Sugar in the gas tank will turn the gas into some sort of amazing sludge and destroy the engine (not; it doesn’t even dissolve in gasoline). I grew up with that one looming large in my imaginary revenges. What’s your favorite?
QOTD: What’s Your Favorite Automotive Myth?
– Posted on March 14, 2015
Not car but motorcycle: “I had to lay it down to avoid the accident.” Uhhh, so what do you call it when you lay it down? Not to mention that it’s easier to brake or steer a bike on its tires, to avoid an accident, than when it’s sliding down the road on its side.
I keep that move in my back pocket for when I have to slide under a semi trailer. Happens all the dang time on TV.
Is there any real-world truth to the idea that the threads on the lug studs and nuts must be reversed on one side of the car, so the lug nuts will not loosen themselves at speed? Older Mopars and Jeeps always throw me with that odd reverse-thread arrangement on one side of the car.
No. Think about it – there’s 4 or more lugnuts on any given car and none of them are dead center(unless you have knock offs), all of which are torqued to ~100 foot lbs. Lugnuts are pretty small and light so there’s not much force acting on them on a spinning wheel.
they may have thought that back then, but as Matt said it doesn’t wash.
the first truck I bought (an ’84 F-250) had left-hand-thread lug nuts on one wheel.
One wheel.
In the southern hemisphere Coriolis force is reversed
One I’m surprised I hadn’t seen mentioned(it JUST occurred to me)
Ram air.
Myth: Electric cars are zero emission.
Some guy figured out how to make a pill that you threw in your gas tank and then you filled the gas tank up with water from a garden hose and the pill turned the water into gas. But the oil companies found out about it, and the inventor vanished one day, never to be found and his formula also vanished. Newer cars are safer for the occupants in an accident than older cars. I always thought that was the case, until I tried to get liability only insurance for a four cylinder 2004 Mazda6 (has dual airbags) to replace an 89 Jetta 4 cylinder with out airbags. $234.00 a year for Jetta. $528.00 a year for newer, safer Mazda. Jetta weighs around 2500 lbs. Mazda weighs around 3100 lbs. Makes no sense to me. No collision insurance on either, identical coverage, same company. So does this mean older cars that are lighter and have no airbags are safer? Does the 600 lb heavier Mazda deliver well over twice the damage inflicting potential?
This really works. Just add water to calcium carbide.
The greatest, and most insane, automotive myth I’ve ever heard was that a 2-liter bottle of soda could be shooken up and then blasted onto a worn-out clutch disc and the “stickiness” when it dried would serve to resurface it.
When I was on a Honda message board years and years ago some guy did this to a 2nd gen Prelude – swore it worked, posted pictures and everything. Wish I could find that old thread… I really wanted to believe it was true!
Maybe it worked long enough to negotiate a trade-in?
Biggest Myth? That sex in the back seat of a car is a hoot.
” Biggest Myth? That sex in the back seat of a car is a hoot.”
Well it _can_ be ~
I used to date this hot and sexy psychotic bitch who preferred to get live anywhere but in bed ~ I bought a red convertible and we had at it every where , top down unless it was raining / snowing …..
The sex was the very best I’ve ever had , before or since .
-Nate
I’m going to second Mr. Nate here. The cavernous rear seats of the BOF sled allow for a lot of…creativity.
” I’m going to second Mr. Nate here. The cavernous rear seats of the BOF sled allow for a lot of…creativity.”
LOL ! .
‘ creative ‘ doesn’t even scratch the surface of that wild Girl =8-) .
However , I didn’t own any BOF cars during the years we were to – gether and I’m not a small person @ 6’ tall , 200 # .
We even used the right front seat of my old 1960 VW # 117 DeLuxe Beetle a few times , I sure was glad I’d bought that Perohaus reclining seat for it in 1976 . ($6 used) .
=8-) .
Mostly it was the VW Rabbit Convertible , almost always with the top down .
Man she was wild , just the thing for a recent divorced man =8-) .
Jerry , if you’re going to play in the big boys sand box , you need to grow a thicker skin ~ if what works for you , works , don’t get excited when others have different ideas .
As is so often pointed out here , I’m wrong as often as I’m right , I try to foigure out what’s the best info and adapt my methods / ideas as necessary .
Relax , have a beer and got take the Fairlane for a nice romp up to Sedona then up the old road to Falstaff , it’ll make you feel better .
Or maybe a quick trip to Jerome , going up the back side when there’s little traffic .
Life’s not that serious .
-Nate
My skin is plenty thick, and covered with a lot of scars. A lifetime of wrenching on cars, and constantly getting soaked in every car chemical known to man (I’ve been using carb cleaner to wash my hands for decades) will do that to you. Disagreements and arguments are fine, but personal attacks and name calling is a bit out of line. I’ve seen many people get banned from forums for that kind of behavior.
”
Some guy figured out how to make a pill that you threw in your gas tank and then you filled the gas tank up with water from a garden hose and the pill turned the water into gas.”
-That was a Donald O’Conner (IIRC) movie from the late 1940’s or early 1950’s .
-Nate
RE : the sugar in the gas thing :
I never knew but I vividly remember the car than came in with _EGGS_ in the fuel ~ they turned fairly solid in the entire fuel system , cleaning out the steel tank to fuel pump pipe was no fun atall .
-Nate
People who love old cars are going to continue to own and drive them anyway, regardless of the risk. As a motorcycle rider, ANY old car is safer than being in traffic on a motorcycle.
It is impossible to overmaintain a car. You could change the oil every 1000 miles (which I have done in a couple of old cars with badly worn engines that allowed combustion gasses to leak past the rings, and turn the oil black that fast.
On the above mentioned Malibu, I also change about half the transmission fluid every 20,000 miles (you can only get about half of it out by dropping the pan) The filter never had anything in it, so I bought an aftermarket pan with a drain, now I just drain out about 2 gallons every 20,000 miles, and replace it, leaving the filter in place. It keeps the fluid reasonably fresh.
This car has Dexcool, which is a nightmare. I have seen it destroy more than one engine (as opposed to green ethylene glycol, that I never saw cause any damage) So once a year, I drain out about 2 gallons by removing the lower radiator hose, put the hose back on, and pour in new coolant. The block drain plugs are almost impossible to get to on this engine, and the water around here is loaded with highly corrosive calcium chloride. I’m not going to stick a water hose in the engine and let it run.
There are so many cars, including a lot of vintage ones, that went to an early death, simply because they were not properly maintained
Yes the manual calls for 5w30 (or 10w30) but using 15w40 has caused no problems. That 5w30 thing is an EPA recommendation. If it is bad to use 15w40, then why does the local city fleet department supervisor get 15w40 Shell Rotella non synthetic (what I use) for ALL their vehicles, including brand new 2015s? He orders it several 55 gal drums at the time.
I am sorry you are so upset with my posts. To avoid any issues, I will leave. You do have a nice forum here, I need something a little more oriented toward vintage cars. I already belong to a Fairlane forum and a Pinto forum. I intend to keep and drive these cars for the rest of my life. If they break down I will fix them. My name is Jerry BTW.
Oh, I will listen to the fleet supervisor! Fleet supervisor always knows more!
As near as I can tell 15w40 Shell Rotella is a diesel oil. Not sure that using it in a gas engine is the best idea. I suspect that the fleet manager probably has not read the owners manuals to see what is recommended and also that at some distant time in the past it may have been decided to use the same oil in everything. If there are some diesel engines in the fleet that would explain the choice of 15w-40, as this is the oil recommended for GM diesel GMC engines.
However, for both Chevrolet and GMC trucks, some gasoline engines are to use a 0w-20, and some a 5w-30. If the EPA was requiring anything, they would require 0w-20 for everything. Oils recommended in the owners manuals are based on what the engineers designed the engine for. Granted that to get better fuel economy, engines are now designed to use lighter weight oils (or synthetic oils). Using a heavier oil than the engine is designed for will probably result in more wear, not less.
Rotella 15-40 is a mixed fleet oil suitable for use in diesel and gasoline engines. Using “diesel oil” in a gasoline engine will not cause harm to the engine. However using a 15-X oil will cause more wear on cold start up in colder temps. If the temps don’t get down to or below freezing it is OK to use and will provide better protection when hot than a X-20 or X-30. The other option is to use the Rotella 5-40 synthetic or similar “diesel oils” and get the best of both worlds, good start up protection and better protection once the oil is up to temp. The one caveat is that high viscosity oils are not suitable for engines that see sustained very high rpm operation like 5,000 or more, which of course is very few standard passenger car and light truck engines.
Now the catalytic converter is another story. Oils that carry the diesel rating first on the label and then followed by the gas SM rating are exempt from the limits on ZDDP which over long periods of time contaminate and can reduce catalytic converter life, not significantly though. Using the low ZDDP oils in engines that do not have roller valve train will significantly affect cam shaft life.
The EPA does require the recommendation of the use of “energy conserving oils” which are those X-20 and X-30 oils in current cars. They have not gone so far as to require the X-20 yet but it is encouraged through the CAFE laws. Remember the CAFE regulations use the raw unadjusted test numbers that aren’t rounded to the nearest integer. So the slight increase in test MPG by using a X-20 does help their CAFE compliance even if it does not show up on the advertised numbers that are adjusted and rounded to the nearest integer.
I did some additional research and this oil does have an old gas engine rating. For cars in the southern parts of the US a 15w-40 is proabably not bad.
My Oldsmobile diesel (1978) required a CD diesel oil (no longer in use, now CJ-4). When I inquired at the Oldsmobile dealer what they were using, the response was that they had a barrel of oil. I don’t know if it was coconut oil, or palm oil or… So I decided to change my own oil and I found that I could get Quaker State oil in 30 weight for summer use and 15w-40 for winter, both with the CD diesel rating.
OBTW : Truth Time =
I grew up in New England working on mostly old beat to crap 6 volt vehicles that cranked slowly so I always believed the B.S. about always putting a chip of wood beneath any battery on concrete ~ it wasn’t until I moved Way Out West and became 30 or so Y.O. I learned it wasn’t true =8-^ .
Discussing the great comments here with my Son last night , he said ” maybe it was because you only had already old & worthless batteries and the lack of sitting on the cold concrete made them just *barely* able to crank and start ? “.
Could be , Lord knows I followed some really oddball advice I learned as a sprout for decades .
=8-) .
-Nate
My Grandmother’s 1950 Buick was 6 volts and would barely start in zero weather.
Basic Auto Mechanics tells us that for every pound of pressure added , plain water’s boiling temperature goes up by three degrees .
Adding a dilute coolant raises it ever further .
I like to run my liquid cooled engines as close to boiling temp. (212° F) as possible as it makes them noticeably more efficient , increasing both power and fuel economy plus lengthens the service life dramatically .
Of course , older engines often don’t like this and have serious ” heat soak ” issues along with vapor locking unless you add a low pressure electric fuel pump .
Wait ~ did you just insinuate the fish carby is a fake ?!? I’ll have you know I sent in the coupon and a check for $250 last November , I’m expecting it to arrive via Parcel Post anyday now ~ we’ll see who gets the last laugh when my ’59 Nash Metropolitan Fixed head Coupe zooms from it’s current 35 MPG’s to well over 100 ! HAH .
You’ll be sorry you laughed at me then , just wait and see .
-Nate
(dammit ! SWMBO tossed out my tin foil beanie again)