From my understanding, it's part of the starter relay that controls the initial flow of electricity from your battery to the engine when you turn your car on. Makes this really awful noise that sounds like tin-can lids stuck in the spokes of a bicycle. If you hear that noise, it's usually a loose wire or a ton of corrosion on the battery terminal.

Keep in mind though, all my knowledge is gleaned second-hand. I could very easily be remembering the wrong word here, or at least spelling it wrong.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

...ok, this leads me to my next questions:

"WTF is a starter relay?"
and
"WTF is a battery terminal?"

;-)

The point is, what i know about cars could be written on a BB with a widetipped sharpie. With room left over.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

LOL, I thought you were calling me out for getting something wrong.

Like I said, it's second-hand knowledge I gleaned from driving a car from 20K miles to 250K miles, destroying it and then getting a 25 year old car for 'free'. If I were better off, I probably would still call AAA's to change a flat tire.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Ah, yeah, no. I'm a User of vehicles. In fact, a pretty good one. But as for what actually goes on under the carbonfiber? Pssh, I got nothin'

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

The gripping hand is whether you care. If you want to remedy your ignorance, you can do that. If you have far better things to spend your time on, it shouldn't matter. You sound comfortable with your present knowledge, and you seem confident in what you do know. Sounds like a healthy outlook to me.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I have a brother who is a car/engine nut.

Whenever anything makes a funny noise, or anything like that? I call him up. Then, on a saturday, a six pack of beer changes hands, there's some swearing, and the funny noise goes away.

The opposite happens when he needs shelving units put up, or a computer problem fixed.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)