Stupid things non petrolheads say... Vol 2

Stupid things non petrolheads say... Vol 2

Author
Discussion

WarrenB

2,407 posts

118 months

Friday 5th April
quotequote all
Not so much 'say', but 'do'... or in this case, 'done'.

Girl at one of my sites asked me where the best place to get tyres from. Her three year old Audi A3 had just come back from a service and she'd been told the tyres would need changing before the MOT.

Told her I always use Blackcircles, but told her to shop around and I'd recommend choosing midrange or premium tyres considering she uses her car to ferry her kids around. I relayed my story of trying budget tyres, and how I'd not recommend using them - I was a lot younger and naively thought cheap tyres would do the same job as expensive tyres on the Astra I had at the time. One VERY scary moment in wet weather less than 2000 miles in and I'll not entertain them again. Anyway, she agreed that cheap tyres wouldn't be ideal.

Few days later I was back at her site. Asked her how she got on. 'I went to the garage down the road, only cost me £30 for each tyre!'. Apparently she was told there was no point in getting brand new tyres when you can get second hand ones from the extremely dodgy garage she went to.

On my way out I had a look to see what she'd purchased. One very worn Pirelli with a massive gouge on the sidewall on the front near side, one Landsail on the front offside which did look to have a fair amount of tread but a cracked sidewall and two part worn 'Wanli' (a new one on me) tyres on the back, one with a very dubious plug near the sidewall.

Mad how someone will spend £2k on a new iPhone, obscene amounts of money for her hair doing every few weeks, new clothes, nails, etc. Yet when it comes to tyres they'll go for the absolute cheapest thing they can find.

Mr Penguin

1,173 posts

39 months

Friday 5th April
quotequote all
daqinggregg said:
While searching for information on the Far East during time of the ‘Vietnam War’I found the following website ‘HubPage’.

The website has a section titled ‘AxelAddict’

'How to Get Rid of the "Check Engine" Light: 4 Techniques' Has the following advice.



“The first and easiest method for clearing the check engine light is driving and time. Most onboard computers will recheck whatever problem caused the check engine light to activate multiple times. Drive your car as you normally would.
If the check engine light is still on after three days, your problem may not have been fixed or you may need to try some of the methods below to reset it.”

FFS, are they serious.
Driving it around and ignoring it will get rid of the orange engine light, they just forgot to mention that it will eventually turn red.

Pan Pan Pan

9,915 posts

111 months

Saturday 6th April
quotequote all
Mr Penguin said:
daqinggregg said:
While searching for information on the Far East during time of the ‘Vietnam War’I found the following website ‘HubPage’.

The website has a section titled ‘AxelAddict’

'How to Get Rid of the "Check Engine" Light: 4 Techniques' Has the following advice.



“The first and easiest method for clearing the check engine light is driving and time. Most onboard computers will recheck whatever problem caused the check engine light to activate multiple times. Drive your car as you normally would.
If the check engine light is still on after three days, your problem may not have been fixed or you may need to try some of the methods below to reset it.”

FFS, are they serious.
Driving it around and ignoring it will get rid of the orange engine light, they just forgot to mention that it will eventually turn red.
The engine warning light can be used to indicate a number of engine faults. some more important than others.
On some cars, it is when the check engine light starts flashing, that the indicated fault is serious, and requires stopping the engine as fast as possible.
On others, if the light has not turned red, or is not flashing it is `possible' to drive for thousands of miles once the fault code has been checked, and the fault identified and fixed.
It must be born in mind that if the check engine light is on, when a vehicle is taken for its MOT, it will definitely fail, even if the fault is a minor one.

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Saturday 6th April 10:25

98elise

26,608 posts

161 months

Saturday 6th April
quotequote all
Pan Pan Pan said:
Mr Penguin said:
daqinggregg said:
While searching for information on the Far East during time of the ‘Vietnam War’I found the following website ‘HubPage’.

The website has a section titled ‘AxelAddict’

'How to Get Rid of the "Check Engine" Light: 4 Techniques' Has the following advice.



“The first and easiest method for clearing the check engine light is driving and time. Most onboard computers will recheck whatever problem caused the check engine light to activate multiple times. Drive your car as you normally would.
If the check engine light is still on after three days, your problem may not have been fixed or you may need to try some of the methods below to reset it.”

FFS, are they serious.
Driving it around and ignoring it will get rid of the orange engine light, they just forgot to mention that it will eventually turn red.
The engine warning light can be used to indicate a number of engine faults. some more important than others.
On some cars, it is when the check engine light starts flashing, that the indicated fault is serious, and requires stopping the engine as fast as possible.
On others, if the light has not turned red, or is not flashing it is `possible' to drive for thousands of miles once the fault code has been checked, and the fault identified and fixed.
It must be born in mind that if the check engine light is on, when a vehicle is taken for its MOT, it will definitely fail, even if the fault is a minor one.

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Saturday 6th April 10:25
I had a mondeo that had an Amber check engine light come on for about a month. After that it went out and never came back.

My sons Rover 25 occasionally comes up Amber. That needs a reset (but my reader doesn't see any faults), and it will stay off for a long time. Last time I had to reset it was about 18 months ago and its been fine since.


Pan Pan Pan

9,915 posts

111 months

Saturday 6th April
quotequote all
98elise said:
Pan Pan Pan said:
Mr Penguin said:
daqinggregg said:
While searching for information on the Far East during time of the ‘Vietnam War’I found the following website ‘HubPage’.

The website has a section titled ‘AxelAddict’

'How to Get Rid of the "Check Engine" Light: 4 Techniques' Has the following advice.



“The first and easiest method for clearing the check engine light is driving and time. Most onboard computers will recheck whatever problem caused the check engine light to activate multiple times. Drive your car as you normally would.
If the check engine light is still on after three days, your problem may not have been fixed or you may need to try some of the methods below to reset it.”

FFS, are they serious.
Driving it around and ignoring it will get rid of the orange engine light, they just forgot to mention that it will eventually turn red.
The engine warning light can be used to indicate a number of engine faults. some more important than others.
On some cars, it is when the check engine light starts flashing, that the indicated fault is serious, and requires stopping the engine as fast as possible.
On others, if the light has not turned red, or is not flashing it is `possible' to drive for thousands of miles once the fault code has been checked, and the fault identified and fixed.
It must be born in mind that if the check engine light is on, when a vehicle is taken for its MOT, it will definitely fail, even if the fault is a minor one.

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Saturday 6th April 10:25
I had a mondeo that had an Amber check engine light come on for about a month. After that it went out and never came back.

My sons Rover 25 occasionally comes up Amber. That needs a reset (but my reader doesn't see any faults), and it will stay off for a long time. Last time I had to reset it was about 18 months ago and its been fine since.
My daily driver has an intermittent engine check light indication, which is caused by a position sensor on a flap valve in the air intake, where the operating arm does not always return to its correct, start position. It makes no difference to the way car starts, and runs, or to its mpg, but the light still comes on every now and then.

Bungleaio

6,332 posts

202 months

Saturday 6th April
quotequote all
WarrenB said:
Not so much 'say', but 'do'... or in this case, 'done'.

Girl at one of my sites asked me where the best place to get tyres from. Her three year old Audi A3 had just come back from a service and she'd been told the tyres would need changing before the MOT.

Told her I always use Blackcircles, but told her to shop around and I'd recommend choosing midrange or premium tyres considering she uses her car to ferry her kids around. I relayed my story of trying budget tyres, and how I'd not recommend using them - I was a lot younger and naively thought cheap tyres would do the same job as expensive tyres on the Astra I had at the time. One VERY scary moment in wet weather less than 2000 miles in and I'll not entertain them again. Anyway, she agreed that cheap tyres wouldn't be ideal.

Few days later I was back at her site. Asked her how she got on. 'I went to the garage down the road, only cost me £30 for each tyre!'. Apparently she was told there was no point in getting brand new tyres when you can get second hand ones from the extremely dodgy garage she went to.

On my way out I had a look to see what she'd purchased. One very worn Pirelli with a massive gouge on the sidewall on the front near side, one Landsail on the front offside which did look to have a fair amount of tread but a cracked sidewall and two part worn 'Wanli' (a new one on me) tyres on the back, one with a very dubious plug near the sidewall.

Mad how someone will spend £2k on a new iPhone, obscene amounts of money for her hair doing every few weeks, new clothes, nails, etc. Yet when it comes to tyres they'll go for the absolute cheapest thing they can find.
I used to work with someone who saw no value in servicing as it doesn't make any difference and complained a lot when he had to buy tyres even though he bought the cheapest ones possible. He wouldn't think twice about dropping £200 on a night out though.