Car Service

[locke]

How do you all treat your cars?

My dad's philosophy is to run his cars as hard as he can with minimal service and oil changes for as long as he can and maybe an occasional tire rotation thrown in. somehow he always seems to get 150,000 to 200,000 miles out of them.

my 97 S-10 failed the HC test on the smogging so I"m taking it in to get it all working and happy, but it also just rolled over 75,000 miles last month, I have a feeling they'll probably stick me with a few hundred in fluid changes etc for that service. while it is probably worth it, it's still annoying, and something I avoid doing. I like it best when the only money I put into my car is gas money. Since I'll be driving up into the mountains this weekend, I'll still get it done, but it's a grit my teeth and grimace sort of expenditure.

And all that is of course not mentioning many of the other things wrong with my car. There's the fuel gauge--doesn't work, but fixing it means replacing the entire fuel pump assembly, which is 700 in parts plus labor, not worth it for a car worth 4000 two years ago, and less now. then the AC doesn't work, which might not be that big a problem, but I've never had it looked at as the lack of AC rarely bothers me in moderate Cali. Not to mention the many character blemishes and dents and dings and scratches to the body of the car. oddly. I'd rather have those fixed before I fixed the AC. Oh and there's a hole in the upper half of the washer fluid tank. and sometimes my radio/cd player doesn't work (It's completely given up on Mp3 cds and last I checked the audio jack to connect my ipod to was on the fritz, but since my ipod is busted, no biggie) which means that it occasionally cuts out and I swear and then give it a very solid thwack in a certain way to jolt it back into working again. Actually strike that, the radio has worked almost flawlessly since I got my windshield wipers fixed, which they said was not working due to all the cabling/wiring for them being loose. Hmm perhaps those cables were loose as well and they fixed them too.

at some point in the student loan debt free future I will have a new car, probably a hybrid, but I'm still tempted to get a white ford mustang (or something similar, but that is still the favorite of any car I've driven).

And apparently there's a recall on my seatbelts too, will get that fixed when I take it in tomorrow or wednesdayish

[jotabe]

I just drive till smoke starts coming out from the stuff that is under the hood.
Then i check the stuff of the thingy where the black greasy liquid is supposed to be. If there is enough black liquid, then i check the receptacle where the watery liquid is supposed to be. If there is enough, then i call my dad, who happens to teach car mechanics in the technical school.

Oh! and i wash it from time to time.

Also my dad told me that i need to check the air pressure next time i refuel... anyone has an idea of what that is?

It's around 22 years old!

[Petra456]

At least you wash yours! It rains all the time here, and really just doesn't seem worth it for about 9 out of the 12 months. Mud everywhere!

Meh, I absolutely hate my car! It's a 97 Nissan sentra. In the cold months, it will die altogether if I start and stop it suddenly, which means i'm not allowed to move it unless i'm actually going somewhere, and no short stops in between. In the past year or so i've had to have all new tires, replace the starter, change almost all of the lights, one of which I can't get working without taking it in, have had it brought back to life by the mechanics 3 times now, and had to get a new alternator.

Could he be talking about the air pressure in the tires, Jota?

[Tcashon]

Maybe this is a problem with S-10's locke? I have a 2001 S-10 and my fuel gauge is busted as well. I'll fill it up and it will say full, then drop to empty randomly and then bounce back to full.

Needless to say I don't ever let the needle get past a quarter of a tank before I fill up again. And you are right, I was told it wasn't worth fixing unless they were going to replace the entire fuel pump (600+ dollars).

Also, on my S-10 the driver's side power window decides when it wants to rebel againt my "up" button, which is not good when it's 26 degrees outside.

[daPyr0x]

Compared to most of you, I guess I treat my car pretty well. I keep relatively regular on oil changes, fix most things when they break (which are usually either my fault, or immediate needs (ie. my transmission going kaput, sunroof getting stuck open with no emergency close function).

However, the interior of my car is pretty gross. I mean, it's still a nice car, but being that I spend a good 2+ hours a day in that car I practically live in it, and it shows. I don't clean it near as often as I should, especially in the wintertime like we are approaching. At 5 years old though, with a nice 110,000mi on it, it's not doing TOO bad... I just wish the damn tranny didn't pop the way it did, that really hurt my pocketbook (and my impression of Toyota)

[Valentine]

Yay Mustangs! That was my last car.

I treat my new car awesome, but that's probably because it's still new. My mustang was very dirty on the interior. This car, I try really hard to keep clean. Of course, I average 1000 miles a month, so I spend a lot of time in my car, too. Usually I'll let a little bit of stuff pile up on the front seat, and at the end of the week I'll take it out.
I plan on treating this car far better than my mustang...regular oil changes, tire rotation, etc..

[Eaquae Legit]

My '97 Cavalier has roughly 325,000km on it. I have no idea what the previous owner did to take care of it, but 282,000 of those klicks are his and my car runs like a dream.

Once in a while I wash it. I give it regular oil changes and keep on top of the coolant, brake, and steering fluids. When something sounds funny I take it to my mechanic (without doubt the best on the planet, and the most trustworthy). I think once I had to pay 25$ for him to fix a leak in the coolant system. There might have been one or two similar-costing issues, but I can't recall.

I love my car and would by another Chev in a heartbeat.

[Eddie Pinz]

My car gets no love. I beat the crap out of it. It is always dirty. I am pretty sure that it still has some very gross things in the trunk from when I moved out of my college apartment in may 2007.

[Luet]

I average 1000 miles a month, so I spend a lot of time in my car, too.

Driving 1000 miles/month is actually considered to be on the low end of average. 12-15k/year is average. I used to put 20k a year which was amazing considering I only worked part time and my job was 20 minutes away. Most of the miles were from giving my stupid friends rides places and just driving them around in general. Since I ceased being friends with them I have cut my yearly mileage in half. Amazing.

As to the topic, I take moderate care of my car. I stretch oil changes to around 4-5k, I never do the "recommended" services but just fix things that break. The exception to that is when we had a car with an interference engine (as opposed to a non-interference engine which most cars have) - in that case we had to replace the timing belt early, before it failed, because if it failed it would have ruined the engine. I'm fortunate to have a rockin' mechanic who I trust completely. I've been going to him for years and I do his taxes for him. He never charges me for the yearly inspections for both of my cars.

I like very practical cars but dislike most domestic brands (I mostly go by Consumer Reports reliability ratings). I am on my second Prizm (which is a Chevy in name, but Toyota in body and engine and parts) which to me is the best of all worlds. The quality of a Toyota but without the price tag. Unfortunately, they stopped making it in 02, which is the year I have. My last Prizm had no problems when it was totaled at 125k.

[locke]

Ford and Chevy have been improving in the Consumer Reports Reliability Ratings, and apparently Chrysler now has the most efficient plant. shame as they're actually implementing improvements that they're in the most trouble. :/

I really like my truck, it reminds me of my grandpa, he had a black 82 S-10 extended cab mine is brown but also extended cab, and the same flip down seat in the back that I used to ride in when we'd go for early morning fishing trips and I was too big to ride in the front middle.

But yeah, Tcashon, it's a known problem with S-10s from about 1996 on, has happened alot but there's never been a recall. lame. My solution (since my gauge permanently says full no matter what) is to reset my trip indicator every time I fill up. this also means I can't just put 5$ in (which is actually good for the car to keep the tank full, rather than mostly empty most of the time) because I have to fill it up completely. I know I get between 20 and 22 mpg street driving and about 25 mpg highway driving. since almost all my driving is street driving I fill up after I've gone between 250 and 320 miles. I think I have a 16 gallon tank, but I get nervous if I go more than 250 miles without filling up. Still haven't ran out of gas yet and have had the car for three years now (as of last weekend)

[Valentine]

Meh, it's a lot of time for me and my family. My mom's car is 2 years old and barely has 5000 miles. I had my Mustang for 4 years, and it only had about 30,000 miles. I got my Prius in mid-October, and it just hit 2000. I drive an hour a day, just including to and from school and nothing else. I feel like I'm always driving, being that my school, and therefore my friends, are a good 30 minutes away, if I don't include parking time.

[powerfulcheese04]

I love my car and take reasonably good care of it. It gets the regularly scheduled oil changes and inspections and all that.

The only problems it has are unavoidable accidents. (The fog lamp grill thing is a little messed up because I ran over a bucket that flew out of the truck in front of me on the highway. My choices were sweve left into a car-- no, swerve right into a guardrail-- no, or run over the bucket while trying to stop-- yep.)

[Jayelle]

I get into my "car", give my ticket to the driver and take a seat. No maintenance required.

[Petra456]

I've put quite a few miles on my car, I use to do two hours of freeway driving a day, at the very least.

I'm so glad I don't have to do that anymore.

[locke]

ETA damn wrong thread.

[Oliver Dale]

When I got promoted, my splurge item was to replace my 1998 dodge Avenger with a brand new Infiniti G37s. And yes, I spend money on it. A lot. Stupid, but there it is.