The "Things I Dislike About My Car" Thread

[Secret Chimp]

I want the RX-8 carnage report already

[Raza]

1.  Never thought about buckling the passenger side seat belt into my side.  I'll see if it works.

2.  I hate seat belts when i have to twist and turn my upper body which you have to do to parallel park or or move the car back and forth in a tight parking lot which is everyday for me.  If you're skinny its probably not a big deal.  I am not skinny (5'9", 205 lbs).

Hmm.  I'm about the same size as you and I've never had that issue.  I also go from tight garage to tight garage (my workplace garage is better than my apartment's garage).  But everyone's different.  I feel weird being in a car without the seatbelt on, even if I'm not moving.  When I'm stopped, car off, and I'm waiting for someone or something, I still keep my seatbelt on. 

[Raza]

Onslaught!  What happened to your car, man?

[68_427]

I keep my seat belt on at all times as well.

My car lacks some options as far as lumbar support.

[Onslaught]

I want the RX-8 carnage report already

Oh, sorry. I forgot about this. Check engine light came one and I looked up the code and it was listed as a  "miss-fire."  It's all worked out now and wasn't a big deal but when you bring an RX-8 into the shop the first thing that comes out of their mouths is "new motor." You car is running bad? Oh, well put a new motor in it. You spilled some coffee on your seat driving? New motor. Girl friends on the rag and won't put out? We've got a new motor right here for that. I'm in no way saying that the 13B is near as reliable as a piston engine. I know full well that it's not. But I'm starting to think that some of the problems with these cars is the fact that rather then actually working on them when something comes up they just put a new motor in the thing. Before they checked the plugs, coils, gas or anything it was "new motor" time it seemed like to me.

And I put the fault on RX-8 owners too. I'm in the Charlotte RX-8 club and I don't get these guys. If I had a modern day car and the motor blew out at lets say 80K I'd be pissed off to no end. But these guys just love trying to get a new motor! One guy has an 8 and it was at 98K and almost out of the engine warranty and the car was running great. His cat was getting a little plugged up but other then that they couldn't find anything wrong with it and it passed it's compression test with flying colors. If I was him I'd be happy as hell that my car was running well. But he messed around with his car enough to makes some problems come up so he could get that new motor he wanted so bad. And now the replacement one he's got is running like shit and he keeps taking it back to the shop every other week bitching about it. As someone who works on cars my #1 rule is if it's not messed up the DON"T FUCK WITH IT. So at 99K is my cars running fine it will have the same motor in it had in it from day one.

But to answer the main question, bad coil. I also think I had a really bad tank of gas too because it was running like SHIT after I filled it up that week.

[Secret Chimp]

Oh, sorry. I forgot about this. Check engine light came one and I looked up the code and it was listed as a  "miss-fire."  It's all worked out now and wasn't a big deal but when you bring an RX-8 into the shop the first thing that comes out of their mouths is "new motor." You car is running bad? Oh, well put a new motor in it. You spilled some coffee on your seat driving? New motor. Girl friends on the rag and won't put out? We've got a new motor right here for that. I'm in no way saying that the 13B is near as reliable as a piston engine. I know full well that it's not. But I'm starting to think that some of the problems with these cars is the fact that rather then actually working on them when something comes up they just put a new motor in the thing. Before they checked the plugs, coils, gas or anything it was "new motor" time it seemed like to me.

And I put the fault on RX-8 owners too. I'm in the Charlotte RX-8 club and I don't get these guys. If I had a modern day car and the motor blew out at lets say 80K I'd be pissed off to no end. But these guys just love trying to get a new motor! One guy has an 8 and it was at 98K and almost out of the engine warranty and the car was running great. His cat was getting a little plugged up but other then that they couldn't find anything wrong with it and it passed it's compression test with flying colors. If I was him I'd be happy as hell that my car was running well. But he messed around with his car enough to makes some problems come up so he could get that new motor he wanted so bad. And now the replacement one he's got is running like shit and he keeps taking it back to the shop every other week bitching about it. As someone who works on cars my #1 rule is if it's not messed up the DON"T FUCK WITH IT. So at 99K is my cars running fine it will have the same motor in it had in it from day one.

But to answer the main question, bad coil. I also think I had a really bad tank of gas too because it was running like SHIT after I filled it up that week.

Oh, well that's good. I thought it was going to be something like there was a massive bang and you took a rotor to the knee.

[Raza]

Nice.  Not nearly as bad as you made it seem to be.  No big deal, really. 

[Onslaught]

Nice.  Not nearly as bad as you made it seem to be.  No big deal, really.

Those post came from the Mazda dealership. At the time the one guy up front made it sound like he thought it needed a new motor. So at the time of those post I was pissed off. Then I forgot about this page.

[r0tor]

My RX-8 is nearly perfect except for the red leather on the steering wheel losing its color.

The transmission and gearing on the Jeep absolutely are horrific.

[cawimmer430]

I hate the cheap plastic hubcaps which cover the even cheaper steel rims which are my winter tires.

My summer tires are finally on! Yay! 

[cawimmer430]

Yay. With summer tires and a full tank, I have a nice range of 705 km provided I drive with a cruising speed of 130 km/h and ideal conditions.

[CJ]

My car needs new suspension. It's just getting old.

[giant_mtb]

I dislike that the car decides whether or not the gauge lights should be on during the day.  The needles are always lit up, but it can never decide if it should have the numbers and everything else lit up.  I wish they'd just be on all the time; or at least not "automatic."

[Raza]

I dislike that the car decides whether or not the gauge lights should be on during the day.  The needles are always lit up, but it can never decide if it should have the numbers and everything else lit up.  I wish they'd just be on all the time; or at least not "automatic."

Gauge lights should be off unless your headlights are on.  I've seen too many idiots driving in the dark with their face light up and the road in front of them dark. 

[cawimmer430]

My car needs new suspension. It's just getting old.

The Lexus?

[CJ]

The Lexus?

Yeah. After 13 years and 135,000 miles, it's getting a bit tired.

[cawimmer430]

Yeah. After 13 years and 135,000 miles, it's getting a bit tired.

Only 135,000 miles? Lexus quality for you. 

[CJ]

Only 135,000 miles? Lexus quality for you. 

Let's see your BMW suspension last this long, or any car for that matter. Just regular components that have Worn out,

[cawimmer430]

Let's see your BMW suspension last this long, or any car for that matter. Just regular components that have Worn out,

The stress on the suspension when I'm doing 200 km/h+ must be insane. 

[MexicoCityM3]

Got 11 MPG on my last tank on the V8. Record low. Average speed of about 15 mph. Had a particularly bad run of Mexico City traffic.

[Mustangfan2003]

I've been traveling a lot lately and the 14 gallon gas tank sucks. 

[cawimmer430]

 



Pulled into the gas station after this photo was taken. I have a 50-liter fuel tank and I replenished it with 48.7 liters of premium gasoline. Had 1.3 liters left in the tank. 29 km range? Not to shabby! But that was probably because I was driving at 50-60 km/h. If I had gone faster the estimated range would have dropped big time!

[MexicoCityM3]

Pulled into the gas station after this photo was taken. I have a 50-liter fuel tank and I replenished it with 48.7 liters of premium gasoline. Had 1.3 liters left in the tank. 29 km range? Not to shabby! But that was probably because I was driving at 50-60 km/h. If I had gone faster the estimated range would have dropped big time!

We should start a "How low can you go?" thread about computer range estimate thrills. I've been to zero on the 328Ci I had and made it.

[cawimmer430]

We should start a "How low can you go?" thread about computer range estimate thrills. I've been to zero on the 328Ci I had and made it.

The lowest estimated range I've ever had displayed was 6 km - and the tank was literally empty. When I filled it up I had less than a liter of gasoline in  the tank. That was very close!

Never gotten it down to zero - and I wouldn't want to since here you'd get fined money for running out of gas!

[MexicoCityM3]

The lowest estimated range I've ever had displayed was 6 km - and the tank was literally empty. When I filled it up I had less than a liter of gasoline in  the tank. That was very close!

Never gotten it down to zero - and I wouldn't want to since here you'd get fined money for running out of gas!

Going down to zero was stupid. I wouldn't ever do it again. Fuel system can be damaged if you run out of gas and that can get expensive.

Have you seen Seinfeld? There was a very funny episode just about this.

[Mustangfan2003]

I hear the number one cause for fuel pump failure is running too low too often. 

[cawimmer430]

Supposedly, running out of fuel with a diesel car will have far more serious consequences on the engine/system than if you run out of fuel on a gasoline-powered car.

[SJ_GTI]

The lowest estimated range I've ever had displayed was 6 km - and the tank was literally empty. When I filled it up I had less than a liter of gasoline in  the tank. That was very close!

Never gotten it down to zero - and I wouldn't want to since here you'd get fined money for running out of gas!

I have gotten down to a range of 5 miles on my S4, but was on the highway with a gas station available at every exit (every ~3-4 miles) so I wasn't in any real danger. I was just going somewhere specific and wanted to wait until I got to "my" exit before stopping at a gas station.

I normally fill up when my car gets between 1/4 and 1/8 full, which is roughly 2 weeks of driving for me.

[Raza]

I got to 0 in the Passat a couple of times (never by design).  That was the last car I had with a rangeometer. 

[Lebowski]

The corvette just says "low" after a certain point and I've gotten there. I think almost all cars build in an idiot buffer to these types of warnings as well as the fuel gauge itself.