I was looking around last night for a variety of junk, and did a search for some things for my Volvo and somehow ran across one of the most interesting places I've ever seen on the Internet.
The place is called Foreign Affairs, and is the website of a repair shop and used car dealer in the Staunton, Virginia area, and it sounds just like the sort of place I would enjoy working in (should I ever decide to ditch my current vocation). Although it combines two of the most disreputable sorts of businesses (no offense to honest used car dealers and mechanics--all five of you), you simply have to admire any shop that prides itself on "avian entertainment, and pointless pettifoggery." The avian entertainment consists of Remington and Kuzo (scroll down past the lovely wife of the proprietor), both of whom I'm certain will appeal to Miss Janis.
I found this page first, which is a documentary of sorts of customer complaints about their cars, and the photos and explanations of what was wrong. Some of them are frightening to see, but the prose is certainly entertaining: "Most engines don't operate well with a hole in the piston. Maybe a small hole. When your engine overheats, STOP and call a tow truck."
That's a photo of the mighty Volvo B230F. Proving even anvils have their limit of abuse.
Anyway, a thoroughly engaging website and what sounds like a great bunch of folks. I sure wish they had a location in Trussville...
(By the way, I had some trouble getting some of their pages to load this morning--just keep hitting reload if you have to.)
I think their web site may have slung a rod.
Posted by: skillzy at March 13, 2007 09:38 AMI'm thinking they've got a dirty fuel filter, or maybe a electrical short in the injection system.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 13, 2007 09:40 AMThe piston picture reminds me of one of my Fiat owner customers who dropped a 10mm nut on his cylinder head while he had the sparkplugs out (OHC twin cam). He didn't find the nut until he cranked the engine. He said it sounded like a pocorn popper at full steam.
We fished the nut out with a magnet and the engine ran fine until the hot spots burned through. It still ran fine on three cylinders but really pumped the oil out fast.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at March 13, 2007 10:13 AMAny faster than usual?
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 13, 2007 10:26 AMI just read that page and now I don't know why my 1977 244DL with 445,000 clicks keeps working.
Surely something must stop it soon.
To be fair, it had one previous owner who probably parktook it to bed at night. He had even written his phone number under each hubcap so that people could call him if one fell off.
I bought in '99 and have continued to service it every 5000 k's. But I'm not as kind to it as the previous owner. It sleeps under the carport.
Posted by: kitchen hand at March 13, 2007 06:52 PMWhy didn't that work the first time?
Posted by: kitchen hand at March 13, 2007 06:55 PMI think because you slipped in a front slash at the end of the URL, Kitchen Hand. As for what keeps your car running, I think it's regular maintenance. If you keep the oil changed every 5000km or 3000mi and avoid abusing the thing, it should pretty much go on forever. Although some of the outside stuff might go bad ::cough::massairflowsensor::cough::
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 14, 2007 09:29 AM