Car Milestones

[susandennis]

My 1999 Ford Escort turned 8,888 miles today on the way back from Susan's.  But before that... at 8,877 miles the Service Engine Soon light came on.  Looks like it's time for a trip to my friendly mechanic's. He will sigh and look at me like I'm crazy as a loon and ask 'why don't you drive this car?????'  The oil change sticker says it should have been changed in December of 2006 or at 10,236 miles (which will likely in December of 2008 or later).  If he wants to change it again, that's fine with me.  I trust him totally.

Why is it that the few times a year when I run out of gas, are also the times that the gas prices go up?  It seems like my petrol karma is about 10 pixels off.

Comments

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

And I thought my mother was bad because she has a 1999 Chevy Blazer she bought new and has just recently hit 40,000 on it.

If you're not driving it at least once a week, and at least long enough to heat the engine up good, you probably need to be using stabilizers in both your gasoline and oil.

And just from sitting, oil will collect water from condensation.

Compared to both you and my mother I must be a drive-aholic. I average 30k miles a year. During the summer, I've been known to have to change oil twice in the same month because I put 3000 miles on it that fast.

[susandennis]

Wow! Your Mom's quite the gad-about! Stabalizer, eh? Okdokey. I'll ask my guy about that. Thanks! I usually drive at least once very two weeks. I should clock how far it is to the grocery/library but I'm guessing it's no more than about 4 miles from here. It's uphill, tho!

When I bought the car, I was commuting 30 miles a day. Minutes after I drove it off the lot, I got a call from a recruiter with an offer of a job across the street. When that place when under, I got a job in the building kitty cornered. Then I went back to the commute for a year and a half, but by then they had a very handy bus. I hate to drive and I'm not that good at it. I wonder what will come first, 10 years or 10,000 miles?

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

4 miles (8 miles round trip) is not enough to heat everything up, even up hill. I'd try to put at least 20 - 30 miles on it in those every two weeks trips.

I am just the opposite...I actually have problems with panic attacks if my car is not functioning properly and I am in effect "trapped" at my house...even if I don't need to go anywhere. And especially in the summer, I will drive just to drive. I find it very relaxing (so long as I'm not in downtown Indianapolis, downtown Louisville, or, the worst, downtown Cincinnati).

[(Anonymous)]

20 or 30 miles all in the same day every two weeks??? Are you whacked??? I did 25 today and once last October. I hate driving. My goal is to get there and get back and not go out again until it's a necessity!

[susandennis]

and somebody had better quit logging me off!!

anonymous is me. grrrrr

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Ooo, you said petrol! Have you been hanging out with foreigners or is that actually considered normal in some parts of the US? I feel self conscious when I say it now. I was surprised to find that some things (fall instead of autumn and carmel instead of caramel for example) are not as universally different from the UK as people there think.

It's little things like this that fool us foreigners.

[susandennis]

I don't think it's actually considered normal anywhere in the US but when I wrote 'gas karma' it sounded kind of like farts gone wild so I went with petrol which seems so less intestinal.

See, that's the trick with your language. The most mundane words so so much better than ours. Fags being an exception I'm not sure we'll ever get used to. And your various uses of the word piss are very confusing.

The few times I have actually been in England have been difficult. I had the same trouble in New Zealand. I'm just language impaired. Although, I do seem to do ok in Canada :)

[geordie.livejournal.com]

One of my friends nearly got fired for asking one of his gay, male, English co-workers "are you coming to the meeting now or are you going to have a fag first?". Then there was the night before the New York marathon when my brother's club was staying at the YMCA, the locals said to one of our people "we don't know how you can smoke and still run marathons" and the answer that knocked them down was "I always like to have fag before a race and it's the first thing I look for after the finish".

There are a number of things I used to say and can't now :D