Click & Clack Talk Cars
By Tom and Ray Magliozzi
Dear Tom and Ray:
I bought a 2003
Chevy S-10 for my stepdaughter. Today the truck
has only 36,500 miles on it. The driver’s
door fell off! It broke off at the welds and was
hanging by electrical wires. The dealership
refused to do warranty work. How can a girl who
weighs 100 pounds soaking wet tear a door off a
truck? Is it possible to shame Chevy into making
this right? - Eric
RAY: We’ll
see, Eric!
TOM: Actually,
I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn
that a 100 pound girl CAN easily tear a door off
an S-10 pickup. In fact, she can tear a door off
of almost any car.
RAY: That’s
right. If you try to open a car door beyond the
point that it’s designed to open, you can
easily break the hinges. And the hinges are all
that hold the door on. Try it on your car, Eric.
Sit in the driver’s seat, put your feet up
against the door and give it a shove!
TOM: But in this
case, I think your daughter got a major assist
from Chevrolet. These S-10 pickups are known for
their door problems. There are pins that go
through the hinges. Those pins, and the bushings
around them, wear out. Then the door starts to
sag.
RAY: Now, if you
catch the problem at that point, you can buy a
replacement set of pins for 13 bucks and all will
be right with the world. But if not, the pins
will eventually fall out and the door will fall
off.
TOM: She may have
been operating on only one hinge for months
before the door actually dropped off.
RAY: Or, she may
have come out of a bar one night at 2 a.m.,
backed up with the door open and taken the door
off with a parking meter. But I’m betting on
the pins wearing out, Eric. If you (and we)
can’t shame Chevrolet into helping you, a
body shop is your best bet. Good Luck.
RACING
By Greg Zyla
Sponsored by Curry Automotive
Force Team
Starts Healing Process
When Robert Hight
won the recent NHRA PowerADE event held at Las
Vegas, he loudly proclaimed John Force
Racing’s return to competition following the
death of team driver Eric Medlen.
As for the cars
and making them safer, Force himself informed the
national motorsports media at an April 10
teleconference of the updates to the cars.
"NHRA has a
very high level of safety measures currently in
place to make these cars as safe as
possible," said Force.
Changes to the
race cars thus far include more padding in the
cockpit area of the driver and bigger roll cages,
without getting too big. There is also a shield
around the driver compartment, similar to what
Top Fuel teams did in the aftermath of the
Darrell Russell fatality.
Force admitted
that there’s not much room to add the amount
of padding you need, and the team is working on
that. Securing the driver’s head is another
area the teams are working on. The driver’s
seven-point harness and neck braces will also be
addressed to better protect in side impacts.
Said Force,
"You can’t just make a big opening for
the head because then you have no protection.
What have you accomplished? It needs to be
tested. NHRA was good enough to allow us to do
that (extra testing)."
Force made runs of
200, 300 and 400 feet to check roll-cage
clearances and determine the drivability of the
Mustang after changes made by Murf McKinney.
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