With the neighbour?

[BahHumPug]

It's a lovely sunny day here, very hot and so obviously all the windows are open. I was just settling down to do some work after lunch when I realised my room smelt like a petrol garage, as did the rest of the blinking house.

Neighbour, who has several 'classic' cars, was kindly revving his engine repeatedly in some sort of macho 'I'm fixing this' way. He stores this car on a shared drive, so obviously the fumes were filling up our house. I went out and politely told him so. He seemed a bit miffed but has stopped.

WIBU to ask him to stop? It was giving me a headache but I feel a bit guilty now. On the other hand, it's a pretty antisocial thing to do on such a nice day. I'm not very good at asking people to stop doing things, and now I have I feel very bad. Trivial problem of the week.

I get ragey about this. I ds neighbours who thought their cars needed warming up for 40 fecking minutes every sodding morning. From 6 am!
One would switch the engine on and go inside.
I gave another a fright when I was beyond reason and spluttered 'morning, every, 6 o'clock, every, wake me up!'
I was hugely pregnant and swathed in pink velour nightwear.
He looked terrified and never did it again.

My 20 year old car seemed to manage perfectly well with a minute or two on a old morning.

He mumbled something about thinking we were away

So you have all your windows open and he thought you were away...yeah right

It was probably 'oh go away' lol

Now that's more likely

You should have shut the windows. If he has to fix his car, then he has to fix his car

howmanyteachers
and I'd have said: "I'm sorry. I didn't realise the fumes were going into your house*. Are you going out later today because I could do it then?"

*OP said they were, and there's no reason to assume she's lying.

There are ways of indulging your hobby without upsetting people.

I guess some people are just more considerate than others.

Maybe he couldnt do it later

OP could have closed Windows on side of house he was working, and opened them on other side of house

CO build up highly unlikely to be an issue

Severity of smell is also subjective

slightly concerned that the OP seems not to know about the dangers of CO2 (further up she says so). Not in relation to THIS incident but generally the dangers of CO2 from a faulty boiler or other gas appliance should be petty well known by now surely? Do most people not have a CO2 alarm? (A student acquaintance died years ago due to this so am a bit about it all)

Kayano
I notice that you have a real propensity for implying people have said things they definitely have not :
Two fingers he isn't filling the house with Rabin monoxide. The way you describe it you would think he hooked a hosepipe to his exhaust and put it through her window
Really?

Ahem trixie CO2 or CO?

I also think you were slightly bu.
It wasn't the middle of the night, it is on his drive.
I would have shut the windows. If it continued for long maybe gone out and made him aware you were in.
It isn't illegal to start a car at any time of day btw.

I didn't say that's what they had said at all, I was commenting on the dramatic phrase of 'filling her house with carbon monoxide' it's an emotive phrase designed to imply its all deliberate

When. In fact the dude was just fixing his car... On the drive way.

A house full of carbon monoxide would = dead OP

Hence my talking the piss out of you

I ds neighbours who thought their cars needed warming up for 40 fecking minutes every sodding morning. From 6 am!
One would switch the engine on and go inside.

Never mind unreasonable, that's not necessary or useful - some engines (diesel especially) won't even get up to proper temperature on cold mornings if they're not moving. Tell them they're not only wasting fuel, but potentially causing severe wear or damage to their engines.

I think you are being unreasonable if its something he doesn't do regularly. My dh rebuilds classic cars and very occasionally he needs to do this too. We put up with the neighbours little idiosyncrasies in return

wmittens
I agree. Totally pointless.

I think some people are wedded to the idea that it is necessary. I remember my Dad doing it years ago.

" some engines (diesel especially) won't even get up to proper temperature on cold mornings if they're not moving."

No, but the heated seats do..

God forbid anyone should have to sit on cold upholstery. Much better to wake up all your neighbours in pursuit of a warm arse.

YANBU Both we and our neighbours have classic cars, and even we get annoyed with our neighbour revving his up, especially on early Sunday mornings. We both go to a lot of shows, and we all go out to them Sundays, but, as DH says, there is absolutly no need to sit on the driveway revving the bollocks off the engine, and it doesn't do it much good anyway. When we drive ours (and its a big 1970s american with V8 engine) we start it, let it idle for a couple of minutes to warm it up, and drive off!

there is absolutly no need to sit on the driveway revving the bollocks off the engine, and it doesn't do it much good anyway.

In and of itself, no, but it may be necessary if you're trying to diagnose a misfire or an ability to rev through its full band, or to test if such a problem has been solved.

twofingerstoGideon Leather dahhling, LEATHER....

I'll have you know that LEATHER is bloody freezing at -10C!

Takes 5 minutes, and at 8.15, all my neighbours have gone off to work already.

Yabu as you don't always know the circumstances. This happened to me on Saturday. My neighbour asked me if I was crazy & told me to move the car. I am 38 weeks pregnant but I was sitting in the drivers seat & I was revving it because the AA man told me to! I thought he was being a twat. Can you only fix cars when it suits your neighbours?

And obviously if it was working I wouldn't have wasted a lovely afternoon trying to fix it

Most women wouldn't dream of mending their car, filthy work, which females rightly abhor. Leave that to the menfolk, most of whom seem to really enjoy tinkering with their second love of their life !!!! However, when i was about 11 years old, in 1955, one of our neighbours had his car running as i walked past, and loved the smell so much, I went back to sniff it again. I thought carbon monoxide had an intoxicating effect. It's such a pity we all have to live like sardines in this country with very little space from our neighbours. Even detached houses are too close together, unless you are a millionaire. We are really forced to tolerate others selfishness, it seems to me. But I can imagine the joy on that man's face to be plunged into sulkiness when you successfully complained. Agh, he's only a big boy you know, they all are, bless them, but good for you for standing up to him

YANBU. We live opposite a revver, motorbike in this case. Just get on the bloody thing and drive it away, will you? He likes to do a 20 minute rev early in the morning before setting off.