Author Topic: Ah, the joy of car ownership... (Read 6151 times)

K Frame · « **on:** October 13, 2005, 08:09:00 AM »

I'm working from home today, as my the brake caliper on my car decided to seize up.

This is a fix I can do myself (I did it on my old Plymouth), but the weather is crappy, I can't do it where I live (HOA rules, and I'm VP), and then there's the time factor.

Luckily, my garage is only about 1/4 mile from the house, and they're not really busy today, so they're hopefull that, if it's just the caliper, they can get it done today.

Sigh.

cfabe · « **Reply #1 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:12:04 AM »

You're disallowed from repairing your car?

K Frame · « **Reply #2 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:16:02 AM »

On association grounds, yes.

The only exception is for emergency repairs, and I could POSSIBLY explain that away as an emergency repair, but it would be bad form since I'm the VP.

My next door neighbor replaced his fuel pump a couple of months ago on his Suburban, and I got a couple of complaints about it, but my answer was "emergency repair" to get him mobile again.

charby · « **Reply #3 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:17:34 AM »

One more reason I am not going to live anwhere with a HOA.

TarpleyG · « **Reply #4 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:32:35 AM »

HOAs suck!

Greg

charby · « **Reply #5 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:44:02 AM »

I would like to see a realty show where a "redneck" moves into a HOA and lives how he/they want to. That would be funny watching all the members of the HOA getting all pissed off.

Paddy · « **Reply #6 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:54:08 AM »

Quote

I'm working from home today

How does your employer know you're actually working? Do you have the 'mikecam' on so he can make sure you're not in your pajamas drinking hot chocolate?

Brad Johnson · « **Reply #7 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:54:42 AM »

Your HOA rules don't allow you to do repairs on your own vehicle. Whadda they do, have e-xray specs going around looking through garage doors!?

Brad

K Frame · « **Reply #8 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:56:17 AM »

I am a redneck.

And I AM living on my own terms. Part of my terms is not wanting some jerkweed to start running Joe's Fix It Shop in the parking lot.

As I noted above, I'm vice president of my HOA, and I have been for the past decade.

I love how everyone assumes that HOAs are these evil, all encompassing organizations that simply reach out and snare unsuspecting, freedom loving patriots into their web.

HOAs, in many ways, are some of the purest forms of democracy there are, because they are run by people who live IN the community, not towns, miles, counties, or states away, set the rules of governance for the association.

If people don't like a proposed rule, they can vote against it. If people don't like a rule that's currently in place, they can petition the board, which is elected FROM the community, to change, or drop, it.

Don't like the direction the board is taking the community? Vote it out.

HOA pestering you to paint the peeling window trim? God forbid someone expect you to have a little pride in your property.

K Frame · « **Reply #9 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:58:46 AM »

"Whadda they do, have e-xray specs going around looking through garage doors!?"

If I had a garage, it wouldn't be a problem. If I had a drive way, it wouldn't be a problem. I don't have either.

"How does your employer know you're actually working?"

E-mail and the files I'm submitting to our corporate web team to update the websites I'm responsible for.

charby · « **Reply #10 on:** October 13, 2005, 09:20:36 AM »

Mike I understand HOA and I see how democratic they are, but HOA and city zoning laws and regulations are why I am saving up to buy an acreage out in the country.

Sucks to hear about you car, mine always seem to break down when I don't have the time to fix it and have to pay the labor at a shop.

Charby

K Frame · « **Reply #11 on:** October 13, 2005, 09:55:44 AM »

"but HOA and city zoning laws and regulations are why I am saving up to buy an acreage out in the country."

Always a noble endeavor. I'd have acreage in the country, too, if it didn't mean a 40 mile or more one way commute through some of the nation's worst traffic every morning.

Yeah, I live in an HOA.

I'm also 7 miles from my office, a mile from access to DC's metro and two major interstates, and in less than 10 minutes can be at my doctor, 3 major hospitals, nearly a dozen grocery stores, several home improvement stores, etc.

No, I'm not crazy about the traffic in Northern Virginia, but I can't even come close to earning the money I make here where I grew up -- rural Central Pennsylvania.

What really gets me, though, is that most people apparently base their comments about HOAs not on having lived in such a community, but from having heard about the worst-case scenarios.

Yes, there are overzealous, venial HOAs out there, ones where the officers walk around with paint chips of approved colors and fire off nasty letters to people whose trim shows the slightest bit of fading, or the ones that control every single aspect of community life with an R&R book that's about a foot thick.

Those are the exception. They're not the norm.

In that sense, it's very analagous to the stories we hear about firearms. If we listened to the news only, none of us would own guns because they're evil killing machines that only do harm.

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #12 on:** October 13, 2005, 10:09:08 AM »

our HOA has lost all its teeth and some folkes are blatently installing fences that are way out of spec

at least the dead cars on my block are now all gone.
one induhvidual renter decided to park a dead one on the lawn for a year

what was really nice is when my neighbor decided to build a shed
in his side yard that was the front yard to the rest of the culdesac:

Art Eatman · « **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2005, 10:18:54 AM »

Mike, I don't think anybody objects to disallowing a fixit shop outside one's garage. It's the idea that you'd be nervous at a quick, emergency fix that's off-putting. VP or no, right is right.

I'm always happy for people to have large gross incomes. To me, though, what was far more important was how much net/net/net did I have at the end of a year. I made a point of living where and how I could generate money from five to midnight at "play therapy", which was rebuilding bad-motor sports cars. It was a nice change from office engineering.

And that's a part of how I got to semi-retirement at age 45.

Art

K Frame · « **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2005, 10:29:09 AM »

"Mike, I don't think anybody objects to disallowing a fixit shop outside one's garage. It's the idea that you'd be nervous at a quick, emergency fix that's off-putting. VP or no, right is right."

I'm not nervous at a quick, emergency fix, Art, I think I've stated that pretty clearly.

Had my car been totally imobilized, that's one thing. I've replaced the battery in the parking lot before after a cell shorted and it went dead. That's an emergency fix.

The seized caliper was not, however.

Guest · « **Reply #15 on:** October 13, 2005, 10:55:10 AM »

I don't have a problem with HOAs where I am now.

I never had a problem with Covenants either, I was not the only one getting mud off my truck, in the driveway. Granted I was the only one spraying off spent shotgun hulls in the driveway...the kids thought it was neat to see these floating down the street near the curb...

I have gangbangers now to be concerned with when I need to be in the driveway looking at my truck.

Seems that "rattle" under my truck bed is my spare. I have the drop down cable that holds it up tight. I have the special lock that keeps full size spare secure - and you cannot lower the cable and spare.

It is low on air all right. This causes the rattle I have had before. It won't hold air...I can see why. My spare has a hole in it...Since the Gangbangers Association were in the neighborhood, I decided to come inside.

My classes are online, I do have to be on campus for a test. I tried to see if I could take this test tonight from home...seems I cannot being as it of the nature it is.

I'll chance the drive to school tonight without a spare. Beats dealing with the Gangbangers Assoc.

I didn't see bullet holes on my truck...I sure am puzzled at this moment tho' . I will see better tomorrow at the tire store...safer that way.

My goal is to not have HOAs, Covenants, or Gangbanger Associations.

I just want to tend quail , respect them as I want to be respected. If I want to piddle with my truck in my shed, I can. Just gotta get myself from where I am to where I want to be is all...

When I aint' tending quail - do most work from home...
Save the gas and parking for quail tending, hunting, fishing...you know - important stuff.

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #16 on:** October 13, 2005, 12:22:01 PM »

I'm sorry Mike, but if things are to the point where a guy can't even change his oil, rotate tires, or swap a brake rotor without incurring the wrath of the local HOA mafia, then I don't feel it's worth living there. Granted, I wouldn't buy a house without a garage to keep prying HOA eyes off my tinkering with the Chevy/Harley/Hyundai, but that's still a sad commentary on current affairs. Sad

Sindawe · « **Reply #17 on:** October 13, 2005, 12:41:17 PM »

Quote

You're disallowed from repairing your car?

My HOA is the same way. Our short list of Rules & Regulations prohibits doing extensive vehicle repair on the HOA grounds (usually the parking lots). IIRC, things like oil/tire changes, minor stuff that can be done in one day and the like are OK. Serving on our BOD, I occasionally see folks violating the repair rule. So far a brief conversation reminding them of the rule suffices and their has been no 2nd occurances. Doing stuff like valve adjustments and parts R&R that can be done in one day I don't have an issue with, even if the car is up on jack stands to do it.

K Frame · « **Reply #18 on:** October 13, 2005, 06:51:12 PM »

"I'm sorry Mike, but if things are to the point where a guy can't even change his oil, rotate tires, or swap a brake rotor without incurring the wrath of the local HOA mafia, then I don't feel it's worth living there."

You know, I'm getting really sick of being referred to obliquely as a member of the goddamned "HOA Mafia," and worse.

I never don't recall having a gun pointed at my head by someone who told I HAD to buy this house.

I'm actually one of the only people I've ever met who's been intelligent enough to actually READ and comprehend the CR&Rs that governed my HOA BEFORE I moved in. Know what that did? It eliminated any whining on my part about "WWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY can't I do that?"

I also enjoy how the R&Rs in my community help keep Clem Pudthumper, owner of the house on my left, from changing his oil and letting it soak into MY property, or how because Dick Diddler next door can't count to 16 one of his quarter panel screws is now lodged firmly in one of my very new, VERY expensive Michelin high performance radials.

And I certainly enjoy how when it's time for me to sell my house and take out the equity I've gained in it I won't have to go begging either of those aholes or their inbred brethren to take the 196something rust heap in front of their house off of the blocks (But it's a classic!), cut their 3-foot-high lawn (I'm making hay for my brother, the dairy farmer. Time's 'er tough...), introduce their trim to a revolutionary new product called paint (Paint? That's stuff of the Devil!), or move the toilet on the front porch to the back porch (We're going to put that back in just as soon as the water's turned back on).

I'm sorry, I thought this thread started out about my talking about my car needing repairs. I don't really recall asking for a running commentary about how I'm living in a Comunazi work camp of fascist proportions. In fact, I don't really recall asking for any commentary at all.

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 13, 2005, 07:20:35 PM »

Jeebus, Mike! You post a problem with your vehicle that many, if probably not most of us, would have no objection to fixing right then and there, after a quick trip down to AutoZone or NAPA Auto Parts. Then you lay it out that you're afraid to fix it because of the self-imposed rules you signed up to. Were you looking for sympathy? You make the bed you sleep in.

Fact is, some (many?) of us don't have to deal with HOA's, so they are indeed a foreign concept, with their onerous restrictions and all. Myself, I'm probably buying my parents' farm in the next year, several acres, complete with a 2-car carport, a tractor shed, and a barn that's converted into a machine shop and inventors workshop. Property values there are very nice, and the neighbors do a fine job of keeping the rural neighborhood from looking like a scene from Redneck Rampage, honest. About the worst it gets is if I take the John Deere from the shed down the long driveway to the mailbox and back, or head down the road to plow the snow off the neighbor's driveway. The cold winters take some getting used to, but I'm not concerned about somebody coming down the street with paint chips looking at my siding with a slanted eye - shades of Stepford Wives.

Matter of fact, my entire hometown in Wisconsin is undergoing a growth spurt, and I'll be darned if I'm finding any HOA's there to speak of. Maybe closer to Madison, but that place never reminded me of reality, anyway. Then again, the developers who are making the big population centers even more populous haven't discovered my little slice of urban America. And I pray to Gawd they never do.

So yeah, I stand behind what I said. Given an option to live there or not, I'd choose the latter and tell an HOA to go suck eggs (I'd actually use more colorful language, but this is a family forum). I don't want to be that frog in a pot of rapidly warming water. It's no different than when I left the People's Republik of Kalifornia when they wanted me to register a good chunk of my gun collection with the state. I haven't lost a wink of sleep over that decision.

K Frame · « **Reply #20 on:** October 13, 2005, 07:40:25 PM »

Afraid to fix it?

AFRAID to fix it?

Can you point me to where I said that I'm AFRAID to fix my car because of my HOA?

No, you can't. I said that I'm not going to fix it in the parking lot because I'm VICE PRESIDENT of my HOA.

I'm not like a lot of people who would look at that role as a mandate to say "well, I'm VP, I'm going to do as I damn well please, who is anyone going to complain to, the board? I AM the board!"

I don't believe in using my position to take do what others aren't to do, and I sure as hell don't have a lot of respect for those who do that.

"so they are indeed a foreign concept..."

Obviously they are to a lot of people, including those who hold strongly anti-HOA views, apparently. Which leads us to this question... With no actual experience with that type of arrangement, how the hell are they arriving at such a definitive opinion on the subject? "Well, I once heard from my brother's uncle's friend's cousin's minister's wife's landlady's podiatrist, who said that his HOA told him that he couldn't store bunion pads in his back yard. THOSE FASCIST PIGS! THAT MEANS THAT ALL HOAs ARE EVIL! EEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

If you don't want to live in an HOA, great. That's you choice. I fully support that, even if I don't give much of a damn about it.

Well, enough on this. I need to hit another board and expound lyrical on a subject I know virtually nothing about. I heard about it in a snippet of a radio show, so that makes me an expert!

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #21 on:** October 13, 2005, 07:55:23 PM »

So you're afraid to fix it, because of the role you play in enforcing those HOA restrictions, and the conflict of interest you'd be in if you got busted for doing so. Wink

And if applying to SAIC means having to commute from a community that enforces that kind of silliness, to include only flying the U.S. flag on approved days (happening here in Florida, made big news), then I'll go to the lower-paying job in a community that doesn't. Money isn't everything.

Kinda looking forward to the John Deere thing, truthfully.

caseydog · « **Reply #22 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:05:12 PM »

Well I'll go with Mike on this one , he didn't complain that he couldn't fix his car , he just mentioned it in passing, things went to hell after that.

So your caliper locked up eh, was it the piston or the slider pins? Had one a few years back came through with a locked up caliper , Honda Accord only a few years old , took it out and benched it , free as could be. Put it back on and two or three pumps it's locked up again...WTH ? Over ! Not being one to accept defeat that easily I put the air to it and popped the piston out, chunks of rubber all through it, seems the brake hose was desintigrating inside and it would let the fluid in because of the pressure but wouldn't let it back out. Weird on a newish vehicle , usually see that kind of stuff on cars that have been sitting for a few years.

Ray

K Frame · « **Reply #23 on:** October 13, 2005, 08:26:29 PM »

If fear means having enough of a sense of personal honor to not abuse my position for personal gain, and expecting the same of others, then I guess I'm just a big petrified pansy.

As I said a few messages previous, I personally don't care what you do or where you live. I'm not going to tell you what a reprehensible idiot I think you are because of X or Y or Z.

BillBlank · « **Reply #24 on:** October 14, 2005, 12:20:48 AM »

This is why I ride a motorcycle. If something breaks I just pop the earplugs in (to muffle the screaming of my outraged wife) and wheel it into the living room. Cats like valve shims and fasteners though which can be a pain. Tupperware is useful in this regard.

As for the HOA thing, I'm picturing Mike headbutting the monitor in frustration. He has to do as I do and not do as I say 'cos he helps run the place. His choice and it works for him and I refuse to believe that there is any community in america that does not offer an alternative to an HOA. They mean you don't have to live next to people like me that remove the rotten window frame in my front room with a motorcrosser and a plank because it's my bloody house and I can. Which is nice.

What caused the seizure btw?

News:

Author Topic: Ah, the joy of car ownership... (Read 6151 times)

Paddy

Guest