The limits to my philosophy on cars
Feb. 2nd, 2010 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mattbellI'm generally a fan of not spending a lot of money on cars, as the money most people spend on them seems like it would be better spent elsewhere. I paid $3,600 for my car, whereas most people in my income range at the time probably spent $20,000-$50,000. To me, there are a hell of a lot of exciting things you can do with the difference between those two amounts of money. In a place like San Francisco, cars are likely to get banged up fairly fast anyway, so it's worth getting something that's already a bit rough around the edges.
However, I'm thinking that it might be time to finally get a newer car. What's pushing me over the edge?
Rainwater leaks.
The last set of storms dumped a pile of water into my car, and over a few days the water has gradually made it into various parts of the car, especially the footwell under the passenger seat. I found I was able to get rid of the water by parking diagonally on a slope so that I could simply scoop the pooled water out with a cup. Applying baking soda to the floor removed the lingering smell. (There's a sidebar here about how a very simple product works better than a lot of more modern, more expensive, annoyingly scented deodorizers)
I want to prevent it from happening again.
The origins of the leak are not obvious. There's a slight leak from the sunroof, but that doesn't explain the majority of the water on the floor.
It would be cool to find some sort of flow diagram that would document how water is supposed to move around the car. I got a few ideas of where to look from the internet, but there are a lot of possibilities. The fact that the leak is slow (1 day delay) and inconsistent makes things even harder. I could do something clever like coloring water with different coors of food coloring, pouring different colors onto different candidate leak areas, and then looking to see what color of water ends up on the floor.
However, unless there's a relatively easy solution, I think I've reached the point where the time I'm investing in this no longer makes sense. The point of buying a cheap, reliable car was to save money for more important things, but if I'm spending a lot of time fixing it, it's no longer a net win. Any ideas?
However, I'm thinking that it might be time to finally get a newer car. What's pushing me over the edge?
Rainwater leaks.
The last set of storms dumped a pile of water into my car, and over a few days the water has gradually made it into various parts of the car, especially the footwell under the passenger seat. I found I was able to get rid of the water by parking diagonally on a slope so that I could simply scoop the pooled water out with a cup. Applying baking soda to the floor removed the lingering smell. (There's a sidebar here about how a very simple product works better than a lot of more modern, more expensive, annoyingly scented deodorizers)
I want to prevent it from happening again.
The origins of the leak are not obvious. There's a slight leak from the sunroof, but that doesn't explain the majority of the water on the floor.
It would be cool to find some sort of flow diagram that would document how water is supposed to move around the car. I got a few ideas of where to look from the internet, but there are a lot of possibilities. The fact that the leak is slow (1 day delay) and inconsistent makes things even harder. I could do something clever like coloring water with different coors of food coloring, pouring different colors onto different candidate leak areas, and then looking to see what color of water ends up on the floor.
However, unless there's a relatively easy solution, I think I've reached the point where the time I'm investing in this no longer makes sense. The point of buying a cheap, reliable car was to save money for more important things, but if I'm spending a lot of time fixing it, it's no longer a net win. Any ideas?
