Another Week, Another Injury Or Illness
Posted on | April 19, 2007 at 5:47 pm | 18 Comments
Hey, where are all the blog updates?
So little time…
Guess what? I was removing a flat tire on my dad’s Prius on Monday night and I somehow managed to sprain a rib or something while removing the lug nuts (which must’ve been screwed in by Superman). Or at least pulled a muscle in my side. Still hurts like heck. I should just not do any sort of physical activity at all. But then I’m afraid I’d develop bed sores. I can’t even do my morning jog now, since running rattles the ribs too much. I’m gaining weight like crazy. And I’m probably depressed.
So, anyway, the tire is unrepairable. Big puncture in the sidewall. Probably because I drove on it a little ways before I figured out it was flat. It had two nails in it; I presume one or both caused the original flat.
The guy at the tire place recommended I get a new tire (though he had a used one in pretty bad shape that he would’ve sold me for $30). In fact, he said that if the other tires were like this one, I should just get all new tires. But the Prius is a 2005 and only has like 11,000 miles on it (most of them driven by dad in full-on senior citizen mode). Do the stock tires (they are Goodyear) really degrade that fast? Or was the guy just trying to sell me tires…?
I don’t know what to do. New tires is an expense I don’t need right now. Meanwhile, the Prius is jacked up wheel-less in my garage. I still plan on buying this car from my dad once I sell the Acura (another thing I need to pay more attention to). He can’t drive it, and I’m tired of having two cars in the garage. Although it was nice having the Acura around when the Prius got the flat. Before the flat, I was driving the Prius pretty much exclusively, in order to avoid messing up the Acura so it would be easier to sell. Plus, the better gas mileage of the hybrid is really cool, especially now that my commute is twice as long.
So that’s what’s going on with me. Part of it, anyway. Sorry, no Safeway Adventure Stories this week.
Gotta run! Latre.
Comments
18 Responses to “Another Week, Another Injury Or Illness”
April 19th, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
It’s common for tire shops to recommend replacing all the tires when one goes, because the Prius supposedly does much better on tires w/ even wear. After only 11,000 miles, though, I wouldn’t worry too much about that – just get a tire like the ones you already have on it.
As for the Prius’ intractable lug nuts, the last time I had a flat, my co-worker, trying to help me remove a torque-wrench-driven “key” lug nut, jumped on the tire iron and snapped the lug nut housing in half. Boy, was that a pain!
Hope you feel better soon.
April 19th, 2007 @ 9:45 pm
Yeah, uneven tire wear can be a factor for any car, but unless you’re doing a lot of highway driving it’s probably not a major worry, unless it’s obvious enough for an untrained eye to notice. Try a different tire shop which may have a wider range of used tires – Discount Tire never steered me wrong, and there were two within half a mile of my place when I lived in what they now call Centennial…
As for lug nuts, get some of that spray stuff that loosens tight bolts why dontcha? Are we too GOOD for aerosol lubricant now that we have a fancy girlfriend and our very own speedboat? Or whatever.
April 20th, 2007 @ 9:59 am
I don’t know what “brilliant” car designer came up with the idea of saving $1 a car by replacing the cross-style lug wrench with the awful 75 degree short one back in the 70s, but they’ll be the second one up against the wall when the revolution comes. Those cross wrenches can easily generate two to three times the torque with a lower risk of stripping the lug nut.
April 20th, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
Wal-Mart has the “cross” style lug wrenches for $3.94. I know, ‘cuz I bought one. The stock Prius wrench is certainly lacking.
For the record, I got 36K out of my stock Goodyear Integrity tires (undoubtedly the identical tire you have) and they were completely bald in spots. You’re going to need new tires pretty soon anyway, so just bite the bullet and get a set of Michelins (Try Costco).
April 20th, 2007 @ 4:36 pm
I get my tires at tirerack.com. They will drop ship them directly to various local installers and the shipping cost is often exceeded by the sales tax on buying locally. They have reviews and comparisons. I’ve bought all my recent tires there. Here is their article on tire matching:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=136
That being said, the tires should not be significantly worn in 11,000 miles (assuming no burn-outs and tire pressure has been properly maintained.) Basically, just look at the tires and see if there are any bald/flat spots.
Let me know if you need any car help.
Sorry about the lug wrench and muscle wrench. I concur with the other posters. I carry one of the cross bar lug wrenchs in the trunk because the leverage is so much better. If you need to resort to the stanard wrench either stand on it to break the nut free or squat down grab the wrench and lift with the knees. Mechanics should be flogged for overtightening the nuts with an air gun.
April 20th, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. The tirerack.com thing looks interesting, Bill, I may have to try that. And I need to pick up a cross bar wrench. My dad suggested getting a pipe to slip on the end of the normal wrench to add leverage.
I went to the doctor today and there is some strong possibility that the rib is actually broken. But it really doesn’t matter, as the treatment is the same as for a tendon incident. In some ways, a broken rib would be better, as it heals faster. At least I scored a rib belt and some Vicodin!
April 20th, 2007 @ 7:51 pm
Damn, dude – this could be big, last year my wife broke a rib and SHE ended up PREGNANT!
Also, leftover Vicodin can be useful when you don’t want to pay cash for certain comedian’s CDs…
April 20th, 2007 @ 10:33 pm
Don’t buy anything from Wal-Mart – unless you like helping to unemploy your neighbors.
April 21st, 2007 @ 7:03 am
Don’t buy anything from Wal-Mart – unless you like helping to unemploy your neighbors.
Penn & Teller: Bullshit! recently did an episode in defense of Wal-Mart, which challenges statements like the above. I’m not saying I agree with all their points, though they do make some good ones. And yes, I do shop there occasionally.
April 21st, 2007 @ 1:56 pm
Walmart isn’t evil, it’s simply an inevitable and predictable result of unrestrained capitalism. It’s just an extreme end of a path which disconnects incentives from goals. When faced with a choice of buying a $10 widget from a smiling neighbor, or the same widget for $9 from a grumpy foreigner or faceless corporate robot down the street, guess what people pick time and time again? They can’t help being a symptom of a flaw in the system.
Plus, maybe I want my neighbors unemployed; some of them are real dicks.
Microsoft, however, remains evil. Somewhere on the scale amidst pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, the RIAA and Pol Pot.
April 21st, 2007 @ 11:04 pm
Well, you assume the two clauses of your first sentence can’t be the same thing
April 22nd, 2007 @ 3:04 am
To respond properly would be more appropriately done in my own blog, which I do not have. Instead I humbly submit this, which expresses a parallel point about a similar topic:
“Minister, to call civil service delays ‘tactics’ would be to confuse lethargy with strategy” – Sir Humphrey, “Yes Minister”
Calling Walmart “evil” when Microsoft and Halliburton are on the same planet is like comparing the anthrax virus to Josef Stalin. Sure, they’ve both caused some unemployment, but there’s a difference or two…
April 22nd, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
I used to go through tires awfully fast, but now I make sure they get rotated every 6-8,000 miles and I get a lot more life out of them. Most auto shops over tighten the lug nuts so you have to go to them all the time. Thankfully, tires are much better than they used to be.
April 23rd, 2007 @ 1:36 am
Sorry to hear about the injury — hope it gets better soon.
I agree with dgstan about the Michelins — I’ve been happy with them since my dad put them on our ‘69 Mercury Montego station wagon in the ’70’s. But if you do Costco, make *real* sure they put the right tire on the car. Sometimes they aren’t as diligent as they should be when reading the numbers off the tires, as I found out when I re-rubbered my car a few years back. Lots of flats got changed that winter.
April 24th, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
Boy, this is a record-length comment thread – Roger should post about tires more often! Either that, or break bones more often.
OK, to be on the safe side, do both.
April 26th, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
How about dropping a tire on your foot, Roger? Two birds, one stone (or tire, in this case).
April 26th, 2007 @ 9:09 pm
Now that the rib is actually healing and I can breath, I would prefer not to have my walking impaired. Guess I’ll just have to come up with some other subject.
April 30th, 2007 @ 10:03 pm
*Sigh* Comments on another post closed due to spamming…