Ron White, says it all.
Dealing with people who don't care-auto maintenance
- Thread starter 21_6.7f450
- Start date
Outside of my wife's and kids' cars, I will not touch anyone else's. The most I would be willing to do would be to help someone pay a repair bill if they were in a bad way. But touch their car myself, heck no!
Life is hard for stoopid people!
It's expensive to be poor. No money to maintain, no ability to take off work to get it done, they will end up with big failures and out a car.
Then the buy here pay here lot will take care of them on a high interest loan and bi-weekly payments. The cycle repeats.
Then the buy here pay here lot will take care of them on a high interest loan and bi-weekly payments. The cycle repeats.
Always was and always will be.
Just don’t let them make your life harder than it needs to be.
+2
A young lady here at the office bought a brand-new Civic, drove it for a couple years then had a minor accident where she rear-ended someone but it was enough to make her radiator leak a little. She never bothered to fix it.... Either she ignored it, or she topped it up occasionally, I don't remember. Eventually she ran it dry and the engine seized. She had to quit work because she lived far away and now suddenly was without a car.
Me, I would shine them on and encourage them to continue what they are doing by letting them know that maintaining one's vehicle is a waste of time and money.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2024
- Messages
- 302
True, the vehicles are all 8-10years old and will be scrap if I don't see them in a year.
I'm done. I'm not going to pursue helping the with vehicle maintenance.
One of the cars was taken to someone else for oil change. My Installed Donaldson filter never was changed in that 17 months or so and 14,000 miles. They brought it over for an oil change because it was running "funny". Someone had taken the airbox lid off and not put it back on correctly. The MAS and TB were caked with junk. Oh and it cost me an oil pan because the bozo rounded off the drain plug after cross threading it in and gooped the heck out of it with what looked like Lock Tite and Grey RTV.
I'm done. I'm not going to pursue helping the with vehicle maintenance.
One of the cars was taken to someone else for oil change. My Installed Donaldson filter never was changed in that 17 months or so and 14,000 miles. They brought it over for an oil change because it was running "funny". Someone had taken the airbox lid off and not put it back on correctly. The MAS and TB were caked with junk. Oh and it cost me an oil pan because the bozo rounded off the drain plug after cross threading it in and gooped the heck out of it with what looked like Lock Tite and Grey RTV.
When it comes to doing work for free, for me it has always been parents ONLY (my siblings like to take advantage of their brother, they pay) and then only if they want to do it my way on my time and they bring it to me (unless they can't). Furthermore, I'm not going to beg them to do their maintenance. Call me mean if you want, but I will not put up with freeloaders or complainers (if you don't like my work, take it to someone else).
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 5,931
I’ve only clayed two vehicles in my life—my mom’s and my wife’s. I doubt I would do it for anyone else’s cars. It’s hard work. They’re not trying to avoid the work, they are likely not going to complete such a job.
If my younger brother asked me to do it, I would say no. He’s able bodied.
Some people only learn by hard lessons, it seems a little evil to let them learn it a few times but once they do they realize that simple maintenance is a lot easier (and cheaper) than having to replace a vehicle. Until they do they get stuck in a mindset that stuff never changes and what works will continue to work.
Reality has a way of knocking some sense into people, and they learn sooner or later it's easier to keep up with maintenance. Until they are ready any effort on your part will be wasted.
Reality has a way of knocking some sense into people, and they learn sooner or later it's easier to keep up with maintenance. Until they are ready any effort on your part will be wasted.
Some people I referred to as askholes, they would ask your opinion and then ignore it only to come back later after the failure and ask you again. I got to the point with some of the people at work where I would just say I dont know and then walk away. Theres a limit to the amount of satisfaction from "I told you so", after a while it gets old.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2021
- Messages
- 2,002
After I landed and was getting off the crew bus in the employee parking lot, I saw the hood up on a car as I was walking towards my car.
Boosted another driver who can't recall when the battery was last replaced.
Probably has a fairly new Iphone
Boosted another driver who can't recall when the battery was last replaced.
Probably has a fairly new Iphone
I have a couple friends like that.
They ask for your opinion on something, then completely disregard your advice.
I've come to realize that they were just looking for confirmation on what they had already planned on doing.
Why they ignore maintenance? I can think of two reasons.
1. Maybe they simply don't care. I wouldn't lose sleep over this.
2. Maybe they have your best interests at heart and don't want to put you in a compromising situation should something go off the rails. These things can develop into real bad feelings to where families no longer want anything to do with each other. I know a family that broke apart over a stupid argumentover about food.
1. Maybe they simply don't care. I wouldn't lose sleep over this.
2. Maybe they have your best interests at heart and don't want to put you in a compromising situation should something go off the rails. These things can develop into real bad feelings to where families no longer want anything to do with each other. I know a family that broke apart over a stupid argument
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 5,931
Oddly imho, brakes are such a bang for buck job. Routine cars like CR-Vs now top $1,000 for both axles. We could play that but I could do it for $300 game (don’t have actual numbers). But other than a close relative, I would not do brakes.
There is the potential for the, “But there wasn’t any noise with the old brakes” scenario. Now the person helping looks bad and news spreads they do lousy work on free jobs…not worth it imho
We have people here on the forum like that.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2024
- Messages
- 302
I think it's more of an inconvenience for those in my case. I'm not going to loose sleep over it....
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
I was able to maintain family's vehicles for years when I was younger without all the mess the OP is having.
In cases like that, it would be..... sorry , dont call me, call your mechanic.
In cases like that, it would be..... sorry , dont call me, call your mechanic.
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2023
- Messages
- 865
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
Just give him the happy smile. People like him keep the auto industry going. Those repair shops would love his time and money if he had any.
Anyways Its the same for me when I tell family and friends to check their dipstick once a month. Come complaining you're running low on oil well its time for a new engine or trade in. Unfortunately we live in a world technology is taken for granted and live comfortably until it all falls apart. You gotta let them hit rock bottom until they realize owning a vehicle requires responsibility as well. What am I to say when you can just get a new/used car loan easy nowadays haha.
