Message board topic:

I just bought Cheri a new tire Monday.  This morning, (pretty much in the middle of the night for me) she comes in and says her car won't start at the gas station.  A friend gave her a ride home.  I went up to check it out and couldn't find a thing wrong.  So, I had it towed to be looked at.  The starter motor was shot.  $400.  I had made an appointment next Monday to get my cruise control looked at.  It really helps on long trips to Kansas City or wherever.  No telling how many tickets it may have saved me.  I guess after spending $500 or so on Cheri's car this week, I'll postpone my cruise control work for maybe another week.  John

How many miles are your cars? I am up to about 180,000 now. That other winter when the -40 for 2 weeks destroyed the thing (it froze brake fluid and blew the front break lines and something else, froze my air conditioner and broke the lines and it drained, broke the battery, somehow broke the starter) has done damage to something in the air lines I think. Since then if I leave the car running and not moving I get a stink of burned oil or some fluid coming in the left most vent. If I put it in recycle I do not get it. I know it has a slight oil leak into the engine, but the cost to deal is thousands, so I have not done anything on it. I just want to keep it limping along for now. I learned my lesson on the bitter cold for the car, so last year I managed to squeeze it into the garage when the temps were below 10f. I need to make room for it again very soon.

I do need to get the oil changed now, I am 100 miles over due for that. Soon it will be time to swap to the snow tires too. Cold is coming. Sunday morning it is supposed to be in the upper 20's (going up to the 40's day).

 

David and the CoolCyberCats

Forever in my heart





Cats Nap. Only Humans Put Them "To Sleep": Sterilize, Don't Euthanize!

 

Wow, -40 sure chewed up your car!  When I had a garage 15 years ago, I always kept my car in the garage.  Now, I don't have a garage, but I've never had to worry about it getting -40 here!

My HHR has 190,000 miles on it.  Not a lot of trouble with it, except I've replaced the water pump on it twice.  I think the first replacement was just junk because it didn't last a year.  Not much else wrong with it...yet.  The HHR always tells me when it wants an oil change.  It lights up on the dash, "Change oil soon", about every 4000 miles.  Whenever I change it, I just change it in the Toyota too.

I didn't look to see how many miles the Toyota has on it but it's a lot newer than the HHR.  I use the HHR for long distances and I've had it to Florida twice.  Cheri uses the Toyota strictly for in-town stuff.

The most reliable car I've ever had was a Toyota Matrix, until some idiot playing a game on his phone blew through a red light and destroyed it.  Until then, the HHR was our secondary car.  Now it's the primary.  John