You can find service manuals online. I found the full blown 1,397 page OEM service manual for my '97 Prelude. For free. And failing that, there’s probably a YouTube video for it, especially if it’s not something incredibly rare.
Comment on There was a time when everyone had common sense
brokenlcd@feddit.it 5 months ago
And i still miss those old manuals…
spicytuna62@lemmy.world 5 months ago
brokenlcd@feddit.it 5 months ago
The keyword is right there: 97. Anything after ~2014 and it’s a mess to find manuals, for older stuff i was able to easily find manuals and fix them no problem
Soup@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’llbe 100% honest, bud, but if you can’t find a service manual on the internet or simply ask at the dealership I probably wouldn’t trust you to do the work. They’re available, just try even a little. And boy if you trust what little information may or may not be in an owner’s manual…
Besides, the only reason that info was in there was because the valves needed much more frequent adjusting. You really shouldn’t miss not needing to have that information so readily available.
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 5 months ago
You’d be surprised how hard it is to find manuals these days.
Manufacturers have taken to:
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Not printing them at all
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Hiding them behind paywalls with exorbitant prices
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Indeed. The service manual for my VW GTI isn’t a manual at all, it’s accessed electronically, and it’s thousands for a single license. OTOH, I’ve watched videos on timing chain replacement–my model year had recalls due to a faulty tensioner–and it’s easily a 3-4 hour job for a professional VW mechanic in a full shop.
The flip side is that having it online makes it easier to show things that you would have a hard time seeing in a single thumbnail sized B&W photo in the old-style of service manual.
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HelixDab2@lemm.ee 5 months ago
You totally can. It’s just usually not cost effective. Buying the tools you need to do major mechanical work is a few thousand dollars, a full service manual runs 400+ pages (if available; i think that the manual for my GTI is only on-line, and is a subscription from VW; IIRC it’s several thousand pages), diagnostic electronics are $200-2000, and so on. Plus, you need a good place to work, like an enclosed garage. I’ve replaced an engine in a Civic after bending valves (timing chain failure), and yeah, a k-swap is def. in the realm of something you can do on you own if you want to spend more than the value of your car getting a shop set up for yourself.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 5 months ago
You can’t, because the previous generations allowed capitalism to ruin consumer goods with regulatory capture and planned obsolescence.
brokenlcd@feddit.it 5 months ago
It’s time to resurrect the corolla in the backyard.
spongebue@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I mean, I’m pretty sure cars’ lifespans have generally increased over the years, despite not being able to easily tweak valves or what have you. So many older cars don’t have a 6th digit on the odometer because it was so common for a car to die after about 100,000 miles anyway. Now you might hit some issues, but that kind of mileage is basically your car’s 40th birthday.
BearGun@ttrpg.network 5 months ago
Yes, technology does march forward. That doesn’t change the fact that many cars you’re not even allowed to touch yourself, even the few things you can fix that don’t require expensive speciality tools.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’ve touched myself in every car I’ve ever been in, but I’m something of a handyman.
spongebue@lemmy.world 5 months ago
That would be a problem… If it were a thing. At least here in the US, it’s not. Can you tell me where you’re not allowed to fix your own car, assuming no specialty tools are needed?
Turret3857@infosec.pub 5 months ago
If I have to take the car to the dealership and only the dealership can fix my problem its not a car I want I’m gonna be real with you.
sartalon@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The only item in my Honda (that I am aware of) that requires dealership attention is calibrating the “Honda Sense” sensors if they get replaced. And that is because the equipment required is so expensive, only the dealership carries it.
Plus, the only time I needed that was when I was hit by someone and the sensor was replaced because the panels were replaced.
I can still do all the minor maintenance myself, it is just a LOT more convenient for me to let my mechanic do it.
Love my Honda. (Please bring back the Fit!)