- Joined
- May 5, 2022
Sorry, I kinda was being facetious on that as a joke
Rockauto unless you want to be raped by 3x the price. Try not to use part store chains unless you have to.
Vehicle Maintenace General
- Thread starter BatterHomes&Gardens
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- Joined
- Sep 26, 2019
It's hard to know, but a common problem I've seen people have with understanding cars is being overwhelmed by what's going on. There's a lot of systems in a vehicle with various interactions, but if you just turn it into tasks rather than goals you may have better luck.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2021
The other big thing is how cramped everything is, as a necessity of the size constraints of modern vehicles. You might think that a large truck or SUV might be better, but they really just use the greater size as an excuse to pack more stuff in. Some of the easiest cars I have worked on are 20-30 year old compacts like the Civic, Corolla, Accord, and Camry. They (mostly) have small engines with few or no bells and whistles and they were built to be cheap and easy to maintain, so you have plenty of room to work and most things you need are easy to access.
Every car has at least a couple repair items that are difficult and will probably take the average weekend warrior a full day or more. Whether it is worth your time to do those things yourself or just have a shop do them is your choice. I owned a newish Subaru and I had the shop do the diff and transmission services. You can't even do the transmission service at all with the latest generation of Subaru CVTs as it requires a temperature-controlled machine to inject the fluid to keep the levels exact and never let the tranny go dry. Spark plugs are also a somewhat daunting task with the horizontal engines, requiring removing the battery and the entire air intake system, but changing sparks is a ten minute job on a Corolla!
Every car has at least a couple repair items that are difficult and will probably take the average weekend warrior a full day or more. Whether it is worth your time to do those things yourself or just have a shop do them is your choice. I owned a newish Subaru and I had the shop do the diff and transmission services. You can't even do the transmission service at all with the latest generation of Subaru CVTs as it requires a temperature-controlled machine to inject the fluid to keep the levels exact and never let the tranny go dry. Spark plugs are also a somewhat daunting task with the horizontal engines, requiring removing the battery and the entire air intake system, but changing sparks is a ten minute job on a Corolla!
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2013
As time goes on you will learn what really needs torqued. Generally if it's not a critical suspension or drive line component or something that is inside the motor you can estimate and are more likely to break something because it's over tight as opposed having it walk out. "Pretty snug" with a decent sized ratchet is generally enough.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2021
That is true, but unless it is seriously inconvenient to get my torque wrench into a spot, I torque almost everything to spec. My big 1/2" torque wrench doubles as my breaker bar, so I have it on hand for most jobs--might as well use it, right?
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2021
Sorry, no fun foreign cars for us Amerisharts, buy a used one for original sticker price in 20 years goy!
- Joined
- May 5, 2022
The cheap but "you need to keep an eye on this" method is to do how VW does the trans fluid changes, either with an OBD II tool, or a laser thermometer.
Granted Subaru in the US also voids your warranty for draining the fluid so...
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2021
Yeah, I have heard of people working around the dealer manual procedure, but I wouldn't try that. Besides, the dealers only sell the oil by the five gallon drum. Regular old CVT fluid from the parts store is probably close enough, but do you want to test it, especially when your drivetrain warranty is on the line? You'll only do a transmission change maybe twice if you take really good care of your car, especially in rust country, so it's not worth the $500 you save imo. Better to buy an old stickshift and do a drain & fill every 60k or so.
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2021
OK, pardon the interruption, but at the risk of meanie comments, where do I get my headlights replaced? I replaced them myself previously, which was fine, but it's still cold out now, and I'm not feeling it. I assume a dealer's going to be extra $ (true?), and it's not that conveniently located, anyway. My regular garage? Some random chain place? Cheap is preferable (which my garage is not), though I've no idea what it even costs (the car is 14 years old, so no eye-murdering xenons or anything), so maybe I'm over analyzing.
Thanks, girls!
Thanks, girls!
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2021
Most places that do "service" will do it. Quality of service is extremely variable at Jiffy Lube-type places, but a headlight swap on most cars should be easy enough even for those simpletons. Yes, the dealership will rip you off. An independent shop is probably your best bet if you don't want to do it yourself. "Cheap" is relative and depends a lot on your make and model, but if your usual place is really expensive then a chain should be able to do it if you don't have a rare headlight bulb.
This might sound obvious but I have to say it the way the kids are these days: you can call a place ahead of time and ask if they will change a headlight bulb for a make X, model Y, year Z car. It's free and you don't even have to leave the house!
This might sound obvious but I have to say it the way the kids are these days: you can call a place ahead of time and ask if they will change a headlight bulb for a make X, model Y, year Z car. It's free and you don't even have to leave the house!
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2022
You wouldn't want to go the dealership for a bulb replacement. They will potentially charge you a half hour labor plus OEM bulbs. Instead you want to go to a place that has a set price for bulb replacement for most makes and models (sometimes called a menu price I think).OK, pardon the interruption, but at the risk of meanie comments, where do I get my headlights replaced? I replaced them myself previously, which was fine, but it's still cold out now, and I'm not feeling it. I assume a dealer's going to be extra $ (true?), and it's not that conveniently located, anyway. My regular garage? Some random chain place? Cheap is preferable (which my garage is not), though I've no idea what it even costs (the car is 14 years old, so no eye-murdering xenons or anything), so maybe I'm over analyzing.
Thanks, girls!
This place only changes $7.50 per headlight plus the part cost of the bulbs. A 14 year old car will probably have halogen lights which are the cheapest bulbs available ($15ish per bulb unless you opt for brighter ones). So you should be able to get both headlights done for less than $60 as long as there is no crazy disassembly required to replace them.
As a side note, cars of the last few years have gotten really crazy when it comes to bulb replacement. Some of them require you to remove the bumper cover / fascia to get to the headlights, To make matters worse, a lot of newer have the camera/radar mounted on/near the front bumper so every time you remove the bumper you have to pay someone to recalibrate the camera with some really high end equipment. So if you get a newer car, you could potentially be in for a 3 figure charge to replace the headlights if there is no shortcut to removing the bumper cover.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2020
No more Subarus for me. When something goes wrong, it's nearly always a catastrophe.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2021
They definitely do have that reputation, and it's not entirely unearned. They have gotten a lot better in recent years, so if you really must get a new car, I will say you could do worse than a newer Subaru. Subaru is kind of an oddball in the car world, making some...different...design choices in the interest of comfort (boxer engine), fuel efficiency (embracing CVTs a decade before they went really mainstream), and handling (innovative but hard to repair AWD system). Overall though I was happy with mine, though I saved a lot on maintenance due to doing it all myself. I did nearly have an aneurysm when they charged me $500 to "recalibrate" the front EyeSight camera when I got a windshield replaced, but that's par for the course with these new computerized cars.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2020
I had to get a whole new transmission in mine because I went for an oil change and the dipshits at Valvoline drained the tranny fluid instead. Then the battery contacts corroded and the engine was only starting on pure luck.
If you get one, dear reader, only get it serviced at a Subaru dealership. They're actually pretty generous with the warranty. The one I went to even went to bat for me to get Valvoline to pay for the aforementioned transmission.
Was gonna buy MeatMom's Outback, but she took it in for a tune-up and the oil was leaking. Turns out the engine is completely fucked.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2021
Yes, I forgot to mention that. They are good about the warranty and are expensive but fair in terms of the tricky stuff. Like all dealerships, you will overpay having them do oil changes, brake pads, air filters, etc. I did not mind taking mine to the dealer since I was doing 99% myself, and the only things I got done at the dealer were jobs I wouldn't trust an independent with any more than myself.
Until pretty recently, Subarus were notorious for blowing head gaskets. If you catch it quickly, it's a new head gasket, which is expensive; if you don't, it's a new motor, which might total an older car.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2022
This is sadly a common thing on some of the later model Subarus. The engine oil drain is behind a cover that you have to remove and the transmission fluid drain is out in the open and kind of looks like an engine oil pan.
If this ever happens to anyone else, make sure that you check the engine oil level, it's likely 2x overfilled. The engine will survive but it needs the excess oil needs to be drained asap.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2019
How do you not notice your gloves are bright red and the oil isn't carboned, just slightly metallic? I get making the mistake but you gotta be a lot of retard to not notice pretty quickly some time during the process.
- Joined
- May 5, 2022
It's kinda hard if when you're not paying attention or just want to get it done and are lazy.
Also another give away is the ATF fluid will strip the drainbolt if not clean properl, it'll spin and spin right round baby.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2025
I could easily see it happening, actually. Valvoline hires rookies and runs their shops like a fucking McDonalds, everything needs to go faster and quicker.
Anyways, I recently got a Dodge truck that's older than I am and had the tires changed over the Winter. Turns out the mechanic didn't bother aligning the wheels since my suspension is fucked royally and my wheels wiggle around, lol. They gave me a quote for the repairs and it was just about the same price I initially paid for the car. I can foresee a great deal of youtube tutorials in my future.