Does everyone on earth have a love/hate relationship with their car? I must vent about my car. I don't think this will be very exciting. My '92 Accord had been running well for the three years since i got it. It's a really, really good car, and gave me no trouble. The only time it had ever been in the shop was to get an oil change. It had some dents, i admit, but i don't care about that. This car is a dream, especially compared to the flaming deathtrap that was my previous shitbox. Until this winter. It had an old battery which i really should have changed. Boosting it on the coldest night of this winter (1 week before x-mas) ended up destroying the battery and blowing a fuse. I had it towed to the Honda dealership -expensive i know- but it's really the closest thing to my house. It had been making noise for some time. They fixed all the battery crap, and let me know that i needed both driveshafts replaced and some other wheel stuff. It's not a good sign when the mechanic asks me what my "long term goals" for the car are, as in- do you really want to keep driving this thing? Oh, and he tells me the wheels are just barely safe enough to drive. He quoted at least $800 for labour alone. It's because he tells me that the dealership won't even buy new driveshafts, only refurbished ones, because they're that much $$$$. I paid for the battery stuff and said i needed to think about the rest. It was 3 days before christmas, and so most of my family got nothing from me. I felt terrible. Then my housemate told me about his mechanic. He's about an hour away from our house, a nutty immigrant guy with a warm accent and a cool name that starts with a Z. He'd a renowned Audi expert, but fixes other cars too for a mere $60 an hour for labour. He just loves his work. Housemate and his family see him exclusively, and it's over 2 hours to drive from them. So a few weeks ago we called him and asked how much my wheel crap would cost, and he quoted well below half of what any other place would do it for. And last week I drove out there and he had it done in 2 motherfucking hours and for under $600 and when I handed him my credit card to pay, he said he didn't take cards and i could take my car and just pay him in cash whenever it was convenient for me. He's a god. I got my car back, I'm feeling good. 4 days later I hear a loud thump, pull into a gas station, and my fucking muffler fell off. Actually it was a clean break in on the pipe in the back, so i had to crawl under and pull it off myself. It had obviously been rusted for a long time, the high snowdrifts of last week had just pushed it, and it snapped. Now, I know this sounds bad, but what i have to keep reminding myself is that this is just normal car bullshit. It just seems worse because 3 years is a long time to go without a single car issue, and so it just all happens to be culminating over the course of ONE FUCKING WEEK. 3 years of normal bullshit in one week. so. It was kinda fun to have no muffler. I took it to a muffler place yesterday. I KNOW, i should have taken it to the Z-man. But he's far away and speed of repair is a real issue for me right now. I dropped off my car and went to pay him on the same day. He even appologized for my muffler trouble, said he would have offered to fix it for me when he had the car but he didn't know it was that bad. I said i forgot the exact figure he wanted me to pay him, he said "Just give me whatever you think is fair, I'm sure it's fine." I love this man. I brought him brownies. The muffler alone was just going to be $300. that's fine. Then they call to let me know that the whole exhaust system from the converter back is in various stages of rust and has to go. And it's...well, it's quite a bit more than just $300. Why is speed of repair an issue?- You see, not only is all this crap taking place in one week, it's also happening at the *worst* possible time. Of all the bad times for this to happen, this month is in fact the absolute worst. As you may or may not know, we have strict car emission laws. Every car that's 3 years or older has to take an emission test every 2 years. If you fail the test, you have to fix your car until it does. If you can't fix it, you're not allowed to drive it. Guess who's car is up for testing this year? I have to renew my licence by my birthday... in **3 weeks**. No pass, no licence, no car. Happy birthday! So I have no choice but to get the new system. Normally I could let it go no problem but since i need to pass the test, i NEED to have it running clean ASAP. They put in the new pipes and emission tested the car for me this afternoon. Guess who's car failed the test? Now they'll have to go into the engine and tweak it. It was only a few points over the limit! It was so fucking close.... good god. And I'm practically out of money now, but i HAVE TO HAVE IT FIXED AND PASS BY APRIL 2. But it's a good car. It will last a long time still. It's been very good to me so far. This all just happened in one week, and the worst possible time. It's almost magical.

nice story huh' can i know how old are you and where you from wisper? and nice advice...

hello and thanks. i live in Ontario, Canada. age is not important.

thanks for the advice, im lhen from philippines, im 22... just asking bcoz the way you advice is like you've experience a lot....

Hey wisper. Your troubles rival mine with the Ford, I have to say. Which I bought...almost four years ago, come to think of it. And it ran really well for the first three years, and now... The last time I went to the mechanic, it was to replace two of the tyres, which were practically bald. While it was up on the rack, I had the alignment tested, and the guy told me my inner and outer tie-rods need to be replaced. Ah, how fondly I remember asking him how much it would be. He looked at me, looked at the car, and said "you really don't want to know the answer to that question." I'm on the hunt for a new car, at the moment. We also have strict emissions laws in California. (My engine had to be tweaked a little bit when I bought the car to get it to pass.) As a result some cars aren't even available in this state. (It's very depressing to be on a car site and read all about this totally rad car and then at the bottom see an asterisk with "not available in California.) Some people actually go out of state to buy cars and pay the import tax and to have all the work done to make them pass. It's a little odd. So yeah. I have a very love/hate relationship with my car at the moment. It once was a good car, but the litany of problems it is beseiged with now, and the fact that it's a Ford, make me eager to finally replace it. Too bad I'm poor, and can't. *sigh*

Our taxi runs great. Took it into a shop and the only thing they could find that "might" need replacing was a small part that cost $3. Wish I could share it. The next batch of vehicles (the 1999's) will be on sale starting in May and we are first on the list to be called when they are available. $900 - $1250 for the different sedan models and $2000 for a minivan. Too bad I can't get one and send it to you! Car shopping in Cali can suck, it's so much more expensive out there. It is so hard to find a decent used car, and cash cars are hard to come by. I wish you luck.

Happy Birthday, Wisper. I hope your car stays fixed for a while. Before the big accident, my car ran great. With one exception, the only problems were some burnt-out glow plugs. That one exception was just a cracked fuel filter that caused the car to give up on us in a store parking lot. After the accident and 10 weeks of repairs, it seemed good as new. However, it has started leaking some oil. But that's not necessarily a big deal, and I bet I can get the shop in Billings to fix that for free on their lifetime repair warrantee. But last weekend, it decided to have a very strange fit. I got in and started her up, and just as I was about to pull away, it started running rough. Like one cylinder wasn't firing. A few seconds later, it started shaking harder, like it had just lost another. Then it sort of hopped on one cylinder a few times and died. I tried starting it a bunch more times, and it died after a few seconds every time. So I get it an appointment at the dealer and tell them what's up. The guy thinks it might be the immobilizer, but a dummy light is supposed to come on when that goes off. I did a bunch of hunting around online to see if someone else had solved this kind of problem in a TDI before. In one forum, someone described exactly the behavior I was experiencing, and said it was probably a plugged or water-logged fuel filter. But our filter is real new. Diesel fuel filters have a knob on the bottom you can loosten to drain the water out of them, so I went and did that. When I loostened the knob, it sucked a bunch of air, which I'm guessing might mean that it was plugged, causing a negative pressure from the fuel pump. The diesel fuel that came out had the merest drop of water in it. But I'm reluctant to replace such a new fuel filter when I'm not sure. The next day, just before I'm about to get the car towed to the dealer, I try starting it again. It limps a little bit, then starts running fine. Fury! How dare it mock me? It's been fine since. I got it looked at anyway, and they couldn't find a thing wrong with it.

You have a Jetta, right TBone? I was thinking about going Volkswagen, but a lot of my friends who own/owned them tell me they're not much good beyond four or five years, that they are superb until that point but tend to fail rapidly. This was a point very much against Volkswagen. And you can't get TDIs in California, either. Blech. The police station was auctioning off a bunch of old cruisers, I thought about picking one up, but those things get driven pretty hard, so I'm leery.

I do have a Jetta. I don't know if you can judge other Volkswagens by mine now. It took a lot of damage in the accident. But now that it's 4 or 5 years old, I'll see if it starts to fall apart. I love the TDI. Fantastic milage. But the fuel market's all weird right now and diesel costs a lot more than gasoline. But they produce fewer greenhouse gasses than a gasoline car, but the tradeoff there is that they do produce more smog-forming pollutants.

I want one of those converted diesel cars that run on cooking grease. I want one so bad.

Me too. They don't take much converting, either. Mostly filtration.

I do not have a car. I feel no pain! until the end of this month if the TTC goes on strike. then? ooh, the pain.

ps...early Happy Birthday to wisper!

I love exclamation marks! yaaaaaaay!

Wisper, biodiesel can in fact be created from cooking grease but it requires some chemicals--you don't actually get to pour expended frying oil into your car and go. Although that would be really cool. And when you already have a diesel, converting is really easy. I've even heard that you can just pour biodiesel on in there, although it is more difficult to start an engine with biodiesel so most people have two tanks, one to start with and one to run the car on. All of this is very confusing to my small mind. Something to do with fuel purity and god knows what else. But most of the TDIs I've seen smuggled into the great state of California use biodiesel--there's a biodiesel fuel company here so you can just drive on over and fuel up. It's pretty nifty. I also know a few people who have converted regular gas burning cars to biodiesel, but it's apparently a royal pain in the ass. Yay for biodiesel. I would be all about converting except that if I move, my chemistry skills are probably not up to making fuel. And my penchant for horrific accidents might come into play. Any time there's lye around...

A friend of mine is an activist in the bioiesel community. If you want I can hook ya'll up.

"an activist in the biodiesel community"? What exactly do biodiesel activists do? March about gas stations waving placards that say "free the biodiesel four!"?

they spread the word, dude. The only drawback i can see is being scared to run out of gas, having to plan your trips to avoid this.

She sells it and tries to encourage others to get into the business.

Oh, so she's like a biodiesel educator. That suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Ah, more like it's her new business and she's enthusiastic about it. Her son went on tour with a band and they needed a bus, so she bought them a schoolbus that runs on biodiesel. Things went downhill form there. :)

oh that is really funny o well that is so stupid to!

So your friend is like Willie Nelson, Antigone?

I can fill up with a diesel/biodiesel mix at a pump here in town. Works fine in a normal diesel engine. Actually, I've heard that diesels can be converted to burn the cooking grease directly. I don't know much about it. Maybe I'm wrong. Our university has the BioBus that constantly circles so people can ride around campus or go between a big area of extra parking and the main campus. It burns 100% biodiesel made out of oil from the Food Zoo.

driveshaft? was your car making that awful clicking noise when you made turns wisper? i had my axel replaced (which Im assuming is what you mean by driveshaft) recently and yeah. my guy used a refurb one as well. cost me $300. this is a cat of a repair guy who only likes to be paid in cash or check, the checks made out as "cash" so he can not charge tax. nice. my 86 honda accord has some issues. though none too critical. i bought it for a $1000 from a friend in december. part of the split with the ex involved selling our 97 honda, splitting the proceeds and getting our own cars. she got an 84 audi. i got an 86 honda. she paid 4 times as much as i did. right away, my cv boots were crapped out (making that horrible clicking sound when i made turns). they were bad off that required the new axel. then i left my interior light on and had to get a new battery as the old one was just too drained. thats done. the brakes now are a bit soft and when i slow down at higher speeds the front end vibrates like a sumvabitch. so a brake job will be in order very soon. also one of the back windows, doesnt sit in its track and is now currently held up by heavy duty tape. totally ghetto. also, the sun roof leaks. its been one of the wettest winters in over a 100 years in a Los Angeles so I have that sealed with heavy duty packing tape. even more ghetto. however, the dry season is coming and the tape can come off the sunroof. i knew all of this when I bought it. otherwise its a great car, and is good for what i need it to do. it did come with a kick ass stereo system but the new neighborhood i live in, its almost a liability. thankfully the faceplate is removeable. and those emissions standards sound pretty lax compared to CA. we have to do what you do every three years, every two years and if we dont pass, we cant get our car registered and if its not registered, we cant drive, and you cant get insurance.

Replacing a driveshaft is a very expensive and difficult proposition. I suppose axles are similar. But they are, in fact, different car parts. I did a Google search for a good diagram but I can't find one. Bitterness. I did find this though. I am actually confused about CA emissions right now, because I renewed my registration last year and was expecting to have to produce a smog cert (since it hasn't been smogged since '01) but they didn't ask for one. This is a good thing, since given that my car is one giant piece of ass, it probably wouldn't pass. Somewhere I remember reading an article about why new cars were so expensive, and that actually they weren't making much money on them, and I snorted loudly. Does anyone remember this article, or I am hallucinating?

A driveshaft is a rod that connects the engine to the wheels in such a way that if one turns, so does the other. Its equivalent on a bicycle would be the chain. The axle is the supporting rod around which the wheel spins. The driveshaft turns, but the axle doesn't. Then there's the tie rods that push and pull your wheels to steer them. There are probably other rods too. Cars are full of rods.

here in olympia, those old volvos and mercedes and volkswagons and audis are worth their weight in gold because of the biodeisel. also, if i'm not mistaken, the stuff is so good now that you don't need to worry about any conversion fuss. apparently, you can even mix it with regular diesel so there's not even any reason to worry about getting stranded because you can't find the right fuel. my experience with volkswagons is that they're great until they start having problems, after which they never quite recover.

YES patrick it made that motherfucking clicking sound! it was so loud, it sounded like a rollercoaster going up a hill. And i don't know what you read into my post, but from what you just said, the CA emission laws are exactly the same as ours.

im not sure either. apparently when you first hear the slightest click on your CV boots upon making turns, you gotta get them repaired to spare your driveshaft and/or axel. I didnt. Thus I had to replace the axel. Ive done this twice in my car driving experience. i didnt learn the first time.

When I first bough my Rabbit, it had a torn CV boot, which I got replaced. Then I started to notice a clicking when I slowed down and turned and stuff. I took it in, but they said nothing was wrong and they could hear no clicking. But when I got it back, it clicked. Turns out my hubcaps were loose and rattling.

AT LAST i know what the fuck was wrong with my CV/driveshaft/everything. The Honda guy tried to explain it to me over the phone, but i didn't really get it until finding ^^that page. It's all so clear now!! He said my CV boots were torn wide open, drained, and pretty much gone. Therefore- new driveshafts. The clicking started in July, and i didn't have the car even checked until December. Wow, they must have been fucked right up. So many questions, answered. And a good picture of a driveshaft to boot. Whew.