can you drive around in a car with mechanical probs?
 

ok, minor dents, scratches..busted interior. i get it. we cant fix everything.

but simple mechanical problems? my good friend has an Xterra. i think his shocks at all four corners are blown. gone. riding in his SUV is a lesson in vomit control. the undulations after bumps, the sketch braking performance. i told him i would help him fix his rig. but...nooooooo. it has been like this for two years. he actually bought the car used with the blown shocks. every time we go anywhere, hunting/fishing, i have to drive. annoying. i have refused to take him turkey hunting all season.

yesterday, picking up a to-go pizza (Zachary's for you local folks :D) some lady pulls up with camry with a bad belt. it was screeching full time. on the gas, idle..whatever. it was so loud. she gets out to pick up her pizza and her car is just sitting there screeching. the poor people eating at the outdoor tables were getting blasted by the noise. i asked her, "you dont hear that?". she said the car still runs fine and she has gotten used to the noise. wow.

i dont get it. some issues like my buddy's car are a clear safety issue. the lady? insanity issue. i couldnt drive a minute like that.

I could tell you some stories.

I can only imagine. Just the obvious stuff that I see driving around town is amazing. I was behind a car a few weeks ago with the exhaust hanging down low enough to spark on the pavement.

To answer Cliff's question, no way. I tend to treat any mechanical issue as a must-do, it drives me nuts to procrastinate. Probably why my cars tend to be at their nicest just before I sell them.:rolleyes:

I can't stand it. got to work right. even in my work truck with dents and scratches everything still needs to work.

What's the saying about the cobblers kids needing shoes?

I usually end up dealing with several issues until I have the time.

I won't ride in or drive rides that are unsafe. Rather take another form of transport....

I feel like a low life if I drive around with my CEL on. I always try to keep my vehicles in top running condition, although I might drive around till the weekend when I have time to fix it myself. I have been known to do a repair job after work on a weekday, but it gets sketchy if you need another part or snap a bolt and the auto parts store is closed.

My check engine light seems to always be on. Every two years I need to replace something, usually an O2 sensor to pass emissions. I do that and within a month or so the light comes back on.

I passed a ragged out 80's something Olds the other day with the left front wheel so out of balance it looked like a basketball being dribbled and the driver was hanging to to the steering wheel with both hands....

For my daily and winter beaters if its running and not on fire WE ride........In college I drove my Pinto for two months without a clutch cable. Now my new cars and toys thats a different story.

It is clear what the answer is on an auto enthusiast board will be. I am happy to say that I don't have any friends with rides like that. Even the ones that don't have a lot of money, stay on top of their car maintenance.

I am not a fan of government regulation, but IMHO a basic safety inspection added at the time of smog check would go a long way in CA.

G

I won't drive a vehicle on the public road with safety related issues such as brakes or tires, or steering. But I have driven them with mechanical problems that whereas they did not impact the safety of others, were pretty inconvenient and most people would have fixed them.

I drove a Fiat X1/9 for two years without a reverse gear.

I drove a manual transmissioned Pathfinder for a little over a month with an inoperative starter. I am a roll-start CHAMPION! ;)

angela

I'll just leave this here...

Just Rolled Into the Shop

You're welcome

Maintaining a high mileage car in top running conditions is not only expensive... its pointless.
I always wondered how lower income people can drive at all in a inspection state. The majority of us HERE seem to have the financial and mechanical means to keep a car in running order. But imagine the poor bastard who has neither.

When I lived in Michigan, there seemed to be two types of cars there, brand new cars and the road warrior class. I don't think I saw too many 5 or 6 year old cars there. Both seemed to be driven similar. The only real difference seemed to be the road warrior class was usually run till it broke and left by the side of the road to get tagged, towed and sold. The road warrior class was usually held together with duct tape and chicken wire. There was usually one or two broken windows with some form of plastic taped over the holes. Bungee cords must have been hard to find at pep boys because each car had one on the trunk and one or two on the hood. The brakes usually made that metal on metal screech. Oh, and they were usually laying down ground cover from the tail pipe for the invading force a few cars back.

I cant stand things that don't work properly. or rattles and squeaks. All get fixed.

I typically try and drive around with a mechanic.

I saw a car that HAD to stop at a red light because a truck stopped. Only one wheel had brakes. Just one tire was locked up and the car was not slowing down much. He must have known because he was going real slow.

+1

I go through our vehicles from time to time and eliminate rattles and squeaks. My Protege5 ran great but the body was starting to rust which is why I didn't really mind trading it in and driving the Suqinox. It is a good reliable vehicle and everything works on it.

I'm the only one that can drive my Toyota. The guide slots in the base of the shifter are so wallowed out at the bottom, when selecting third you have to rotate the knob clockwise as you move across the gate. The shifter will end up on the right side of the radio and stuck in neutral if you don't.

The accelerator pedal fell off. It's now just a stick. Operation of the stick requires a long foot.

Choke pull-off is too strong. It's a Weber replacement so if you touch the throttle anytime during warming up, it'll drop to base idle, and promptly die. It's better than the stock carb's performance because I can't find an idle cut-off solenoid for it, so it promptly dies at idle when it's up to temp.

Not much heat because the thermostat opens early. It's worse when you're driving because of air coming into the cab from various entry points.

No defrost. See previous statement. I keep a dry towel in the truck.