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I'm afraid to drive my car!

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JwUoNoG

15+ Year Contributor
528
3
Aug 12, 2004
Perry Hall/Parkville, Maryland
Yes. I try to avoid driving my car as much as possible. I guess I'm afraid that it's going to break. I don't beat on the car too much or anything, but I like to play it safe.

My timing belt was done recently--the belts look fresh, and my tranny doesn't grind, but for some reason, I feel like one of those will suddenly break. One of my friends had his timing belt jump a few teeth, and ruin his head. Another one had a tranny that shifted like butter, then a metal chunk suddenly fell off of it, rendering the car undriveable.

Also, right now, I'm trying to avoid driving my car until I get my camber kit put on. I have brand new tires and don't want to wear them down too much.

Anyone else feel this way?

Someone please reassure me that it won't hurt to drive my car...
 
I feel the same way, I don't want to drive anywhere unless its near by. I got to school today and when I went to park, I saw steam coming from under my hood. :| Pop the hood and coolant everywhere. Now I have to delay my turbo, time for a new radiator. :thumbdown
 
Deffinately know the feeling , but im working of getting it where i want it in all aspects :thumb:
 
JwUoNoG said:
Yes. I try to avoid driving my car as much as possible. I guess I'm afraid that it's going to break. I don't beat on the car too much or anything, but I like to play it safe.

My timing belt was done recently--the belts look fresh, and my tranny doesn't grind, but for some reason, I feel like one of those will suddenly break. One of my friends had his timing belt jump a few teeth, and ruin his head. Another one had a tranny that shifted like butter, then a metal chunk suddenly fell off of it, rendering the car undriveable.

Also, right now, I'm trying to avoid driving my car until I get my camber kit put on. I have brand new tires and don't want to wear them down too much.

Anyone else feel this way?

Someone please reassure me that it won't hurt to drive my car...

Hey dont worry about it man. Ive been through this same feeling and i understand. I bought my car in march of last year (celebrating 1 year anniversary of 2 months running time). Every single time i fixed something by spending alot of $$$ to get the job done right, something else has broken. Just last month, bought a new engine cause my last one took a Sh!t on me and ever since that motor was installed, i didnt want to drive my car cause i didnt like the way it felt. It would smoke, weird idle, and it just gave me that feeling i would break down sometime soon. Considering the motor only had 25k miles on it since i bought it used (found out later it had 51k), that same day i had that fear of breaking down and guess what, seconds later that fear came true. Motor started knocking, and right then and there it started to grind, and died. Cylinder #3 threw a rod. :thumbdown :thumbdown

Right now im in the process of getting a new built shortblock and use my rebuilt head out of my old old motor, new timing belt, head bolts, 14B turbo, since my t-25 looks like its about to take a shi!t too, and lots of other little things. Im trying to start off fresh again. I know even with all that, im still gonna feel insecure because something always has to break in these cars. I love DSM's but damn do i hate them too...when it breaks. :shhh:
 
Beat it like an ugly, red-headed stepchild, and enjoy every swipe.

The sooner you kill it, the sooner you can move yourself to a car you have confidence in.
 
You Know what they say, if ya cant take the heat- Get out of the kitchen.
I'm not trying to sound like a dick but thats how i make myself look at it.
I got this car, I love it if its going to break its going to break so I might as well enjoy it.
I force myself to drive it more cuz I'm getting so sick of my 84 bronco :mad:. the Gas Guzzling whore that it is. It's got to go my dam gas gauge goes down faster then my RPM gauge goes up :cry:.It's really quite disturbing.
 
Same here! I had my car parked for 2 weeks. Because I am waiting for shep's tranny :D :shhh:. I can drive it, but something in the tranny is broken and I don't want to damage something else. It makes a really loud sound whenever I am over 4000 rpm! I am scare to drive it! :(

2 weeks: Done! and 2 more weeks to go !!! :( , and them I will enjoy her!!!! :D
Well good luck! with your car and BTW Defiant is right! ( as usual :rolleyes: )
 
Defiant said:
Beat it like an ugly, red-headed stepchild, and enjoy every swipe.

The sooner you kill it, the sooner you can move yourself to a car you have confidence in.
Definately, but I got 3 more years of school until I get a real job and can afford something reliable.
 
WTF is the point of having a car you won't drive? you ought to be scaring yourself driving not scared to drive... camber kit shmamber kit - rotate you tires every week if it's that scary. or, you could get an alignment - toe is worse than camber for your tires anyway.
 
I used to feel the same way but with the costs being cheap to fix, who cares? I can do an engine swap in a night and have it running the next day. Tranny swap in half a day is very tangable. If it breaks, who cares, it's just a car. These cars are like lego, so easy to work on... unless it's body panels.
 
RamenPride said:
if you don't want to worry about things breaking, sell your car and buy a Honda (seriously). no sense in owning a car if you're not going to drive it.

Or sell it and get a non-abused dsm. My first car a 92 Talon was a dog. Every weekend something broke with it. By the time my dumbass wisened up and got rid of it, the amount of money I dumped into keeping it running would've been enough to turn my current car into at least an 11 second beast.

If it's that bad of a car, take it out back and shoot it.
 
Their is only one constant in this Universe pal.. You know what that is???

CHAOS... get used to it.

And here is a little definition for you:
b : the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of your DSM.. Hehe..

J/K.. It sounds like your ride is in good shape so enjoy it.. Don't worry about what *Could* happen. Hell, you could worry your whole life away about what *could* happen.. You know what else, the more your worry about something the more likely it is to happen. How do you like them apples. :D
 
I cruise around in my car almost every day and everytime something breaks it gets fixed. Everything is fixable, but you just have to have a little money and knowledge to do it yourself. If you work on your own car, you will save yourself alot of money and earn yourself alot of knowledge. Try doing it, I know its helped me learn alot about my car... :thumb:
 
eh, so what? you dont drive your car for a while, while you save to buy something for it, you throw it on, drive it, and a piston explodes and sends chunks into your new $2k turbo, destroying that to. just drive your car. if something breaks, then it breaks and you fix it.
 
If you dont drive your car, what's the use of it? You pay for it to be insured dont ya?

Garaged cars develops problems too. Tires have flatspots, battery terminals corrode, battery drains, fuel go bad and when you try to hammer a car thats on storage, it might suddenly break since the belts and seals contract due to non-use.

Drive your car. You might be doing more harm to it than good.
 
i just say F*** it and drive it anyway heh. if things are gonna break, they're gonna break anyway. i remember driving home (30 miles) with a blown headgasket, coolant temperature past the red mark. i was pissed off and just wanted to get home. i was lucky not to have anything damaged though, just resurfaced the head, slapped on a new headgasket and she's running like a champ. you'd be surprised what our engines can handle.

i drove over 1,000 miles with a blown turbo, compressor fins got chopped up and sucked into the engine. changed the turbo and she's running fine :thumb:

damn i'm mean to her :thumbdown but for the abuse i put her through and the little downtime that i've gotten, i'm very impressed. but there always will be that love-hate relationship going on :p
 
TimG said:
I used to feel the same way but with the costs being cheap to fix, who cares? I can do an engine swap in a night and have it running the next day. Tranny swap in half a day is very tangable. If it breaks, who cares, it's just a car. These cars are like lego, so easy to work on... unless it's body panels.
I'm going to have to agree, although I cant do those jobs quite that fast barring maybe the tranny, could do that in a day easy..
The local DSM board in our area, and Tim can verify is quite strong, and its always damn easy to find aprts you need IMO, and once youve had the car for a while, you can confirm, and fix problems so damn easily... and if the car costs you 50 here and 200 there so what, you can scratch that off the list of crap to do in the future.
 
I find myself trusting the car more/being less scared to drive it. :thumb:

I guess I was just a little scared cuz I was in debt, but I'm out now. So... if stuff breaks, I'm ready!
 
marcmsj said:
i just say F*** it and drive it anyway heh. if things are gonna break, they're gonna break anyway. i remember driving home (30 miles) with a blown headgasket, coolant temperature past the red mark. i was pissed off and just wanted to get home. i was lucky not to have anything damaged though, just resurfaced the head, slapped on a new headgasket and she's running like a champ. you'd be surprised what our engines can handle.

i drove over 1,000 miles with a blown turbo, compressor fins got chopped up and sucked into the engine. changed the turbo and she's running fine :thumb:

damn i'm mean to her :thumbdown but for the abuse i put her through and the little downtime that i've gotten, i'm very impressed. but there always will be that love-hate relationship going on :p
Wow, your hardcore. Not kidding. haha.
 
Also, I hope you guys didn't take me the wrong way. It's not like I avoid driving my DSM at all costs and take a taxi or the bus. I have 2 other cars available to drive, my dad's sentra, and my sister's civic. If they're there, I usually drive those instead. I guess the fact that my car is still "in progress" also added to it.

I drive the car at least 5 times a week though--just for school and work. (and I beat on it occasionally) ;)
 
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