I think I found the error when I'm working on cars...

You're probably not holding your mouth just right when you say it.

As someone told me, I'm using the wrong language to boot.

I need to have Ray drill me in Japanese 'explitives'...

Jeremiah Wright had the same dilemma.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I use English when I'm working on cars...

LOL! Hit that one on the head!

But the problem is, we have Japanese cars. One of the mechanics I have said, they don't understand English, so he learned a few choice words in Japanese for when he works on Toyotas and Hondas...

I doubt if I know 10 Japanese words. I know ichiban (Number 1). I know dozo means please, but there was a slightly different pronunciation used on ships to mean "steady as she goes". I know the words for oood morning, good afternoon and good evening, but I don't know how to spell them aright. ohiogosimas, konichiwa, kombowa is how Dad used to pronounce them, but I'm sure that's not quite right.

Charles

(PS sometimes I tell drivers they're number one, too! )

Other than yelling the occasional "Hai!" at it, I don't know what to yell at a Japanese car when I'm upset with it. I don't get upset with them often enough, I guess.

Charles the Curmudgeon

Don't work on rusty old ones, I gather...

I don't think that there is a large vocabulary in Japanese for situations when things don't go quite right when working on cars, or if there is, I never learned it.

On the other hand, my American vocabulary got lots of use when trying to get the rusty bolts off of the transmission pan on a '97 Escort - there is no transmission pan drain plug, all of the bolts were pretty corroded, most were obstructed by a cross member, you have to unbolt the transmission mount and raise the engine and transmission, and then try to remove the pan while it is full of fluid without dumping it all over the place. What I thought was a half hour job turned out to be around 6 hours, and I'm not really done because I probably should do someting about the pan bolt that snapped off.

I live in an apartment, I don't even really have a parking spot that I can work on them. I suspect that if I had the hood up more than a few minutes to check fluids, they might call the tow truck.

This is the same goofball that converted over 300 apartments to condo after the bubble burst. Now he's raised his price from 120,000 to 150,000! And he's not getting many takers.

Charles the Curmudgeon.

I purchased a transmission filter at the same time I got the ATF before I crawled under the car to see the setup and didn't realize what I was up against. I figured "how hard can it be?" Besides, I don't have a fluid sucker outer because I've never had a reason to get one, but I will the next time the fluid needs changing! Now that I know that the filter is just a screen and there is no real reason to change it unless the transmission is toast, I'll probably just drain and refill through the fill tube. BTW, changing the ATF fixed the slippage and shift shock.

FIPG is about $12 a tube from your Toyota dealer! ;)

I'll check to see if it leaks - if it does, then I'll get the old bolt out, otherwise, it's not worth the effort.

Right, if it's a Toyota Camry, Avalon or Solara, make it a Kentucky accent, and if it's a Nissan, make it a Tennessee accent. No problem if it's a Honda, just learn a few Ohioisms.

Charles reminds me of my time on R and R in Tokyo, when I was buying a new suit and having it fitted at the tailor's. I did know the word "dozo" meant please, and that morning I'd gone with a friend to the Nihon Denshin Denwa building where he'd made an overseas phone call, and figured out that it meant "Japan Telegraph and Telephone". I was in the fitting room, where the seamstresses were plying their trade at the sewing machines, when the phone rang in the other room. An employee then came into the fitting room and announced "Yoko-san, denwa dozo...." and I instantly thought "Ah, Miss Yoko is wanted on the phone please..." ......and in another instant I thought "Holy moley, I can speak Japanese!"

Your thinking is correct.

All my cars except the Legacy begin with "J"