Automotive innocence

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
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So i have been thinking (uh-oh) and I'm wondering if there is a such thing as automotive innocence or whatever it might be called.

When a person is an "average" person making a car payment and has no idea what is going on under the hood.

I have a friend named Kenny, and Kenny drives a toy-Yoda. He gets in and starts it up and there is no gas pedal pumping, very little starter noise, no smells and puts it in "D" and drives off.

I asked Kenny, don't you ever think of what is going on under the hood, like are you ever at least curious how it works?? He replied, "I know it won't work if there's no gas in there". He never worries about any aspect of the car as long as it propels forward.

Total ignorant bliss.......

I really wonder if that is a good thing. I find myself thinking in my mind everything that is going on in the engine when I'm driving. When I hit a bump on the road, I'm thinking about the suspension reacting and the slip yoke moving and the torsion bars cranking a bit. I'm thinking about everything from the coolant circulating through the radiator to the gears turning in the rear.

Then I find myself thinking of all the things that could go wrong, and I start wondering if my wheel bearings and U joints are adequately greased as I'm running 80mph down the highway. I listen to every noise the car makes and really pay attention to the car. (Radio delete). Every smell, noise, change In RPM says something.

Are we car people the nutty ones or, are the blissfully ignorant, car payment paying, general public the nutty ones........
 
I personally listen to noises as well. Feel motion that is out of line to. I want to prevent anything before it can happen or go bad.
 
Interesting observation Rainy!

I find myself doing the same thing. I guess since we build our cars, we want everything to be perfect, and if it's not, it gives us another project :)
 
I think that is the new normal for a lot of people. There are many who can’t change their own oil or change a tire! Pretty scary that so many rely on others to do even simple things.
My wife told me the other day that she didn’t realize that she married “McGuyver” because I’m always fixing things!
 
For me it's a subconscious listening. I do not drive with the radio on. I am listening to the car an the sound around it but once again it's subconscious until it's not.
Once it becomes a conscious thing then I am zoomed in diagnosing what I'm hearing and deciding what to do about it.
One thing I noticed with my vehicles gas-powered or diesel-powered especially when I was pulling horses across country there is a certain RPM or mile-per-hour were everything is in harmony. The ride of the vehicle the drone of the road just a general feeling that everything is right.
 
Too much synaptic activity.

It's both a blessing and a curse.
 
Jadaharabi said:
For me it's a subconscious listening. I do not drive with the radio on. I am listening to the car an the sound around it but once again it's subconscious until it's not.
Once it becomes a conscious thing then I am zoomed in diagnosing what I'm hearing and deciding what to do about it.
One thing I noticed with my vehicles gas-powered or diesel-powered especially when I was pulling horses across country there is a certain RPM or mile-per-hour were everything is in harmony. The ride of the vehicle the drone of the road just a general feeling that everything is right.
Click to expand...

Agree ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I just made a round trip to a funeral , my ram pick up got 23.1 going down to the texas line , and 15.9 coming back with the wind. . average ./bragging.
I didnt listen to the radio at all , my wife was enough !!
 
I do listen and feel the ride. Someone once asked if I ever get woried about breaking down. Driving them is the satisfaction. My newer cars can fail at any time also
 
FISHYPETE said:
I do listen and feel the ride. Someone once asked if I ever get woried about breaking down. Driving them is the satisfaction. My newer cars can fail at any time also
Click to expand...

...but you can work on the older ones. (parts availability non-withstanding)
 
Most us here are mechanically inclined and somewhat know how things work. But as a disclaimer, there are many in the hobby that aren't mechanics but can afford to buy a hot rod. I see it every day by the questions asked. Sometimes it scares me reading threads written by folks that probably shouldn't turn a wrench. Nothing wrong with learning but I think it's scary to see people jump right into a cam replacement, Torqueflite overhaul, or 6 pack tuning without even knowing the basics.
Rainy, I listen, feel, and think too much when I drive any car. Automotive innocence or automotive ignorance?

ig·no·rance
/ˈiɡnərəns/
Learn to pronounce

noun
  1. lack of knowledge or information.
 
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my DD is a 30 year old taurus. that thing is a rolling bucket of bolts. it makes an incredible amount of noises. I've become oblivious to it because it just doesn't quit running. I got my 800 bucks out of it years ago. when it does finally die, I will leave it where it is for the scrapper. all I do is check the oil every now and then.
 
Interesting topic. I've found for me I did things when I was younger I would never do now out of worry. When I used to street race my Duster I'd drive all over to different race spots, out of town to different counties without a thought, usually out in the middle of nowhere. Rear tires with tubes and no spare ever! Just a tool box in the trunk. Run the car hard on a few races, and drive back. Yes, I built the car and knew if something was off a tiny bit but didn't obsess or even worry that something would happen! So much could have gone wrong but rarely did. So my take is youth gives you bliss you don't realize at the time. Hell I wont set foot out of town in my daily now without jumper cables, spare belt and tire plug kit!
 
being a mechanic and parts guy for 46 plus years, i don't claim to know it all but boy i sure have seen a lot of stuff. like rda said, some people are blind/don't think or care about a lot of things. sometimes it helps sometimes not. think about this when you are driving down the road and you see a vehicle with a slipped belt in the tire or if you see a vehicle coming at you sideways(dog tracking cause rear leaf spring problem.) i think to myself what are those people thinking? some not a lot. not sure if it is a generational thing or just that there are more important things going on in their lives. my dad would't let me put the dual quads on my old 62 dart poly 318 cause it would suck too much gas(he didn't know that it had 4.56's in rear end.) one of my uncles and my neighbor didn't have any idea what made cars tick. had to take care of them. had another uncle that seemed to have an appt a week at dealership for a noise/vibration/whatever. sometimes it makes me want to say hhhmmmm.
 
Everyday car, never think about it. I service it myself and it runs like a swiss watch. My hobby cars I'm always listening for something out of the ordinary. I listen for howls,grinding,thumps and check for smells. Fifty years old and though most parts have been changed, there is questions about how good replacement parts are, especially today's parts. Carry a tool box with a few essential tools, wire, fuses, fire extinguisher ........ oh yeah duct tape. :)
 
I think most people today view cars as appliances, as long as it is still working it is fine.
When it breaks down, replace it.
 
My motto has always been, do something even if it is wrong! I have seen way too many people too lay, too stupid, or too insecure to at least try to do something, anything!! Sure it makes sense to no try to build a 71 hemi cuda as the first project maybe!????
My childhood hero? The kid down the road that puled the SB out of his dad's 58 Impala and rebuilt it himself!!! Painted up so pretty. But it only ran for about a week before....
 
I think most people don’t even crack open the owners manual on a new car. Most maintenance they do is put gas in their car. Most modern manuals are several inches thick so I would imagine with most people these days don’t have the time to absorb the info in the manual.

When my wife bought her Subaru the offered free hands on classes for those interested. Classes were held weekly around dinner time in which the dealer had sub sandwiches, pop and coffee. I attended the first class where the first thing the covered was the maintenance schedule. Pretty impressive for a dealer to do that. Of course it’s hard to make something that’s totally idiot proof.
 
Good observation Rani. Just Sunday I went with the GF for a meet-up with one of her kids that lives 3 hours away to hand off some stuff. We met in the middle and after we took off, we got a call from the daughter that her car wouldn't start but they had been idling in the drive-through line a while and it had been getting hot. I asked if she was low on coolant and she had no idea what that was or where it was. Then there was a five minute discussion on the radiator (the flat thing with lots of wavy fins that you can see through the grill) the overflow bottle (white opaque plastic container connected to the radiator with a tube coming from the cap) and so forth. We finally determined it had coolant so I told them to leave the hood open for 20 minutes or so, and if it starts turn off the AC and turn on the heater to high. It started up after the cool-off and they drove home.

I guess my takeaway from this is confirmation that the daughter has zero mechanical ability or inclination. I've tried to explain a few car things to both of her girls and I get nowhere. However, my GF and both of her daughters are fabulously talented artists. Me, I couldn't draw a circle if I traced around a juice glass. So sometimes I think it's just a matter of being differently-abled.
 
im the exact opposite
i run the duster with the radio and pipes wide open and dont care what i hear

now, the family hauler, that one i pay attention, because if that one craps out, it not gonna be a fun project

i replaced the rear wheel bearing in it last fall (dealer quoted me $1400.00)

she is at a point where the front bearings are making enough noise for me to hear..but not too loud that i cant pretend its the tires yet
 
Rainy Day Auto said:
Are we car people the nutty ones or, are the blissfully ignorant, car payment paying, general public the nutty ones
Click to expand...

neither are nutty. they just have different interests. not sure why it has to be one or the other. i'm sure there have been plenty on both sides since the beginning of the automobile.

when i'm in my dart or cutlass i listen to things and fix it when it needs to be fixed. not daily drivers so i can play with them as i feel like it. no rush.

when in my honda, subaru or gmc i'm aware of things but hell i don't even check the oil in those cars. they have proven that i really don't have to worry about them so much. honda has 90k on it and other then routine maintenance it has needed nothing well other then being repaired the two times its been hit..lol if they make a strange noise or something maybe i'll look at it some but most of the time i'll just drop them off at the dealer. they are my dailys (well not the GMC but thats brand new and i'm not touching it) and have them fix it. i can't be bothered with them.

i keep jamie in something newer (brand new at this point) or she just uses AAA. she will call me and ask a few questions but if i'm an hour away at work there usually isn't much that i can do for her. i'd much rather have AAA or the dealer mess with the car then someone that doesn't understand them to either make the problem worse or hurt themselves trying to fix it..

in the end who really gives a crap. if you like, understand and enjoy working on them then knock yourself out. if you don't like,understand or enjoy working on them then pay someone to do it. there is no wrong way...
 
The classics always listening and feeling while driving with or without the stereo on, but again like others want it to just feel right. My daily same thing course a diesel its hard sometimes to feel vibration since its a diesel lol but listening to the harmonics and feed back through the wheel even though you don't get quite the feedback like classics. But when something is out of place it sucks sometimes knowing about cars lol like others the diagnosis begins running in your head. But I wouldn't give it up, working on my current build is relaxing even though sometimes it goes wrong but still, its the passion of it and building and making it yours.
 
Knowing what is going on helps build appreciation for the vehicle.

How many posts have there been over the years that go like;

"I helped my son build a car & he just broke the rear end doing a burnout" or "a pal was power braking and his transmission came apart", etc.

Ignorance may be bliss, but it is still ignorant.

Building our own stuff helps build appreciation so we tend to take better care of it.
 
Rainy Day Auto said:
So i have been thinking (uh-oh) and I'm wondering if there is a such thing as automotive innocence or whatever it might be called.

When a person is an "average" person making a car payment and has no idea what is going on under the hood.

I have a friend named Kenny, and Kenny drives a toy-Yoda. He gets in and starts it up and there is no gas pedal pumping, very little starter noise, no smells and puts it in "D" and drives off.

I asked Kenny, don't you ever think of what is going on under the hood, like are you ever at least curious how it works?? He replied, "I know it won't work if there's no gas in there". He never worries about any aspect of the car as long as it propels forward.

Total ignorant bliss.......

I really wonder if that is a good thing. I find myself thinking in my mind everything that is going on in the engine when I'm driving. When I hit a bump on the road, I'm thinking about the suspension reacting and the slip yoke moving and the torsion bars cranking a bit. I'm thinking about everything from the coolant circulating through the radiator to the gears turning in the rear.

Then I find myself thinking of all the things that could go wrong, and I start wondering if my wheel bearings and U joints are adequately greased as I'm running 80mph down the highway. I listen to every noise the car makes and really pay attention to the car. (Radio delete). Every smell, noise, change In RPM says something.

Are we car people the nutty ones or, are the blissfully ignorant, car payment paying, general public the nutty ones........
Click to expand...

3 of our four kids are blissfully ignorant (probably because Dad can help them):D
Our oldest (Athena) used to work for Advance auto in the shop, and was into that kind of stuff all along.
Probably because before my Wife Stephanie and I got together she was always with me when I was doing anything.

I guess ignorance is fine if you can support it with money.:D

Yea, we are not the norm.
I'm like Uncle Tony says he is, in the way my last thought before going to sleep is cars, and my first thought when I wake up is cars.
Stephanie talks about the house, yard or garden and I talk about cars, websites and what new idea I have about things she couldn't care less about.:D
 
Rainy Day Auto said:
So i have been thinking (uh-oh) and I'm wondering if there is a such thing as automotive innocence or whatever it might be called.

When a person is an "average" person making a car payment and has no idea what is going on under the hood.

I have a friend named Kenny, and Kenny drives a toy-Yoda. He gets in and starts it up and there is no gas pedal pumping, very little starter noise, no smells and puts it in "D" and drives off.

I asked Kenny, don't you ever think of what is going on under the hood, like are you ever at least curious how it works?? He replied, "I know it won't work if there's no gas in there". He never worries about any aspect of the car as long as it propels forward.

Total ignorant bliss.......

I really wonder if that is a good thing. I find myself thinking in my mind everything that is going on in the engine when I'm driving. When I hit a bump on the road, I'm thinking about the suspension reacting and the slip yoke moving and the torsion bars cranking a bit. I'm thinking about everything from the coolant circulating through the radiator to the gears turning in the rear.

Then I find myself thinking of all the things that could go wrong, and I start wondering if my wheel bearings and U joints are adequately greased as I'm running 80mph down the highway. I listen to every noise the car makes and really pay attention to the car. (Radio delete). Every smell, noise, change In RPM says something.

Are we car people the nutty ones or, are the blissfully ignorant, car payment paying, general public the nutty ones........
Click to expand...

It is not nuttyness, it can be any combination of the following;
  • Ignorance of the world around them
  • Lazy thinking
  • Lack of curiosity
  • Mental focus
Also keep in mind that the most precious commodity we have is time, and some folk just choose to devote that commodity towards something else.

Your choice to focus on your immediate environment is what you have learned to do. Without an immediate and long-term threat assessment, for you, I can't apply a value judgement. I do consider your approach to this to be wise, and Kenny's to be not so wise, remember that until the Kung-Flu, we lived in a very insulated society, and the apparent) risk to life and limb was much lower. Now, people are a bit more alert.

On this subject, I think that it would be wise to run a points distributor. Just saying...
 
In some cases, it's not so much innocence but borders on ignorance. I've known people who bought new cars, some of them high end vehicles & just beat them until they fell apart. These people had more money than sense in most cases. I learned basic maintenance because I depended on my car getting me to school & work everyday. I moved in to modifying cars because I enjoyed the fruits of my labor. Sometimes my modifications were giant failures & sometimes dumb luck. Luckily I had neighbors in the area I grew up in who were mechanics, hot rodders, & racers who I would tap for knowledge if I painted myself into a corner.
 
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