Stupid things you've heard said about FSJs/Jeeps/Cars in general

[rang-a-stang]

When I was in High School, I drove a VW Bug. I was talking with a buddy one day and his girlfriend walked up. This is how the conversation went:
Friend: Oh, hey, this is Marc. He likes VW Bugs, too!
Me: yeah, I have a 71, it's pretty cool.
Her: No you don't.
Me:....uh...... yeah... I do?
Her: No you don't. I like bugs and I check the parking lot. There are no VW bugs out there.
Me: Uhh... mine is...
Friend: No, he does have one! It's a grey...
Her: Whatever. You guys aren't going to trick me.
Bear in mind, this was Anaheim in the mid 90's. There were probably 5 VW bugs out there.

A close friend of mine says if you skip gears in a manual transmission (like going 3-5) , you are damaging the synchros. I asked him if he knew what a synchro was and he said no, but they are expensive to fix and if you skip gears, you going to ruin your transmission and have to replace them.

I've heard plenty over the years. Some funnier than others. What about you guys? Mechanics, feel free to add stories about people bringing in their cars for REALLY dumb reasons.

[Tanker]

Use to run wreckers out of West Palm. 0300 stopped to check on a car pulled over. The kid had a connecting rod sticking out the block. Ask if he needed a tow his reply was no he was almost done. Look over at his work and he was cutting the rod off. Said he has done this before on another car. Wave good bye and I left. Didn't see the car about an hour latter. Being a wrecker operator in a major city will get you alot of stupid people. That just one of many stupid people I've meet.

[44BZ]

I overheard a female coworker today call the dealership to schedule an appointment to have new wiper blades put on because one of hers split in half.

Now I get that people come from different skill levels, but seriously

[Crankyolman]

Use to run wreckers out of West Palm. 0300 stopped to check on a car pulled over. The kid had a connecting rod sticking out the block. Ask if he needed a tow his reply was no he was almost done. Look over at his work and he was cutting the rod off. Said he has done this before on another car. Wave good bye and I left. Didn't see the car about an hour latter. Being a wrecker operator in a major city will get you alot of stupid people. That just one of many stupid people I've meet.

I have to comment on that one, about 6 months ago my son bought a mustang with a light front hit but low mileage and began repairing it by buying another parts mustang same color, same year with a rod sticking out of the side of the engine. We fixed the mustang in my driveway which left not a lot of space and one day I needed to move the scrap car, so I figured, what the hell the engine is junk anyway so I turned the key and sure enough that car with a big hole in it, no oil and a rod sticking out ran and drove and I was able to move it around. We later donated it to charity and got a nice tax deduction but when they resold it it was actually listed as running and driving. Says a lot about cars sold as "running when parked" don't it

My big dumb thing whas when my neighbor came over while I was busy hooking up my engine after reinstalling it. He came over and told me how my engine was really a Ford 360, then argued with me about it for 15 minutes. Then when he finished with that he told me that Jeep used to put Chevy 327s in them and argued with me about that for another 15 minutes.

[letank]

I overheard a female coworker today call the dealership to schedule an appointment to have new wiper blades put on because one of hers split in half.

Now I get that people come from different skill levels, but seriously

C'mon a broken nail is a catastrophy, to be honest for our rigs those early blade where you have to push a screwdriver into a slot seems like a sure way to poke an eyeball...

[gpcl16]

I rarely hear anything about FSJs, other than people asking me if my Grand Wagoneer is a Bronco but the list of stupid things people think about cars goes on forever.

I live off a mountain highway in California. It's a 2,200 foot downhill winding highway to get into town. I very commonly see friends shifting their car into neutral to "save gas" going downhill. These are automatics I'm talking about and on modern fuel injected cars. Besides the obvious issue with riding your brakes for 10 minutes in neutral down a grade thing, any modern fuel injected car will go into decel fuel cutoff mode and cut virtually all fuel to the engine as it coasts downhill in gear. Thus idling in neutral actually uses more fuel than coasting downhill in gear regardless of RPM in a fuel injected car. Of course I wouldn't expect anyone not knowledgeable about cars to know that, so in a way I get it, but the smell of burning brakes and smoke coming out of your wheels should draw some red flags. I did a full brake job on a friend's E-350 who did just this. The rotors and drums had massive heat cracks in them, it was real bad.

And how about the people with new cars that have daytime running lights and dashboards that are always lit up not knowing that they have to actually turn their light switch on at night (or at least the auto setting if that's an option) to have their taillights, side marker lights etc operate. I see them every time I drive at night. I should stop ranting now, I could go on forever.

[joe]

I live off a mountain highway in California. It's a 2,200 foot downhill winding highway to get into town. I very commonly see friends shifting their car into neutral to "save gas" going downhill.

AKA Mexican Overdrive.

[johnsonic]

Not really a stupid thing people say about my FSJ (because how would they know), but people consistently think my 1984 was made in the '60s.

[gpcl16]

Not really a stupid thing people say about my FSJ (because how would they know), but people consistently think my 1984 was made in the '60s.

Yeah I get the same thing too. Usually people think my '88 is from the 70s. Understandable since the body panels didn't change since 1971 and no other truck made in the 80s looks anything like a FSJ. In fact, I'm not sure there's any form of technology on an 80s GW (besides a catalytic converter) that didn't exist back in 1971. Maybe the digital clock on my instrument panel? I know they had digital clocks but unlikely to find one in a car in 1971.

Anyways when people ask me what year it is I tell them it's a 70s truck assembled in 1987.

[ZackN920]

Well, the main body dates to 1962 soo ........^don't know where your getting 71 from???^

Our "D" pillars don't help either. They're styling just looks so 1960's Makes me think of some of the cool late 60's Mopars. Our Wag's also have so much chrome. How many other vehicles, Even by the 1980's have as much chrome as the Grand Wag's do? So yea, kind of a releic of the 60's. Anyone that knows about cars in a general sense and in the sense of "era's" are going to figure that these Jeeps are from the 60's to the 70's.

The few times people have guessed on mine, I got late 70's from them. They are shocked when I tell them its a '90.

[Ristow]

AKA Mexican Overdrive.

"i got me 10 forward gears and a geooooooorgia overdrive....."

[threepiece]

I can't count the times others have told me that my Cherokee or J20 is built like a tank hahahahahaha!

[Ristow]

go crash it into something and it'll fold up like aluminum foil.

[gpcl16]

Well, the main body dates to 1962 soo ........^don't know where your getting 71 from???^

For some reason I thought that some of the body panels changed in 1971, but I guess I was mistaken. Maybe I was confused because that was the grill changeover year?

[SJTD]

Tail lights changed which included a change to the fenders but I'd call that cosmetic, not really a body change.

Hood changed too some time after the rhino grille.