This goes out to all first timers. Get yourself an adjustable Breaker Bar and a can of PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench. Also, get a 3/8" drive 6 pt socket set. You're far less likely to strip bolts with those vs 12-points. Nothing will sour your taste for auto repair quite like a rounded bolt head in a dark crevice.
Yeah. You have to be picky with diesel platforms. Labor hours are higher and parts prices are as well. Dodge has been going down the shitter for over a decade now. A family member had their transmission on a 2010's Dodge diesel truck go out within 30k of buying it new. QC is all over the place. Jeep diesels especially. A family member has a modern diesel wrangler and I'm surprised it hasn't shit the bed in the last 60k mi. IMO Euro's had it right in the 70's through the 90's. I keep one around for that reason. But they're desirable. And keep their value if they're one of the good ones. Like mk3 AAZ/AHU golf/Jetta diesels. Buggers still fetch 8k on the used market. Some are golden and last forever (VAG group, generally) some are absolute trash. (Here's to you BMW/VW pumpe-duse)
There's several issues at play here:Yeah. You have to be picky with diesel platforms. Labor hours are higher and parts prices are as well. Dodge has been going down the shitter for over a decade now. A family member had their transmission on a 2010's Dodge diesel truck go out within 30k of buying it new. QC is all over the place. Jeep diesels especially. A family member has a modern diesel wrangler and I'm surprised it hasn't shit the bed in the last 60k mi. IMO Euro's had it right in the 70's through the 90's. I keep one around for that reason. But they're desirable. And keep their value if they're one of the good ones. Like mk3 AAZ/AHU golf/Jetta diesels. Buggers still fetch 8k on the used market. Some are golden and last forever (VAG group, generally) some are absolute trash. (Here's to you BMW/VW pumpe-duse)
ChrisFix is the channel for beginners, watch his oil change video first. I started by learning from EricTheCarGuy years ago, his videos were mostly based around pre-2010 cars but it all still applies today.
You know what Ford stands for, don't cha?
I'd ride a fucking bike around before I bought another vehicle with a DEF system I didn't immediately plan on pulling out. After my dodge/fiat eco diesel experience I talked about up-thread I'd probably never buy one that had an any electronics on it at all. If it doesn't have a fully mechanical fuel system I'm probably not interested at this point.
2wd pickups could do that in the 80s. Back when Popular Science wasn't the daily mail they actually tested this:
I sure as shit ain't driving 35, 55 was already a hard ask.
Just slap a CVT on there, those trucks were all 4 speeds without overdrive lmao.
Buy the Haynes repair manual for your make/model/year. They have detailed step-by-step directions for anything you will ever need to do and then some, along with part numbers, supply lists, and required tools. The only thing they sometimes do not have is rebuild procedures for some of the more complicated stuff. Transmission and engine swaps range from almost trivial (with a transmission jack or gantry crane respectively) to nearly impossible depending on the car; rebuilding a transmission or engine yourself is not advised unless you know exactly what you are doing. Rebuilding a carb or drum brake assembly, on the other hand, is a great way to learn and also probably practice your cussing.
It's not a matter of gearing it's a matter of work per volume of fuel, once you move past 50? Mph, 90% of what a car is overcoming is wind resistance and without a favorable shape you are trying to achieve something insane like 120% efficiency to get a square body with a .8 drag coefficient to do 75mph with 50mpg, for reference a Chinese company achieved 50% efficiency with an diesel engine in 2020 and it was groundbreaking news, and that was a very expensive commercial engine with all the bells and whistles a hobbyist will shuck because they are not very reliable.
Besides the obvious reasons it's good to have a friend to help out with things that are torteous to do it alone, a good friend will help you with keeping you sane and not putting good money after bad when stuff goes wrong. Sometimes you it's prudent to not put another couple hundred in even if you put in two grand a month or so ago.
I was able to find a digital copy for my car. Is an Altima in the 2007 to 2010 range feasible? I've since learned that the transmissions are prone to melting down, but it's what I've got right now.
You have to be black or have a multiple times suspended license with a sub 400 credit score to purchase an older Altima.
Well it wasn't that old when I bought it. I've just had it for a really long time.
I'll start looking into these. I have decent (though probably not amazing) 1/2" and 1/4" torque wrenches in my gun tools and I know the basics of them. I've started reading the Haynes manual and it looks like it has torque guidelines based on the bolt thread, so that doesn't look too bad. All the car parts you've described are totally uncharted territory, but I'll start reading. I'll also check out getting a print manual.Yeah you'll be fine. I don't have any experience with Nissans, but all cars have their own annoying quirks, even if some are more annoying than others. Just start small: find the Fumoto valve for your car, do your own oil change next time, and install the Fumoto valve while you have the oil drained. A good starting point is the maintenance schedule in your owner's manual, though sometimes Haynes has their own ideas, and some Internet research can help a lot. Do your own cabin air filter, engine air filter, oil filter, tire changes if you live in an area that gets winter (you will have to buy a second set of rims if you don't have them already, tire crackers are way too expensive for weekend warriors and don't even think about cracking a tire without a machine), and you will already be saving hundreds a year in maintenance, and none of those require special tools unless you want to go for an impact wrench for your lug nuts--to take them off only! You should always put them back on with a torque wrench or at least by hand with a socket wrench. Blasting lugs back on with an air wrench is the best way to get seized lug nuts next season.
Once you have some experience doing the easy stuff, move onto brake pads, brake rotors, brake line flushes, coolant drain & fill, transmission drain & fill/filter, fuel filter, power steering fluid, etc. and you are doing 99% of your typical maintenance on most cars. It ain't glamorous, but it's a great way to save a lot of money (all shops are ripoffs, yes, even the good ones) and the ladies love a man who can do stuff themselves like fixing their cars
Get a print manual if you can find one for a reasonable price. You will thank me when you're on a crawler under your car, covered in grease up to your elbows, wondering "where the fuck is that bolt again?" and you can just look over at the manual you held open with a hammer on one side and your 10 mm on the other. Phone stays on the tool caddy at all times, as I have learnt the hard way.