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thewayneRusset and I get our oil changed at a little shop in Alamogordo. This sort of shop usually gives your car a once-over: check fluid levels, pump up the tires, etc. It's the tires that you need to watch out for.
On the vehicle plate mounted on the frame of the driver's door there is a specification for proper tire inflation from the factory's perspective. On my car I should be running 35 psi on my front, 32 psi on my rear. Last weekend of August, I checked the inflation on Russet's Subaru as she'd be driving to Albuquerque (where the towels are oh so fluffy!) to catch a flight to Ohio (much cheaper to drive to Albuquerque than to fly out of El Paso), so I also checked my tires while I was doing hers. Thus, all my tire pressures were pretty much spot-on.
Friday, before I headed to Phoenix, I had to get my oil changed. I'm sitting there watching out of the corner of my eye, and somebody walks up and pumps air into my left rear tire. In all fairness, 32 psi does look a little low, but it's what the factory says to do. A few minutes later, someone else puts MORE air into it! Finally all is done and I leave, hitting Checker Auto for a new air filter and a voltage inverter to power my laptop for my travels. I replace the air filter and double-check my tires. No surprise, the left rear is over-inflated, so I take it back to its proper level. Here's the kicker: they didn't touch the right rear! It was inflated to the same (original) level, thus would appear to have the same level of flatness, yet they didn't touch it.
*sigh*
SO, check your tires when you get your oil changed! It's probably not a problem if you get it done at a dealership, but you never know.
We bought a voltage inverter last year for one of Russet's long drives, it's something like this one. Big, bulky, generates a lot of heat. Russ took it with her to Albuquerque so that she could have her laptop read fic to her all the way and she'd still have a full battery charge on the plane, which left me needing one. So, as mentioned above, while I was at Checker I bought one, just like this. It's definitely inspired by the iPod design motiff, not that there's a huge problem with it. It performed flawlessly though it still got a little warm on the drive, but my surprise came the next day. Saturday afternoon I took off to get photo supplies. It was over 100f (or close to it), and my car had the windows rolled up as rain had been kind of unpredictable, so it was 5-10 degrees or more hotter in the car. As soon as I started the car, the fan on the inverter kicked on.
Let me clarify: eight solid hours of use driving to Phoenix, and I didn't know the little bugger had a fan! I was quite pleased. Not only that, but the one now in Russet's car generated a lot of electrical noise (i.e. 60hz hum) when powering my laptop into my stereo in the Toyota. This new one doesn't produce said noise.
Wayne is a happy camper.
On the vehicle plate mounted on the frame of the driver's door there is a specification for proper tire inflation from the factory's perspective. On my car I should be running 35 psi on my front, 32 psi on my rear. Last weekend of August, I checked the inflation on Russet's Subaru as she'd be driving to Albuquerque (where the towels are oh so fluffy!) to catch a flight to Ohio (much cheaper to drive to Albuquerque than to fly out of El Paso), so I also checked my tires while I was doing hers. Thus, all my tire pressures were pretty much spot-on.
Friday, before I headed to Phoenix, I had to get my oil changed. I'm sitting there watching out of the corner of my eye, and somebody walks up and pumps air into my left rear tire. In all fairness, 32 psi does look a little low, but it's what the factory says to do. A few minutes later, someone else puts MORE air into it! Finally all is done and I leave, hitting Checker Auto for a new air filter and a voltage inverter to power my laptop for my travels. I replace the air filter and double-check my tires. No surprise, the left rear is over-inflated, so I take it back to its proper level. Here's the kicker: they didn't touch the right rear! It was inflated to the same (original) level, thus would appear to have the same level of flatness, yet they didn't touch it.
*sigh*
SO, check your tires when you get your oil changed! It's probably not a problem if you get it done at a dealership, but you never know.
We bought a voltage inverter last year for one of Russet's long drives, it's something like this one. Big, bulky, generates a lot of heat. Russ took it with her to Albuquerque so that she could have her laptop read fic to her all the way and she'd still have a full battery charge on the plane, which left me needing one. So, as mentioned above, while I was at Checker I bought one, just like this. It's definitely inspired by the iPod design motiff, not that there's a huge problem with it. It performed flawlessly though it still got a little warm on the drive, but my surprise came the next day. Saturday afternoon I took off to get photo supplies. It was over 100f (or close to it), and my car had the windows rolled up as rain had been kind of unpredictable, so it was 5-10 degrees or more hotter in the car. As soon as I started the car, the fan on the inverter kicked on.
Let me clarify: eight solid hours of use driving to Phoenix, and I didn't know the little bugger had a fan! I was quite pleased. Not only that, but the one now in Russet's car generated a lot of electrical noise (i.e. 60hz hum) when powering my laptop into my stereo in the Toyota. This new one doesn't produce said noise.
Wayne is a happy camper.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-07 07:33 pm (UTC)I love lifetime warrenties. I got a lifetime brake replacement warranty at Sears in 1990 or so for my ol blue car. We got free brakes last summer :)
I got the lifetime alighnment at Firestone about the same time - Firestone people groan when they see us and say "That car is STILL running?" lol.
That's cool about the power inverter. My mom got me one from Costco for ol blue cause my old cell phone only had about 20 min talk time and the car charger quit workin. I haven't tried it yet - Sprint gave me a new phone (they fried my old one) and then my blue car had a refusal to start problem. I don't have a car charger for the new phone so if I go on a trip I'll take the power inverter just in case.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-08 12:59 am (UTC)One of these days we'll be living near a bigger city. :-)