What have you learned in your old age that you feel should be taught to high school students?

I have too much fun buying and selling old cars. Of the 4 I have right now, one is for parts, a junky convertible that I drive around, a very low milage one in a storage unit, and a hatchback sedan that I also drive around (well, until the headlight wiring bit the dust).

You have 4 Geo Metros?

True, new cars do need less maintenance. In my opinion, that still doesn't make the repairs any easier when they need done (if anything, the repairs are usually more complex than old roomy engine compartments, when it can only be a basic few issues for a problem).

I disagree on tires. I've owned multiple 40+ year old vehicles and the full size spare is still solid.

I have a 1968 full size bias ply spare tire on my '68 Galaxie right now. I've put 200 miles on it. The only reason that it really needs to be replaced, is because it's basically bald.

Old bias ply tires last FOREVER (at least in storage). I will agree, that the tread on a bias tire does not last as long as a radial in use.

True, but that's also relevant to modern oil technology. I always use semi synthetic and good filters for 5K miles between changes, no matter the car.

The trouble with computers, sensors, and the like in new cars, would be that all too many times one OBD2 code could mean any number of sensors failed. I've had enough frustration chasing these problems down in some of the late 90's S10s that I've owned. One truck had 13 codes... yes,

1. I said to heck with it, and didn't bother again on that one.

I agree that you have a point, that the basics should be taught first. I'm in my mid 20's, and I'm self taught... I had no one to teach me. It's amazing what one can learn from YouTube videos these days.

I have exactly one OBD2 era car, and if a code pops up, that's off to auto zone to read the code, and try to decipher from there. OBD1, just jumper terminals and count the check engine blinks to find the code. That's been reliably easier for me, in early 90's cars.

Nor have I with my 2005 Hyundai Elantra, but I have seen the likes with vehicles from the last 5 years. Read into high end vehicles like BMW's.

Very true, and some OBD2 codes can have multiple meanings to chase down.

Very much so, especially with rusting bodies.

That depends on the person. I won't spend over $1k on a car, usually far less.

I have a set of Pittsburgh wrenches, both quarter inch and 3/8 inch drive, that my grandfather bought new years ago, both are metric-only. Likely because he only had standard tools up until that point. Perhaps quality has gone down hill since, but those things are very solidly built, and I always keep them in a car that I take on road trips.

Lol who's "senile"...? I'm in my 20's, dude...

I don't know about modern cars but they used to be machined into the head. For a light cleanup you lapped the valves manually. One video is

1000 words:

The next step down the road to destruction is if the seat is too rough to clean up. Then you took it to a machine shop for a regrind. Basically it was a stone of the right angle that was positioned by the valve guide. If the guides were worn, you'd replace them first.

Grinding the seat also means the valve is sitting lower than the original design. If life really had turned to shit and the seat was bad enough that it couldn't be cleaned up, then they would machine out for a pressed on seat.

There are a lot of variations when you get into performance engines. A multi-angle seat has one angle where the valve actually seals and two or more angle to try to smooth the flow. Porting the heads tries to smooth out the flow. Cast heads are usually pretty rough and can introduce turbulence in the air flow. The shade tree mechanic goes in with a die grinder and smooths angles until it looks shiny and pretty. More sophisticated people put the head on a flow bench to measure the actual effect. Fluid dynamics aren't always intuitive. More people than one have ground away little bumps that were there for a very good reason. DI fuel injection may have changed that game too.

You'd have to ask a shop guy but I think valve jobs may be rare for modern engines. Carbed engines tended to lean out, raising temperatures, and raising hell in general. Of course lean is good for emissions and epa averages so it's a balancing act. Screw up and you wind up in Dieselgate. Volkswagen had finally come up with a usable diesel in the TDI and got f***ed by the EPA bloodhounds.

I had a 4 cylinder. If you read Consumer Reports it was an uncomfortble, slow deathtrap only suitable for short city trips. I made a few runs from Montana to southern Arizona with no problems. True, there are 3 passes in Utah where it would slow down to 55 or so. otoh I've driven those same passes in a big rig at 27 mph. you just have to be patient.

The only complaint I had with the car was its green color. Park the thing in the desert to go hiking and you'd better drop a GPS breadcrumb if you ever want to find it again lurking in the saguaros.

I would immediately disable that.

I've noticed that in lots of newer cars. My Hyundai sits me up too tall, yet I still can't see the hood. Backing up is easy since it's a hatchback, but it's difficult to judge the front end.

I'm glad that my cars are too old for those chipped keys. Those are a money racket. The 2005 Hyundai does have a key lock remote thing. It wasn't worth it to me to replace the dead battery in it.

I don't remember any special tools either. It wasn't a bad job, maybe a couple of hours. I was on call so had to hang around the shanty anyway. The car had round 100,000 miles. I bought it used with no maintenance records so being an interference engine I figured $40 for a belt was worth the peace of mind.

Considering a Harley belt is about $140, a cheap peace of mind too.

Sometimes... Toyota used low rolling resistance tires on the Yaris (thank you CAFE). They were used up in 20,000 miles. I replaced them with coopers that handled better and have much longer tread life.

Yup. I had a Lincoln where most of the devices, including the climate control, was vacuum actuated. It worked great until it didn't.

Pittsburgh is their hand tools. Chicago is the corded stuff. Chicago is pretty close to Milwaukee, right?

No, I was asking why you have 4 and you have answered that question.

Modern automotive construction has really messed things up. You used to be able to grab the firewrench and turn a sedan into a pickup real easy. That was long before they thought to make those cowboy Cadillacs.

No experience but Pittsburgh is the HF house brand for wrenches etc but Amazon also sells Pittsburgh which might complicate matters.

You have to be fast on your feet. Chicago Latrobe is part of Greenfield and has quality (expensive) drill bits and taps. Chicago Pneumatic is also a reputable company for air tools. HF sells their air tools as Central Pneumatic and they definitely aren't the same. Many of the power tools are Chicago Electric, again not the same and definitely not Milwaukee.

Deceptive? Maybe.

Amazon also sells Kobalt, which is a Lowe's brand. Personally I think Kobalt and Pittsburgh are a toss.

I think 2022 will be a shambles for the Democrats. I hope to hell somebody can come up with a candidate in 2024 that doesn't trigger my gag reflex.

I forgot about that. My Geo was a 'blink three times' deal. I have a scangauge that I used on the previous two Toyotas but now cycling through the odometer button tells me most of what I ever looked at. I don't know if it reports error codes though.

Best thing to do is consign Peeler to the nearest shitcan. He/she/it may be the most filtered person in a.h.r.

DeSantis.