Some people (there's a moral to the story)

[idontknow]

The POS truck of my daughter in law.

I don't know what compelled me to write this up but here goes.
My daughter in law (Michelle) was driving home from visiting relatives when her SUV dies. She explains to me that it was sputtering, dying at lights and just not running right. She says that this happened within the last 25 miles or so and she needs help. We (my wife and I) go down to see what's wrong. Mind you this is exactly a 100 mile one way journey (just inside AAA's limit). We're there and her dumba$$ husband says the engine is shot. Call AAA tow it home. Drained the oil and found nothing except for oil that hasn't been changed in ~20000 miles. "I've been meaning to get around to that", he says No metal flakes though. New oil and filter, and now we check for spark. Good spark, now check for fuel. Ah ha, no fuel! "You know, we should probably just replace the whole fuel system. I can build a fuel cell from scraps at work, get all new rubber lines and get a holley pump they sell at Advance Auto I've been looking at." he says.
I try to explain to him that that fuel pump won't put out the 27psi he needs as it was made for a carburetor. So I pull the fuel filter off, try again, no gas. Okay, gotta pull the tank. Did you know there are some 5 hoses connected at the top to a 87 Chevy S10 Blazer? Since the hoses weren't cooperating quickly enough he just yanked the tank out of there (also yanking out the electrical connector to the fuel pump/level sender). The fuel pump was bad and easily replaced. Upon looking at the inside of the tank we noticed a huge quantity of (unpainted) matchbox cars inside?! The kids must have been having fun and thrown the matchbox cars down the gas nozzle. My guess is that the paint flakes jammed up in the fuel pump and stopped it from working. It all goes back together smoothly, thanks to all new hoses on top of the tank.

Moral of the story: Don't let your kids have matchbox cars outside. You'll regret it about 100 miles from home!

[Overpaid Slacker]

"We're there and her dumba$$ husband says the engine is shot."

Isn't your daughter-in-law's dumba$$ husband your son?

OK, maybe stepson...

JP

[idontknow]

my daughter in law is my wifes daughter

[oldE]

Miss manners says: daughter-in-law is spouse of your son. Children of your spouse to whom you are otherwise unrelated are step-children. I once had the vehicle (borrowed) I was driving sputter & die due to a fuel starvation problem. There were a couple of rags in the gas tank, because someone had lost the gas cap and stuffed a rag (or two) into the filler neck to keep the weather out. You've got to respect a vehicle that kept going with no oil changes and "unauthorized additives" in the fuel system. Could this be a new thread? What is the strangest thing you've found in your engine/fuel system/etc.?
Les

[singpilot]

Hmmm. Yes there is a moral to this story.

No matter how you look at it, it is heredity. Think of all the aspects here.

[nostatic]

just don't let them have kids...

[Icemaster]

Hey, don't feel so bad.

My wife's car starts having intermittent electrical problems. Can't quite nail it down til one day it hits the radio. First things first, check the fuse. Sure enough, blown. Put a new one in and POP no hesitation. Two repetions of this indicates to me that there's a problem with the radio. Go to work with on the center console and pull it out, get it loose from the chassis and hear "rattle rattle rattle...". Take it in the house and start shaking it, eventually recapture about $1.43 in change that my 3 year old inserted into the casette deck opening.

If I could just find out where ELSE he's hidden change...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Ahh the redneck-ness of it abounds. "Never mind changin' that there oil, I can get me a HOLLEY!!!".

Gimmee a break.

[Hugh R]

Had a leased Durango, every 5,000 miles I tell the wife to go to Wal Mart to change the oil. Each time I remind her to do it and she says quit bugging me, I'll do it. I never drive the car. After 30,000 miles the oil pressure gauge starts jumping up and down one day and I say what's up with that and she says "Oh, its been doing that for a while" I say turn around, we go home and the things got 1/2 quart of oil in it. Turns out, when I said time to change the oil every 5,000 miles, she never did, and I kept thinking it was time for the next oil change. Filled it up with oil, and turned it in early on a 36,000 mile lease. Did I say it was a lease?

[idontknow]

OMG that completely reminds me of my wife. "Yeah I had it changed", she'd always tell me. I never saw a sticker on the window and when I went to check it out before a trip to Georgia, Black with metal flake. Boy that killed the trip. Needless to say, I do the oil changes now.

Oh, did I mention this is a three part write up? No I didn't. There's two more "special" instances to talk about. If anyone is willing to listen.

[RickM]

Kinda reminds me of the Grilled Cheese sandwich in the VCR story.