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I think my Landlord has been tampering with my Car & Truck!
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Brants Mommy
Anonymous Poster
WeLuv2Buy2gether@aol.com
May 27, 2009, 2:36 PM
Post #1 of 4
(5335 views)
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I think my Landlord has been tampering with my Car & Truck!
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Hi!
My name is Marie, I am a stay at home Mom to a sweet boy with Autism. My Hubby is an industrial maintenance mechanic. Not an auto mechanic. Even though he always fixes our cars. We buy the books and READ! LOL
Here's the deal. I think for the last 5 1/2 years our Landlord or his crazy Grandson have been tampering with our cars. We buy used cars but they are always running great when we get them and boom within a year or normally less they are shot. We think they are doing this to us. We have locking gas caps because of 2 sugared cars we believe. We keep the doors locked and face the cars to the front of our trailer to they can't get at the engine anymore and we keep the front porch light on at night. We are on car 8 & 9. My late fathers 1994 Toyota Truck...old but great on gas. And a 1994 Ford Crown Victoria. Which flies like the wind. The truck wouldn't start this morning and later on in the afternoon the car just lost acceleration when I was taking my daughter just 3 miles down the road to a friends house.
So here's my question, what can they do underneath the car (without raising the hood) to tamper with the car. We think they tampered with both the fuel filters possibly. We are just looking for the easiest things they could do to tamper with our vehicles to make them not run or hard to run. My Hubby is going to jack them both up tomorrow to look underneath and I was hoping to get some ideas on where he should look first.
Thank you for any help! :-)
Marie
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Loren Champlain Sr
Veteran
/ Moderator
May 27, 2009, 2:56 PM
Post #2 of 4
(5331 views)
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Re: I think my Landlord has been tampering with my Car & Truck!
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Marie;
I fully understand that you have your hands full with an autistic child. It requires a special person to deal with this terrible illness. My hat is off to you and your hubby. I understand that they are making progress with meds to help.
I seriously doubt that your landlord is behind this. Landlords want thier rent. If they mess with your means of making a living, they don't get thier money. The fuel filter on the Toyota is under the hood, which you'd have to pull the hood release to get to. The fuel filter on the Ford is underneath, on the inside of the frame, which would be a nightmare to try and get to without raising the vehicle. Can you spell P-a-r-a-n-o-i-d?
>>We are just looking for the easiest things they could do to tamper with our vehicles<< To borrow a line from Simon Cowel, "I don't want to sound rude, but..." No, you are looking for the easiest one to blame. Anything mechanical needs maintenance. Stuff happens.
As far as trying to help you diagnose these problems, we'll need a bit more symptoms and an idea of what's been done in the way of maintenance. With that said, if you do find (and can prove it) signs of tampering, I would recommend you notify your local authorities. And, if so, I will be more than happy to eat my negative words.
Loren
SW Washington
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Brants Mom
Anonymous Poster
WeLuv2Buy2gether@aol.com
May 27, 2009, 3:47 PM
Post #3 of 4
(5326 views)
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Re: I think my Landlord has been tampering with my Car & Truck!
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Marie;
I fully understand that you have your hands full with an autistic child. It requires a special person to deal with this terrible illness. My hat is off to you and your hubby. I understand that they are making progress with meds to help.
Hi Loren
Thank you :-) No meds, ABA therapy is working well though.
I seriously doubt that your landlord is behind this. Landlords want thier rent. If they mess with your means of making a living, they don't get thier money.
Please don't take this wrong way when I say I laughed my butt off over that. If you could be a fly on the wall you would know how horrible these people are. They have nothing better to do than butt in where they don't belong. He sits in a room that faces my kitchen window and has binoculars sitting on the table next to him so he can watch what everyone is doing. They are retired and seem to have nothing better to do than to gripe about everyone. Trust me when I say they are more than capable when it comes to messing with our cars. He is just 2 months shy of completing an old automotive degree before he was shipping off to war. He knows about cars. And before you ask it, yes I sure wish I could move...more than you know. but it's just not going to happen right now. All I want to do "IF" they are doing this is to try to prevent them from doing it.
The fuel filter on the Toyota is under the hood, which you'd have to pull the hood release to get to. The fuel filter on the Ford is underneath, on the inside of the frame, which would be a nightmare to try and get to without raising the vehicle. Can you spell P-a-r-a-n-o-i-d?
>>We are just looking for the easiest things they could do to tamper with our vehicles<< To borrow a line from Simon Cowel, "I don't want to sound rude, but..." No, you are looking for the easiest one to blame. Anything mechanical needs maintenance. Stuff happens.
As far as trying to help you diagnose these problems, we'll need a bit more symptoms and an idea of what's been done in the way of maintenance. With that said, if you do find (and can prove it) signs of tampering, I would recommend you notify your local authorities. And, if so, I will be more than happy to eat my negative words.
The Toyota has had the alternator and belt replaced. Plus my husband did something with replacing a part in the fan and the belt also. Ummm, he's replaced the oil filter and oil. Other than that it's been running really well, no funky noises or anything. We went out this morning around 11 am and it would turn over but not start. After about 15 minutes he got it started but the minute he put it in gear it shut off. It took him about another 5 minutes to get it to start again. This time he let it sit for 15 minutes and it stayed running. He did some stuff and determined that it was not the alternator. Something about taking something off the battery. My thoughts were a crack in the distributor cap but he said I was wrong. So that's it, there is nothing else to tell you about the truck.
Now the Crown Vic we've had for 2 months. We bought it off my brother (he moved to CA). He had a diagnostic done on it and it came up clean. It runs great, that's just it. I have nothing I can tell you. No funny noises, it just runs great. I leave the house...mind you I had been out with it today. I get about 1 1/2 miles from my house when I realized that I am no longer going 50 even though I am pushing on the accelorator. I manage to get to the church parking lot and pull in. I had no choice but to turn the engine off because the car was...how can I describe this....heaving. Like it was trying to throw something up. My 15 year old daughter was freaking. So I call my hubby. He gets there about 5 or 6 minutes later. Checks everything...all belts are present. The car is not hot, the oil is full, it doesn't show any abnormality on the rpms when I start it back up. But when I start it back up it's no long "heaving" and I quickly turn it around (yup it goes) and get home fast. Why would it just stop accelerating and then be fine 10 minutes later?
I appreciate any help you can give, including all sarcastic comments. ;-) LOL
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Loren Champlain Sr
Veteran
/ Moderator
May 27, 2009, 4:14 PM
Post #4 of 4
(5316 views)
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Re: I think my Landlord has been tampering with my Car & Truck!
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Marie; ABA therapy; Good for you! Not real knowledgable about it, but I've read about it. Good luck and God Bless.
The Toyota; This could be something as simple as a CTS (coolant temp. sensor). This sensor 'tells' the computer engine temperature and delivers fuel accordingly. If the computer is getting erroneous readings, it can cause either under or over-fueling. If the engine runs rough once it's warmed up, the distributor cap would definitely be worth a look.
You female types have an uncanny sense of intuition. (been married to one for 38yrs). But, this does sound like a fuel delivery problem....Since a cold engine requires much more fuel than a warm one, he might want to check (or just replace) the fuel filter.
The Crown Vic; This one is a bit puzzling. Of course, it could be a fuel delivery problem, as well. Plugged fuel filter, weak fuel pump, ect. Could also be an exhaust restriction. Rare, but possible.
I really didn't mean to sound sarcastic; I deal with the public every day and have heard it all, believe me. I know that there are wackos out there, but it's usually our own faults or negligence that come back to bite us. 
>>Please don't take this wrong way when I say I laughed my butt off over that. If you could be a fly on the wall you would know how horrible these people are. They have nothing better to do than butt in where they don't belong. He sits in a room that faces my kitchen window and has binoculars sitting on the table next to him so he can watch what everyone is doing. They are retired and seem to have nothing better to do than to gripe about everyone. Trust me when I say they are more than capable when it comes to messing with our cars<<
Ya know what I'd do? I'd get me a pair of binoculars and stare right back! Or, give him a "You're #1" sign. Seriously, though, there are 'things' they 'could' do that are much more serious and much more easily done than causing engine problems. I wouldn't hesitate for a nano-second if I found signs of tampering. I OWN GUNS! Lots of them. LOL. I always thought that elderly people would mellow with age...you know, patience and such. WRONG!
Good luck to you.
Loren
SW Washington
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