Comment on She was churning plastic
UncleArthur@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t understand how anyone can do this. If you’ve spent thousands on an asset that (in the USA) one relies on, surely you’d at least get it serviced once a year. I wonder what her house is like.
When I met my wife she complained the car was often smokey and lacked power up hill.
First think I checked was oil level.
It had none.
So I asked when she had the oil changed last, and she replied with something like “Oil change? What’s that?”
That car got donated to the wrecker for tax receipt program.
She’s not good with details, but also never had a dad or car guy influence in her life to explain what maintenance was all about.
RTFM is a way of life. I’m not a car person by any means. I’m about as good at mechanics as fish are at cycling. I just read the manual, and do what it says, if I can. If not, I take the device to someone who can. Most devices come with documents made by intelligent, educated and experienced people who just want to help make it work.
Many people just throw instructions away. Have you seen IKEA returns. Much of that is people not following the pictures
/c/dadforaminute@lemmy.world
Don’t you have mandatory inspections?
Nope. If you bought it new off a dealer they would nag you for maintenance. But if you bought private and were oblivious to maintenance needs there would be nobody reminding.
Personally I don’t get it, because I always want to know how stuff works or care info, but she saw it as an appliance. You run it till you call a repair person
Much of the world does not have mandatory inspections. For example, I live in kansas, and your car only needs inspected if you bought it from an out-of-state seller
i mean, you should change oil more than once a year…
You can get away with changing it once a year as long as you rotate it every few months.
My car requires a service plus oil change every year or 10k miles, whichever comes first.
And you should cut that in half. 5k max. Auto Manufactures are only interested in your vehicle making it to the end warranty.
With fully synthetic oils, tighter tolerances, and cleaner running engines there are many cars that are easily going to make it to a year or 10k miles without serious degradation of the oil.
Things like tire rotations should still be done more often. And there are ways to check/test oil for degradation if you don’t believe manufacturer recommendations.
This is opposite from what I’ve heard. Dealerships make a killing on their service department, so they say you need oil change every 8k when in reality 10k is probably fine.
Modern oils can do more like 40k km in a healthy engine.
Worst I’ve done and this wasn’t intentional but rather me being in a deeply unhealthy relationship where my ex made me drive around a lot (10k km a month if not more) and didn’t leave me any money for oil changes (all of it was my money, but she got pregnant so it all became her money) so that car did over 60k km on one oil change. Car is still driving around a few years later, just not in my ownership.
Nah just run it once with out, then you just top up every other fill up no oil change needed
That totally depends on your mileage.
If you are an average driver (USA ~20 000 km per year, European ~10 000 km per year), a yearly oil change is sufficient. Frequent changes are environmentally unfriendly, while at the same time costing more money than they save.
A good fully synthetic oil can do 20 000 km in most modern cars.
This is also HIGHLY dependant on the quality of filter. Too many garbage filters out there.
A lot of people are more irresponsible than you can possibly imagine, and, if you point that out to them, you are harming them.
People live life without understanding how things work.
i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
A subculture of “the damn mechanic is always just trying to rip me off” will do that.
NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
That’s kind of me because as someone who knows computers well and knows how computer repair places are, I can assume mechanics are the same. I usually plan to do my own repairs but I hate cars, am lazy, and rarely drive mine so I usually go way too long before just taking it in far later than I should have
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Muffler is probable a.$20 fix, if you do it yourself. They hanged them from what amounts to two really thick rubber bands. There are two hooks on the muffler and two on the car. That should stop the bouncing.
froh42@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Regarding “the mechanic always rips me off” - find a good one. When the muffler was loose because of a broken hanger the garage called me, told me and asked me if they should repair it by the book (switching out an 800 Euro part) or just weld the hanger - that would be “The OEM doesn’t allow it, so less OEM warranty, but it’s only Eur 10.”
They basically asked me to allow them to ignore idiotic OEM instructions. (Yes it was an “official” garage by the OEM)
HumbleBragger@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
700km is nothing to worry about. I’ve passed 4k km Tue oil change once for just forgetting about the repair..I was reminded by the engine noise being loud and weird.
edinbruh@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
Here you are forced by law to get your car serviced periodically. Mechanics are known to try to rip you off every time.
Plus, I could easily raise the counter argument that if I spend thousands on a machine, it better be reliable without needing to get serviced all the time
erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I’m going to guess by here you mean Scotland (given your username). An MOT (annual inspection) is not a service. The inspection is just to ensure the car is road worthy. Oil and filter changes, for example, are not a part of it.
Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I do live in Scotland. And yeah, MOT just shows the vehicle is legally compliant. Could pass MOT and blow a piston the next day because it’s not had any oil put in for 10 years.
edinbruh@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
It’s not Scotland, I Just use that username.
I think the oil change is not part of the inspection here either. If the oil change was that important, it would be required to be roadworthy. Like working brakes and safe tires. If it is not that important… Then it’s not important
Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
So I guess you never wash your expensive clothes? A vehicle is essentially a tool. And if a tool doesn’t get upkeep every once in awhile then it’s going to break. Why would anyone spend some people’s annual income on a tool and not treat it with care and give it proper upkeep so it lasts long enough to be worth spending that much money on?
edinbruh@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
I have a single piece of expensive clothes. I have never washed it because I wore it only once for my graduation.
Plus, washing isn’t servicing. It’s just washing. I would also wash my car, sometimes.
Treating with care is also not servicing. If I haven’t broken it, and it needs servicing, then it broke by itself. If it broke by itself, then it’s a scam and has no business being expensive, I will have to pay for repairing it anyway.