Car Problems

[DrFaroohk]

What started out as a headlight is now a force 10 clusterfuck.

Last night I was driving somewhere, and I flipped on my high beams. What followed was a flash of brilliant blue light, and then my lights were noticably dimmer. I checked, and sure enough, I'd blown a headlight.

Bought the headlight. Tried to put it in. It was confusing as hell. I don't know anything about cars, but I can do really simple things. I thought this might be simple, but of course it wasn't. So I went to ask my brother, who knows much about cars. But he looked at it and was like "What the fuck is this?" So we're messing with it, trying to access the headlight to change it, and we spent like two hours messing with it and finally gave up when we wound up breaking things.

I went to the store where I got the headlight, and they said they could put it in, but not without this crucial piece that got broken. Of course they didn't have any in the store, so I ordered one. Not a huge problem there.

Then just an hour ago, I had to run to the store and figured I could go with one headlight, its only a mile. Start the car, turn the lights on, and there's a flash of brilliant blue light, and then all is dark.

FUCK!

So now I have to buy yet another headlight, and pay the mechanic to put both of those in, AND figure out what's up with the car. I think there's a more serious electrical problem than just two headlights blowing in a 24 hour period.

[protege]

Sounds like something in the circuit is totally fucked.

Auto wiring problems suck. Been there, done that. In fact, most of last summer was spent trying to unravel the wiring in my MG. When I'd inherited the (dead) car, the first thing I did...was to rip out the butchered, 40-year-old wiring loom. The idea was, to start fresh, since all sorts of annoying problems were present--snapped-off terminals, new wires let into the harness...but with the old ones still in place, hooked up, and bare wires against the bodywork No thanks!

But, when the shop was "restoring" the car, and hooking everything back up, they chose to cut some corners. Namely, the horns didn't work, the hazard lights didn't work, and there weren't any lights on the dashboard! Why didn't those items work? Well, the horns were missing, the hazard lights weren't even wired up, and the dash lights were wired through the hazard light switch. WTF?

After several weeks of poking around the dashboard and staring at wiring diagrams...I had enough. Sent the car back to the garage, after I'd leaned on them to fix it.

[Boozy]

Electrical problems are the worst. In my experience, they cost hundreds of dollars to diagnose (since the problem takes so long to isolate), and then the repair itself costs five dollars, for a new wire or something.

I got rid of my Ford Explorer because it was constantly besieged with electrical issues. The final straw was when I realized that the radio had to be turned on in order for the back wipers to work.

[Greenday]

My car for a year or so would every now and then just not start. I couldn't figure it out and every time I had it towed to my friend's garage, it'd just start up when he tried it. It was quite annoying.

Finally a few weeks ago, it wouldn't start at all and still wouldn't start. Since I'm at school, I had to have it towed to a different garage. Fuel pump was broken. Net result: new fuel pump, new fuel filter, new battery, -$930. LAME. My friend said to put a new fuel pump in, they have to take the entire fuel system out and it's very labor intensive so at least I know I didn't get completely screwed over.

[DrFaroohk]

It doesn't help that many mechanics are fucking thieves. You might as well just go give your money to a drug addict.

I don't know how it's remotely legal, but they don't bill you on how much time they took - instead, it's like a flat rate. They say a job takes 3 hours, so they bill you for 3. Even though it took 45 minutes. They say that's the standard for that job. Which is fine, except, if the job takes 4 hours, they bill you for 4, not the original 3 they said is the standard.

Or they bill you extra because "I had to buy a new hydrospanner to fix this." Rrrrrrrrrright. I was not aware I was supposed to buy your tools for you. Either let me keep the hydrospanner, since I bought it, or since you're going to be using again, and its a part of your tools of the trade, you just don't bill me for it.

And sometimes you find an honest mechanic. Except he has no idea how to fix cars. He just knows how to work with tools, which gives him a slight advantage, but his most common solution to anything is either a hammer or a crowbar.

I wish I lived someplace where owning a car wasn't necessary. Around here, it's a 20 mile trek to get just about anywhere.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Here's photo evidence of a friend of mine's electrical problem.

1. No, nobody was hurt.
2. No, the horse trailer has no animals or anything in it, just a bunch of SCA stuff.

So yeah. Need to look into that.

[AdminAssistant]

Yeesh, RK, glad nobody was hurt.

See....these posts remind me why I pay the extra money to have my car worked on at a dealership. The local Toyota place does excellent work, and they'll drop you off/pick you up if you need to go somewhere.