you will all be thrilled to hear that . . .

[Bertha Venation]

the Tercel ran cool today! I filled the radiator this morning on y'all's (I married a hillbilly) advice. The reservoir, which I'd filled yesterday morning, was bone dry, so I guess the radiator was thirsty!

Thank heavens for the advice of friends. The last thing I need is a fat repair bill.

Thanks!

[MissMillie]

1. good work, Bertha

nothing like saving some dough.

[King Of Paperboys]

2. Two lesbians,

And no mechanical intuition in the whole house? ;)

That's good news, Bertha. A Toyota should give you many, many years of service.

[Bertha Venation]

7. Hah!

Funny! Mrs. V. is fond of telling me, "Baby, you can't do butch." It all started when I was using a power drill for the first time . . . and closed my eyes and turned my head away. :)

[Misunderestimator]

13. LOL... You make ME look butch...

Turned your head away?? :bounce::bounce::bounce:

[Bertha Venation]

15. yep

I was drilling into steel in the ceiling box, to install a ceiling fan, and didn't have goggles (and no, I wasn't about to interrupt the project to go back to Homo Depot and buy goggles) and didn't want to get steel shavings in my eyes. :shrug:

And she still laughed! Can you believe that?

[Misunderestimator]

17. Yep.... I would have too...

:)

[Bertha Venation]

19. you would've laughed, or shut your eyes?!

:bounce:

[Misunderestimator]

23. Oh both... absolutely....

of course... I would've had goggles... :evilgrin:

[Bertha Venation]

25. not only would you have had goggles, but

you would've had a long-sleeve shirt, overalls, steel-toed boots, heavy gloves, and a hard hat. Am I right? ;)

[Misunderestimator]

27. WRONG.... I am a true dichotomy...

you'd never know how butch I can be by the looks of me. :)

[King Of Paperboys]

28. Dychotomy???

Now you're just taunting me!

[Misunderestimator]

30. I know, I know... I already corrected it... must have been Freudian.

:shrug:

[Bertha Venation]

32. I'd be willing to try to find out.

;)

Actually, I was thinking about how much you'd be trying to protect your hairdo, eye makeup, manicure, supple tan . . .

[Misunderestimator]

33. ROFL.... ok .... somewhere in the middle then...

:) :silly:

[Misinformed01]

3. Excuse me

But, aren't you supposed to be driving an Outback?

If that's a myth, I am going to be pissed off. As an Honorary Lesbian, I bought one to fit in---

Congrats on the car repair! I have a big fear of giant car repairs...they scare the hell out of me!

Stephanie

[Bertha Venation]

11. I would never buy something whose name when read backwards is

U R A BUS ;)

Besides, it's a pickup truck. That's why I drive a Toyota. Keeps the 'phobes guessing.

[Misinformed01]

12. Keep em guessing then!

I saw a bumpersticker that I want for my car, but can't get it because my husbands drives it, and works in a public job:

"I am sorry I missed church on Sunday, but I was busy practicing witchcraft, and becoming a Lesbian"

God, I love that!

Stephanie

[Misunderestimator]

14. LOL.... that's cool...

Lesbian witchcraft.... yeah :)

[Bertha Venation]

18. that's a great one -- and get this:

(don't know why you made me think of this)

There's a local flooring business whose slogan is painted on all its trucks.

The slogan is "Serving Jesus Christ thru Carpet."

Now, I don't begrudge anyone the right to serve his chosen deity as he sees fit, but this kinda begs the question: How exactly does one serve Jesus Christ through carpet?

I told my fundy-turned-atheist sister this and she replied, "Ya gotta use whatcha got, I guess... I'm serving Jesus Christ through fairy tales."

[King Of Paperboys]

20. "Serving Jesus Christ thru Carpet???"

OK, these lesbian puns are getting out of hand, here.

[Bertha Venation]

22. they're only puns because you're trying way too hard

David Bruce, is that you?

[Misunderestimator]

24. These are lesbian puns... cool... wish someone would've told me.

:silly:

[Bertha Venation]

26. I'd've used a different smiley

:eyes: <-- that one

[Misunderestimator]

29. I was trying to be subtle...

:eyes:

[Misunderestimator]

21. Fairy Tales? Bwaaahaaahaaa

I'm serving Jesus Christ through fairy tales... Oh yeah... :bounce:

[Frodo]

4. Keep checking it!

Radiators don't get "thirsty" for no reason.

You may simply have a leak that needs to be patched (check hoses etc - maybe drive the car up on a cardboard sheet and see where water is leaking from).

At the very least, keep an eye on it. Refilling a slowly leaking radiator will get you by for awhile before a modest-cost repair, but running on a dry radiator will eventually cost you a new engine. I had to rebuild from the block up on a '74 Saab when my brother ran it dry - took me two months of weekends.

[Bertha Venation]

10. oh, absolutely, no worries there

thanks

[bearfan454]

5. Good it didn't cost a lot to fix.

Keep it topped off with a 50 - 50 mixture. Make sure the battery is topped off too with distilled water and clean the negative terminal once in a while on the inside part that goes around the battery post. The alternator recharges the battery through this........bearfan

[BigMcLargehuge]

6. that reservoir isn't meant to be filled

it takes overflow fluid from the radiator... the fluid in the radiator expands when heated, that reservoir is meant to catch it. If you car is overheating you may have a blockage somewhere in the system, or more likely a leak somewhere in the core.

But overfilling the radiator can crack your block at worse and burn out your water pump at best. I'd recommend against it.

[Bertha Venation]

8. Hi, Big.... the Tercel owner's manual said to fill the reservoir

otherwise I wouldn't have done it. But thanks for the info about overfilling.

[BigMcLargehuge]

9. ok :)

if it's in the manual, then no need to fear :)

[Philostopher]

31. Most of the Japanese manufacturers ...

tell you to put fluid in the reservoir first, at least on the older four-cylinder engines. They actually operate on a closed vacuum system. I had a 1987 Corolla FX16 that wouldn't start if you had the cap off the radiator, and would die if you started it and then took the cap off. After years of starting American cars to get the water flowing through the system so I could top off the radiator, that sent me to the manual. Which said to put the water in the reservoir.

Not only that, but that FX would tell me when it needed water -- it would start idle searching (the revs, when it's at idle, would vary between 500-1200 RPM). Scared the living crap out of me the first time it happened, because I had no idea what was wrong and thought I'd blown a head gasket.

[King Of Paperboys]

16. "That reservoir isn't meant to be filled???"

What's that, another gratuitous lesbian joke?