bolts with spare

The spare is mounted with the same bolts used for the other tires.

 

Nobody here will laugh at you for knowing nothing about cars. The people we laugh at are the ones who think they know, but what they "know" is wrong.

If your screen name and avatar mean that you play the hammer dulcimer, then you know something I, for one, deeply respect.

 

The thing that made me sit up and take notice of your post was NOT that you don't know much about cars, it was the "fix-a-flat thing".

Granted, I have an '07 Camry Hybrid (TCH) and your Prius might be different, but if it has TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System), it is suggested that you DO NOT use Fix-A-Flat type solutions EXCEPT in a dire emergency since the gunk will mess up the air pressure sensors attached to the valve stems.

 

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stick around here, dulcimer, and learn from what you see. i couldn't help but pick up some stuff when DH was fixing cars, most girls don't have that.

 

Hahahhaa good one.

In Australia they are called wheel nuts, after all they don't hold the lugs on do they? (what ever lugs are)

 

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ 2007 11 22 18:08) [snapback]543052[/snapback]</div>

Not to be confused with the nut behind the wheel...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dulcimer @ Nov 22 2007, 05:29 PM) [snapback]543042[/snapback]</div>

What I worry about in a situation like this is that he does not know how to turn it off!!! He's liable to get out of the car without turning it off or putting it in park and it will slowly drive itself into the wall. I never let anyone drive my car except the folks at Toyota or the body shop, where they've worked on Priuses before.

 

Sorry to hear about your misadventure at Wally World. Trust me on this, you probably know more about cars than the low-life scum they have working there!

The Toyota OEM factory lugnuts work fine on either the factory aluminum wheels, or the donut spare. However, if you happen to put on aftermarket steel wheels for use in winter for your winter tires, you MUST purchase proper conical seat lugnuts.

I tried the Toyota lugnuts on my steel winter wheels, and they loosened up dangerously. With the proper conical seat lugnut, they stayed at the proper torque

The neat thing is that my new FJ Cruiser uses the same lugnut, so it was easy to swing by NAPA and pick up more of them for the steel wheels now on my Cruiser

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman @ Nov 23 2007, 08:09 AM) [snapback]543216[/snapback]</div>

Come on, Jay! Lack of knowledge or training does not make the minimum-wage employees at Walmart scum. The scum are the owners and managers who will not pay enough to get competent employees, and will not spend anything on training.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 23 2007, 02:31 PM) [snapback]543300[/snapback]</div>

True enough, but after awhile what goes around, comes around. Therefore I avoid them like a bad case of the Clap.

BTW, I have similar comments about Canadian Tire. Absolutely FEAR their car service! If your car isn't fubar'd before you drive it into the service bay, it certainly will be after they get their meathooks on it

 

Avoid them, yes. Definitely! My point was that being unskilled and untrained and unfit to work on a car does not mean they are bad people. It just means that Walmart is not willing to hire competent people. Or train the people they do hire.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 23 2007, 02:31 PM) [snapback]543300[/snapback]</div>

While this is true, it is no excuse for said employee to claim they know how to operate the car when they clearly do not. This is a case of putting ego before safety. I stand there and watch them and if they can't turn it on I do not instruct them. I get back in the car and if they don't want me to drive it where it needs to be I leave.

I have only encountered one truthful employee. The Valet at the hotel where we held my parents' 50th anniversary party said he knew how to drive it and he did. I guess they get a lot more hybrids and cars with fobs there.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 23 2007, 06:55 PM) [snapback]543400[/snapback]</div>

Sorry Daniel, that just doesn't excuse the lowlife scum from trying to bulls*** me, lie to me, rip me off, etc. I've never had an employer or client tell me to lie to customers or other people, so unless Wally World and Canuck Tire have some sort of policy in place that REQUIRES these characters to carry on that way, I can only assume they carry on that way because they are lowlife scum

I don't have a problem walking into a place like Canuck Tire and buying things, like 4 studded snow tires. I'll even let the characters mount and balance them on my wheels. But there is NO WAY they are getting anywhere near my car

Even with my career experience, if I encounter something I don't know how to handle, I'll be completely honest with the client. "Geez, this really beats the s*** out of me. Mind if I research it?" or words to that effect.

Rather than the client getting angry, they're pleased I was honest with them. Matter of fact, next major project they usually ask for me by name.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman @ Nov 25 2007, 03:53 PM) [snapback]544016[/snapback]</div>

I think we were talking about two different things. I was talking about people who just don't know what they're doing, or who assume out of pure ignorance, that they know how to drive a Prius because they assume out of pure ignorance, that one car is like another. You are talking about people being dishonest and trying to cheat you.

Also, it's a lot easier to admit you don't know something when you are a mature highly-skilled technical worker with a lot of confidence in what you do, than if you were an unskilled minimum-wage worker in his first job who's probably been told when they hired him just last week that one slip-up and he'll be fired, and is confused by everything around him.

I would NEVER shop at Walmart or trust my car to anyone other than a competent professional. But I don't call people scum just because they are stupid and incompetent. (Again, if they actually try to cheat me, that's a whole different story.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 26 2007, 11:05 AM) [snapback]544242[/snapback]</div>

I've found that the stupid incompetent folks are also the ones who have the attitude problem, and more likely than not they will attempt to lie, cheat, rip you off, etc. Sorry, but I base this on the most expensive education on the planet: real life lessons. Not to say highly educated folks don't lie, cheat, or steal

Forget about logically explaining something either. These folks automatically assume you're knocking them down, even challenging them. What gives with that attitude??

In my line of work, folks are *always* telling me how to do my job. I believe it's called "continuous improvement." At least 10 hours a week is spent reading over peer-reviewed journals, trying to find new ways to do my job better. Once in a blue moon, I'm even asked to submit to the same peer-reviewed journals.

I have enough on my plate, the last thing I'll waste my time on is patiently explaining something to a stupid incompetent person.