Hey guys, for those of you who don't know I am not much of a mechanic, and work solely on electronics. So when I had to bring my grandmothers car to the wal-mart car shop to get a new tire I was asked what sized tire I needed. I had no clue and had to tell the person I had no clue how to tell the size.

They had to explain to me that you can see the size directly on the tire or the inside of the door. even worse after that I had to have them help me put windshield wipers on it. I am 17 and I just never learned this.

 

I'm sure you aren't the first person or the last person to not know how to tell tire size or install wiper blades. Don't sweat it.

 

Yea there was this girl there with her brother. I talked to them and she had no clue what to do because her parents where out of town. her brother was a software fanatic so we all just sat down and talked for a bit. I was happy to see I wasn't the only one who had no clue that day. :P

 

Nothing to be worried about, you're not the first person to ask and besides, how else would you find out?

 

Let's hope they really checked for the proper size recommended by the manufacturer rather than just putting the same size back on. Can't tell you how many times I have seen cars with different sized tires all over the car because somebody took the "any 16" tire will do" approach.

 

They checked inside the door... apparently there is a manufacturer sticker that shows the size. didn't know that until that day. another tire shop I went to I was able to check out the back room. They had 6' tires. was not expecting that.

 

Wait till your 40, 50, 60, ... and you still keep running into stuff you don't know.

 

You know, frankly, windshield wipers are not easy to put on. They're all different, but they make wipers that fit 10 different styles of cars if you only know how to correctly select and snap on one of a handful of tiny doodads. naturally they use non-verbal instructions written by the Lego company. I have been working on cars 30 years and have 2 engineering degrees, and I can barely deal with them.

 

I'm sure you're talking about the front ones. Try a rear. There is a reason you'll see three or four auto parts store employees, one with their phone searching the net for a "how to" all trying to figure out how to get that little 10" blade off the arm without snapping that expensive arm

 

So did you ask her out?
Tire dimensions are a simple one-item issue, c'mon, focus on priorities, lol!

And you got a Volvo!

 

Lol, its not even my volvo, It is my mothers, and its not running anymore; The front passenger side tire has too much play, every time I drove it I was scared it was going to come off and i'd flip. Even more scary when you don't have a DIM installed xD

I've been driving my mothers other car, I had to spend 3 hours to figure out how to get the spare off of the bottom. The manual was of no help there. said specific names of parts that I don't know what they are, and had no pictures to say where they where. Took my friends cousin to help me lol.

Not to mention I couldn't find the spot to pour in the oil, I put it in through the DIP stick hole. (Pain in the behind) and a day later I figure out the cap was broken for the oil so I would have had to use a screwdriver to get the actual thing out.

I may just use his thread to dump my mistakes. Hopefully someone else can learn from them instead of making it themselves. Then again mistakes get repeated... 21 electrocutions, one of them being 240V on an electric stove. OUCH! At least I didn't touch the 666V line at my old work (Yes we had that... goes through a variac and they chose that.)

Oh and I found out i can use transmission fluid in place of power steering in emergency, so I thought "Why not use break fluid?" It worked for a car that gushes all of the fluid out at once, when you make a turn or two. Had to move it from a parking lot to the front of the house, and drive like an a$$#%&! in order to make the two turns. Oh, and I also learned when stopping at a red light check to make sure someone isn't tailgating you. almost got hit yesterday when the insurance card was expired.

 

Well, I always say these cars are great to learn on. A lot of stuff wears out on them!

 

LOL, so true. I tend to own cars for a long time and get very comfortable working on each model over time. My first "deep dive" was on BMW 2002s where I did everything from engine swaps/clutch replacements/rebuild heads. Not much to know other than the points gap. Next car was an Audi 4000 Quattro. Had the K-Jet fuel injection and the first generation of emission controls. At first it looked daunting but again, I could sort out intake air leaks, injector seals, hall sensors (put 250K on it and still kick myself for selling). My volvo 850T was my first turbo with a confusing array of pipes, sensors and OBD diagnostics. Now after 20 years, I can ID every part under the hood and carry over that knowledge to my S40... In my view, the two keys to DIY auto repair are 1) curiosity - enjoying figuring out how something works and getting into it 2) a need to know. When you find your car's developed a clunk going over speed bumps and you research how to take a strut apart, and fix your own - you will find yourself hooked for life, doing struts all the time :-)

 

Here is a tire funny.......mid 70s.....in an old "Datsun" wagon. Flat tire on the interstate. Could not find the spare (go figure). At the gas station they couldn't either. Bought a new tire and as they put it on the rack we found the spare under the car. Never told my Dad. I dont think I ever looked for the release mechanism. It was Dads car and that was part of the deal, fix it if you use it. He didnt worry about the circumstances. Now I have a company van with the spare underneath. Funny I guess, Ive used the spare 2 or 3 times. Its quite the challenge in the rain........Hint, you may be showing your age if you remember Datsun in the USA and/or full service gas stations that at least sold tires, radiator hoses and could do minor repairs, brakes and such.

 

Datsun trucks had the nicest little chain hoist mounted under the bed. Very slick. No wonder you couldn't find it.

I still have a Datsun truck. My dad bought a 1967, and that was the first foreign car i ever saw. I still remember those little pictures on the dashboard *****. You couldn't tell what any of them meant.

 

Not everyone knows everything. I am not familiar with the terms as well. There is nothing wrong about not knowing few things.