But you will have these other odd things?
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Maybe it is better to just wait & hope for help arrive. Side of the road repair attempts can be very dangerous.
Mostly of a different āstoryā but just creative roadside emergency solution to a cooling fan problem. I bought my '02 Envoy from a mechanic. (2nd owner). When I went to look at it, he walked me around and pointed out all of itās little flaws. The little paint chips heād filled with touch up paint. The button missing from the whatever switch in the cab. Told me about the HVAC actuator that prevented āfaceā mode on A/C & heat.
And at one point he chuckled and said something like - āand oh yeah. I never put the headlight washers back in order.ā
It has a washer system for the headlights (similar to windshield washer system). He was on a road trip and the fan clutch went. It was a hot summer trip and they ran into some traffic. He pulled the lines for the headlight washers and directed them at the radiator. Stuck in traffic and getting too hot? Squirt squirt squirt. It got him home without overheating, he said. I liked this guy immediately.
(And P.S. I also havenāt done a thing with the headlight washersā¦)
I always have a tool bag with all the basics in the trunk, along with spare belt(s). Sorry call me crazy, but it just makes sense to me. Why get stuck where a tow may be 2 hrs. away, if you can get going again in half that time.
Pull into a parking lot.
Are you ever more than walking distance from home?
A new belt is $3. Install a new belt, place the old belt and tools inside the truck under the seat.
Thatās pretty clever. I doubt Iāve have thought of that idea to mitigate overheating.
I get a laugh when I watch some show and a modern car is stuck on the side of the road with a problem. They pop the hood, and the clever character fiddles around with a pair of pliers and fixes the problem. All in a minute or two.
Not gonna happen.
No math needed. This site sorts it automatically for you.
Thatās not what I was suggesting.
There are many frequent top posters whose content is valuable and well worth reading and learning from.
Itās the posts of no value that get old spending time reading.
But because this is an open forum, anyone can choose to post whatever content they choose (within the site guidelines), regardless of whether those posts add value or not.
If the posts bring value to the majority, then they will stay. Else the death-by-1000-cuts will continue to degrade the site.
Fair points, but suggest to explain how to differentiate the āfluffā from the āvalueā content?
One suggestion I mentioned before would be to list the top ten most frequent posters here with the number of ālikesā and āsolutionsā awarded to each of them. Then weād have some measured data.
It depends on the definition of āwalking distanceā. Given enough time I can walk a long distance.
And i find it odd how much more pleasant snd less confrontational this place was during the few months you werent here.
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Iām having a hard time believing someone that as a maintenance plan takes the boots apart on his cv axles to clean and re-grease among other (useless to most) things would ever let his belts (rather Serp or V) ever get old enough to ever breakā¦
I actually just made a couple wrenches out of bar stock and a couple sockets to use on the tensioner, along with the spare belt in the trunk. I donāt know about the zip ties but a little wire for a fallen exhaust comes in handy.
If you want to be prepared for the possible or eventual break of a v-belt on your vehicle why do you worry about some off-the-wall convoluted substitute when you can buy a tried and proven replacement that is fully adjustable and easy to install replacement?
Here is just one of many sources for a V-belt replacement and two or more can be joined together to create any size beltā¦
Or here is an idea, just replace your belts now and be done with it for a whileā¦ If something came apart and slung your belt off, chances are, that a replacement will do the same thingā¦
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There is a movie, Bombers B52, where Karl Malden is an AF mechanic. When Karl Malden takes his family on vacation their old car starts overheating. He says itās the fan belt again, fixes it with a pair of pliers!
The Movie āBombers B-52ā was made in 1957ā¦ In the video (linked belowā¦), Karlās car, a 1940 Buick Super 8, overheats (at about 10:30 into the videoā¦) and Karl says, it canāt be that fan belt and his wife ask him why he does not buy a new one. Any case, he sends his daughter to open the steaming radiator and after it blows, his daughter puts cold water into the Hot Engine, Oh yeah, heās a great mechanicā¦ Karl did not get out of his car at all, no pliersā¦
Heh heh heh. Even then Hollywood was not filled with car guys. Old cars overheated a lot. I think the water pumps were the problem. They should have just done the vapor lock and she could have poured the cold water on the fuel line. Never liked the guy though.
+1
Additionally, if a cop wanted to search my car, and if I was carrying used pantyhose in the trunk, I donāt think I would be eager for him/her to see it. You never know what types of crimes might have taken place in that town to which something like this might (temporarily) tie you.
I used to work with a guy who wasnāt wrapped very tightly, and when a woman rejected him, he drove to her home with a shovel, rope, knives, and a āmanifestoā in his trunk, and he assaulted her. The cops came before he could kill her, but the stuff in his trunk resulted in him serving a longer sentence in the slammer.
I tagged @LoudThunder the best overall āsolutionā, post 6. @Nevada_545 's idea above to install a new belt and keep the old belt in the vehicle as a spare is a good one too, b/c you know it will fit. Carrying only a new belt as a spare runs the risk it is actually the wrong size and wonāt work when you most need it to.
I presume you are referring to my routine maintenance task on the Corolla to periodically remove the CV joints, clean the internals, and renew them w/ fresh lube. I donāt ātake the boots apartā though. I move them out of the way to access the CV joint, and may replace them depending on their condition. The task procedures are described in maintenance section of the factory service manual. Whether this is a useless procedure or not, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, in over 200k miles on the Corolla, Iāve never needed to replace a single CV joint or half-shaft.