So by that metric, regardless the true number of revisions, his system is solidly 2nd gen and yours is late 2nd gen or early 3rd.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/30/2014 at 09:41

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TBI and EEC-III was pants. Ford 7200 VV carbs and EEC-II was even worse. (2nd gen systems)

EEC-IV (port injection post 1991 on the F-150s with the Windsor engines) would be 3rd gen by your metric.