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DIY Car Repairs: Safety Tips And More
Having spent a fair part of the weekend tinkering around with a screwdriver trying to see what was wrong with the electric windows in my Ford Fairlane, I thought I’d better talk a bit about DIY car repairs and maintenance. To my fellow female motorists, this is something that I really encourage you to have a go at. For one thing, it can save you a couple of bucks, same as it does for any DIY person; secondly, it makes it less likely that the few male chauvinist pig* mechanics out there are going to try to rip you off if you do end up having to take your car to an expert – they’re unlikely to charge you for “fixing” something that wasn’t wrong if you tell them precisely what’s wrong. And if Her Majesty Elizabeth II of England (and, for the time being, Australia) can do it, so can you!
There are some things, however, that are best left to the experts. Things to do with electric and electronics, for example. You really need to know what you’re doing with this sort of thing, same as you would for a computer (probably because it is practically a computer). The only exceptions are fuses, spark plugs and light bulbs – they’re easy enough for a DIY person to do. Turn the ignition off first.
The internet has made it easier for DIY motor repairs people, as you no longer need to buy a book of diagrams or grab one from the local library. You can usually find a collection of videos or diagrams online easily enough. It’s smart to familiarise yourself with what things are supposed to look like before you begin.
When you get around to tinkering with your car, you should always bear a couple of safety tips in mind:
- Don’t smoke and keep the garage well ventilated.
- Unless you actually need to run the engine, make sure that it’s cold before you start poking around.
- If you have to get underneath your car and you have to raise it (not always necessary if you’re thin or if your car has high ground clearance), then put it on proper supports rather than just a jack or on a wooden box. Make sure that you put it in gear and put the handbrake on to stop it rolling backwards. Even a small little hatchback could crush you if it comes down on you.
- Let someone know that you’re working on the car just in case, especially if you have to go underneath it.
- If near moving parts, tie back long hair, wear tight fitting clothing and remove jewellery.
- Keep alcohol out of the picture.
A few basic tools will do the job for DIY work on the car, although real enthusiasts will probably invest in some fancier ones. Personally, my rule of thumb is if it can’t be done with the basics, it’s a job for an expert (or else for my husband’s friend Trev, who is one of those enthusiasts with lots of tools). Occasionally, you need a few other simple tools that you are likely to have around the place. Sometimes, when my husband has been working on a car, that tool is me – an extra pair of hands to hold this, put pressure on that or pull that. Especially as small female hands can get into gaps that big bloke hands can’t.
My suggested toolkit for basic DIY car repairs comprises the following:
- Screwdrivers – star head and flat head, and possibly one of those fancy square head ones as well;
- Socket set;
- Adjustable wrench;
- Can of WD-40 or CRC 5.56
- Pliers, especially long-nosed ones
- Light hammer – not for banging anything on the car but for tapping the wrench to get that stubborn nut started without risking your knuckles
- Spare nuts, bolts, screws and washers.
Lastly, you need a dollop of common sense. That’s the essential tool. Also the ability to give up and take the thing to the mechanic if you need to.
*Small rant on the topic of male chauvinist pigs and car repairs. While hunting online for a good image for this post, trying to show a woman fixing a car, most of what I came across was either a woman staring at the open bonnet and generally looking helpless, or else some cheesecake picture involving skimpy clothing (often tight-fitting torn denim a la Daisy Duke) and artfully applied smears of motor oil. Grrrrr!
Convicted Driver Still Road Legal on 54 Points
Most of the time, if you asked me if I believed in the concept of luck, chances are that I would say no. However, there are occasions that most definitely question this belief of mine. And my latest news nugget from the United Kingdom is one of these very occasions. Due to a series of monumental misunderstand and lack of communication, a man from Kent (UK), despite having 54 points on his driving license, is still legally allowed to drive on the road. Not only is this an eye-watering figure, it also smashes the previous record of a man in Liverpool who had 45 points on his license.
Keith Baldock from Kent, had a long history of convictions from drink driving bans, driving without insurance and stealing petrol from other cars. When taken to court, he was handed a 30 point punishment (5 per conviction) by the judge. However, Baldock managed to convince the judge to let him remain able to drive, using the reasoning that he needed his car for his profession as a mobile tyre fitter.
Keith Baldock. Image Credit: Facebook
The problem came when the court realised after the sentencing that Baldock had already collected 24 points from previous convictions, but due to a lack of communication between the courts and the DVLA (Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency), this fact had passed unnoticed. Furthermore, the law states that any change in the ‘substance of a sentence’ must be done within 56 days. This time had passed, which meant Mr Baldock had gotten away with it.
When I first heard this, not only was I outrageously shocked, but I was overcome with the dark cloud of confusion. I just do not understand how anyone could have committed that many driving offences and still, under any construction, still be deemed able to drive on the roads with law-abiding drivers. Furthermore, how can one person be so catastrophically bad and immoral when it comes to driving that they amass 54 points. I will let that number sink in some more. 54. There are a large range of offences that will get you ‘Penalty Points’ on your record. The most common offence is most probably going to be speeding, which will gain you a whole 3 points.
Now obviously the procedure of handing out points is a long and complex issue, so I have helpfully provided the above link to explain how it all works. But, to keep it nice and simple, lets say that to gain yourself 54 points, you would have to commit 18 speeding offences. It takes a special kind of moronic idiot to manage that. Clearly in this case of this guy, I have found this special kind of moronic idiot. This explains the high levels of shock I am experience. But what about the confusion.
The other side of my reaction is total and utter confusion. Once I had managed to process the fact that someone had managed to amass such a number, I was then struck with another thought. How has the driving authorities managed to still grant this guy the legal right to be able to drive on our roads? On my roads? I too am a resident of Kent, so chances are I have to share the roads with this guy. Maybe I have come into contact with him before. It is a worrying thought. I don’t often feel unsafe on the road but knowing that the courts and the driving authorities that be are allowing people like this on the road, it does unsettle me slightly.
Let’s examine the facts here…
- The law states that you can be disqualified from driving if you collect 12 or more penalty points
- This rule applies in the time period of 3 years
- Points remain on your license for anything from 4 to 11 years
- Points on your license significantly increase your insurance premium
First of all, we have the question of disqualification. If 12 is indeed the usual limit for disqualification, how did Baldock manage to persuade a judge that 30 was still acceptable to have while driving on the road. In most cases, drivers cannot be banned if they rely on their car for their job. In less extreme cases, this is a perfectly acceptable statement to make. But to be handed 30 points in one ruling must surely be an isolated circumstance that can overrule this. Especially as the conviction included counts of theft, dangerous driving and driving without insurance. This is not the kind of person that should be allowed on the road.
I have known people to have received 6 points on their license and had their insurance premiums jump up rather dramatically. Similarly, I would therefore imagine that trying to get insurance following a ban would have you paying through the roof. So what would happen when you try and get insurance when you have 54 points and have previously been banned? But then again, this would clearly not be a problem for him considering he was driving without insurance anyway. This is clearly a sound strategy, and will not in any way get him in yet more trouble in the future. Clever one this one is.
But there is one issue with this whole debacle that bothers me more than anything else. In what universe did BOTH the courts and the DVLA not manage to realise that this guy already had 24 points on his license. That is double the number of points that would constitute a disqualification. And they managed to forget this? All that was needed was a simple bit of communication between the two. Surely it cannot be that hard, all the courts had to do was look into his driving record. And considering the severity of the situation, why did they not go directly to the DVLA and work together in finding the best punishment for this erm… gentleman. Due to this very basic and downright embarrassing mistake, this man managed to retain the right to drive, when personally I would have permanently removed his driving license. It is not even like it was a single offence, but Baldock is a REPEAT offender.
Keith Baldock, you are one of the luckiest men I have ever had the displeasure of hearing about. Yet, you have managed to make me believe in luck. To you sir I say congratulations, for being a colossal moron yet still managing to get away with it (mostly).
I would love to hear your views on the matter!
Follow me on Twitter @lewisglynn69
Keep Driving!
Peace and Love!
Timed Traffic Lights?
Have you ever had one of those days when it seems like you get caught by every single red light on your daily commute? Traffic lights have been annoying us for a very, very long time. Apparently, the first lights were set up in the UK back in 1868 (yes, in the country that also brought us speeding tickets). These lights used variations on railway signals and controlled the bustling traffic outside the British Houses of Parliament. London has had traffic issues ever since… The original lights exploded after less than a year of use, as they used gas for the lighting system. The USA then copied the idea but threw in electricity for lighting (thanks, Mr Edison) and added a yellow light.
Nowadays, we’re all familiar with the red-yellow-green system. However, a few people need a bit of a reminder that the yellow (also known as orange or amber) actually means “slow down and prepare to stop” rather than “put your foot down so you can get into the intersection before the light turns red”. j
I guess I’m not alone in sitting at an intersection waiting at a red light and wondering “How much longer am I going to wait for?” Other questions that flit through my mind is whether or not it’s going to be worth popping the gear into neutral or not while I’m waiting rather than sitting there with the auto still on Drive and the brake on.
And it looks like there are starting to be attempts to answer this sort of question. There are rumours on the internet of a new LED traffic lights system that has been designed by someone named Thanva Tivawong. This design gets rid of the traditional row of three lights (more if you’ve got a multilane intersection with left and right turn arrows, plus lights for bikes or buses or trams) and replaces them with an hourglass shaped display. The hourglass changes colour and “sand” trickles down, showing how much more time you’ve got left before the lights change. They also have a “get ready” yellow light between red and green – a sort of “ladies and gentlemen, start your engines” signal so you know when to start getting in gear.
Comments on the web have included queries about how colourblind drivers are going to cope, as you don’t have the usual red up the top, green down the bottom convention (which was put in place for the sake of colourblind drivers). I guess something could be sorted out – horizontal stripes for red and vertical stripes for green, maybe.
As far as a quick flick around the web can make out, it’s unclear whether or not these lights are actually installed anywhere yet. They may still just be a concept. Certainly, there would be a lot of legal hoo-hah and research before they actually get adopted anywhere.
This isn’t the first time a designer has tried to include time left into a traffic signal. There was the “Marshalite” design that came out in the 1940s that had an arrow that travelled around a circle like a clock hand, moving from red to green, with a brief segment painted amber. These were an Aussie innovation and several of these were around Melbourne until the 1970s. You can still find one on display somewhere in the Melbourne Museum.
But I have to admit that the traffic light system that I liked best was the rather basic one that they had in La Paz, capital of Bolivia, in the late 1980s, when I lived over there. Most traffic lights outside the city centre were operated manually by a cop, except late at night when there wasn’t much traffic (not sure what they did then – I was never out that late). The cop would sit there flipping the switch up and down, with a brief pause in the amber section that showed yellow for all directions. There were no problems with hoons using the “get ready to go” signal as an opportunity for a drag race, as there was a cop there watching everything. The cop would usually change the lights when the waiting traffic on any road built up to a certain level. Usually is the operative word. Most motorists knew perfectly well that if a chauffeur-driven Mercedes swept along, standing out like a sore thumb in the middle of the Beetles, Ladas and Pajeros, the lights would be operated in its favour… after all, it could be a government official or the head of police in there. The human factor would also come into play if you were (a) good looking and female, and gave the cop a nice smile; or (b) had a heap of kids waiting to cross as pedestrians.
It probably isn’t the world’s most exciting job and it probably doesn’t have to be done by fully-fledged cops, but couldn’t this sort of system be a solution to unemployment problems?
Driving Barefoot; Driving in Thongs; Driving in High Heels
“You can’t wear those when pay for homework you’re driving,” my father said, pointing to the high-heeled shoes I was wearing at the tender age of sixteen when I was getting one of my first driving lessons. “There’s no way that you can operate the pedals properly in those.” So I ended up taking that lesson driving barefoot.
I have to confess that I like driving barefoot. People talk about enjoying the feeling of the steering wheel and the more hands-on method of driving provided by manual gearboxes or paddle-flapper semiautomatic gear shifting. But not much has been mentioned about the sensory pleasure and subtlety of what you do with your feet. If anything, the trend seems to be to use your feet as little as possible, given the trend towards auto-braking on top of automatic transmissions and cruise control. A naked foot applies brake and accelerator (OK, I drive an automatic) with minute shades of control. A little pressure here, a slight bit of easing off here, a brief flicker of the brake there. Simply shoving one’s hoof down for maximum acceleration followed by jamming on the brakes seems, well, crude. Like scribbling with a vivid marker, whereas driving barefoot is more like delicate pencil sketching.
Cars tend to like that sort of driving, too, as it doesn’t create as much wear and tear. So does your wallet, for the same reason.
However, the problem with driving barefoot comes at the end of the journey, as where you’re parked is less likely to be pleasant to walk on without something between you and the elements. Quite often in the warmer months, that something is a pair of thong sandals (aka flip-flops or jandals or whatever else you want to call them – you know the things I mean!). All the same, I don’t drive in them.
Contrary to popular myth, it is legal to drive barefoot (how could it not be?) and it is also legal to drive in thongs, except, apparently, in Victoria. However, it isn’t safe to drive in thongs, even though a lot of people do it, especially in our warm climate. There have been road safety studies in various parts of the world, and it seems that thongs might slip off and interfere with the operation of the brake and the accelerator because they can jam underneath the pedals. Describing and visualising how this happens can be tricky – the best bet would be to go out to your car in a pair of thongs and, with the engine off, fidget your feet around a lot and see what happens.
It’s also a dumb idea to kick your thongs off and leave them floating around by your feet, as they can still get stuck and/or in the way. Chuck them into the passenger seat or stick them in the glove box (who keeps driving gloves in the glove box these days, anyway?).
You do get some stories about people not braking properly when driving barefoot because a sharp stone is sitting on the brake pedal and they jerk their foot back automatically. But how often does this sort of thing happen really? I usually go through a little ritual of sliding my feet up and down the brake pedal before I start the ignition (partly because I’m readjusting the seat after my husband’s been driving), which gets rid of any stones.
And as for high heels… well, obviously, not many of you guys wear them. They do put your feet at an awkward angle for applying the pedal (into the passenger seat with them and drive barefoot again). They also have next to no grip and slide off pedals at the wrong moment into the bargain. However, this wasn’t the case for one car I’ve driven. This was a late 80s Alfa Romeo of my grandmother’s, and the accelerator pedal was at an awkward angle that meant that you had to either raise your heel from the floor to operate it or floor the thing. How Italian is that? Either high heels or furious driving. The more recent Alfas have, thankfully, corrected this fault. However, in my grandmother’s car, I struggled along for most of the trip getting a very sore ankle and calf as I drove along with one heel in the air. Then the sneakers came off and I ended up using my bare toes to operate the accelerator. It still hurt and I was glad when that trip was over, but it was a lot better than the high heels.
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