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Re: complicated modern cars

To: "Chuck Rothfuss" <crothfuss@coastalnet.com>
Subject: Re: complicated modern cars
From: David Scheidt <dmschei@attglobal.net>
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:42:26 -0500
On Jul 12, 2004, at 10:12 PM, Chuck Rothfuss wrote:

>
>    There's a plastic ball in a kind of basket in most modern
> automobile filler necks, as a roll-over spill prevention device. (I 
> suspect
> this is more to quiet the Sierra Club than out of concern for your 
> safety.)

No, it's there to kill people who have to replace in-tank fuel pumps.

> I've seen your problem before in a German Cadillac (Opel) Catera.  If
> the ball has become lodged in the neck you will be filling only down 
> the
> vent tube that Randall mentioned.  Must be like trying to fill a 
> crankcase
> through the dipstick tube. (Local Ford garage had to do this on a 
> Catera
> that came to them with two right-hand valve covers and no oil filler.  
> I had
> to go see it to believe it!)

I own a car that will have problems filling at a high volume pump, some 
of the time.
I've never been bothered enough to investigate it.

One other thing -- one of the failure modes of gas nozzle spouts is 
that the pressure switch gets overly sensitive, and shuts off way too 
easily.

>    Better yet, take the thing to your Mercedes dealer and let them 
> figure it
> out.  I'll bet they'll make my $70 an hour labor rate look like a 
> bargain.
>

Local dealer gets $85 for cars.  I've no doubt they charge more for 
trucks.  (The first rate independent that'd I'd trust with any German 
car over the dealer gets $70, typical indy rates are in $60 to $70 
range.)






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