"Over-maintaining" a vehicle....

[DT86]

I hate to think how much over maintain goes on, all promoted by dealships.

I agree. When my girlfriend and I started dating I soon found out she had been taking her Civic to the dealer for oil changes, by her self, and that they were constantly finding something to replace unnecessarily. They were replacing the air filter, cabin air filter and fuel filter at every oil change. I put a end to that.

 

[swines]

I had a neighbor with a Ford Econoline with the 300 CI straight 6. He changed the oil once a year if he determined the oil really needed changing. I saw him banging this solid, black, round thing on the sidewalk and found out he was "cleaning" the air filter - it had never been replaced in 150K miles. I suggested he could buy a new one for about $8. He told me it was a waste of money and he "cleaned the filter like this whenever it needed it."

Truck finally threw a rod at 257K miles when he was 450 miles from home - he couldn't figure out why it had happened. If you do regular preventive maintenance on a vehicle, you can drive them hundreds of thousands of reliable, trouble-free miles - no matter the manufacturer.

I value the reliable, trouble-free part over being cheap about maintenance.

 

[3930dave]

Common sense should be renamed. I know several people who are like that guy. If the manual says to do something they will religiously do it. However if it's not listed then either they assume it doesn't need doing or don't even know about it. I've watched air filters get thrown out simply because the manual said to replace it even though it looks brand new.

I've taken to calling it UNcommon sense, because that is what it has become. :mur:

Rgds, D.

 

[Soundguy]

You have to wonder what those plugs looked like!

i wonder how a non firing plug (plugs) prevented his tarter from turning over ( craking).

that thing ha a plug tester that tests plugs before engaging starter?

 

[3930dave]

I agree. When my girlfriend and I started dating I soon found out she had been taking her Civic to the dealer for oil changes, by her self, and that they were constantly finding something to replace unnecessarily. They were replacing the air filter, cabin air filter and fuel filter at every oil change. I put a end to that.

That is ridiculous. And, knowing some shops, while I'm sure they billed her every time for changing the fuel filter....

I tend to see the opposite rolling into my friend's shop..... 300k km +, and still the original fuel filter.

Nobody wants to to get ripped off, but what I don't get is when people shell out money in increments of $10,000 at a time to buy a vehicle.... why don't they read the OE Owner's Manual ? Every one I've ever seen tells you exactly what interval to change spark plugs at, and every other service interval too.

I get that some people won't listen to anything (Drive it till it stops moving.... tm)......... and, you don't have to do much reading to come across people who think factory service intervals are part of some grand conspiracy to separate them from huge amounts of money. Conveniently overlooking the monumental amount of money they spent to acquire the vehicle in the first place..... :duh:

UNcommon sense..... where art thou ?

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I had a neighbor with a Ford Econoline with the 300 CI straight 6. He changed the oil once a year if he determined the oil really needed changing. I saw him banging this solid, black, round thing on the sidewalk and found out he was "cleaning" the air filter - it had never been replaced in 150K miles. I suggested he could buy a new one for about $8. He told me it was a waste of money and he "cleaned the filter like this whenever it needed it."

Truck finally threw a rod at 257K miles when he was 450 miles from home - he couldn't figure out why it had happened. If you do regular preventive maintenance on a vehicle, you can drive them hundreds of thousands of reliable, trouble-free miles - no matter the manufacturer.

I value the reliable, trouble-free part over being cheap about maintenance.

An engineer buddy of mine back when used to argue with his Dad about oil change intervals. His Dad swore up and down that his son was "over-changing" the oil, on the son's car.

Then.... the Dad ends up having top-end issues with a GM straight 6 in his own truck, of the same era as that Ford. They both end up down at another buddy's shop, pulling off the valve cover of the I6..... Dad is saying "Jeez, I don't know why this happened"...... as they are scooping out spoonfuls of black tar from where oil should be sitting on top of the head.....

Maintenance, today, is pretty minimal compared to back then - so the burden on the customer is fairly light. Nonetheless, either out of laziness, or ignorance, many people seem to drift from Low Maintenance, to No Maintenance......

Rgds, D.

 

[k0ua]

i wonder how a non firing plug (plugs) prevented his tarter from turning over ( craking).

that thing ha a plug tester that tests plugs before engaging starter?

People say "won't crank" when they mean won't start and run. Why they say that I don't know.

 

[3930dave]

I had NKG plugs in my Evinrude 4 stroke motor and after 2 years of none issue, one spring after setting in the garage for the winter it was surging. It would crank and idle but when it was given full throttle it would only run about 2000 RPM for a while and then suddenly run normal for a while then back to no power. Sounded like a fuel problem and I changed hoses, fuel tanks to no end of problem. Finally I stopped at a marine dealer and talked to the mechanic. He knew instantly that it was the plugs. He said NKG were notorious for shorting out. I changed them out to the tune of about $8 each and it has ran fine since. I got rid of the NKG brand though.

Certain engines and plugs marry up well, some, not so much.

Ex., If I was driving GM, I'd only be running Delco plugs. In the case of Honda cars, NGK is the OE plug, along with Denso.

I normally default to the incumbent plug manufacturer for a given engine, and only deviate if performance issues arise. Any decent engine OEM will have spent a ridiculous amount of test-stand and field-use time validating that spark plug..... I know enough about what that process takes that I consider the $1 or $2 extra per plug I spend to get OE plugs to be money well spent.

Innarresting trivia I came across.... in the Year drop down on the NGK site, I saw listings back to the 1890's ! Later (long Winter nights abound....) I'll play around with that, as I'm curious what they list back then

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

People say "won't crank" when they mean won't start and run. Why they say that I don't know.

Many people will say "electrocuted" when somebody encounters live voltage, whether or not it's fatal.

Lack of knowledge, or just sloppy speech patterns....

Rgds, D.

 

[94BULLITT]

230,000 miles and not a single tune up is a bit far fetched.