What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never done?

If the friction rating of a brake pad is too much information for someone choosing a brake pad ...

... then I have to wonder ... if friction isn't important ...

What kind of primary logic are they using to choose brake pads if it's not friction?

Oh... I see. I get it. Marketing bullshit.

I give up when someone complains that the friction coefficient of a brake pad is too much information when choosing a brake pad.

It isn't a logical thought process. I can't fix that. Even on the Usenet. I just can't.

I don't have any crescent wrenches, and would never buy one. I used them as kid on my bicycles. The last time I used one was when I was working for a plumber 35 years ago, and that's what he used for valve compression fittings. I couldn't fault him for that, but if I carried my own tools on that job I would have brought some open end wrenches with me.

Ask me *anything* about "history, discovery, science, and the rest of the world".

What makes you think that only watching TV will gain you that information?

No one can teach you anything as you know everything.

Yup. The ones I see using them are the fix-it guys that come to the house, less and less lately, as I do more and more since I have all the time in the world now.

I taught my kids and grandkids to use the right tool for the right job.

For example, a screwdriver is for screws. Nothing else. A pair of pliers is for things that you don't have wrenches for.

And I can't think of any good reason most of the time for an adjustable wrench, although it's valid if you're hanging upside down out of a hotair balloon where the correct socket or open-end or box wrench is down on the ground next to the parts truck.

12 volt systems will NOT "short out" in water. I know guys that used old heater motors as electric trolling motors. Being water cooled they can run an old 6 volt motor on 24 without burning them out and get lots of power out of them.

I "service" my disc brakes at least once a year.

You think that because I asked you to think logically like an adult would.

You think I'm stupid because I don't have your experience. You think everything you say is right because you have that experience.

OK. Let's just leave it at that, because I *read* that paper, and it doesn't say what you and the other guy (I don't look at names) claim it says.

So you have experience on your side. I have simple factual logic on mine.

Darn engineers think everything has to be "logical" - and that means "their logic" - which in many cases isn't at all "logical" when you get down to brass tacks because they are basing their "logic" on false pretexts. Their initial thesis is wrong and they just try to make reality fit their warped reality.

I admit, I don't touch mine all that often.

When the dash indicates the sensor tripped, I generally pop the vehicle with all four wheels in the air and rotate the wheels and check if it's the front or rear (it's almost always the front for the obvious reasons but my dash doesn't discriminate).

I chalk that operation up to a rotation, and then I order the PBS pads and sensor, and when they come in, I repeat the process sans rotation.

Once in a blue moon, I admit less often than I should, I bleed the brakes.

At least I use the right tools for bleeding, and not a normal open-end wrench, and, heaven forbid, not a crescent wrench!

But I admit I can go five years without bleeding while I realize that's twice as long as I should go (but I live in a dry area if that's any consolation and the bimmer has a nice screw-top cap on the MC).

You should give me credit for *reading* the paper someone referenced (I don't look at whom I'm responding to - I just respond to what they say).

The paper was garbage for what it was supposed to say. That's a fact.

But nonetheless, I get your point which is that you think you know everything because you have seen everything in your years of experience that I don't (and never will) have.

You think that I am stupid because I try to think logically about everything, which means that I will sometimes be wrong, such that, overall, it seems that the consensus here might be as bad as:

1. I'm wrong that FWD were not built to handle well 365 days a year,
2. I'm wrong on slotted rotors braking no better than solid in street use,
3. I'm wrong on piston rings being *proven* to be far better nowadays,
4. I'm wrong on both the fact of and the measurement of rotor warp,
5. I'm wrong on (insert pet peeve here).

The good news is that this thread was about something else, and not those things, where the one GREAT thing that came out of this thread was you gave me a better understanding of WHY engines last forever nowadays, as compared to yesteryear.

In fact, just the carb-to-EFI knowledge learned from you is a diamond! It all made logical sense!

Illogical things are unsettling to me (like Marketing Bullshit is). Things that make logical sense, give me an immense satisfaction.

Sure, so do I. But I don't call that "service." I call it "looking at pad wear." I sure don't open the MC reservoir. That would expose the fluid to more air than it's seen in about 20 years of not opening it. And we all know, brake fluid if "hygroscopic."

Coming very late into this:

I came up on air-cooled VWs, and have done about everything on these beasts but those things that required an hydraulic press or welding.

Today, I will change tires, brakes, oil, coolant, plugs, sensors, and other discrete go/no-go devices. And I have some throw-back opinions:

Brake fluid and coolant gets three (3) years before a flush and re-fill. Tires get five (5) years max no matter what the state of wear. Trans Fluid (Auto) gets 100,000 miles. Trans Fluid (clutch) gets 40,000 - 80,000 miles depending on type. Oil is synthetic, and gets 10,000 miles or one year, whichever comes first. With the trans fluid, so goes the differential fluid(s).

Otherwise, modern tooling being what it is, my mechanic can get what I need a weekend to finish done in a couple of hours _AND_ he gives me a warranty.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

RS Wood posted for all of us...

I have done all except #3.

The worst job I consider is exhaust. I guess that has diminished these days.

The hardest is being a good diagnostician.

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Tekkie

Never said you were stupid. You may be a nice guy in person but you come across as an arrogant @#$ that knows everything and the rest of us know nothing. We can never be as good as you.

A good engineer would know that even simple things like piston rings can be improved in many ways, yet you insist they are no different than ones made 60 years ago. Well, maybe if you think that is correct you cannot be a real engineer.

I have known many engineers, have a couple in the family but none would make that statement. I do know people like you though.

Any of theses your projects?

Gear by far, chain next, belt last.

Noisiest;

Gear, chain, belt

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Xeno

Did I say that is the only way? No, I did not. You are making up things to suit you. You did, however, take the time to infer you know everything about history, discovery, science, and the rest of the world. Books are great, but seeing some things on TV can be very enjoyable and educational for those of us that don't know everything..

You can watch an episode of "How It Made" and they may do a segment on piston rings and the latest technology.

news:RM2MB.70895$ snipped-for-privacy@fx44.iad...

Diagnostics can be challenging when *EVERYTHING* rattles.................

My wife pressured me for a new one last year. Bought her one, then traded mine a month later. She's done 14k kilometres in hers, I'm up to

35k kilometres already.

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Xeno