I spent most of my life in New England and the safety inspections could be pretty strict.
But it was weird to me going from So Cal where you had cars from the 70s (~30 years old at this point) that were still being daily driven to New Hampshire where almost nothing was more than 10 years old unless it was a registered antique.
But I got used to it, and New York is similar with safety inspections.
Then I visited the south. Holy shit.
The interstates to and from New Orleans is littered with derelict cars, abandoned where they die, and nothing could have prepared me for the 1990-something Buick that was the color of rust, missing both bumpers AND the drivers door doing ~80 into Slidell.
Ah, kind of like that old *Top Gear* where they tested 70s British cars by driving them at 40mph over a bump-track course, with a colander of raw eggs affixed to the headliner over the driver’s head, and scored them at the end by how much egg remained in the colander?
“New Michigan inspection process. Drive your car across town and into the test center, and if more than 70% of the trim and mechanical components remain attached… you’re good to go!”
I love that you can tell where the council boundaries are, by the roads. One road I regularly have to drive on has the new 20mph limit (it's a very wide road, no houses) and is an absolute crater filled section. At the top of the hill, it's a different council district. Speed limit is 30mph and no potholes, yet now there are houses...
Yeah, my town is terrible for craters, there’s a jumbo one near me that’s killed my tyres twice in the last month, it’s impossible to avoid if there’s parked cars
There's one that I always hit, but only when I'm towing the kitchen trailer. There's a good reason I switched to runflat tires, much thicker sidewalls.
In high school in the South, a couple buddies of mine bought a super cheap Volvo S40 to be stupid with.
Removed the hood, front and rear bumper, exhaust, rear seats, and the doors, and put cheap Chinese knobby tires on it.
They bought it to hoon around in fields, but it was still registered in that condition so they could make part store runs lmao.
I think they got the thing in running condition for like $500 and split it between the two of them.
This was back in 2012ish.
To be fair, they got it registered before they ripped it apart lmao, and got stopped by police more than once.
Their response was usually "My Swedish Jeep still has more airbags than an actual Jeep"
One of them is now an aerospace engineer for Raytheon.
CT doesnt do safety inspections unless youre trying to register a salvage/repaired title car. as you can imagine, we got some hoopties here that shouldnt be on the road ever again.
I’m in Wisconsin, we have no safety inspections, and only eastern Wisconsin around Milwaukee has emissions testing. It’s scary in the winter with lots of snow on the ground and parking next to a car and seeing tires like these.
I always noticed an uptick in the abandoned cars on the way to NOLA the Friday before Mardi Gras. I presumed college kids found some beater and overloaded it with kids and beer to try and make the drive and hitched a ride the rest of the way.
The other thing you notice is the ass hole swerving in and out of traffic is always rocking a temp tag.
Born and raised in Louisiana. I was mindblown when I learned other states inspections check brakes and whatnot. All they care about here is tint, no cracks in drivers view, and brake lights blinker, and headlights work.
I was threatened physically by more than one customer because I failed their car on a NC. state inspection. Used to make me laugh. Made me laugh more when they refused to pay....no pay, no car.
They were talking abt doing away with them here but I guess bill never passed. I think they are pointless people who are driving around hazards are not getting an inspection sticker.
In the early 90s the inspections were a lot more rigorous. They had to actually road test you r car to pass it. Problem was they wouldnt inspect if the roads are wet. Well in Louisiana, certain times of the year, they are allways wet.
California will take you off the road if you emit one hyrdrocarbon than allowed at your annual smog, but you can drive a dangerous, unrepaired hoopty sh\*tbox until the cows come home and state government doesn't care.
I have a feeling they’re going to. Ca has been ramping up the current inspection process for salvage titles the last couple years. Once they get it all ironed out, in my opinion, I expect safety inspections on used car title transfers at dealerships then private transfers then biannually after a car reaches a certain age. Knowing ca it will happen in about 20 years tho.
I think he meant, “at the time of this anecdote” but yeah, every so often I realize that it’s the *80s*, not the *60s*, that were 40 years ago at this point, and I have a minor freak-out.
Doesn't Louisiana have inspections? I just spent 3 months there this past spring. A month at Lake Bistineau State Park and the other 2 months at the state parks around New Orleans. I swear I saw inspection stations. That said, I too saw abandoned cars on the highways as well as a couple road kill gators.
The inspection process is this:
$20 cash (very insistent on the cash part)
Guy stands in front, signals you to turn on your lights and both turn signals, beep the horn.
Guy goes behind, turn signals and tap the brakes.
Then hops in to drive it around the lot and writes some shit down and puts a new sticker on.
Or you get some one on a power trip who sees a crack that is at the very bottom of the windshield, like I'm 6 foot 3 so for the crack to be in my vision the pedestrian would have to be already hanging on the hood and me hunched down, and says they can give you a red sticker for failing.
My wife knew a guy who gave anyone stickers because her car had tint and too many cracks to pass inspection (this was before we met and I got the "death mobile" up to code).
When we lived in Pittsburgh (ca. 2000), my wife took her car for an inspection at a place that subsequently insisted the ball joints needed to be fixed and would not allow her to drive it away; had to be fixed immediately (or towed to another location).
Funny how the problem magically went away when she demanded they demonstrate the issue to her.
I drove from Gainsville FL to Nawlins in one September day (during lovebug season), so basically the length of I-10, and I was pretty startled to see a good number of abandoned cars, several burned-out wrecks, 2 actively burning wrecks, and lots of roadkill armadillos.
As someone in the south, yeah the fucking cars on the road down here can be downright terrifying. At least a few times a day I see cars that I actively avoid. And I mean I turn off the road I’m on to get away.
Part of that is also cars rust away in the northeast because of the salt. Cars in socal don't. So yes it's totally plausible that the 70s car was mechanically sound and safe
Where I live, they set up checkpoints sometimes at mountian passes in the winter. They turned people around or fined them. Too many big pileups because of some idiot with bald or summer tires despite the numerous massive warnings on all the exits that it's a legal requirement.
Does the US not have something like the TÜV in Germany? We have to bring the car in for inspection every second year and if it doesn’t pass you have to fix the issues or you are not allowed to drive it on public roads anymore.
Lol, no. Safety and emission inspection requirements are left up to the individual states. Currently only 15 states require safety inspections. Of the 35 states that don't require are also 15 states that don't require any emissions testing either. There are only 5 states that require annual safety and emissions testing. In my state, I could go to a salvage yard and pull the most rusted out hunk of junk, register it and get a license plate just as long as I have a valid title of ownership.
Not in all states. There are two states that don't require car insurance at all and two others that don't require insurance that covers injuries to other people from a car accident that you caused. Of the remaining states, there are many of them that have such low minimum ($5000 in property damage coverage) that virtually any at fault accident would max out the policy.
The amount of cars that are unsafe and on the roads is astounding. Almost, almost makes me want mandatory inspections, but there are obvious issues with those too.
I’m genuinely curious here, does this person know anything about cars? Like… remotely?
I’m serious because it took a [Home Improvement sketch](https://youtu.be/dTcf_VHliCU?si=waVoaMehMAX5nSSx) about oil in engines to get my brother with a masters degree to understand why cars need oil and oil changes.
This is dangerous on so many levels that it ain’t even funny.
Ditto. In some professional circles small talk is a minefield if you enjoy hands-on hobbies/activities. Lawncare? Ew no, I have people for that. Working on the car? No, why? it's leased. Home improvement? Get away from me, you're one of those poors! Fuck I hate engineering sometimes.
Maybe, anecdotally though most that I know that way are mechE's. Not because there's anything wrong with mechanical, but it's just kind-of like the default job that gets pushed - definitely good ones exist but there are lots that really don't have mechanical aptitude/interest. They still get by OK because most aren't doing actual design work - paperwork/meetings/supervising. Some of the scariest shit I've seen is when one of these types has to do a demo or something; one of those rare times they're hands on. Since they think it's 'beneath them' they, paradoxically, assume they automatically know how to do it; too much pride to ask for help.
Meanwhile half the professional engineers I have have an amount of tools rivalling tradespeople, and have a longstanding relationship with at least one hooptie they're either driving or restoring. That said, I'm in mechanical engineering/asset management on the industrial side and half of us have done some time as maintenance fitters. Probably weeds out some of those with airs and graces about the whole thing
With all the various safety/reminder features in vehicles now it’s not like before where you either knew or killed a car. Now it’s just “oh some light came on I’ll take it to the shop” it’s astounding the amount of people that don’t even know what the maintenance light means
Which is depressing. I blame the education system and lack of knowledge spreading like crazy. Even before I wanted to be a mechanic and when I was a teenager, I knew a pull or random sound was never a good sign, and bald tires were unsafe to drive on.
I thought that was common knowledge.
Auto shop used to be relatively common. Now it’s mostly at larger schools with very deep pockets. My high school had it until the 1990s when there were barely 300 students there.
Maybe not, but the knowledge that mechanical things require lubrication to prevent excessive heat from friction, as well as the consequences of no friction between a two ton object and the surface its moving on certainly should be.
There's a difference between full-blown auto shop and the basics of self-sufficency that used to be taught in the now-extinct home ec classes.
Where I grew up, home ec stopped being mandatory in 1992 and stopped even being offered in 1997. My age group was one of the last classes that had access to it. And it was a VERY useful class. Everything from basic cooking and clothes mending to basic household repairs, the basics of household electricity, basic automotive upkeep, how to balance bank accounts/checkbooks, rather in-depth personal finance, and all the other "life skills" our parents were supposed to teach us but never did.
I'm fucking 40 and I'm STILL pissed that the "college prep" track completely interfered with all of the voc-ed classes like shop, welding, and small engine repair, AND that the school gave me absolutely no fucking choice in what classes I could take because I was smart and "would surely go to college" even though it was very clear there was no way in fuck I/my family could afford college. So I graduated highschool as salutatorian with no life skills, no ability to go to college, and no job prospects other than unskilled manual labor. Fucking thanks, Illinois.
how to do the maintenance? sure
basic concepts should aboutley be taught though.
"Suck squeeze bang blow" is a much more useful factoid than "mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" (although using that particular mnemonic probably wouldn't go well in middle schools)
Ironically I’ve seen some vehicles go way too long on original hardware underneath (my Lincoln MKZ was neglected by previous owners… every ball joint was loose and the rear control arms were screwed). That was a fun thing to do at 215k miles. Every suspension piece I saw was an OEM one. Probably never replaced since new.
Speed goes up, torque goes down as you go through the transmission, any gear that’s a higher ratio than 1:1 is basically an improper fraction and lower is overdrive and gas saving.
That’s the easiest way I could explain gear ratios, at least for a transmission lol
My buddies girlfriend in college seized her engine on a 3 year old car on her way to see him once because she didn’t think it mattered to change her oil because it was a newer car. She said her dad told her a year ago that it was probably due and she just didn’t do it. She claimed some lights were flashing on the highway on the way over but she just kept going and the thing seized in our driveway. The dipstick was rusting there was so little oil in it. It was at least 20k overdue on a Chevy engine known to use oil.
I've known academically brilliant people who wouldn't survive a day in sections of Chicago.
There's a difference between book smarts and street smarts. You can have one, the other or both.
Or occasionally, neither.
I’m curious about another thing - in my country every car needs to go through a yearly inspection. If you don’t go, or don’t pass, your car is flagged and will be immediately pulled over if you’re driving it. Is this not mandatory in some way also in the US? Or is it a state-by-state thing?
It's state-by-state. My state (Texas) is getting rid of them after this year.
A lot of people dislike the inspections because they are ignorant and think their hazardous vehicle can only affect them, unable to understand that if they are unable to brake correctly that they can kill others. You'll find others that acknowledge how dangerous a neglected vehicle can be to others but think that if a person can't afford to maintain their vehicle then they should still have the right to endanger others. Then there are those who see no benefit it vehicles being inspected for road-worthiness and see inspections only as a "money grubbing scheme".
The funny thing is that Texas is removing the inspections but still taking peoples money for them. Or if you buy a new car you have to pay a *higher* inspection-less inspection fee. The politicians who argued for the removal of inspections claimed it would save people from wasting time away from their family but the irony of that is that there's [literal studies](https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/JTEPBS.TEENG-7320) showing that vehicles with defects (ones that would be caught via inspection) in the state of Texas are 3 to 3.5 times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident. The lawmakers ignored those studies, though, and were unable to show any study of their own that supported their claims that safety inspections are a "waste of time".
Boyyyyyy now you better be ready for the *"...but you last worked on it"* special when their poorly maintained car starts doing new poorly maintained car things :(
I could also be jaded from years of fixing iPhones, meaning I had to help relatives as well
>"...but you last worked on it"
I work in IT, I actively refuse 99% of all tech help outside of work unless its my parents or one of my best friends just because of this.
They didn’t make a sound. She did mentioned that they squeaked at some point and it went away. I had to inform her that it was probably because the most of the pad surface stopped touching the rotors
Thad nice of you to fix her upcoming problems while she’s visiting. She obviously has no idea of what is and isn’t safe, so for real, good on you for keeping an eye out on the stuff that can make or break someone’s vehicle 🤙
It’s because she knew you wouldn’t let her leave like that. Sometimes I think people do this shit to me on purpose, let things get really bad until I see them and get irritated.
That’s the response of someone who knows. In February of this year a Highway Patrol officer popped his lights on me for speeding (very speeding.) I just ignored him for like four miles and he just turned off his lights and went away.
So many younger people are like this it’s insane. They have absolutely zero desire to learn a gd thing about maintenance they just wanna drive and want it to be convenient and cheap at all times.
Is there no such thing as an MOT in America? Every car > 3 years old in the UK needs an MOT to be road legal, it’s a safety inspection. Your insurance is invalid without one. Here, in Northern Ireland, the MOT can’t be done by any old garage either, you have to take it to a DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) test site so they can’t scam you and you can’t bribe them.
This a Ford? Looks like my Focus pads that for a reason known only to ford, don't have a wear bar to make a squeak when they're low. First week I had my focus it went from "brakes are OK" to "guess I'll drive home with the handbrake" because they went from fine to grinding the back of the pad. Why they removed the squak bar/tab I'll never know.
It really should be part of learn to drive courses…. Basic care maintenance/inspection. Nothing too fancy but just the obvious.
Thankfully my State has rigorous yearly inspections & the cops have the power to defect or impound unsafe cars.
Pads and rotors I have seen worse. They are due for repl but I could drive around a bit more. Especially if they are rear brakes. The tire!!! That's a death wish at any speed
That's a good friend. Hoping by the grace of all of the gods to make it there and back. Must be protected at all costs. And gently corrected so they will be able to visit again!
Unfortunately many folks are not sensitive to the "feeling" when things aren't working. Still IF they had their oil changed the should have been told.
Then again there are the folks that "...... Its good, until its not"
Hey, there's still like 30% brake pad seating there! 🫠
Suddenly I don't feel so bad about swapping my pads and rotors after one of them developed a gouge from debris.
Thankfully Texas is getting rid of any inspections at all. Because surely all of the cars in that state would pass, and the state decided to do away with those because they were a waste of everyone’s time… right guys… right?
And a significant portion of the cars on the road are just like this.
I spent most of my life in New England and the safety inspections could be pretty strict. But it was weird to me going from So Cal where you had cars from the 70s (~30 years old at this point) that were still being daily driven to New Hampshire where almost nothing was more than 10 years old unless it was a registered antique. But I got used to it, and New York is similar with safety inspections. Then I visited the south. Holy shit. The interstates to and from New Orleans is littered with derelict cars, abandoned where they die, and nothing could have prepared me for the 1990-something Buick that was the color of rust, missing both bumpers AND the drivers door doing ~80 into Slidell.
Pls don’t dox my Buick. Thanks.
Ricky?
That's a 1975 New Yorker! Drive doesn't work but third does, neutral is park, reverse is second
“I know how to drive Ricky” -Trevor
That sounds like the 88 Thunderbird I used to own. Thing was a deathtrap. Paid $300 for it and ran into the ground.
A-fuckin-a-toe-da-so
Don't lose that number
Come to Michigan where we have road salt and no inspections!
[удалено]
Ah, kind of like that old *Top Gear* where they tested 70s British cars by driving them at 40mph over a bump-track course, with a colander of raw eggs affixed to the headliner over the driver’s head, and scored them at the end by how much egg remained in the colander? “New Michigan inspection process. Drive your car across town and into the test center, and if more than 70% of the trim and mechanical components remain attached… you’re good to go!”
Found it! Series 10, episode 7, 3rd challenge.
Come to the uk, we don’t wear our tyres out, we burst em on craters
I love that you can tell where the council boundaries are, by the roads. One road I regularly have to drive on has the new 20mph limit (it's a very wide road, no houses) and is an absolute crater filled section. At the top of the hill, it's a different council district. Speed limit is 30mph and no potholes, yet now there are houses...
Yeah, my town is terrible for craters, there’s a jumbo one near me that’s killed my tyres twice in the last month, it’s impossible to avoid if there’s parked cars
There's one that I always hit, but only when I'm towing the kitchen trailer. There's a good reason I switched to runflat tires, much thicker sidewalls.
In high school in the South, a couple buddies of mine bought a super cheap Volvo S40 to be stupid with. Removed the hood, front and rear bumper, exhaust, rear seats, and the doors, and put cheap Chinese knobby tires on it. They bought it to hoon around in fields, but it was still registered in that condition so they could make part store runs lmao.
That's some very smart buffoonery.
I think they got the thing in running condition for like $500 and split it between the two of them. This was back in 2012ish. To be fair, they got it registered before they ripped it apart lmao, and got stopped by police more than once. Their response was usually "My Swedish Jeep still has more airbags than an actual Jeep" One of them is now an aerospace engineer for Raytheon.
I live in the south and the state I live in has no safety inspections and no emission inspections. Anything goes here.
Same here in Northwest Arkansas
Its all of Arkansas.
I didn't even know that states without inspections existed! What state is yours?
Most states dont
Georgia has no state inspections, emissions is only required around Atlanta, and iirc many diesels are exempt, at least my work truck is
Looks like mostly a northeastern thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/7HqAWf0i7G
CT doesnt do safety inspections unless youre trying to register a salvage/repaired title car. as you can imagine, we got some hoopties here that shouldnt be on the road ever again.
Not op but I'm from TN and we don't have inspections. We also don't have emissions testing in my area as of 2022.
I’m in Wisconsin, we have no safety inspections, and only eastern Wisconsin around Milwaukee has emissions testing. It’s scary in the winter with lots of snow on the ground and parking next to a car and seeing tires like these.
I always noticed an uptick in the abandoned cars on the way to NOLA the Friday before Mardi Gras. I presumed college kids found some beater and overloaded it with kids and beer to try and make the drive and hitched a ride the rest of the way. The other thing you notice is the ass hole swerving in and out of traffic is always rocking a temp tag.
Born and raised in Louisiana. I was mindblown when I learned other states inspections check brakes and whatnot. All they care about here is tint, no cracks in drivers view, and brake lights blinker, and headlights work.
Pretty much; on paper the La inspection process is actually pretty comprehensive but most places don't bother doing more than the absolute minimum.
I was threatened physically by more than one customer because I failed their car on a NC. state inspection. Used to make me laugh. Made me laugh more when they refused to pay....no pay, no car.
They were talking abt doing away with them here but I guess bill never passed. I think they are pointless people who are driving around hazards are not getting an inspection sticker.
In the early 90s the inspections were a lot more rigorous. They had to actually road test you r car to pass it. Problem was they wouldnt inspect if the roads are wet. Well in Louisiana, certain times of the year, they are allways wet.
Yeah that's pretty much Texas plus insurance card
And here we are in Texas, losing our safety inspections at the end of the year. Idiots.
We will see a TEXAS EDITION CYBERTRUCK within the year and it will be horrendous.
With a mandated annual trip to Mustang Island to get it hung in the sand.
WTF..?!
California will take you off the road if you emit one hyrdrocarbon than allowed at your annual smog, but you can drive a dangerous, unrepaired hoopty sh\*tbox until the cows come home and state government doesn't care.
Yep yep yep. My parents had a 1984 Cadillac that was falling apart but it passed emissions so it was allowed to be registered in Cali.
I have a feeling they’re going to. Ca has been ramping up the current inspection process for salvage titles the last couple years. Once they get it all ironed out, in my opinion, I expect safety inspections on used car title transfers at dealerships then private transfers then biannually after a car reaches a certain age. Knowing ca it will happen in about 20 years tho.
I bout spit all over myself laughing at that. I was stationed in Biloxi for a while, the trip back and forth was always a sight to behold lol.
Good old keesler AFB
Yump, had a Marine in my class that was from Slidell, taught me how to catch crab with a drumstick lol.
Yea run'em til the wheels fall off is a serious phrase. Also .. 1994 was 30 years ago the 70s was 50ish. You must be atleast 40, I too do that alot.😅
I think he meant, “at the time of this anecdote” but yeah, every so often I realize that it’s the *80s*, not the *60s*, that were 40 years ago at this point, and I have a minor freak-out.
I’m still grappling with the fact my mother would have been 65 this year 😵💫
Doesn't Louisiana have inspections? I just spent 3 months there this past spring. A month at Lake Bistineau State Park and the other 2 months at the state parks around New Orleans. I swear I saw inspection stations. That said, I too saw abandoned cars on the highways as well as a couple road kill gators.
The inspection process is this: $20 cash (very insistent on the cash part) Guy stands in front, signals you to turn on your lights and both turn signals, beep the horn. Guy goes behind, turn signals and tap the brakes. Then hops in to drive it around the lot and writes some shit down and puts a new sticker on. Or you get some one on a power trip who sees a crack that is at the very bottom of the windshield, like I'm 6 foot 3 so for the crack to be in my vision the pedestrian would have to be already hanging on the hood and me hunched down, and says they can give you a red sticker for failing. My wife knew a guy who gave anyone stickers because her car had tint and too many cracks to pass inspection (this was before we met and I got the "death mobile" up to code).
When we lived in Pittsburgh (ca. 2000), my wife took her car for an inspection at a place that subsequently insisted the ball joints needed to be fixed and would not allow her to drive it away; had to be fixed immediately (or towed to another location). Funny how the problem magically went away when she demanded they demonstrate the issue to her.
They do them but they are just worried abt tint and if lights work.
I drove from Gainsville FL to Nawlins in one September day (during lovebug season), so basically the length of I-10, and I was pretty startled to see a good number of abandoned cars, several burned-out wrecks, 2 actively burning wrecks, and lots of roadkill armadillos.
As someone in the south, yeah the fucking cars on the road down here can be downright terrifying. At least a few times a day I see cars that I actively avoid. And I mean I turn off the road I’m on to get away.
Do a look at Louisiana politics both now, and its history some time. It makes perfect sense.
I live in Connecticut and never had a safety inspection except when registering a used car.
VEHICLE INSPECTIONS VIOLATE MAH RIGHTS!
Part of that is also cars rust away in the northeast because of the salt. Cars in socal don't. So yes it's totally plausible that the 70s car was mechanically sound and safe
Safety inspections in New England? Where exactly? Aside from emissions I haven’t had a single safety inspection
O_0 New Hampshire
Where I live, they set up checkpoints sometimes at mountian passes in the winter. They turned people around or fined them. Too many big pileups because of some idiot with bald or summer tires despite the numerous massive warnings on all the exits that it's a legal requirement.
Does the US not have something like the TÜV in Germany? We have to bring the car in for inspection every second year and if it doesn’t pass you have to fix the issues or you are not allowed to drive it on public roads anymore.
Lol, no. Safety and emission inspection requirements are left up to the individual states. Currently only 15 states require safety inspections. Of the 35 states that don't require are also 15 states that don't require any emissions testing either. There are only 5 states that require annual safety and emissions testing. In my state, I could go to a salvage yard and pull the most rusted out hunk of junk, register it and get a license plate just as long as I have a valid title of ownership.
But I hope car insurance is mandatory, right?
Not in all states. There are two states that don't require car insurance at all and two others that don't require insurance that covers injuries to other people from a car accident that you caused. Of the remaining states, there are many of them that have such low minimum ($5000 in property damage coverage) that virtually any at fault accident would max out the policy.
I’ve never been to a state who doesn’t require car insurance. Im not 100% sure but I’m fairly confident all 50 states require car insurance.
This is exactly how Massachusetts operates but it’s a state regulation not a federal one.
The amount of cars that are unsafe and on the roads is astounding. Almost, almost makes me want mandatory inspections, but there are obvious issues with those too.
Can confirm, that tire has more tread than mine 🤣🤣, too broke to replace it due to poor money management, and I don't drive often lol
I bet they came knowing you would fix it for the homeboy price if they just said “my car started making weird noise on the way over here”
Ain’t this the damn truth.
I’m genuinely curious here, does this person know anything about cars? Like… remotely? I’m serious because it took a [Home Improvement sketch](https://youtu.be/dTcf_VHliCU?si=waVoaMehMAX5nSSx) about oil in engines to get my brother with a masters degree to understand why cars need oil and oil changes. This is dangerous on so many levels that it ain’t even funny.
the majority of people are clueless when it comes to cars and maintenance anymore.
I've run across a few that are actively proud of it, class warfare gone self-defeating :(
Ditto. In some professional circles small talk is a minefield if you enjoy hands-on hobbies/activities. Lawncare? Ew no, I have people for that. Working on the car? No, why? it's leased. Home improvement? Get away from me, you're one of those poors! Fuck I hate engineering sometimes.
That's such a foreign concept to me. I've encountered anything like that, probably too poor lmao
I feel like this is endemic to software, not engineering writ large.
Maybe, anecdotally though most that I know that way are mechE's. Not because there's anything wrong with mechanical, but it's just kind-of like the default job that gets pushed - definitely good ones exist but there are lots that really don't have mechanical aptitude/interest. They still get by OK because most aren't doing actual design work - paperwork/meetings/supervising. Some of the scariest shit I've seen is when one of these types has to do a demo or something; one of those rare times they're hands on. Since they think it's 'beneath them' they, paradoxically, assume they automatically know how to do it; too much pride to ask for help.
Meanwhile half the professional engineers I have have an amount of tools rivalling tradespeople, and have a longstanding relationship with at least one hooptie they're either driving or restoring. That said, I'm in mechanical engineering/asset management on the industrial side and half of us have done some time as maintenance fitters. Probably weeds out some of those with airs and graces about the whole thing
My dad was a lawyer but he was from a working class family. He knew how to do basic stuff around the house and car and was proud to do it.
Ok
With all the various safety/reminder features in vehicles now it’s not like before where you either knew or killed a car. Now it’s just “oh some light came on I’ll take it to the shop” it’s astounding the amount of people that don’t even know what the maintenance light means
Which is depressing. I blame the education system and lack of knowledge spreading like crazy. Even before I wanted to be a mechanic and when I was a teenager, I knew a pull or random sound was never a good sign, and bald tires were unsafe to drive on. I thought that was common knowledge.
In no way should vehicle maintenance be on the education system.
Auto shop used to be relatively common. Now it’s mostly at larger schools with very deep pockets. My high school had it until the 1990s when there were barely 300 students there.
It's also in some rural schools, but still very, very rare.
Maybe not, but the knowledge that mechanical things require lubrication to prevent excessive heat from friction, as well as the consequences of no friction between a two ton object and the surface its moving on certainly should be.
I mean it is. Most schools require kids to take physics mechanics
There's a difference between full-blown auto shop and the basics of self-sufficency that used to be taught in the now-extinct home ec classes. Where I grew up, home ec stopped being mandatory in 1992 and stopped even being offered in 1997. My age group was one of the last classes that had access to it. And it was a VERY useful class. Everything from basic cooking and clothes mending to basic household repairs, the basics of household electricity, basic automotive upkeep, how to balance bank accounts/checkbooks, rather in-depth personal finance, and all the other "life skills" our parents were supposed to teach us but never did. I'm fucking 40 and I'm STILL pissed that the "college prep" track completely interfered with all of the voc-ed classes like shop, welding, and small engine repair, AND that the school gave me absolutely no fucking choice in what classes I could take because I was smart and "would surely go to college" even though it was very clear there was no way in fuck I/my family could afford college. So I graduated highschool as salutatorian with no life skills, no ability to go to college, and no job prospects other than unskilled manual labor. Fucking thanks, Illinois.
Considering that our country depends on automobiles to function, I think you might be wrong.
It shouldn’t… but it used to be very common at high schools all around. It did help.
I mean why not? The amount of people driving on bald tires is legitimately dangerous to everyone.
how to do the maintenance? sure basic concepts should aboutley be taught though. "Suck squeeze bang blow" is a much more useful factoid than "mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" (although using that particular mnemonic probably wouldn't go well in middle schools)
My buddies ex drove around with all blown shocks and metal wire poking out of her tires. She said she didn’t know you had to change those things
Yeah this is only the visible stuff, most likely that car hasn't been serviced like, ever
Ironically I’ve seen some vehicles go way too long on original hardware underneath (my Lincoln MKZ was neglected by previous owners… every ball joint was loose and the rear control arms were screwed). That was a fun thing to do at 215k miles. Every suspension piece I saw was an OEM one. Probably never replaced since new.
My BIL has a doctorate and I still can't make him understand how gear ratios work. I've tried for going on 20 years.
Speed goes up, torque goes down as you go through the transmission, any gear that’s a higher ratio than 1:1 is basically an improper fraction and lower is overdrive and gas saving. That’s the easiest way I could explain gear ratios, at least for a transmission lol
Masters in what?
Business administration if I’m not badly mistaken. Could be wrong, haven’t spoken to him about it in a while.
Well there's your problem. Or his, in this case haha
My buddies girlfriend in college seized her engine on a 3 year old car on her way to see him once because she didn’t think it mattered to change her oil because it was a newer car. She said her dad told her a year ago that it was probably due and she just didn’t do it. She claimed some lights were flashing on the highway on the way over but she just kept going and the thing seized in our driveway. The dipstick was rusting there was so little oil in it. It was at least 20k overdue on a Chevy engine known to use oil.
man, nostalgia overload haven't thought about that show in years
I've known academically brilliant people who wouldn't survive a day in sections of Chicago. There's a difference between book smarts and street smarts. You can have one, the other or both. Or occasionally, neither.
I’m curious about another thing - in my country every car needs to go through a yearly inspection. If you don’t go, or don’t pass, your car is flagged and will be immediately pulled over if you’re driving it. Is this not mandatory in some way also in the US? Or is it a state-by-state thing?
I live in Montana. There is no safety or emissions tests
It's state-by-state. My state (Texas) is getting rid of them after this year. A lot of people dislike the inspections because they are ignorant and think their hazardous vehicle can only affect them, unable to understand that if they are unable to brake correctly that they can kill others. You'll find others that acknowledge how dangerous a neglected vehicle can be to others but think that if a person can't afford to maintain their vehicle then they should still have the right to endanger others. Then there are those who see no benefit it vehicles being inspected for road-worthiness and see inspections only as a "money grubbing scheme". The funny thing is that Texas is removing the inspections but still taking peoples money for them. Or if you buy a new car you have to pay a *higher* inspection-less inspection fee. The politicians who argued for the removal of inspections claimed it would save people from wasting time away from their family but the irony of that is that there's [literal studies](https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/JTEPBS.TEENG-7320) showing that vehicles with defects (ones that would be caught via inspection) in the state of Texas are 3 to 3.5 times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident. The lawmakers ignored those studies, though, and were unable to show any study of their own that supported their claims that safety inspections are a "waste of time".
No need for strong brakes when the tires don’t have traction. That’s efficiency!
What do you mean? Those tires are semi-slick
Broke, ignorant or death wish?
Why can’t it be all?
Fair point.
*¿Por qué no los todos?*
Don't worry, my husband will fix it when you get here.
Boyyyyyy now you better be ready for the *"...but you last worked on it"* special when their poorly maintained car starts doing new poorly maintained car things :( I could also be jaded from years of fixing iPhones, meaning I had to help relatives as well
>"...but you last worked on it" I work in IT, I actively refuse 99% of all tech help outside of work unless its my parents or one of my best friends just because of this.
And you're changing them because you heard the screeching from 10 miles away.
They didn’t make a sound. She did mentioned that they squeaked at some point and it went away. I had to inform her that it was probably because the most of the pad surface stopped touching the rotors
Your wife's friend might need a new brain. Along with half the people on the road.tbh because shit like this is way, way too common.
Thad nice of you to fix her upcoming problems while she’s visiting. She obviously has no idea of what is and isn’t safe, so for real, good on you for keeping an eye out on the stuff that can make or break someone’s vehicle 🤙
More likely, senerio. Your wife's friend drove 300 mils to get her tires, and the brakes changed. Glad they made it ok
Damn she’s making you earn that threesome
Maybe not good for you, but definitely good that your wife's friend came to visit and get the car fixed up.
She risked her life to see yall. Thats a good friend.
Risk it for the threesome
A man of culture I see. Like your harbor freight socket set. 💪
I like it. I'm going outside to paint my old Husky set now.
I don't see any steel belt peeking through. Should be good for another five hundred!
That rotor on the bottom looks fine too.
Riding the Pittsburg rainbow
Just what a true friend would do, risk all regardless of outcome just to see his or her besttieeeeee 😍
People complain in PA all the time about yearly inspections. I always say, "Right, but you want the other car to be able to stop too".
Thems not tires ... thems gliders.
It’s because she knew you wouldn’t let her leave like that. Sometimes I think people do this shit to me on purpose, let things get really bad until I see them and get irritated.
This is why all states need safety inspections
Jesus take the wheel Or living on a prayer?
It’s 2024 and we still can’t fix stupid
Is she single?
Omg bless your heart
She made it didn't she? LOL
DON'T UPSELL ME!
That should at least earn you a bj.
You need to come to Colorado, where drivers find license plates offensive and standard protocol with traffic cops is literally running from them.
🤣🤣
That’s the response of someone who knows. In February of this year a Highway Patrol officer popped his lights on me for speeding (very speeding.) I just ignored him for like four miles and he just turned off his lights and went away.
Normal Chrysler owner activities
Am I correct in thinking those are colored sockets? I have been out of the business for over 20 years. Those look really cool.
Harbor freight set. The colors wear off quick
Okay, thanks for letting me know.
So many younger people are like this it’s insane. They have absolutely zero desire to learn a gd thing about maintenance they just wanna drive and want it to be convenient and cheap at all times.
Rolling the dice.
Nah, still good for another 10k
I'm honestly impressed with the wear pattern on the tire. She may not even need an alignment when she finally decides to replace those tires....
People like this are why we all have to pay for an annual safety inspection in some states.
Yikes. This thing is a danger to the public…
God be with people lol
Looks like it was almost the other way around.
I sure it all happened over those 300 miles. Cut them some slack! /s
Well tracking is fine but tires are overinflated 😝
Not a cable seen on that rubber.. he still good until the next inspection (at least in dry weather)
Is there no such thing as an MOT in America? Every car > 3 years old in the UK needs an MOT to be road legal, it’s a safety inspection. Your insurance is invalid without one. Here, in Northern Ireland, the MOT can’t be done by any old garage either, you have to take it to a DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) test site so they can’t scam you and you can’t bribe them.
This a Ford? Looks like my Focus pads that for a reason known only to ford, don't have a wear bar to make a squeak when they're low. First week I had my focus it went from "brakes are OK" to "guess I'll drive home with the handbrake" because they went from fine to grinding the back of the pad. Why they removed the squak bar/tab I'll never know.
It really should be part of learn to drive courses…. Basic care maintenance/inspection. Nothing too fancy but just the obvious. Thankfully my State has rigorous yearly inspections & the cops have the power to defect or impound unsafe cars.
Is she gonna drive back like that too?
Dat turn job tho
Wow. That is insanity. Must have been fun trying to brake that thing.
it just brakes slow, it's fine
Eh… the road to a friend’s house is never long…
Pads and rotors I have seen worse. They are due for repl but I could drive around a bit more. Especially if they are rear brakes. The tire!!! That's a death wish at any speed
The harbor freight sockets
I see those hobo freight colored sockets 👀
I still can’t believe we share the road with people who poorly maintain their vehicle. The lack of safety minded car owners is wild!
Are those the harbor freight color coded sockets… maybe Pittsburgh brand?
Jesus take the wheels
That's a good friend. Hoping by the grace of all of the gods to make it there and back. Must be protected at all costs. And gently corrected so they will be able to visit again!
And they seem to be SUV sized tires too. That would have caused one hell of a wreck when she hydroplaned or blew one out at 85.
Well they made it right?
I bet she didn’t even stop for gas.
They looked fine when she left.
They love you a lot then
Unfortunately many folks are not sensitive to the "feeling" when things aren't working. Still IF they had their oil changed the should have been told. Then again there are the folks that "...... Its good, until its not"
Well... Most of those miles were on highways. So they wouldn't need to use the brakes much?
Man them brakes was grinding. She must also be a good driver or one hella lucky one. It started to rain ☠️
And here I am, replacing my tires at 50% wear because they’re ever-so-slightly noisier and harder.
Such a waste.
Not to the people I sell them to each time. They get a set of rubber that’s been well taken care of, rotated and aligned every 5000-7500km.
Glad to see new parts
Hey, there's still like 30% brake pad seating there! 🫠 Suddenly I don't feel so bad about swapping my pads and rotors after one of them developed a gouge from debris.
Your wife’s friend is a danger to themselves and others 😬
You mean they drove 300 miles to get their car worked on for free….
Guy or girl?
Is she suicidal ?. Why would someone drive with a car in that state.
I enjoy the sound of rain.
Bet he was pretty tired. You should give him a brake.
Dont need brakes to go foward.. just to stop 🌚
Make sure you say good bye
Thankfully Texas is getting rid of any inspections at all. Because surely all of the cars in that state would pass, and the state decided to do away with those because they were a waste of everyone’s time… right guys… right?