My dad used to do this with my Mom’s 89 LX Mustang 5.0. It was immediately obvious when he’d been driving the car, it was straining bushings or something, because the gearbox felt loose for a while afterwards. It would tighten back up, oddly.

I recently learned there are actually seven original cars:

Shocking. It very much is now a slideshow.

Is this going to be a slideshow later today? If so, not playing that game anymore.

Didn’t even need to click to know that it was a slideshow.

Interested to learn more. Plan to keep this car for a while, and replacing batteries every 3 years isn’t desirable.

LOL. Username checks out :) 

Thanks Elizabeth. That was a great read. This is the Jalopnik I love.

Another project for vTuned/Tavarish/Alex Rebuilds coming up!

Yep.

Mine is a standard and has to be in neutral to engage (dangerous at intersections) so I’d probably be able to avoid that problem.

Don’t worry, in fairly short order it drains your battery’s effective life sufficiently that the system stops working. My 3 year old Ford massively oversized battery is now at 65% max capacity and ASS hasn’t worked in 2 years, even with frequent trickle charging.

Tesla: “Don’t do any non-car stuff with the battery”

You must work for a very unhappy company :( 

I’ve worn out springs on some vehicles via this practice - it’s very obvious when the wiper misses spots on the windshield. However, I still put them up any time I’m expecting to find ice on my windshield when I return to the car. Springs are cheap and easy. Often cost less than wiper blades!

That looks like a vastly simplified wiring diagram for my Audi starter. Well played.

Easily remedied by cheap butt connectors and appropriate wire wrap (usually electrical tape)

IIRC, Audi techs were trained to use crimped butt connectors in place of solder splices to fix wiring issues (with appropriate sealing). Not sure the exact reason, but I assume the likelihood of cold solder joints failing was a consideration.

My high school buddy used to pump full serve gas with lit cigs all the time. He dropped it in a puddle he made once, and nothing happened. If you’re a smoker and bored with life, feel free to try it, but also prepared to be bored with the result.

Still curious which influencer asked Lichtfield for free parts +25k£ + cut of future sales to promote their Yaris GR.