Car Thread

[healey36]

Thanks for the Armor-All tip...the cover on the Sprite is so tight you can play the kettle-drum bits for the 1812 Overture on it. Maybe a good dousing in Armor-All and a stretch will loosen things up enough to get it all snapped down with a reasonable amount of effort.

Looks good Sarge...

Healey

[E7]

Thanks for the Armor-All tip...Healey

Armor-All, Rain-X, and Fix-A-Flat are on my "Great Automotive Products" List.

Anyone have any others?

[rogruth]

Thanks for the Armor-All tip...Healey

Armor-All, Rain-X, and Fix-A-Flat are on my "Great Automotive Products" List.

Anyone have any others?

Do you have some uses for these products other than the usual?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Thanks for the Armor-All tip...Healey

Armor-All, Rain-X, and Fix-A-Flat are on my "Great Automotive Products" List.

Anyone have any others?

Do you have some uses for these products other than the usual?

I can think of a few.......

[sarge]

Not me, I'm afraid; I'm especially not a fan of cleaning up the inside of the tire or the wheel after someone has used fix-a-flat.

My three:

The Ratchet
The Air Compressor
Seafoam and it's ilk, given the fairy-piss that substitutes for petrol in the States.

[rogruth]

Seafoam?

[E7]

Not me, I'm afraid; I'm especially not a fan of cleaning up the inside of the tire or the wheel after someone has used fix-a-flat.

My three:


#2 The Air Compressor

Maybe so, but it beats the sh*t out of walking when you don't have access to your #2

Actually, I use it mostly on stuff like lawn tractors and small equipment

[Mitch]

Armor-All, Rain-X, and Fix-A-Flat are on my "Great Automotive Products" List.

Not something you want to put into a tire equipped with tire pressure sensors, ie; any American vehicle '08 and up, as it will immediately destroy the sensor, costing you another $100.

[quote=Sarge]

Not me, I'm afraid; I'm especially not a fan of cleaning up the inside of the tire or the wheel after someone has used fix-a-flat.
[/quote]

Sure does make a sticky miserable mess, and even if you're scrappin' the tire, you still gotta salvage the wheel.

[sarge]

Maybe so, but it beats the sh*t out of walking when you don't have access to your #2

I'd argue that even. That stuff is worse than vile.

My neighbour didn't really look at that well and stocked his daughter's car with some sort of insta-flat-repair-in-a-can. She used it after picking up a nail and the bill was for a new tyre-(dam!) tire, a pressure sensor-equipped valve stem, and a nice new-used Audi wheel.

I deserve to walk if my spare is unserviceable by my negligence, I can't change a tire due to my ignorance, won't due to laziness, or I can't wait on the AA van in my impatience. Planning for such an occurrence and maintaining your vehicle for it (they still come with a jack!) is part of driving, otherwise be happy to use that snot-in-a-can and pay a few hundred for the above after each nail, rather than $15-20 to plug a tire you dropped off at the garage the next morning.

For what his precious daughter's bill for all the above was, he would have been well on his way to buying her a set of run-flat tires, which of course is the proper solution to an inability (for some folks legitimately can't change a tire and others must drive in unsavoury areas) to stop and otherwise deal with a puncture. Otherwise, teach the little darling how to change a tire as one would teach her to pump petrol.

*Edited to include Rich's quote for clarity as Mitch and I are typing at the same time!

[robert.]

My high school spending money came from working in a tire garage. I can tell you armor all is not a good thing to put on a tire. I can't give you a good scientific reason why. just a 4 year hands on reason. It softens and checks the sidewalls. When handling tires that had bathed in their share of armor all the sidewall rubber would stick to my hands. In fairness to armor all i never saw a tire failure do to it's use.
fix a flat is one of the nastiest smelling things. When a customer would come in for a tire change most would not mention the fix a flat in their tires. While breaking the beads i would get a face full of propane smelling snot flung up from the wheel.

[sarge]

Robert:

I wasn't going to mention that only because I have no real experience with it, beyond telling the Lady of the Manor not to do tires or the dam steering wheel (makes it slippery as a TV tort lawyer) with that stuff when she wants to shine her car up a bit. I only told her about tires because I have heard that Armour-all is not something you want to use on rubber. Since I do survivors, not show cars, I really have no need for the supplies used in "detailing" so not the first-hand experience to comment. Apparently it's useful for plastics, but the common wisdom is not for real rubber.

I'm glad you chimed in with experience in that regard.

[sarge]

Seafoam?

"Seafoam" is one of many brands of fuel additives; everyone has a favourite.

These tend to be most useful for any engine with a carburettor, for the ethanol in what passes as petrol here does the sealing bits no favors whatsoever, and can turn to a very nasty and inconvenient jelly if left standing in a float-bowl of the carb for a period of time (the petrol itself evaporates and the remaining vile, hateful, useless, Government-mandated else no-one would touch it, farm-subsidised, even the original Nanny State wouldn't make it a requirement, many censorable adjectives in a row followed by a carefully selected adult noun, corn syrup, is what remains.)

Next is the fuel tank issue, so you guys with fuel injection can play too. Apparently the lovely alcohol gives a helping hand to the formation of water vapour in the tank. Many cars with plastic tanks seem to now have problems with the material being eaten or made brittle by this urine of the Devil, the very tanks that were supposed to solve the previous problem with accelerated rust issues caused by the condensation.

I'm sure there are other benefits realised by this wonderful "gasoline" I think it's called?

The additives are supposed to combine with the water so as to make it into something that is burnable whilst negating the destructive effects of this Syrupy Substance of Satan on the rubbers, plastics, and elastomers that make up modern tanks and all manners of fuel-lines and seals, and inhibit the formation of the dreaded Pulsating Jelly of Carburettor Death.

So this idiotic mandated fairy-piss has no discernible benefit (other than consuming the American Government-owned corn surplus while it reduces your mileage) that I can identify. We would all be better served if the American Government took all this corn surplus and sent it to Africa gratis; the USA world-opinion index would rise for a real tangible reason and we would be much better off without Karo Syrup in the fuel supply.

[E7]

Well gang, I never said I used Armor-All on my tires, I said I liked it. I use soap and water on tires.

As for the Fix-A-Flat, maybe I should have mentioned that I use it on tires for which I have NO spare.

If the lawn tractor is out in the South 40 and it's beyond reach of the compressor hose, sorry, but it's Fix-A-Flat, since I doubt any of you guys are volunteering to come over and help push it back to the garage.

All that said, I am willing to try something else if any of you know of a sealant that is not so nasty and works......but I ain't pushing the tractor. I'm not trying to piss people off, just trying to get by, without maiming my elderly *ss.

As for those tire sensors, they should neuter the person who came up with that gem of an idea. There is a much cheaper workable alternative called a tire gauge.

As long as we're discussing things of this ilk, anyone know of a decent brand of wiper refill? The factory originals on my small pickup crumbled to nothing in a short span of time. Replaced them with Rain-X brand which were NOT inexpensive, but were trash (still like their stuff for the windshield) and I am now trying Michelin, which seem decent, but it's too early to tell.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

If the lawn tractor is out in the South 40 and it's beyond reach of the compressor hose, sorry, but it's Fix-A-Flat, since I doubt any of you guys are volunteering to come over and help push it back to the garage.

No. But when that happens to me with the lawn tractor, I just take off the wheel and go get it fixed. The tractor is not going anywhere w/o the wheel. Same story for when one of the front tires on my Farmall Cub when flat - just jacked and blocked the front end up, took off the wheel, and rolled it to the compressor.

As for those tire sensors, they should neuter the person who came up with that gem of an idea. There is a much cheaper workable alternative called a tire gauge.

I've never been able to use one of those gauges while driving down the road - having a light go on that let's me I've picked up a nail or whatever and should probably go get the tire fixed before I get stuck somewhere "challenging" is something I've liked.

[sarge]

You aren't pissing anyone off, so no worries. In the original context you brought it up, as one of three top automotive products, you will get a violent disagreement from me for automotive use; I'll disagree strongly with a statement, but not a person.

As far as wiper blades, much seems to depend on where you drive. When I commuted to DC, wipers would last perhaps six months at most until they started turning to powder. Now that I stay away from the Big Smoke as a matter of fervently practiced religion, I get a couple years from blades.

You can extend the life of blades with a conservative wipe-down with glycerine from time to time, which I guess is coating the rubber and protecting it from the airborne pollutants that seem to be more prevalent in areas of higher population (hence vehicle) densities.