I am Woman — Hear My Engine Roar!

I haven’t always been a car girl.  I grew up doing the normal little-girl things — playing dolls and pretend.  In fact, when I bought my first car at age 17, I don’t think I’d ever even turned a screwdriver in my life!

A big part of this was because of my mom.  Stuff like that were things that she bugged him to do for her.  I remember very clearly how she would pester my dad to do even the simplest things for her — things such as refilling the washer fluid in her car, checking the air pressure on the tires, etc.  Sometimes I’m surprised she even knew how to put gas in her car!

As I approached driving age, I decided I didn’t want to be like my mom — in that respect, at least.  So when I was learning how to drive, the first thing I did was to ask my dad to teach me how to drive a stick.  (My mom couldn’t and was therefore helpless any time her car broke down.)  Now I’m a die-hard fan of manual transmissions — I literally hate driving an automatic.

Then, I went out and bought a car just like the one my dad had growing up — a vintage sports car, a Nissan 280ZX.  About a month after I bought my car, the alternator died.  My car was going to need work on it already — unsurprising, considering the age — but I didn’t like feeling like my mom, asking my dad to fix something for me.  So instead I asked him to show me how.

I learned to work on my own car over the next few years, learning something new everytime something else went wrong or needed fixing.  I’ve done just about every job you can imagine, with help and without — oil changes, brakes, starters, alternators, even tougher jobs such as adjusting valve lash and replacing the transmission.  I even worked in the aftermarket auto parts business for a time, a job that taught me even more about cars.

I don’t do as much on my car anymore, but I firmly believe that it is good for car owners to know the basics about how their vehicles work.  Besides, while I’ve decided that a perpetually stiff back and dirty hands don’t really appeal to me that much anymore, I still love writing and talking about cars.

So… let’s talk cars!

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