High Maintenance Women

[Air_Speed]

Question for people on this thread ...

It seems a lot of guys here lament the damage done to their vehicles by the various "female drivers" in their houses/lives, but my experience has been different.

What is interesting to me, is that my wife, while not OCD like me, knows quite a bit about car maintenance. Not necessarily auto repair, but the basic regular maintenance spelled out in the manual.

In fact, when we met years ago, she was the one who taught me how to change my own oil (I am a city boy) and transmission fluid, replace my spark plugs and battery, and how to drive a manual. Maybe it is because she's from the country, and there was not a single mechanic or quick lube place within 15 miles, so often it was faster and easier to do it herself.

She inspects her wiper blades and tire pressure once a week, and fluid levels. Once she had to add plain water to the antifreeze, and she came home to test that the freeze protection was still good enough, concerned about the ratio.

What prompted this post is that we went out to dinner last night and she leaned over to me in the candle-light and said, "Can you buy some synthetic oil, fresh antifreeze, and winter wipers after work tomorrow? I need to winterize my car."

What women do you know that do their own car maintenance?

 

[DaveL]

My wife's father ran a gas station and she used to not only pump gas but also do minor maintenance work like changing spark plugs, filters, and tire repair. Unfortunately, this early training has not carried over into what she does about/to cars her adult life, but at least it gives her an appreciation for what I do.

 

[Popinski]

when people complain about women, it's usually the majority. You guys are talking about the minority of women. Majority of women that I talked to don't even know how to change a tire. A lot of them think the Oil light meant "Change oil".

Airspeed, No offense, you should be ashamed of yourself.

The basics of being a man includes knowing the basics of car care. This excludes men who don't own vehicles.

To answer your question: I have never met a woman that knows car care. My stupid ex-girlfriend called me 2:00 AM just so I could change her tire.. If a person doesn't know the basics, he/she shouldn't even be driving.

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: Air_Speed


In fact, when we met years ago, she was the one who taught me how to change my own oil (I am a city boy) and transmission fluid, replace my spark plugs and battery, and how to drive a manual. Maybe it is because she's from the country, and there was not a single mechanic or quick lube place within 15 miles, so often it was faster and easier to do it herself.

What prompted this post is that we went out to dinner last night and she leaned over to me in the candle-light and said, "Can you buy some synthetic oil, fresh antifreeze, and winter wipers after work tomorrow? I need to winterize my car."



I was wondering who got the "one" woman who understood all of this and now I know....congratulations.

 

[Eddie]

I'd rather have my women spend her attention on me rather than my car-he he

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: Popinski

My stupid ex-girlfriend called me 2:00 AM just so I could change her tire..


LOL...kinda gives new meaning to the term "booty call"

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: Air_Speed

What prompted this post is that we went out to dinner last night and she leaned over to me in the candle-light and said, "Can you buy some synthetic oil, fresh antifreeze, and winter wipers after work tomorrow? I need to winterize my car."



So.....does she have an available sister?
Seriously, my daughter just turned 16 and this past weekend I showed her how to change oil in a car. I really didn't have her do too much because in this particular car you usually get a burn mark or two on your arm before you finish. (It happened to me again) I also had her vaccum the interior, windex the glass and put some protector on the dash to make it shiny. I also changed the transmission filter and oil, but didn't have her help because I didn't want to overdue it.
I did all this just to show her that there is more to car maintenance than putting a nozzle in the gas tank.

 

[JustinC25]

Originally Posted By: Air_Speed
Question for people on this thread ...

It seems a lot of guys here lament the damage done to their vehicles by the various "female drivers" in their houses/lives, but my experience has been different.

What is interesting to me, is that my wife, while not OCD like me, knows quite a bit about car maintenance. Not necessarily auto repair, but the basic regular maintenance spelled out in the manual.

In fact, when we met years ago, she was the one who taught me how to change my own oil (I am a city boy) and transmission fluid, replace my spark plugs and battery, and how to drive a manual. Maybe it is because she's from the country, and there was not a single mechanic or quick lube place within 15 miles, so often it was faster and easier to do it herself.

She inspects her wiper blades and tire pressure once a week, and fluid levels. Once she had to add plain water to the antifreeze, and she came home to test that the freeze protection was still good enough, concerned about the ratio.

What prompted this post is that we went out to dinner last night and she leaned over to me in the candle-light and said, "Can you buy some synthetic oil, fresh antifreeze, and winter wipers after work tomorrow? I need to winterize my car."

What women do you know that do their own car maintenance?


What a woman

I had to teach my wife the basics. But now she knows how to change her oil, (Not that she wants to, but she can do it.)
Change a flat tire, and how to drive a stick correctly.
(She knew how to get by with a stick before, but used to sit at red lights holding the clutch for 5 minutes, she also used to rest her foot on the clutch pedal while driving.)

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: Popinski
If a person doesn't know the basics, he/she shouldn't even be driving.

I'm not going to weigh in on the OP but I have to agree with this statement.

 

[CivicFan]

My woman doesn't pump her own gas but knows that if it's blue smoke than the car is burning oil, etc.

 

[KrisZ]

I don't expect my wife to do any maintenance and I'm not going to bother with showing her how to.

But she is really aware of things sounding not right in the car, warning lights on the dash, and if she notices anything strange she lets me know right away, even if it turns out to be nothing. She's really careful around curbs and I'm happy to say that the sidewalls look brand new and the rims do not have any curb rash. I take care of the rest.

 

[bigmike]

I have a female coworker that fought for 20 minutes to get that diesel gas into her brand new Dodge that requires regular gas.

It was a rather amusing story listening to her complain about how the nozzle wouldn't fit and how she had to "shoot gas into it" until it was full. Not to mention all the diesel fuel she spilled all over the side of her car. She made it down the road before the car sputtered and shut off.

 

[rjundi]

My wife could change the engine oil herself as she knows how from her dad. She knows how to change the air filter as she once explained to me you disconnect the MAF sensor from the air box and unclip this. I guess living her living in TX and sandstorms she learned.

Now she simply changes the oil at garage every 5k miles and air filter check. Also she peforms timing belt changes in timely manner. The rest of maintenance is acute(done when something breaks) and she manages 150k-200k miles that pretty problem free out of a car and minimal money put into it. She does go to full serve though and yells at guy not to top.

I on the other hand maintain a car by the book but the likely recipient of my good deed is the next owner since I only last 150k-200k miles/10years with a vehicle.

 

[Cutehumor]

When I have kids, I'm going to show them how to do car maintenance early in their life even if I have a daughter.

 

[Vilan]

My gf knows more about cars than I do. She says she's a Mopar girl through and through. She's done at least one engine rebuild (can't recall which one offhand) and when my battery died last week after the connector on the positive cable snapped, she showed me how to install a new terminal and strip the wires off the old cable and splice them to the connector.

Just lucky I guess.

 

[The_Jeff]

Mine did her own changes as does her whole family, even the gothy kid who knows nothing else. But I had to talk her out of Frams.

She doesn't shift when I would shift, seems to brake a lot and late, but gets the same MPG as I do.

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: Vilan
My gf knows more about cars than I do. She says she's a Mopar girl through and through. She's done at least one engine rebuild (can't recall which one offhand) and when my battery died last week after the connector on the positive cable snapped, she showed me how to install a new terminal and strip the wires off the old cable and splice them to the connector.

Just lucky I guess.

You're dating Megan Fox's character from Transformers??

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
When I have kids, I'm going to show them how to do car maintenance early in their life even if I have a daughter.

I have 3 daughters....do you want to know what they will tell you?

 

[Air_Speed]

I'm not ashamed at all! To be fair, my wife's was far more dependent upon having a reliable vehicle than I was. She often commuted over 45 miles to work each way. I used to walk four blocks to work, so my car was just for the occasional grocery trip.

Not that I neglected it, I always took it for an oil change on time. I did it every 3000 miles, because I didn't know any better. That's what I was taught about car care. I find that I appreciate the frugality of changing my own oil now, and extending my OCI, and doing other maintenance, but mostly it is the fact that a Jiffy Lube once left my oil cap off and nearly wrecked my car and left me stranded that has inspired me not to let some one else touch it. I know the job gets done right and is not rushed, nor are any corners cut.

So, I think everyone ends up doing their own car maintenance for their own reasons. It's neither a man's or woman's responsibility, it's every owner's responsibility. Because, ultimately, when you put down thousands of dollars on a machine, every owner should care what happens to it, and not abuse it. Or let a distracted high schooler work on it. I learned my lesson the hard way.

 

[sciphi]

My fiancee just yelled at me when the OLM on her Honda hit 40% after ~8500 miles on the oil. "Shouldn't I change it? No, dear, the manual says let the OLM go to 20%. I'll change it in December.". And she knows how to change the oil, put on the spare, top off the windshield washer fluid, and wash/wax the exterior. Plus she doesn't yell too much when I tinker with my car.

My kids will learn how to change the oil, put on the spare, and change plugs and wires. Maybe brakes and other routine maintenance things also. If they don't want to learn it, they don't get to drive the car.