Car Maintenance

B

belcherm58

New member
Since most of us take so much pride in our cars, I would like to know
how well some of us take car of the maintenance like oil changes and
the type of oil we use and intervals of oil changes.
I love the Pennzoil Platinum oil. I think they offer better protection than the
conventional oils. I change it every 3000 miles and use the Toyota brand
filters only as Toyota is verk big on that aspect for their cars. I chage the
transmission fluid every 50k and do THAT at a dealership so they can use the
new pump systems that change ALL of the fluid and not just whats in the
pan. I rotate my tires every 5k and do most of the maintenance myself.
 
i just change my oil every 3K miles, along with the oil filter. every3 or 4 changes, I replace my air filter. I don't really do a lot of other maintenance other than make sure all my fluids are up to level. :(
 
2004 Accord EX 2.4l 5 MT

I change my own oil with Mobil 1 0W20SL at 7500-8000 mile intervals using Honda (Filtech) filters. Tires are rotated & balanced at that time.....I have that done, too dificult to cross them over without a lift. Manual transaxle lube was changed to Red Line synthetic the first week I bought it, will do that again @ 50K.

Air filter is an AEM short ram with the dry filter, that will be cleaned every 30K or so and reinstalled. Brake fluid flush every two years, which is coming up now. I'll have to check on coolant flush/drain....just thought of that.

That's about it. Since it's only 2 years old with less than 20K there's little else to do.
 
I do my own maintenance from oil changes to brakes tuneups water pumps all repairs that don't need a lift I do m self been doing this all my life I learned how to work on things when I was 12 and got my first go-cart been doing it ever sence
 
I do what needs to be done....I'm more about pro-active maintenance than re-active...I follow the owners manual pretty much...I also change things before they need to be, like belts and water hose's...I figure that its cheaper than towing the car to the shop and the down time that I loose on the side of the road...that part I really hate....tires are rotated every 5K and once they hit the wear bars they are gone on my cars....I feel that since I take such good care of the cars appearance the rest kind of goes along with it.
 
I don't even like taking my truck in if there is something wrong with, I'm sure not going to let then service it.
 
I refuse to take my car anywhere, unless it is a major engine ordeal. I do everything myself. I had an oil change while I was on a trip, and when I got back, I tried to change the oil again (long trip), but was not able to. They put the drain plug in so friggin tight I could not get it out. I think they cross threaded it now that I think of it. I broke 2 sockets and stripped the plug. Took it to my buddy and tried using a chisel and hammer to get some grip. Then he heated it with a torch and that was a no go. I finally had to buy a new oil pan and plug. To bad I did not keep the reciept of the lube center. They would have gotten a hefty bill!

Beemerboy said:
I do what needs to be done....I'm more about pro-active maintenance than re-active...I follow the owners manual pretty much...I also change things before they need to be, like belts and water hose's...I figure that its cheaper than towing the car to the shop and the down time that I loose on the side of the road...that part I really hate....tires are rotated every 5K and once they hit the wear bars they are gone on my cars....I feel that since I take such good care of the cars appearance the rest kind of goes along with it.
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Same here. I will replace things that I feel need to be changed. I just look at it as insurance to cover my rear. Like preventative maintenance.
 
I do oil changes at around 4,000 miles with 0W40 Mobil 1 Synthetic oil and the Audi oil filter. I rotate my tires, keeping the full size spare in the rotation every other oil change. While both of those services are supposed to be done for free at the dealership, I find it better and less time consuming if I do them myself. Everything else gets done at the dealership for free and I will not let them touch my car unless I'm there. I just found out that wearable items(i.e. brake pads and rotors) get changed for free while it's warrantied also. I guess I'll have to make sure they all wear out right before my warranty expires. The cool thing about this dealership is that the majority of the time, they let me work on my car with their mechanics. Once none of that is free, I will be doing it all on my own.
 
I do all the maintenance on my cars myself, except for things that require special equipment like alignments, coolant flushes, and transmission flushes. I do all the scheduled maintenance like clockwork. I'm an ASE certified technician (althought not in the biz anymore) and have seen what neglect can do to a car. I've also seen enough to not trust my car to just anyone. I get free rotations from where I bought my tires, but as much of a pain that it is, I do it myself. 18 year old kids getting paid $7.00 an hour to work on my car means eventually something is going to get scratched/cross threaded/left loose/over torqued/ warped etc.
 
95 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 129,xxx
Oil: Motorcraft 10w30
Fliter: Motorcraft FL1A
Oil changes at 5,000
Air Filter: Wix changed once a year (shaking every oil change to loosen/clean out dirt).
Tranny Fluid:Amsoil ATF (was Motorcraft and would swap out @50,000) now will go much longer using Amsoils recomendation)
Rearend: Motorcraft 75-??? (can't remember) will be swaped out for Amsoil and a bigger Diff. cover to hold more fluid and put a preload on bearings.
 
These are incredible suggestions! Does anyone have links to some good online sites that have oils and filters cheaper than at most auto stores?
 
2005Accord said:
These are incredible suggestions! Does anyone have links to some good online sites that have oils and filters cheaper than at most auto stores?
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My best recommendation is to wait for a sale at Wal Mart or the like, they sometimes have the 5-qt. jugs of Mobil 1 for a good price. Just stock up whenever sales come around!

Same with filters; just watch for your favorites to go on sale, and pick up a few. Unfortunately the ones I use (K&N Performance Gold) rarely do go on sale.
 
BTW, I'm a bit suprised to see some of the folks letting transmission fluid go for as long as y'all are... I tend to change it every 10-15K miles. I don't think that's hurting it any, is it??
 
I'd say trans fluid can go about 30k miles between changes. 10-15k may be overkill, unless you are towing MOST of the time subjecting your transmission to greater than normal stresses.
 
2005Accord said:
These are incredible suggestions! Does anyone have links to some good online sites that have oils and filters cheaper than at most auto stores?
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No but you can go to bobistheoilguy.com they have a "Product Rebates, Sales and Promotions" forum and when there is a sale people post whats on sale and for how much. BTW they take fluids and filters as serious as people here feel about detailing. You'll here and see product results from manufactures you've never hear off but are way above what you can buy OTC (same as detailing products). www.schaefferoil.com http://specialtyformulations.com/
 
2005Accord said:
These are incredible suggestions! Does anyone have links to some good online sites that have oils and filters cheaper than at most auto stores?
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Here I can't even find poor quality filter at prices this good Wix/NAPA Gold filters are some of the best you can get for a reasonable price. And IMO no one sould be useing Fram filter they are very low quality since they where taken over.
 
sneek said:
I have an 03 accord and I let my dealer do everything.
Dozerboy can I ask why?
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For starters I have worked at a dealer some are good some are bad. My truck is just like my woman, I don't like others putting there hand where they don't belong. I got a striped drain plug and filter head assembly thanks to a stealer over tighten them. We lost a wheel because they weren't torque the studs and the list go on.
 
I do all my own maitenance and repairs, if I don' know what I'm doing I'll ask my dad to help me or I'll stop by my mechanics shop and he usually helps me free of charge. I'm due for an oil/t-case/rear end gear oil change really soon...
 
I do my own stuff. I actually knew nothing about cars (dad and the rest of the family wasn't into it) and just started reading online and doing stuff. I do the oil with a synthetic blend (I know it's kind of a waste of money) every 5K even though my manual says I can go 7,500 miles. I change the gear oil every 20K. If parts weren't so expensive, I would have probably replaced everything just for the fun of learning. Working on cars lead me to detailing and now I spend way to much time and money on both!
 
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