Crap Drivers

[Dibs-h]

How do the rest of you find your other half's driving? Not roadcraft, more the actual control of the car.

The reason I ask is that at some point yesterday during a short run - a bolt holding a guide pulley that guides the belt that powers the a\c, alternator, water pump amongst other things sheared - spitting the belt off. At this point the battery symbol appeared on the dash and the temp would have risen on the water temp gauge. Did she notice? What do you think? :roll:

She only though there was a problem when copious amounts of steam started coming from the bonnet at the lights. The nearest lights are at the bottom of a very steep hill about 1 mile away.

I can not tell you the sheer level of control it took not to beat the crap out of the car and tell her to fcuk off and get a bus pass! :evil:

 

[Michael7]

Thats a bit harsh :shock:

 

[TrimTheKing]

At this point the battery symbol appeared on the dash

How do you know?

 

[Dibs-h]

Thats a bit harsh :shock:

Harsh - she might as well have shoved £20 notes out of the window.

 

[WoodAddict]

it is annoying when everytime I get in the other halfs car, there is no water in the screenwash. how people can drive around without it really baffles me. 9 times out of 10 the fuel is on empty too!

Laziness I think more than stupidity but I couldn't be sure! :shock: :roll:

 

[Dibs-h]

At this point the battery symbol appeared on the dash

How do you know?

You mean like

- "there is a possibility (slim) that it may have malfunctioned and not come on?"

- or "why would it come on?"

Because they are designed to go off when the car starts, if the alternator is functional and come on in the event the alternator is not charging - i.e. dead alternator or no belt (on the whole).

 

[TrimTheKing]

At this point the battery symbol appeared on the dash

How do you know?

You mean like

- "there is a possibility (slim) that it may have malfunctioned and not come one?"

- or "why would it come on?"

Because they are designed to go off when the car starts, if the alternator is functional and come on in the event the alternator is not charging - i.e. dead alternator or no belt (on the whole).

No, I mean, how do you know it came on? I'm not being funny, just saying are you sure it came on and she didn't notice, or did it not come on?

Years ago we had a stone go through the rad on a car, no lights came on, temp guage didn't go up, nada. It was only when going round the M25 at about 65 and I said to SWMBO "I can't seem to get any more power out of it".

We were going up a slight incline, but it was a 1.4 and had been fine up until then. I slowed down a bit to get a run up and nothing! Pulled onto hard shoulder (still no dash light BTW), turned off engine and opened bonnet, bit of smoke but nothing spectacular.

Tried to start it again and it lit up like Blackpool. No water, head gasket gone.

So what I'm saying is, it happened to me, and I am constantly aware of all dash lights, so did she not notice it, or did it not come on???

Or, do you know it came on because you were in the car too and now you're looking for someone to blame...

 

[Dibs-h]

No, I mean, how do you know it came on? I'm not being funny, just saying are you sure it came on and she didn't notice, or did it not come on?

Years ago we had a stone go through the rad on a car, no lights came on, temp guage didn't go up, nada. It was only when going round the M25 at about 65 and I said to SWMBO "I can't seem to get any more power out of it".

We were going up a slight incline, but it was a 1.4 and had been fine up until then. I slowed down a bit to get a run up and nothing! Pulled onto hard shoulder (still no dash light BTW), turned off engine and opened bonnet, bit of smoke but nothing spectacular.

Tried to start it again and it lit up like Blackpool. No water, head gasket gone.

So what I'm saying is, it happened to me, and I am constantly aware of all dash lights, so did she not notice it, or did it not come on???

Or, do you know it came on because you were in the car too and now you're looking for someone to blame...

I see what you mean. Thankfully I wasn't in the car.

Yes there is a very small chance that it wouldn't have come one - but when I put the ignition back on the water temp gauge was sky high - so even if the battery warning symbol hadn't come on (I'll entertain the possibility), the coolant temp gauge was going high.

Besides - even if the gauge had malfunctioned and so had the battery light, steam pouring out of the bonnet (halfway up the wing - where the coolant bottle is) is a dead giveaway to stop the car - not drive it up a hill that's bloody steep for a mile or so.

My money is she didn't notice it - because when asked whether she had noticed the coolant gauge climbing - she pointed to the LCD multi function whatsit between the speedo & rev counter and said "That?"

 

[TrimTheKing]

Besides - even if the gauge had malfunctioned and so had the battery light, steam pouring out of the bonnet (halfway up the wing - where the coolant bottle is) is a dead giveaway to stop the car - not drive it up a hill that's bloody steep for a mile or so.

Haha, agreed

My money is she didn't notice it - because when asked whether she had noticed the coolant gauge climbing - she pointed to the LCD multi function whatsit between the speedo & rev counter and said "That?"

I take it back, take her license off her!

 

[lurker]

I stopped a bloke a few weeks ago where steam was pouring out of everywhere (or so it seemed from where I was).
It has to be said you could not see it sitting behind the wheel until he stopped

I maybe check the temp guage say after 10 mins start up and 2-3 times over the journey ( which might take 4 hours) & I consider myself a bit nerdy so maybe she isn't too much to blame.

Assume you are a bit calmer now :wink:

 

[big soft moose]

How do the rest of you find your other half's driving? Not roadcraft, more the actual control of the car.

The reason I ask is that at some point yesterday during a short run - a bolt holding a guide pulley that guides the belt that powers the a\c, alternator, water pump amongst other things sheared - spitting the belt off. At this point the battery symbol appeared on the dash and the temp would have risen on the water temp gauge. Did she notice? What do you think? :roll:

She only though there was a problem when copious amounts of steam started coming from the bonnet at the lights. The nearest lights are at the bottom of a very steep hill about 1 mile away.

I can not tell you the sheer level of control it took not to beat the crap out of the car and tell her to fcuk off and get a bus pass! :evil:

my other half is fine with things like that... but she does stuff like get the car mot'd at kwikfit :shock: then pay them nearly 400 notes for four new tyres because she had two advisories :duno:

mind you when i feel like ranting about stuff like this , i do have to consider the huge heap of washing up i just generated, the trail of cack i leave behind me arroundf the house, etc - unless you are a paragon among men its likely that you do things that pi$$ swimbo off just as much as her lack of automotive literacy does you.

 

[Dibs-h]

I stopped a bloke a few weeks ago where steam was pouring out of everywhere (or so it seemed from where I was).
It has to be said you could not see it sitting behind the wheel until he stopped

I maybe check the temp guage say after 10 mins start up and 2-3 times over the journey ( which might take 4 hours) & I consider myself a bit nerdy so maybe she isn't too much to blame.

Assume you are a bit calmer now :wink:

My Son who was in the front passenger seat - saw it, and he raced into the house to tell me, you can bet he would have piped up when he saw it whilst the car was in motion.

An old relative of mine used to say,

"Son, some scream in public, some at home, some in bed with the duvet tight around them and some just silently - you just happen to scream in public."

I suppose I'm just resigned to the fact that life must be life this for most folk, except I just "scream" in public.

Calmer - I've got it partially dismantled at home, bits are coming tomorrow. The one bit I'm not looking forward to is if the remnant of the bolt is a pig. Lord knows what I'll be like after an hr or so, with my hands in the bonnet.

 

[lurker]

Well look on the bright side - she did not sieze the engine

My eldest (30 next year) son is bluddy worst!!

I spotted a screw embedded in his front tyre & he could not understand why I insisted he not drive away but put the spare on :roll:

 

[big soft moose]

Well look on the bright side - she did not sieze the engine

My eldest (30 next year) son is bluddy worst!!

I spotted a screw embedded in his front tyre & he could not understand why I insisted he not drive away but put the spare on :roll:

A girl i used to work with once asked me "what this red light on the dash is ?" in a work vehicle only for me to discover it was the bleddy oil light - in response to the questuion as to how long it had been on she said "only a few days" :duno:

mind you a different girl once filled all our brushcutters up with parafin - "its red init... just like 2 stroke mix" how was she suposed to tell the difference (apart from the fact that it smells different , and the 2 stoke can has 50:1 written on the side ... oh yeah and the small matter of the parafin not being in a petrol can )

and a third dimwit (a bloke this time) put 40 quids worth of unleaded in our deisel work truck 2 years back

 

[Argee]

Can't fault my Jean for her driving at all, thankfully. She takes the time to sit with the book and see what all the lights do if we get a new car. In the 40+ years we've been driving, together or separately, here or abroad, she has yet to run out of fuel, overheat, lack oil or screenwash, get lost or in any other way make a cock-up. I don't think she could stand the micky-taking if she did, maybe that's the secret?

Ray

 

[newt]

Mine is very good she reads the manual from front to back, she drives very fast but I feel safe, she even looks at tyres for wear, mind you she only gets 10k out of a set.

 

[Chris Knight]

I can not tell you the sheer level of control it took not to beat the crap out of the car and tell her to fcuk off and get a bus pass! :evil:

IMHO that's totally OTT - I generally get as annoyed as anyone at others' perceived shortcomings but unless it's a blinking light or accompanied by a sound, chances are she didn't see it because she was more concerned about guiding the vehicle safely through the traffic.

With the crowded roads we have and the excess of distracting signage, painted lines and the like, the demand on a driver's concentration is far too high these days and vehicle instrumentation hasn't kept pace.

 

[SPinonit]

My missus is a very good driver, but............

When we bought our new car, we had rear reverse sensors installed to make parking that bit easier. She'd never liked putting the car in the garage as the doors are standard size (I think) but seem a bit narrow. I asked if she could reverse the car in, as parking it frontwards was making getting it out harder. Basically it was just the better way round to park the car.

She relented and parked it rearwards, but sometimes found that she'd not left enough space at the front of the car to close the garage door, so I often had to sort it out, else we;d usually only be able to open the door from the outside due to insufficient clearance.

One day (the car was still pretty much new), she came indoors very gingerly and asked me not to be too annoyed. She explained that she'd smashed the rear windscreen whilst parking the car. A bit astonished and confused, I went out to find that she'd burried the car's rear into the back of the garage, smashing the windscreen on the rather substantiasl shelving that I'd built. The rear windscreen had essentially prevented the rest of the rear being smashed into the wall.

I asked her if the parking sensors had bleepined and why she hadn't stopped. She told me there was a bleeping noise, but that she wasn't sure what it was and the windscreen only smashed when the bleeping became continuous!!

I was mildly agitated (to put it mildly) and really couldn't believe that she'd done something so daft. Main thing is no-one was hurt and the car was repairable. She is usually a really good driver, even though I'm the worst front seat passenger in the world.

I guess everyone has off days.

 

[Ironballs]

Unlucky Dibs! My girlfriend is generally a pretty good driver but never lifts the bonnet and has zero mechanical sympathy, still it'll be her paying for her new clutch and not me.

If you want to feel better about your wife's car abilities I'd "recommend" a trip through Harehills to put the world into perspective. Go through there twice a day and pretty much close my eyes and hope for the best - got knocked off my bike once there as well

 

[Benchwayze]

Nahhh..
The secret was that my Jean never drove. I tried to teach her on a beach in Wales, in the 70s. She hit the only post in a square half-mile of sand, and she never bothered since! Her choice I hasten to add

It means paying for a taxi whenever I want a drink, but that's a small price to pay for a quiet life.

John

:lol: