Hey everyone! When I was young, a relative of mine had her car break down on the highway. It would not start after. Another relative said that it was the muffler that went out and was keeping it from running.

Now I won't say what ended up the problem, but I would like to see what other people think about that.

A bad muffler making a car stall and fail to start.

 

No, I've not heard that one. Now a stopped up catalytic converter? Yes indeed. The only way I can see if a muffler being a problem is if the cat con came apart and blew crap back into it and stopped it up, or someone plugged the tail pipe so thoroughly that the exhaust gases couldn't get around it and backed up in the engine. Very doubtful.

 

+1 to the T on what Rube said.
Or if the baffles in the muffler all broke apart and clogged the exit hole, I suppose it is physically possible but not very likely.

Not sure if we are supposed to guess at the real problem, but ... Fuel injection or carburetor?

 

How old were the muffler bearings?

 

It ended up being a bad fuel pump. My point is, it's super funny because she claimed she knew all about cars. She tried to repair the many leaks in this Saturn's coolant tank with duct tape! Plain regular duct tape.

This post was to show how not everyone knows about cars that claim to know. I would love to hear other stories like that!

She actually was the reason everything failed in our cooling system. When I was younger I told them how to fill up the coolant. They didn't listen. They filled to the very top with tap water.

Everyone knows the ending to that one I'm sure.

And a related story to this funny one, my grandmother's vans tail light went out. It took her and 3 other people 1 hour to replace the bulb. Less than 1 minute to access the bulb, 4 seconds to remove the bulb, and the rest of the time was putting the new bulb in. 4 minutes in I told them to push and turn. This was when I was 12 by the way. After the hour they pushed in and turned...it worked! They even tried to tape the bulb in.

 

your family's gene pool apparently had some pretty serious mutations....

But not you.

 

Damn, derf! Don't go insulting the fella. He didn't pick his family. He can pick his friends and his nose, so maybe he'll pick us as his friends. I've run into that **** about people that claim to know about cars and don't ! As a matter of fact, I wen to Advance Autoparts today to get some new squirters for the PT. Three women working at Advance and none of them had a clue. Walked out and went to Autozone and the guy knew, but the didn't have any. Went to O'Reilly and the damn woman working the counter didn't know what the hell I was talking about. She went to the managers office and asked him and the manager walked right out and right to the package with two generic squirters in it. I thanked him for his help, paid for them and left. I'm going to try very hard not to visit Advance or O'Reilly if I can avoid it. The guys at Autozone were very helpful and willing to even have some transferred from another store so I could come back tomorrow and get them. I'll do business with them first and then I DO have a Carquest here locally that I have not checked out yet. I'm tired of these chain stores hiring dumbasses that don't know ANYTHING about vehicles. If Carquest proves to be the same, I guess I'll just start going back to the dealership. MAYBE their parts people will at least have a clue.

 

Rube,

I specifically excluded him from my comment, which I made only AFTER repeated thrashings he dealt out regarding his own family members.

I thought you hated autozone (?)

 

dwd -- you're past 25 posts! you get an avatar. Please email me a jpg and I will resize n upload.

 

I absolutely despise Autozones website because it is useless on my phone. Both the mobile and desktop is horrible on my phone. I use RA for parts I can wait for, and I use Oreillys for parts I need ASAP since I can at least research them on their website. There are some bugs with Oreillys website but I've leaned to get past them fast so they are not a problem. Rockauto really has no bugs in their website.

I was replacing my PCV valve at a park believe it or not, and I forgot to take my own advice which was to always be prepared. The elbow fell apart so I could not have a sealed vacuum line. I called Oreillys and two new employees just left me on the phone. I get the manager and he helps me. So I had to get to Oreillys for a new hose because elbows are extinct it seems. I after searching for a way to drive the car I ended up shoving a napkin in the PCV hose so the engine speed would stay stable. When I got to Oreillys, the lady had zero idea what I was talking about. She did not even know what vacuum ment in terms of hoses.

I am not bothered by the post about my family, mainly that relative, was so prideful. I knew more about cars than she did before I even knew how to drive. I repaired cars before I could drive them when I was young.