Car Repair Skills Everyone Should Have

[derspiess]

Yes, yes they can.  It happened to me once about 12 years ago.

Smells wonderful.

[DontSayBanana]

She wants a BMW.  I negotiated it down to Honda. 

Ironically, with the costs of Honda parts, your lifetime ownership costs for the car won't be that different.

[garbon]

She wants a BMW.  I negotiated it down to Honda. 

Ironically, with the costs of Honda parts, your lifetime ownership costs for the car won't be that different.

Now you are an export on costs in Hong Kong too? Will the wonders never cease?

[DGuller]

She wants a BMW.  I negotiated it down to Honda. 

Ironically, with the costs of Honda parts, your lifetime ownership costs for the car won't be that different.

Assuming they give away the BMW parts for free, of course.

[derspiess]

Beauty of a Honda is that they hardly ever need replacement parts and will run forever.

[Monoriu]

So far I am very happy with the Honda.  The only part that they replaced was something they called "battery".  They said there was nothing wrong with it, except that "its time was up".   I didn't object because they didn't charge me anything. 

The BMW that my wife wanted was 50% more expensive than the Honda Accord. 

She still complains though, and has vowed that the replacement car will definitely be a BMW 

[Admiral Yi]

 

They made that part up to swindle you Mono.

[Monoriu]

They made that part up to swindle you Mono.

The problem with car stuff is that I have no idea what is going on.  I don't know what they did under the hood; I don't know what needs to be done; I don't know if they really did what they said they did; I don't know if what they said they did was needed or sufficient.  No clue whatsoever.  But my life depends on it, and I am not going to let my car go without maintenance.  So all I can do is insist taking my car to a shop every 6 months.  If I suspect that something fishy is going on, I take it to somewhere else. 

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Beauty of a Honda is that they hardly ever need replacement parts and will run forever.

Yeah, but they start getting expensive at about 100,000 miles when it comes time to start replacing the larger maintenance items.  Timing belt service is $500 because half the engine needs to be taken apart.  The motor mounts tend to wear out around this time, especially in the S models, and that's about $1500 for all of them.  I'm replacing my EGR and IAC valves this weekend, and its costing me just under $200 for the parts alone.  I love this car, though, and plan on driving it until something major fails or it gets totaled by illegals with no insurance like my Buick.

[Iormlund]

... engine braking is a helpful offset, although it is fucking loud, as has been mentioned ...

Engine braking on your average car is not loud at all. The truck in the vid provided is equipped with a special system called Jake Brake, which is indeed loud,

[PDH]

Yeah, quite a few places make the Jake Brake a violation - truckers get fined for it regularly.

[fhdz]

... engine braking is a helpful offset, although it is fucking loud, as has been mentioned ...

Engine braking on your average car is not loud at all.

True. Around these parts, I see a lot of really tricked-out sports cars (the racist among us call them "rice rockets") with giant exhaust systems engine braking VERY LOUDLY.

[Admiral Yi]

Hetero, I think you might be thinking of something different then Iorm is.  Engine breaking on a non-semi stick shift car means you put it into a lower gear on a downhill so the friction of the engine slows it down and you save your brake pads.

[DGuller]

... engine braking is a helpful offset, although it is fucking loud, as has been mentioned ...

Engine braking on your average car is not loud at all.

True. Around these parts, I see a lot of really tricked-out sports cars (the racist among us call them "rice rockets") with giant exhaust systems engine braking VERY LOUDLY.

These engines do everything very loudly.  It's quite amusing seeing a 1992 Corolla struggling to accelerate away from the traffic light while farting like a 1000cc bike.

[fhdz]

Hetero, I think you might be thinking of something different then Iorm is.  Engine breaking on a non-semi stick shift car means you put it into a lower gear on a downhill so the friction of the engine slows it down and you save your brake pads.

That is exactly what I'm thinking of.