I’ve experienced brake fade in lighter vehicles, and even then it’s pretty horrifying. Once you’ve been there you really don’t want to go back. My wife has ribbed me about how I downshift and baby the brakes in the mountains, but there are reasons. ;)

They do. Some of the automatics will even downshift for you if they notice you’re on the brakes hard. I drove a box truck with an Allison that did that.

I think part of the problem is most of my cars have really ineffective parking brakes. ;) How do you do the fronts? Have someone stand on the brake pedal?

This reminds me of the electric Ural concept I saw a while back. Used a Zero drivetrain, if I remember right. The really clever thing was they put a battery pack in the floor of the sidecar, which both extended range and made the whole rig more stable by lowering the center of gravity. I don’t think it ever went into…

Nowadays I only judge based on that if I know the car. My friend has a Mazda 3 and I offered to help him change a headlight. It had these goddamned little plastic lock rings to hold the bulbs in and almost no access. After an hour or so of cutting up my hand we gave up and took it to the dealer.

I’m guessing you’ve never lived in a state where they put salt on the road.

Jiffy Lube once drained the gear lube out of my transmission and then forgot to put fresh gear lube in.

I’m into cars and have all the tools, and I *hate* doing tire rotations. Too much jacking, too much maneuvering heavy, dirty objects around, and nothing at all interesting about any of it. It’s one of those jobs I’d just rather pay someone with a proper lift to do.

My dealer wants the car all day to do an oil change. They do a good job but it’s a real pain in the ass.

I eventually started doing my own oil changes on my ‘81 Mercedes 300TD because shops couldn’t figure out the cartridge-type filter. Nor would they have a replacement filter or the correct oil. I was bringing in my own filter and oil and walking the tech through the process, so I realized I might as well do it myself.

Not to mention having to dispose of the old oil, which tends to end up being a hassle in one way or another.

Sadly most people are in that boat, and they get taken for a ride all the time by shops like this.

I check my clicky torque wrench against my beam torque wrench, from time to time. The clicky is convenient but the beam will never go out of calibration unless I physically bend it.

That used to be the recommendation for radials, but last I checked both tire and car manufacturers were now recommending cross-rotation.

I have one of those too! I’ve gotten all kinds of use out of it. About the only thing that’s ever defeated it was a particularly badly stuck Honda crankshaft bolt. I’ve been pretty pleased with the Sawzall knockoff I bought from them, too. (The Sawzall blades they sell are terrible, though, get good blades.)
The secret…

Depends on whether it’s a hub-piloted or lug-piloted wheel. Lug-piloted is pretty rare these days except on trailers.

Does this make Autopilot the Duke Nukem Forever of the automotive world?

I know, but I still think that’s insane. ;) I ride a dual sport that weighs 320 pounds, though, so I’m on the other end of the scale (so to speak.)

560 pounds seems pretty hefty for something you might have to pick up while standing in a mud puddle. But I imagine most of these never leave pavement, and people really just want a bike with a comfortable riding position that isn’t a cruiser.

No doubt. Headgasket replacement was routine maintenance on those lemons.