Beware the Killer Car Trunk!!!

[Ackee]

The players in this horrible game I call my job.

This is quite unique, I love this description

[repsac]

AHHHH it's the demon trunk!

I remember my father telling me years ago about this car that he and his business partner had rented while at a week long meeting. The car was one of those newer lincoln types and had it where the door locked after you traveled a short distance.

Thing was, there must have been a short somewhere with this particular one. Every time the doors locked, the trunk popped open.

[myswtghst]

I've trained dogs who were smarter than that--they caught on after the first or second time they were punished!

Sorta OT, but this reminds me of an incident with my father, who is generally a very smart man, but occasionally does dumb things.

My mom bought a new apple cutter (one of those circular jobbys that you just put on top of the apple and push down to slice and core it) which was apparently quite sharp. My dad used it to cut up an apple, and cut himself, not once, not twice, but three frickin times before he gave up. We still make fun of him for that one.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My ex got a flat once and ended up having to leave the truck in a restuarant parking lot overnight (the spare had recently replaced another flat). I took him to get a new tire the next day and we went over to fix it. The bolts came off fine but he had such a hard time getting the tire itself off...and if he couldn't do it, I sure as hell couldn't. Plus it was pouring rain and me holding the umbrella wasn't working to keep him dry. He finally got the thing off and threw it as far as he could...rolled halfway across the lot before it fell over.

Yeah, his truck sucks. Tires are the least of his problems. We used to joke that when he got a new car someday we were going to find a big cliff and push the damn thing off.

[Noelegy]

Ah, Vice Grips. My favorite fix it, beat-it-til-it-dies, tool-of-many-uses. No toolbox or glove compartment is complete without a pair or two

nitpick
VISE grips! VICE grips might be another thing altogether...
/nitpick

[Hobgoblin]

I'm a lot stronger than I look, but I even have trouble getting the damn things unscrewed. A lot of places use a machine to tighten them, which sometimes leaves them too tight for a human to loosen.

That's exactly why no one is supposed to use the impact wrenches to put the bolts back on. I watched them do it one day, then waited till they pulled my car out of the bay. I asked the manager what I was supposed to do next time I got a flat (I hit a piece of steel in the road and popped my two right side tires). He was confused, so I repeated the question. I told him what I had seen, and then watched him explode. Well, not explode, but it was awesome. He made the mechanic unscrew them (first made him try by hand) and apologized to me. He also discounted my service that day (since I bought 4 tires and had my alignment done). I was happy. It was $50 off what would have been close to $500, so I was REALLY happy. I didn't even ask for that to happen.

I'll never go anywhere else for service after that. If management looks out for me like that, I'll see them as much as possible.

[Banrion]

That's exactly why no one is supposed to use the impact wrenches to put the bolts back on.

Actually it's not the impact wrench that's the problem, It's the mechanics who are too lazy to check and use the appropriate torque settings on the guns. It is also possible that maintaining factory spec, may make it difficult to loosen by hand, that is not the fault of the shop or the mechanic, and it is for your own safety.

[evilhomer]

If I can't get the bolts to turn, I simply place the tire iron on it so that the handle sticks out parallel to the ground, and then put my feet on it so that my entire body weight is pushing down on the thing. So far, that method has not failed me.

Something else that can be done is to place a long hollow bar onto the iron. The extra length gives you a lot more torque.


My dad had a minivan that had a hatch that always wanted to crack your skull. We used a stick to prop it up but once in a while would forget. Of course one whack on the head would keep us clued in for at least a couple of months, and certainly clued the next person in.

[AFpheonix]

I think the only time I had trouble changing a tire was on the way to Oklahoma last summer and a rear tire on the truck blew. For starters, I couldn't get the spare off the truck (there was a lock on the hole that you put the stick in to crank the tire down from the undercarriage.). Two, when I attempted to jack up the pickup after getting the nuts loosened, the combined weight of the pickup and the fully loaded horse trailer started making the jack bend So I had to lower it back before it fell.
Hey, it wasn't even my truck, and I get bonus points for being the only person out of the 4 to even know what to do. Yay for learning how to drive on a crappy car!

The moral of the story? Get a decent jack other than the factory one to keep in your car, and also get a star-wrench (whatever you call the 4-armed kind). Lots faster than the little ones that come packaged, usually.

[Hobgoblin]

Something else that can be done is to place a long hollow bar onto the iron. The extra length gives you a lot more torque.

Also known as a "cheater bar." We used those all the time in the foundry. Amazing what happens when you add an extra 6 feet of steel bar onto the wrench. Everything loosens up after that.

[protege]

Also known as a "cheater bar." We used those all the time in the foundry. Amazing what happens when you add an extra 6 feet of steel bar onto the wrench. Everything loosens up after that.

This is true. However, very few people have a 6-foot bar handy at the roadside

Oh, and a hammer works well too. I found that out when trying to remove the bolts from the MG's seized bumpers. I put the biggest wrench I could find, and even that wouldn't shift the nuts. I wasn't about to heat it, since even though the fuel tank wasn't there, I wasn't about to possibly set the car/house/me on fire I simply put that wrench on, then used a hammer to hit it, and to (hopefully) "shock" it free. It worked great

What's really fun though...is *not* being able to get the damn tire off! I ran into that several times with the Tercel. Imagine removing all 4 lugnuts, and *not* being able to get the rim off. After many moments of I found out what was happening. Turns out the extreme heat from the rear brake drum would "fuse" the alloy wheel onto the hub. However, a swing or two with the hammer and it would always come off. A way around that was to smear some grease on the hub, and it wouldn't do that.

[bean]

As for the changing of a tire, I really think everyone should learn how to do it. I've known how to do it since I was 10. It's come in handy a few times.

Good god, even if I didn't know how to change a tire by the time I was 15, my driving instructor went over it when I took drivers ed. It's a pain, but I can do it quickly.

(I knew how by the time I was 11 or 12)

[Andara Bledin]

Yikes. After #2, I'd be telling everyone how not to get whacked in the head with the trunk lid. Some of those can be damned heavy, too. I actually got whacked by one because of gusty wind.

On the changing tires thing: My 50-year-old, 5'3" mother changes tires! That marine should be ashamed.

As for "safety," if you read manuals on changing tires, you only need the lug nuts to be tight enough that the tire is held on firmly and won't wobble.

I once had a flat on the way to visit my boyfriend. It was my mother's car. So, I pull over, pull out the spare, jack up the car, and start working on the lug nuts. I get 1 of the 5 to budge. The other 4 are on so tight that I'm nearly breaking the (admittedly cheap) star I'm using to get them off.

So, I call my boyfriend. I figure that between my 200lbs and his 300lbs (I'd already tried bouncing on the wrench) we'd be able to do something. He gets there and we start working. Even between us they won't budge. Although the star made some rather unpleasant noises at the stress.

We give in. We call AAA. I hate calling AAA for a flat, but I needed to get the tire changed. The guy gets there and we explain the problem. He looks at us both like we're complete morons and gets down to start working on the lugs. It's at that point that he gives us the credit of having a brain cell between us.

Eventually we've got me bouncing on his higher quality star, him pulling up on the other side, and my boyfriend holding the other side of the central arm to stabilize it. Lather, rinse, repeat 3 more times and we finally get the stupid tire off.

There's no excuse other than laziness for any lug nuts to be so tight that you can't loosen them with about 10 lbs of pressure. The tow driver shared in our bitchfest about mechanics with hydralic wrenches. He told us that you're only supposed to use the hydraulics to remove them, and to put them 3/4 of the way back on, but that the finish should always be done by hand.

^-.-^