Today my race prep time included listening to a replay of the famed tappet bros on my local NPR station. Those wacky purveyors of car repair fame have made a career out of offering off-beat advice to those with car problems. From coast-to-coast, they come on the radio asking what's wrong with their late model vehicles. That's when the lightbulb went off: the My350Z 'maintenance and repair' section is slowly descending into that level of entertainment.

While we try our best to offer factual information in this section, many recent posts fail to offer much information on their late model Z. They complain of a strange noise, or maybe their Z pulls to one side. Maybe it's a drivability problem or they can't pass emissions in their state. And while it would be helpful to post up how many miles are on their car, what kind of mods might be involved, or whether there was any damage that might explain some of the symptoms, that information gets left out of the original post.

In replying to a recent question on this forum, I suggested the OP jack up their car and support it on jackstands to examine the problem more closely. In another thread, I asked about whether the OP had pulled any codes before posting their question. Often, people fail to do the most BASIC of things before they give up and start asking for advice. As if we could reach through a monitor and fix it for them. It's getting harder to resist giving a glib or wacky answer to some of the ever-growing questions in this section. Ultimately, I want to encourage Z owners to at least learn about their cars and the systems that make them such a marvel.

 

Lots of lazy people who want instant gratification for little to no effort. This is hardly the only place it happens, and it gets worse all the time. i don't spend a lot of effort trying to help someone who barely tries to help him/herself.

 

it is the same burger flipper crowd that thinks they deserve 15 an hour. people are lazy now days, the lack of basic trouble shooting.... or googling amazes me

 

I think the main problem is them not knowing a sparkplug from a coilover.

Then they don't want to pay a mechanic to look at it, when they think people can diagnose it through their monitor for free. I think being cheap/can't afford it, is as much of a problem as laziness.

 

Okay just read that wheel bearing thread.... I guess I was wrong about being cheap. 100% lazy. How the hell do you not just jack the car up and see what's making noise. It takes longer to log in and type a new thread up

 

I mean, even after I give detailed posts about my misfiring issues, I still cease to get a response from virtually anyone, half *** answer or not. I mean please tell me if I did something wrong? https://my350z.com/forum/maintenance...misfiring.html

 

It's super hard to diagnose based on symptoms over the internet. If no one answered I'd say they just don't know. Especially since you already did some basics

 

Right, I understand. Just looking for others input on anything that I might have overlooked.

 

My job is to answer the phone and try to diagnose problems on semis before sending them to a shop in case it is something they could fix themselves or if it could wait till it gets back to the terminal so we can repair it for much cheaper.

1. It's amazing how some of these people can put pants on in the morning.
2. I don't have a crystal ball. If you call and say your check engine light is on, I have no clue why.

It gives me some relief when I can go on forums and tell people what I really think when they ask stupid questions. While I'm at work I have to be nice and it's a pain in the ***.

 

92K1500, I used to be a diesel tech. Now I'm in the office and that's part of my job and well. A few recent gems

"I spilled coffee all over the dash, what do I do? Can you get someone out here to clean it up?"

"My low coolant light is on, what does that mean?"

 

There has been so much stupid **** I've forgotten most of it. People running out of fuel and not knowing why their truck shut off, people wanting us to call a shop to have them send someone out to the parking lot to check the air in their tires etc...

Had one call in saying every time she let the clutch out the check engine light would come on and she heard grinding sounds but the truck wouldn't move. I was in the process of sending a tow truck to her and she calls back saying one of her wide base drive tires blew out and the wheel was grinding on the ground. How can you not hear or feel a 445/50-22.5 tire blow out?

This size tire:

 

Don't drive like my brother lol.

 

Haha yeah we only have maybe 30 trucks with those tires on them.
Also, none of our full gauges work. It's always on full when they run out....

 

When I was in high school, somewhere back around the Pleistocene era, they offered something called "Auto Shop".... housed in the same building as the wood and metal shops; oh, and "home economics" (otherwise known as "what you learned to do in the kisshun before Rachel Ray").

It's my understanding that, where I grew up at least, they don't offer such classes any longer cuz they don't help test scores.

Get off my lawn.

 

Maybe we should include a "puzzler" question in this thread. Mine came yesterday, when I was loading the racecar in the trailer. Typically, I just drive the Z in, but I only have about 2" clearance on either side of the wheel wells. This time I was a bit too far to the right, so I tried backing it out to straighten it up. OOFDA! Spun the rear tires on the diamond plate rear door and slewed sideways a bit.

What would you do to get the Z back on the straight and narrow and into the trailer? If you have the answer, write it onto the back of a crisp $100 bill and send it to me at PO Box...

 

 

My school had wood shop up until my 9th grade year. Then they moved it to a little trailer building and turned the shop into a band room. Then after my 9th grade year ended they got rid of shop all together.

The only thing to do other than core classes was computer classes, sports, band or cheerleading.

My senior year I took english, 2 computer classes and then spent the rest of the day at a local college instead of taking 4 more computer classes.

Learn to drive.

 

Take off both bumpers, remove the door cables so you don't hit them, throw it in neutral and cross your fingers

 

Beep- sorry, that answer only guarantees body damage and a load not centered in the trailer.

 

here is another one... and i think the lowest non wrecked z $3300

https://my350z.com/forum/new-owners/...50z-owner.html