In the classic Warner Brothers cartoon “Porky’s Bear Facts” the industrious pig is faced with the dilemma of sharing his bounty with the lazy bear that lives next door, or let him suffer the consequences of spending his days holding down the rocking chair on his porch instead of filling his larder. This twist on the Aesop fable of the ant and the grasshopper is an excellent example of how you will eventually have to pay the piper when it comes to deferred work.
When it comes to our cars, there’s a lot of maintenance work that some of us might like to put off. Changing the brake fluid? Oh man! Rotate those tires? But it’s so hot out! Of course, just like the Lazy Bear, putting off these kinds of tasks can lead to dire – and potentially expensive – situations down the road. I’m sure that you, like me, are pretty religious about your auto maintenance schedule, but is there that one task that you just put off for as long as you can? What about cars in general? What do you think is the most often ignored maintenance task?
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Hooniverse Asks: What's the Most Often Ignored Auto Maintenance Item?
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71 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What's the Most Often Ignored Auto Maintenance Item?”
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Probably the doofus behind the wheel.
We Hooniversalists may be an exception, but how often does the average driver do anydamnedthing to improve their driving skills or habits, apart from attempting to improve their ability to drive, drink a latte, and comment on facebook all at once?-
Hey, practice makes perfect. The problem in NJ with Facebook and cell phones is that the driver’ hands were already full with their coffee and cigarette…
Humanity will evolve. Four arms are the future.-
I think first, we’ll need two heads, as attention is more the problem than the ability to hold more things.
Luckily, for drivers that insist on multitasking beyond their abilities, self-driving cars are on their way, hopefully sooner than later.-
So long as they recognize a cyclist, I’m all for self-driving cars.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, leave the driving to those that want to drive. If you’re more interested in music, a movie, the news, Facebook, then so be it, let the computer drive.
I just fear the stigma that will come to actual drivers if they are in crashes, “He wasn’t using XXX technology at the time of the crash.” As this could carry social and insurance-based consequences.
That would be unfortunate.-
Oh, we self-drivers are going to be raked over the coals on insurance, I’m sure. Either that, or agree to keeping some sort of GPS-overlord on board that monitors our driving habits, including acceleration, braking, and turning rates, to determine whether we’re a high risk or not.
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If anything, just another argument pro classic cars of the pre digital age.
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Any anime fans in the house? I have a somewhat-irrational love for this series:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ÉX-Driver
I feel like it was somewhat ahead of its time in addressing the self-driving car issue (from a pro-gearhead point of view), plus their sound effects department did a pretty awesome job with the engine noises.
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With my bad back that I haven’t had a medical professional look at, I’ll agree for a different reason. I’m very poorly maintained.
Spark plug wires?
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car 1: coil-on-plug, nothing to replace.
car 2: compression ignition, does not compute.-
Coil on plug systems have plug wires, though they are often referred to as boots nowadays, there is a wire in there. So yeah cars still have spark plug wires and parts stores actually have them for sale. The insulation breaking down is often the cause of coils being replaced when they are still fine. It is just that most coils come with the wire so replacing the coil fixes the problem and “confirms” the misdiagnosis.
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Windshield Wipers.
I can’t tell you how many times I am behind, or in front of someone with clearly old wipers having to crank the interval through the roof to keep up with a light rain.
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Funny thing is: These people sort of assume that windshield wipers are an expense, hard to replace item. I’ve met them, and they get embarrassed when I show them what they cost.
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It’s the same people who don’t fix their burnt out taillight. They don’t realize how cheap and easy** it is.
**- Ease is model specific, but in most cases bulbs can be replaced without needing an engineering degree.-
So true. Sometimes I ask people around me why they don’t replace burned out lights. Unfortunately, you quickly earn a strange reputation for this kind of straight-forwardness.
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Tire pressure. Walk through any parking lot and see the neglect.
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I’m guilty of this. My nearest QT’s filler has been non-op for years, and that’s just about the only place I fill up. And I don’t have a compressor at home, just a bicycle pump. 100 pumps for 2psi gets old quickly.
But I’m full of excuses. I just need to man up and air up. Especially since we’re about to venture on a 3000-mile (round-trip) road trip and I want to eke every possible mpg out of the 153k van.-
Like most tools, if you buy it, you will use it. From inflating tires to blowing out the BBQ grill, a decent air compressor comes in handy.
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Doesn’t even have to be a decent air compressor, at least for keeping tires topped up. I picked up an oilless pancake compressor from Harbor Freight for $40 with a coupon — I have no illusions about its quality, but it’s hanging in so far, and for $40, why not? That, and after getting a flat and discovering that my spacesaver spare had leaked itself down to uselessness, I now keep one of these little guys in my hatch: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Flow-MF-1040-Portable-Compressor/dp/B000L9AD2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438048868&sr=8-1&keywords=masterflow+cyclone
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Agreed. I live on a farm and an air compressor is almost essential.
And the blowing part is useful for cars too, as it can blow rust and dirt off of parts, or make the engine bay slightly more liveable.
And an air-powered impact makes quick work of changing tires, and who doesn’t want to feel like part of a race team?
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There was a used one of these for sale recently at the big orange store I’m temping at. Is that the one you picked up?
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Yes, I bought it a couple years ago on closeout after they discontinued that model. All the overstock was blown out by a liquidator south of Olathe. It doesn’t have a huge tank capacity, but it is portable and it’s a “real” oil-lubed model. I think it’s rated at 6.5CFM, which is all I need. One coat of stain on our fence pretty much paid for it.
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A few years ago, the local Marathon station that had 2 service bays sold out to a convenience chain. With the service area went the free air. I ended up buying a Slime brand inflator for about $40. Once it’s dead I’ll get a real compressor, but until then it works pretty well, if slowly and loudly.
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My initial thought, too. Every time I get in my wife’s or mother-in-law’s cars, the TPMS light is on. I’m like, “really?” I have a really nice air compressor, you just have to mention it.
http://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/static-fcac/images/cf/articles/tpms-low-tires-icon.png-
She must drive my Phaeton.
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I’ll add on to this the spare tire in your trunk. Even if you remember to inflate the four tires on the ground, you forget about the one in your trunk.
And then you have a flat off of the NJ Turnpike and switch to your spare only to find that it’s at 20PSI instead of 60PSI. And then you limp to the nearest Advance Auto to get a crappy 12V compressor that takes 20 minutes to inflate to 60 PSI, all while making one heck of a racket in the parking lot of a shady looking town.
No, I am not bitter. Who are you calling bitter?-
That was easy business in old Volvos:
http://www.collectorcarads.com/Picture7/Interior_Trunk_Spare_Tire.jpg
On my Honda, the spare tire is hanging outside under the car, with the plug up. I have been willing to inflate it several times, and then went….”oh”.-
Yup, the visibility helps. Even if it is easily accessible, like under the trunk liner, I find that it engenders a very “out of sight, out of mind” attitude.
Is your Honda’s spare under the car, where you have to crank a nut in the trunk to lower it? I remember that on my dad’s old Windstar. Super cool as a kid, but just seemed needlessly annoying as I grew older and thought about it.-
Exactly that. Stuff gets a bit rusty, too, so it needs a bit of man power™ every time* I take it out.
*once
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Been there, albeit in my own parking spot at the apartment rather than on the side of the road. You definitely had it worse than me, but I can empathize with the frustration at the inability of a spare to actually hold pressure.
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I vote for “any fluid that isn’t oil or windshield washer fluid.” I have yet to buy a used car that looks like its trans or diff fluid has EVER been changed.
Blinker fluid.
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Somebody must be changing their blinker fluid. A lot. Every time I go to the store and ask for it they laugh at me and tell me to come back next week. Like I’m supposed to know they’re sold out all over the place. Jerks.
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That’s why I always buy mine on-line. Try these guys, never had any problems.
kalecoauto.com › Maintenance-
Looks like this is SAAB only. I guess business is slow.
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They must not be that good. I found no franistats or turboencabulators. On the other hand, they do have flux capacitors and muffler bearings.
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When’s the last time you actually pulled the cover off a battery and checked the level in there? It’s been years for me. Probably something I should make a habit of doing at every oil change, but I haven’t done it for years and haven’t had to replace a battery for years, so my lazy behavior is reinforcing itself.
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Aren’t they supposed to be sealed these days? I can’t recall ever having a battery that I’ve needed to add anything to.
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Mine are sealed for both of my cars. I haven’t had a battery that I had to check fluid levels in I don’t know how long.
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I have a few that aren’t sealed. Are all new ones sealed now? I guess I haven’t bought a battery in five years.
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I know you can still buy wet batteries, for upkeep on cars and I’m sure a few commercial trucks use wet batteries, they always seem to hold onto things after the car market drops them.
I’m really not 100% sure on if all batteries in new cars are sealed. I would be surprised if they weren’t given the prevalence.
My 2006, 2009, and 2013 all had sealed batteries. Pretty sure my 2002 and 2003 Ford and Mazdas did. I know my 1994 F-150 didn’t (when I bought it) until I bought an Optima for it. And my 1989 Sable was a wet battery.
I don’t think there is a law about it, but I think for most manufacturers, having a “maintenance free” battery is better for the average Joe. -
Virtually all car batteries are “wet” even if they don’t have caps that are designed to be removed. Even the Optima has liquid electrolyte in it even if it is absorbed in a glass mat. Sealed batteries are known in the industry as valve regulated lead acid batteries. They have a one way valve that lets enough pressure build up so that the vapor recombines but will let an off gassing event occur before the pressure gets to the point that would cause a case rupture. .
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I understand how a battery works Mr. Pedant. Should I have called it “serviceable” vs. sealed? Would you have come back with how sealed batteries are “technically serviceable.” I’m not going to write “valve regulated lead acid batteries” every time I discuss it. Sorry if that doesn’t please industry insiders.
I apologize for the edge in my tone, It’s 5:50AM and I just got done holding a crying baby.
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I didn’t know unsealed batteries were still legal. Turns out sealing them won’t protect them from dying prematurely.
Cabin filter.
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This is what I was going to say. Sure, it doesn’t affect the performance of the car, per se. However, a dirty cabin filter can cause performance issues with the HVAC system, and, thus, performance issues with the person behind the wheel who is uncomfortable. It costs a few dollars and takes less than 5 minutes to change.
I changed the one on the BMW a couple weeks ago after having the car detailed (to remove the ash tray smell from the interior) and I doubt it had ever been changed.-
Yep, once you change one for the first time and see how filthy they are, and realize you’re breathing that, you start changing them regularly.
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I didn’t even know the Mustang had one until I saw a youtube of the change. It was 10 years old and just nasty. Blech!
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The cabin filter box recommends changes every 15000km, my manufacturer double that.
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The other solution to this is simply to remove the filter. (Done not by me, this was a used car purchase)
Air filter
Few people know they even have one, and your local Pep Boys/Jiffy Lube won’t change it with an oil change even though that tends to be the maintenance interval.
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I don’t know what monkey lube you go to but around here they will try and upsell you that air filter almost 100% of the time even if it was replaced last week.
Fuel level, people let it get too low too often, and they do it on purpose be cause they are lazy.
i am on my third replacement fuel pump (in the tank, with sender and all the other junk kind) in my ’95 ranger, with 228k miles on it. now i clean my tank every time i change a fuel pump since i have to pull it anyway, but you think that is too many fuel pumps?
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Doesn’t that rather sound like an underdimensioned fuel pump? Unless it starts sucking lots of air – which will eventually stall the car – a pump should be working under all realistic conditions.
My wife once send me to work with the emptiest fuel tank I’ve encountered. Getting to the gas station, less than 2 litres were left and the on board said I had 2km to go.-
well most vehicles will still get you a few miles or K’s in your case when the computer says empty. sort of a built in cheat so you can get to the filling station.
the basis here is a general rule of thumb ( or old wives tale) that you should never get you tank below a quarter full or so because of the debris in the tank. i find that there is little to no debris in more modern cars but old metal tanks can break down on the inside, and some even say that the debris comes from low quality fuel.-
Ah, that makes sense. Quarter full is pretty conservative, and there’s fuel filters, but I get the point.
I broke the rusty tank on my first car, a ’77 Volvo 242, jumping off a sidewalk. The rusty top fell in. Got that patched with boat bondo, fuel filter installed the same day. I also drove the car 800km in one go with basically no oil, -20°C outside. Warranted a burned top and a canister of 20W50 tractor oil in the boot at all times. Young and stupid. But it illustrates how much abuse some machines will tolerate.
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Hmm, I haven’t changed a fuel pump since my ’88 Caravan. That’s 160K miles each on an Odyssey, an Escort and a Mazda3 plus 40K on the wife’s Prius, 60K on our Outlook, 40K on my daughter’s Escort and maybe 10K on the other daughter’s Protege. I run them to empty every tank.
Fuel filters. Or, really, anything with the potential for spilled gasoline. Admitting this on the ‘verse is downright heretical, but I -hate- the smell of gas! Hate hate HATE. A snootful of gasoline vapors is an iron-clad guarantee that I’ll get a headache. l put off replacing a fuel filter for MONTHS on one car out of sheer avoidance.
Coincidentally, guess what I spent my Saturday night on? Extracting a malfunctioning in-tank fuel pump from a full tank of gas! By the end of that little piece of joy, I was one cranky monkey.
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I agree that the fuel filter is often overlooked. I am guilty of that on my cars, though my beater pickup I replace them regularly.
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i spent the few extra dollars to get the nice aluminum ford fuel-line tool just for that purpose, totally worth it.
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I need to do this on the Ranger… when I get back from vacation…
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Battery. No, seriously. People are oblivious to all the early signs of a battery that’s about to kick the bucket. I guess most people just prefer to come out to a dead car on the first cold morning of the winter.
Brake fluid is also up there on the list. I guess people really like having their brake calipers rust from the inside and sieze up.
Headlight bulbs. A friend of mine has been driving with only one headlight for weeks now. And it’s an old car where I know for a fact the bulbs are cheap and easy to replace.
Tires. Especially winter tires, of the studded variety. People tend to keep them as long as most studs are intact and the tread is OK. Nevermind that you do 3000km per winter which means that they’re old and turned to bakelite around the same time as Obama took office.
It’s hard to know about the turn signals and taillights unless you have someone help you check or a dark garage. Or an indicator light on the dash. I always check the battery every week on all three of my cars but I’ve found that if you have to add water your battery is about gone anyway. My pet peeve: donut spares. They age out after ten years or so and can’t be replaced. Tire shop? Nope. Tire Rack? Nope. Dealer? Probably nope.
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Turn on your park lights (all lights minus headlights on) turn on the emergency flashers. Unless the turn indicators are a separate bulb, you should be albe to ascertain whether any bulbs are burnt out. Hope this helps! 🙂
I’m gonna go with timing belt, seeing how I’ve been procrastinating on mine for months. I don’t actually know when it was last replaced, which places it in the *IMMEDIATE NEED* category. But since I can’t see it, it’s a complicated procedure, and I haven’t done it before… it’s easy to put off. I can only imagine how little motivation I’d have if, like many people, I didn’t understand the consequences.
The second one would be trans fluid. It smells bad and gets all over the place and I can’t see the fill or drain hole on mine without jacking up the car and/or removing a wheel. Yet I have no clue how old mine is, meaning I really should change it yesterday.
I have new coolant, brake fluid, pads and rotors, good tires with pressure checked regularly, clean windows, and bright headlights, yet my gears could be spinning in kool-aid and the timing belt might be made of summer camp wristbands for all I know.
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Timing belt. All it takes is for one 1.8T engine to self implode and you’ll be a sunnabitch to get it done 20k ahead of the service interval!
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that mechanic keeps trying to scam me into replacing the timing belt! the car runs fine, i told him!!!
my DD has a non-interference engine. PO claimed the belt was changed at 100k, but PO claimed a lot of shit. i should change it asap, but it’s just so much work. one of these days.
Freaking tyres. It’s unreal how many cars come into the shop with shot tyres. Bald, old, dry rotted cupped, punctured tyres. What’s even more unreal is people refuse to change them.
I’d say anything that a typical driver can’t see from the front seat is going to be neglected. Tires, suspension, brakes, engine, body, interior . : .
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