do you ever learn something new, where you didn't know it for decades?

I had always heard if you reversed a steel belted radial the wire would come apart. Actually had that happen. Also have a 2000 Ford Ranger that i bought new and just a few weeks ago learned how to turn off the dome lights with the doors open. The back of the door has a part that hits a part on the body and the part in the door rotates and turns it off. So a quick turn with a screwdriver will turn it off. Now to reset the door before closing you hold out on the handle on the inside and turn the part in the door back the other way

When the check engine light on my 2014 Dodge Caravan came on, I always took it to an auto parts store for them to put the meter on to check the code. Turns out on the Dodge/Chrysler cars, particularly my 2014, you can check it yourself. Just put the key in and turn it on (not start), just on and off three times in succession. The code will display for several seconds. Don't know what other years it works for.

I know when a fault icon lights on dash of the 2006 Mack truck I drive you can press and hold the cruise control down button and the icon will flash x amount of times to indicate different problems. You just need the list of codes. For instance if it flashes 5 times, pauses and flashes two more times it means there is a throttle position sensor problem.

although you might say to yourself "why didn't I know that?", as long as you are learning new things you can be confident that your feet are still on the green side of the turf!

I keep learning how much I didn't know.

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

...always try to learn something new every day. (For instance, this morning, I learned that Traveling Robert on the YouTube channel, is actually a refugee from Cuba.) Interesting stuff, huh?

told a friend who is over 50 and born in the Phila. area, that PA does not tax toilet paper. He said hmmmmm, never knew that before lol

I think this is because how often do we buy it, and how often would it be isolated on the receipt where we would notice it had no sales tax applied.

And me too. I started driving at age 12 and when I got caught boy did my dad overreact. What's the big deal, 12, 16? If my own son who is 6 ever gets caught doing that? I'm gonna be a lot more ignorant than Mark Twain's dad ever was!

I just found out today, it's not actually a vitamin, but a steroid!

~Angela

For example, a bag of chips or package of cookies would not be taxed at the supermarket but would be taxed along with that cup of soup at a lunch counter.

Other oddities at https://www.post-gazette.com/business/money/2017/12/11/Under...

just thought of something else that I learned recently. When my shoulder comes in contact with a glass window, as if I am Claude Giroux checking Sidney Crosby, like on the back door, the glass shatters. But for real. I have been opening this door since 2002. The door has been there since 1951 (original). Why, in 2020, does my shoulder suddenly go through the glass lol

To put it in perspective, it's a rear door on a 1951 colonial, and it has a real grid with 4 panes of glass. Today, a door would have one piece of glass with a fake plastic grille dividing the entire glass into 4 sections for appearance, know what I mean, and today, it would be energy efficient glass.

Good thing the glass was literally about $6.58 at Lowe's cut to size. And good thing for YouTube!

Was a Lineman for the Power Company, we used have him come around few times a year and give a class. Near the end of every class he would say "The Day you go home not having learned something you can expect to have an accident soon!". Many a time I saw this be true, once you know it all, look out. The best one I can remember is the little arrow on the fuel gage. Every job I ever had required me to drive multiple vehicles, always had to check before fueling up to see which side fuel cap was. Few years back was reading something with a bunch of trivia and it explained the arrow, which I had never noticed before

Never knew there was a 'n' in 'Badminton'. (The game with the racquets and birdies or shuttlecocks)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton

knew that Costco and every supermarket could sell out of toilet paper....dang.

I don't know.

Same as yours, but now learn more that you can switch tire from the right to the left Geez.

Just wonder if doing like that, do we need to balance the wheels and tires again?

Good day

As a mechanical engineer, I can tell you that rebalancing isn't necessary. Having said that many shops will tell you it is as balancing is quite the moneymaker. If they do get pushy, ask them to show you the switch on the balancing machine that selects clockwise or counterclockwise.

Yes, balancing is a moneymaker as is mounting. A couple of thoughts.

Well I am old school, learned from my dad. Our cars have snow tires (nice we only got 0.3" all winter), and I'm not about to have snow tires mounted/dismounted every year, so snows are on aftermarket rims stored in the shed.

Now, when you order online, the balancing is automatically going to be Hunter Road Force where a roller is pressing down on the tire. Not truly sure what that accomplishes but if you ask around locally, even though dealers have the equipment, they don't do it normally, and not without additional charge.

I did learn a couple of things after getting aftermarket rims in 2002 or so. They most often have hub centric rings specific to your car. Because the rim will fit many cars and so an adapter snaps in applicable to your hub, so you can center it on the hub. They can fall off and now you could have a vibration.

Also, when my wife got her GM SUV in 2011, I learned that her car requires lug centric balancing. If the wheels/tires are balanced using standard hub centric balancing, they will shake. I have seen the lug centric adapters at Costco, so even Costco is smart enough to know (probably computer instructs tech to use the adapters).

When you say moneymaker, how about the fact that the lower the profile of the tire, the more it costs to mount/balance?

Lastly, I learned only in late 2016, that tires have dots on them to tell the tech how to mount. I bought a used car in 10/16, a 2006. In the trunk was the original spare, almost unused (it was used because there were tiny pebbles in it).

But it was so new and armor alled by used car dealer (they put it on the car and shot a picture for cars.com hahaha to make it look like new tires), that the tire had red and yellow dots on the sidewall. Also, the aluminum factory rim had grease pencil markings from the factory in Japan from 11/05. This is the stuff that Graveyard Carz would recreate!

So I learned that for all intents and purposes the yellow dot can be lined up with the valve stem to minimize weights needed to balance. The red dot is if the wheel itself has a mark. This way, the high point of the tire is mounted to that dot or the wheel's low point.

It would seem easiest to match the yellow dot with the valve stem, but they are two different methodologies altogether. The yellow dot is relying upon the weight, the red the uniformity or runout. Didn't know any of this until 2016 when I saw the dots, and I've purchased many sets of tires over the years!

I have a Jeep with a full size spare. When I rotate tires, I rotate all 5 tires, see the image at the link below for the way I rotate them.

If your tires appear to have worn evenly you probably don't need to rebalance them. That said, I always have the front tires rebalanced. Gives me peace of mind, if nothing else, and it's not that expensive as opposed to the cost of the tires themselves.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170724/6032039a23400b58ed...

It used to be important because you were also balancing the irregular cast drum (of the brake) which stayed in place.