- Joined
- Jun 10, 2024
- Messages
- 302
I'm not loaning out my Tacoma or duallies. They can Uber.
Dealing with people who don't care-auto maintenance
- Thread starter 21_6.7f450
- Start date
and the ones that cant afford big repair bills are the ones that never open the hood. A $5 part can turn into a $500 repair real fast
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Technology has spoiled so many of us. People who started driving after the advent of EFI and other improvements / innovations know nothing about how many of us were raised to have to know a bit about your cars to keep them going. Lots of folks these days do not even have to get things like we used to. From tune ups, spark plugs, coil replacements to getting the timing reset, front end alignements to the need for carb adjustments or rebuilds etc.... Most folks just know to turn the key and go. Lots end up trading in and have learned to live with a car note as part of life so they can get away with 3-4 maybe even 5 years neglecting just about everything related to predictive or preventive maintenance. It is kind of hard to blame them. Vehicles are leaps and bounds better designed and more reliable today than at any other time.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2024
- Messages
- 302
These are 8-10 year old vehicles for the most part. They buy used and run them til they die.
An early 3v with 170k miles is not the pinnacle of reliability. It got Mobil 1 0w40 last time with a Baldwin filter. The 0w40 M1 is robust, giving the ol' 5.4 a chance of life.
An early 3v with 170k miles is not the pinnacle of reliability. It got Mobil 1 0w40 last time with a Baldwin filter. The 0w40 M1 is robust, giving the ol' 5.4 a chance of life.
I work on close family vehicles only... for maintenance .. and maybe help a friend if he wants to learn how to do something.. as in I supervise from the lawn chair 90% of the time. I despise brake jobs.. but I'm too cheap to pay someone esp. when there is a chance of them doing half the job. 
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2024
- Messages
- 302
Brakes are easy. New oem rotors, pads, clean the slider pins with wire wheel on grinder, clean bracket. Super light coating of supplied brake grease on slider pins and reassemble. Then a quick bleed..done. Once the wheel is off, it's 15-20 minutes tops per corner. Brakes aren't scary unless you life in the rust belt.
Mate, many of the folks I know could not get the car jacked up and and the wheel off without hurting themselves.
While no amount of inspection and maintenance can guarantee that a car will avoid major and expensive failures, an owner can certainly tilt the odds in their favor by taking reasonable care of their car. This will almost always be far less costly then neglecting the car until in either suffers a major failure related to lack of maintenance or simply accumulates too many problems to be worth fixing.
In defense of neglectful owners, there was a time in the not too distant past when two grand would buy you something you could drive for a couple of years and maybe more if you were lucky and then simply send it to the yard, since it owed you nothing. In the same time frame, five grand would buy you something pretty nice.
Those days came to an end in 2019, so today a smart low income buyer cares for what they buy and learns to DIY.
There's also something to be said with buying what's less popular and avoiding that 200K pickup or SUV/CUV. You can get a better vehicle for your money that way, as well as one that'll be cheaper to keep fueled along with much cheaper tires and brakes.
These days its definitely cheaper to keep her, but you can only keep her if you give her reasonable care as needed and prudent.
I think it's okay to give advice if asked as well as maybe direct instruction, but I will no longer get my hands dirty and my back sore trying to help someone who won't help themselves.
In defense of neglectful owners, there was a time in the not too distant past when two grand would buy you something you could drive for a couple of years and maybe more if you were lucky and then simply send it to the yard, since it owed you nothing. In the same time frame, five grand would buy you something pretty nice.
Those days came to an end in 2019, so today a smart low income buyer cares for what they buy and learns to DIY.
There's also something to be said with buying what's less popular and avoiding that 200K pickup or SUV/CUV. You can get a better vehicle for your money that way, as well as one that'll be cheaper to keep fueled along with much cheaper tires and brakes.
These days its definitely cheaper to keep her, but you can only keep her if you give her reasonable care as needed and prudent.
I think it's okay to give advice if asked as well as maybe direct instruction, but I will no longer get my hands dirty and my back sore trying to help someone who won't help themselves.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2024
- Messages
- 302
I don't think it's low income, they all do okay. It's just a lack of...I'm not sure..priorities I guess. I know quite a few people that make over 175k a year household income and don't have $5,000 in the bank. I think that is more common than people realize...unless you consider $175k a year low income, I don't for these parts. Maybe in California where that might buy you a single wide 1980 trailer on 1/2 an acre. That's another issue I won't bring up here.
Sounds like my wife's side of the family. None of them can grasp the concept of preventative maintenance and drive their beaters and even new vehicle to a early grave. I sometimes joke with my wife that she must have been swapped out as a newborn in the hospital because she is nothing like them.
I take care of my wife's car and frankly she is on the edge of being kicked outa the garage! Seriously though, I keep it simple and help my folks and wife with maintenance only. My brother is on his own, but at least he has a good mechanic that takes decent care of his car.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Hahahaha! My wife pretty much treats her vehicles like bumper cars! All joking aside I do my best to see that all predictive/preventive work gets done as called for. I gave up years ago with certain people. I used to help with their repairs. But it was obvious no matter how much I preached to them that they could avoid lots of the same little nagging issues over and over , some of which could develop into expensive repairs , the very next time I saw them and their rides , nothing had changed.
I used to be like you when I was young. I figured out pretty fast that I should not set myself on fire to keep others warm.I have several people close to me, family who will not bring me their vehicles for maintenance, can't afford to replace it and complain to the 9's when something does happen. They buy the stuff, labor costs them nothing and they still don't have "time". I've even told them I will drive the 40 miles to go get their vehicle and do the work and drive it back, nope. How do y'all deal with that?
It's not like I enjoy sweating my tail off in 95* Texas heat. It's not like I'm trying to upsell them anything. If it starts and runs, it's fine...arrrg. This is both male and female family. I've been able to save money by running my stuff longer because I maintain it. Am I somehow privileged because of that, I don't know.
One of them owned that 2.2 Cobalt that I only saw once a year and it frequently went 18k + miles on oil changes. I told them I need it for a day to change the water pump. They said they didn't have time. Overheated the heck out of it, then took it to a local "mechanic" who changed the water pump. He said it was good, drove it to their house 4 miles down the road. They took the car to work the next morning 7 miles away and it overheated...it was done. I got the Dawn out and washed my hands of that car.
Just don't ask them to bring it by when I have time? Walk away when they tell me it needs a transmission rebuild for $3000 that they don't have? When they say it's falling apart, just say, yea, I know and chuckle?
If you deal with people that do this, how are you doing it?
If someone said buy the stuff and bring it by, I'd be all over it. If someone said, I'll come get it, do the work and bring it back to you, here are the keys..lol
There is a 3.8L oil guzzling Jeep and a Ford 3V 5.4 in the mix
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Life is hard for stupid people! Stupid people don't know they are stupid!
We gave a friend from church, an older widow, and I've done a couple of oil changes and minor repairs (stabilizer bar end links) for her.
The vehicle, a 2014 Nissan Rogue, has c. 320K km (almost 200K miles) on it, and I think the CVT fluid should be changed, but don't want to do it myself.
At that mileage the transmission could fail at any time, and I don't want to happen immediately after I've worked on it.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 5,918
My dad taught me mechanical sympathy, when I was young. I do think the Progressive commercials that we become our parents are true to life.Hahahaha! My wife pretty much treats her vehicles like bumper cars! All joking aside I do my best to see that all predictive/preventive work gets done as called for. I gave up years ago with certain people. I used to help with their repairs. But it was obvious no matter how much I preached to them that they could avoid lots of the same little nagging issues over and over , some of which could develop into expensive repairs , the very next time I saw them and their rides , nothing had changed.
My wife was taught not to ride the clutch by my father in law. It was one of my criteria when I was dating. Let the woman drive my Maxima, and if her foot is on the clutch at a stop light, she’s out.
I once witnessed her cousin buy a Henkels knife (not forged but the middle grade stamped?). The relatives destroyed it upon the first use hacking some bones. They didn’t care. Me I would never do anything like that. Maybe, “care” has to be taught at a young age. At some point, people think “I can afford that and could not be bothered”
Every post here sounds like my wife's family. They are the type that will buy a 20 year old rusted out beater and will completely neglect it then blame the seller a year later when something breaks.
I've helped a few times but learned my lesson long ago, like replacing a radiator and two months later the brakes stop working so it becomes my fault.
When it comes to stupidity and idiots, no good dead goes unpunished.
I've helped a few times but learned my lesson long ago, like replacing a radiator and two months later the brakes stop working so it becomes my fault.
When it comes to stupidity and idiots, no good dead goes unpunished.
My second contribution to this thread: ...CAUTION, this is heavy....
I firmly believe people resent so much in life, they're not even aware of it.
Cars are a "necessary evil" for many. They're expensive and many do not understand the simplest things.
People have to trust what mechanics say, etc.
Also, vehicle maintenance episodes often give no tactile feedback.
Sure, maybe refreshing bad brakes can make a car stop faster or more quietly, but usually people can't feel improvement.
This adds to what we're talking about.
I firmly believe people resent so much in life, they're not even aware of it.
Cars are a "necessary evil" for many. They're expensive and many do not understand the simplest things.
People have to trust what mechanics say, etc.
Also, vehicle maintenance episodes often give no tactile feedback.
Sure, maybe refreshing bad brakes can make a car stop faster or more quietly, but usually people can't feel improvement.
This adds to what we're talking about.
