Topic: Car Repairs

[micah]

>>bearins are a whine usually.
Good to know.

>>More details on the differences in road surfaces.
I don't think its the road. Sometimes the road is very smooth new pavement, other times is just regular cracked worn pavement.  I don't think thats the problem though. it does SOUND like I'm driving over rough pavement - like when your on a highway and the pavement has a seem every few yards - and you hear "thump thump thump thump thump thump" as you drive over each groove - but of course, that's the first thing I look for on the road when I hear the noise and there are no such features.  Plus, the rate of the knocking or thumping sound changes with the rate of speed - so its something on the car.

>>i would say rotate the tires first, but the come and go makes me doubt its the wheels.
yeah, the tires are good. decent tread (despite what the a-hole at firestone told me) and the walls aren't warn or anything

>>could be a motor mount,
maybe? or transmission mount? but it doesn't make any noise when the car is idol and again, the rate of the noise is consistent with the rotation of the axle. - not the rpms of the engine.

>>rack and pinion,
not sure what that would entail. I don't have any steering problems: the car drives straight, the steering wheel is not loose, it turns with appropriate force and returns to the right position after making turns.

>>or even a loose exhaust pipe....
no, it doesn't sound like something banging or loose and its not a random noise - its very consistence once it starts

I had my dad look under my car this evening and he didn't see anything obvious - all the joints and axle parts that can be visably seen were symmetrical (anything that looked funny on one side looks the same way on the other, so I assume its supposed to look like that)

[A Bit of Fruit]

Hey micah, I had a similar problem a while back and it turned out to be my car's U-Joint!

[micah]

Hey micah, I had a similar problem a while back and it turned out to be my car's U-Joint!

I don't know that I have a Universal Joint.  Its front wheel drive.

[Steve]

Hey micah, I had a similar problem a while back and it turned out to be my car's U-Joint!

I don't know that I have a Universal Joint.  Its front wheel drive.

u dont. somehow i missed shocks in my list, thats a very big possibility.

Charlie brakes stop your car, and their cheap. Battery depends. if you arent having issues its fine. they are just seeing corrosion on the terminals, normal, and telling you to change it.

[charlie]

Charlie brakes stop your car, and their cheap. Battery depends. if you arent having issues its fine. they are just seeing corrosion on the terminals, normal, and telling you to change it.

Huh? The brakes are stopping my car fine, and have plenty of pad left, there's just a crack in the right front. The question is whether a crack is serious enough to replace them or if I can let it go for a while.

And the reason they're suggesting that I replace the battery has nothing to do with corrosion. They measured the output or whatever and it came out as 214 when regular is 550 for that battery. The question again is specific to that information, will it last ok for a while or is it something that needs replacing now.

See what I'm getting at here? I only want this car to last a couple more years. I don't want to pay for something that will work ok for that time. I'm not driving my kid in here, so as long as it isn't going to kill me or cost me even more if I let it go, I'd prefer to hold off. But lacking any car knowledge, I can't tell which items are considered urgent and which are not.

[Steve]

Battery is fine, probably good for another 6 months or so.

replace the brakes, they come as a set so no reason to just do one or two.

if it was me i would do the brakes and drive it till something breaks

[micah]

>>somehow i missed shocks in my list, thats a very big possibility.

if it were shocks, wouldn't I feel it?  The noise, while very audible and troubling, does not translate into any vibration or give in the steering wheel or feel of the ride.  (unlike my breaks where, when I hit them fairly firm at a high speed the whole front end shimmys and the steering wheel shakes like a mo-fo.)


>>if it was me i would do the brakes and drive it till something breaks

This is usually my philosophy - if something is obviously wrong fix it.  If its easy and cheap maintenance do it. But if its gonna be costly and have no crucial and immediate benefit, then don't worry about it.  If your car wont start one morning, then go out and get a new battery.  But for now, if it aint broke, don't fix it.

of course, that said, I didn't replace the timing chain on my 2000 elantra and, at 115,000 miles it broke and the engine seized up making the car worthless and not even worth fixing.  Had to junk it for $100.

[Steve]

you dont always feel shocks. if they are struts even more so. if the bushings go before the shock itsself you can get a smooth ride and have a bang that sounds like the apocolypse under yourhood

[charlie]

But for now, if it aint broke, don't fix it.

of course, that said, I didn't replace the timing chain on my 2000 elantra and, at 115,000 miles it broke and the engine seized up making the car worthless and not even worth fixing.  Had to junk it for $100.

Doh!

[Jake]

I know a lot of this was covered, but my recommendation is to first and foremost replace the brake pads! I wont get into how important it is that your car is able to stop brakes are nothing to sneeze at, so get it done.

Everything else on your list, play it by ear.

You can replace the battery yourself when it finally craps out on you - just hope it doesn't happen in the most inopportune moment.

The CV boots might be a problem in a few months - those will probably need to get replaced sometime before you get rid of the car.

As for the tires, if they have decent thread, don't replace them. I would invest in alignment and re balancing though to make them last longer.

Good luck.

[VBprogrammer]

Getting both front pads and discs done normally costs me around £40. Not worth haggling or delaying over.

RoD is right, changing the CV boots now will do you little good if they have been damaged for a while. Just wait until the CV joints need replacement. This shouldn't be a particularly expensive job and worn CV joints are unlikely to case any safety issues.

[charlie]

So two and a half years later and my car won't start. To be honest, I don't know if I got any of those things above done. Maybe not even the brakes.

Anyhoo... my current situation: Several months ago my wife left the lights on (which is easy to do in this car since the indicator broke) and the car battery died. We jumped it and all seemed ok. The car would have a harder time starting, and sometimes it would have a really hard time starting when I would go somewhere in the morning and then start the car up again soon after stopping it. But I never got stranded. This information is probably irrelevant.

Fast forward to last week when as usual my wife took this car to an early morning workout and drove home without incident. Then when I got in to go to work an hour later it wouldn't start. It barely made a peep when I turned the key. I got a ride, then that evening I tried again and it started like normal. The next morning, it didn't start again. The next evening, the wife started it and it worked fine. Then we did nothing over the weekend. This morning no start. I tried to jump it with my other car and that didn't help at all.

So, what is it? I was hoping the battery just died and I could replace that and keep the car going. But I'd like to know if this sounds like something worse. I don't really want to get it towed to a shop and have them ask if I want them to do a $1000 fix to a car I think is only worth $500. And I also don't really have the money to buy a new car, so what do you all think it is?

Oh, by the way, when I turn the car makes a pretty bad grinding sound, which has been happening for years but seems to have gotten worse recently. And also, the car itself seems to be moaning, especially when I'm going slowly (which might be just because I can hear it better).

Hmm... what shall I do?

[micah]

based on my limited, non-automotive backgrounds, I'd say it's just the battery.  but the grinding is a little disconcerting - unless its just the sound your starter is supposed to make.

[charlie]

The grinding is when I'm turning. The moaning is when I'm driving. I hope you're right about the battery.

[micah]

for me the moaning is when I make the car payments