Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

KyAllroad wrote: Why are correct auto parts so hard to find? Trying to get a proper AC Delco cap and rotor for the Suburban has been an exercise in frustration. Autozone: nope but have the wires for $62. NAPA: nope, but tried hard to tell me that their parts are better. Chevy/GMC dealership: we don't sell the cap separately, so you can only buy the entire distributor assembly for $375, wires will be $195. uhh, no. Finally at the far side of town I try the KOI: They have the cap and rotor!!! And only $80 for the pair. But of course they don't carry the wires in this central hub store and would need a couple of days to get them. Now let's talk about finding a TPS for a '94 Ranger...... grrrrr

I get AC Delco parts from amazon generally. I look up the part number (usually on something like rockauto), then compare the prices with Amazon. Usually if you have prime with amazon they will win out.

KyAllroad wrote: The average car age is 11.5 years in the U.S. now, it's not terribly unrealistic to expect a GM dealership to stock a part for a 16 year old GMC.

I don't know … I can't find OEM headlights for my 18 yr old F150 at any Ford dealer around here … NLA

wbjones wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: The average car age is 11.5 years in the U.S. now, it's not terribly unrealistic to expect a GM dealership to stock a part for a 16 year old GMC.

I don't know … I can't find OEM headlights for my 18 yr old F150 at any Ford dealer around here … NLA

Nobody drops parts faster than Ford, it seems to me. Hard parts, not so bad. Try to buy a heater control, or a window switch, or such for a 10 year old Ford. Not likely.

And I don't expect the dealer to stock stuff for a 16 year old vehicle. They likely haven't sold anything for one for a decade or more.

Gm policy is to no longer support anything over ten years old, as that is the minimum required by the government.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

always been like that

Streetwiseguy wrote:

wbjones wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: The average car age is 11.5 years in the U.S. now, it's not terribly unrealistic to expect a GM dealership to stock a part for a 16 year old GMC.

I don't know … I can't find OEM headlights for my 18 yr old F150 at any Ford dealer around here … NLA

Nobody drops parts faster than Ford, it seems to me. Hard parts, not so bad. Try to buy a heater control, or a window switch, or such for a 10 year old Ford. Not likely. And I don't expect the dealer to stock stuff for a 16 year old vehicle. They likely haven't sold anything for one for a decade or more.

to my point … the headlights for my F150 weren't a single model yr headlight … they were the same for many many yrs … maybe the '97 was the last of that design

WilD wrote:

Duke wrote: Uhhh, do you have 2 meters on your house? Because if you have 1 electric service and only half your house is out, the problem is your house, not the electric service.

It can be, but it can also be the service line. I strongly suspect the service line because it seems like all the houses on my block are doing the exact same thing. Edit: My understanding is that the two service lines that come into a home each carry 120 volts and typically power half the service panel. It is not unheard off that half the service can be interrupted. Seems like a pretty big coincidence that my neighbors on either side are having the same symptoms at the same time if the problem is on my side of the meter. Possibly unrelated but interesting: I was in the shower last week during a particularly intense bought of light flickering and my dog started barking like crazy. My wife thought somebody was lighting fireworks, but she looked out the window and saw it was the wires at the top of the power pole arcing in spectacular fashion. I don't think they are supposed to do that...

most houses have two "legs" or phases coming into them. This is why all but one or two outlets are 110 (really 220v) and you usually have a 120 (240v) outlet around.. to get that 240v.. you need two phases

bigdaddylee82 wrote: E36 M3ty Goodyear tires on our work truck, and bureaucratic bullE36 M3 keeping us from buying decent tires! We NEED an AT tire, we take our truck into any number of agricultural fields, all times of year, and down 100s of miles of gravel and unimproved roads every year. We finally replaced the, get-stuck-on-wet-grass Goodyears that came stock on our '12 4x4 Silverado, with some Goodyear Wrangler AT/S, not by choice, it's what "purchasing" picked for us when we told them we needed an all terrain tire. Tires were new in April of this year, we have replaced 1 tire for a bulge/impact bubble, have patched the other 3, and one of the ones that's already been patched is leaking again. Most of this has been in the last month, so we've been at the tire shop at least once a week, for the past month. Today I ruined my newest khakis, I wasn't dressed for field work, or swapping a spare tire today. After some investigating, I found out I can purchase the tires on my P-card, I don't have to have to have our purchasing specialist get them like we were originally told back in April, but I'm limited to purchasing them from a "select list of vendors." I'm stuck with vendors for Michelin, Goodyear, and Bridgestone. So, I either put some more E36 M3ty Goodyears on the truck, some E36 M3ty Bridgestones, or some get-stuck-on-wet-grass from Michelin on our truck. I swore off Bridgestones after the horrible Duelers I had on my Jeep years ago, they are still the worst tires I've ever had on anything, but these Goodyears are giving them a run for the money. Maybe the Revos aren't as E36 M3tacular as the pre-Revos were. I'm about to put some 6 ply Cooper AT/3s on the truck, and let whatever happens, happen. We can't be wasting time with flat tires all the time.

My Suburban just came back from a month in the shop with three Linglong Crosswinds and a fourth tire that doesn't appear to have a name or much tread.

Nothing in life is free, especially on craigslist. Picked up 2 curb alert ratty M edition seats so I can take the speakers out of them for my brother's miata. Scratch the crap out of my accord putting them in when the slider decides to release :(

I'm sure you've heard the saying …

no good deed goes unpunished ….

Its called the A-12. That's it. Its not the A-12 Oxcart. Oxcart was the CIA project name. By the same rational, the U-2 should be the U-2 Aquatone. The SR-71 had a nickname, the Blackbird. But that is because it was more visible. We knew so very little about the A-12 it didn't have a nickname, beyond "The Article." I've spoken with A-12 drivers. It was just the A-12. Stop inventing a nickname were one isn't warranted.

wbjones wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: The average car age is 11.5 years in the U.S. now, it's not terribly unrealistic to expect a GM dealership to stock a part for a 16 year old GMC.

I don't know … I can't find OEM headlights for my 18 yr old F150 at any Ford dealer around here … NLA

Dealerships generally only stock parts that they sell. I think one metric is a minimum of 10 units per three months, and they will stock it.

Now if this is a case of parts existing in the dealer NETWORK... the OEMs don't need to stock parts at all. They only need to meet warranty requirements, after that you're SOL. Ford has a strategy in place where after an inventoried item is a certain age (I think the last model using it is out of production) the price goes up a percentage every year, and then when people stop buying it because it's absurd to spend $300 on a $5 fitting or whatever, they scrap the stock and take a loss on the stated value.

Which, from a business perspective, makes sense. They have to pay taxes on inventory and they are in the business of selling new vehicles, not maintaining old ones.

Realistically, an 18 year old truck is already 3 times older than its design life. Locally most 18 year old trucks aren't worth putting fuel in let along new headlights. If there is enough demand that the parts can't be found used, then the aftermarket would (should) take up the slack. Unless you're a d-bag like Chrysler and you copyright certain things so the aftermarket can't make them.

I really wish I had been driving a Uhaul truck today or something I did not care about...

in the middle of moving, so I have a disco full of stuff as I am the only vehicle heading in my direction when a lowered Towncar (it might have had dead air suspension, but looked too "nice" and "gangsta" to be broken.. waits till the very last second to pull out in front of me.. proceeds down the road 20 under the limit for a city block, and turns off. His maneuver had been practically sitting my disco on it's nose to scrub off enough speed not to punt him into the next town...

If I had been driving a Uhaul, it would have been tempted to just blow into him and claim the brakes were not good enough to stop in time when he just decided to cut me off.

Appleseed wrote: Its called the A-12. That's it. Its not the A-12 Oxcart. Oxcart was the CIA project name. By the same rational, the U-2 should be the U-2 Aquatone. The SR-71 had a nickname, the Blackbird. But that is because it was more visible. We knew so very little about the A-12 it didn't have a nickname, beyond "The Article." I've spoken with A-12 drivers. It was just the A-12. Stop inventing a nickname were one isn't warranted.

The A12 Cygnus. Got it.

You probably think this is called a Tagboard. berkeleyin' amateurs.

Was just invited to an old buddy's wedding reception by his mom, end of next month.
(Friends all through HS and college, until he moved to SF a couple years ago)
That coupled (heh) with the lack of 'save the date' or wedding invite strongly implies that I'm not invited to the wedding.
I think I'm being a little petty, but I'm not being a complete dick for being butt-hurt, right?
Resisted the urge to tell her to berkeley off, just said I couldn't make it and thanked her for the invite.

WTF AVG Tune Up? Found ya disabled Chrome cause it was slowin' down my computer, then it was realy, realy berkeleying slow.

So, I disabled the disabler and now it's back up to speed. Go figure.

Appleseed wrote: Its called the A-12. That's it. Its not the A-12 Oxcart. Oxcart was the CIA project name. By the same rational, the U-2 should be the U-2 Aquatone. The SR-71 had a nickname, the Blackbird. But that is because it was more visible. We knew so very little about the A-12 it didn't have a nickname, beyond "The Article." I've spoken with A-12 drivers. It was just the A-12. Stop inventing a nickname were one isn't warranted.

Did someone say, "A12"?

wbjones wrote: I'm sure you've heard the saying … no good deed goes unpunished ….

Rules of Acquisition #285

SnowMongoose wrote: Was just invited to an old buddy's wedding reception by his mom, end of next month. (Friends all through HS and college, until he moved to SF a couple years ago) That coupled (heh) with the lack of 'save the date' or wedding invite strongly implies that I'm not invited to the wedding. I think I'm being a little petty, but I'm not being a complete dick for being butt-hurt, right? Resisted the urge to tell her to berkeley off, just said I couldn't make it and thanked her for the invite.

Translation: "We don't want you around for the wedding, but we think you will bring a great gift to the reception".

If the reception is local then here is your plan. Acquire the "to/from" tag from a very nice gift bag. You know, one of these:

Fill out the "to/from" section nicely, then tear the hole where it is attached to the bag. It needs to look like the tag was pulled loose by accident.

Go acquire a very nice "congrats" card. Don't be cheap, spend about $7 or so. Make sure to mention that you hope they enjoy the gift, but don't mention what it is.

On the day of the reception bring the card and tuck the "to/from" tag in your pocket. Wait for the gifts to pile up. Once the stack reaches the unwieldy stage go drop your card in pile and toss the "to"from" tag into the messiest area.

The bride/groom will have people appointed to collect their loot. There will be multiple shufflings of the loot before the couple get their stash. They will find the card and see the mention of the gift, but they will only find the detached "to/from" tag. There will be several gifts that have lost their "to/from" tags in the shuffle so they will assume one of them is from you.

All you have to do is wait for the Thank You card to find out what you "gave" them. Ideally you will have drank more than $7 worth of booze at the reception (the total cost of your investment).

I was invited to my cousin's wedding two hours before it was to happen. This is my closest cousin who is my age. I politely declined saying that I had to take the kids to a pool party. I wasn't mad, but I felt the whole thing was tacky.

It's 8pm local time here right now. It's 95°F but with the heat index, it's 128°F. Your argument that it is hot is invalid

6 more weeks in this E36 M3 hole. 6 more weeks...

Trying to work out potentially buying a car 3 hours away and not having a whole lot of luck- what is it with me having very little luck in getting people to SELL me cars that I'm actually interested in?

The Dog has been having problems the last few days and SWMBO has finally gotten worried enough to take him to the vet. The bad: our usual, VERY affordable place? Every one of their offices in town is CLOSED on Wednesdays, so it will run 2-3x what we usually pay.

And making it even more fun, our office's HVAC system isn't working properly. Granted that's fairly common here, but it's not making work any more enjoyable that's for sure.

I had an NA MKIV Supra years ago. It was okay, but from the day I bought it I wished I had spent more money and bought the TT. The performance of the NA was not very good, especially coming from a modified 944 turbo. Well, fast forward over a decade and I've found an MKIV TT I really like, but the seller is not getting back to me....sigh. Maybe I'm being impatient.

Apparently nosy passive-aggressive busybody neighbors don't like being called nosy passive-aggressive busybodies. Who knew?

You telling me you have 50 of something in stock, is NOT the same as, you're vendor 2-1/2 hours away having 50 in stock. I don't care that you're open until 5:30, I'm off at 4:30, and I'm not sticking around to wait on what you told me you had in stock yesterday, to arrive on the last truck in today.