Marginal motoring: cheap tricks and quick fixes

Marginal motoring: cheap tricks and quick fixes
By Jay MacDonald • Bankrate.com

At one time or another, we've all been forced to improvise solutions
to common car problems just to keep our bucket of bolts running long
enough to make it to payday or the outskirts of Winnemucca.

We've uttered every oath and busted every knuckle on a junker that
would neither drive consistently nor die. Instead, it lingered in a
nerve-fraying state of narcolepsy for the amusement of some demented
Detroit deity.

Such infuriating vehicles demand that their drivers become
well-acquainted with marginal motoring techniques: quick fixes and
cheap tricks that have been known to involve a steep hill, a bar of
soap and creative use of electrical tape. And while these makeshift
repairs may sound far-fetched, they in fact employ perfectly logical,
outlandishly inexpensive patches that work in a pinch.

I learned some of these tricks as the owner of three particularly
challenging cars: the Rambler American, AMC Gremlin and Ford Pinto
("the exploding one," my friends would always add). All the autos were
used, and horribly so, by the time I took the wheel. I'm currently
studying for my master's in marginal motoring on a 1991 Mazda Miata.

Kyle Busch, author of "Drive the Best for the Price," earned his
graduate degree in marginal motoring in a 1986 Volkswagen Jetta that
he bought used in 1991 for $2,600. It now has 378,652 miles and a lot
of Busch's sweat on it. Busch and his science experiment are pictured
on his Web site www.drivethebestbook.com, where he fields questions
from budding automotive masochists.

Paul Duchene, a national car writer whose work frequently appears in
the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, has owned and restored
everything from a fuel dragster to his current ride, a Citroen DS19
("the Martian vacuum cleaner," he calls it). If it rolls, chances are
Duchene has ridden in and written about it.

Here are a dozen of our cheap tricks and quick fixes. All price quotes
are based on a 2000 Ford Escort (you were expecting a Lexus?),
courtesy of Auto Zone.

1. Fixing a flat tire
2. Problems getting started
3. Bad wiper blade
4. Squeaky belt
5. Smoke under the hood
6. Fuel problems
7. Radiator leak
8. Air conditioner leak
9. Headlight problems
10. Windshield ding
11. Leaky heater
12. Nagging dashboard lights

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/auto/20040823a1.asp

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"I'd rather be playing video games." -- Me