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Who understand basic concepts of maintenance

mountainexplorer

mountainexplorer

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Who understands basic concepts of maintenance

I sold a '72 K5 to a friend almost a year ago. One thing I told him, watch the fluids (you know, check oil like you would in any older vehicle). I had put a good running 350 in the Blazer before he got it.

2 weeks ago he said that he thought the valves or something were rattling at higher RPMs. I asked him, when did you last check your oil? He didn't know. he hadnt changed it since he got it from me either.

I told him to check and change his oil. He never did check it before he left my house. next day he changes it. Including the oil that was in the filter, there was about 1 quart total that drained out. It never did smoke or leak oil or burn it... but in the past when I drove with that motor I had to add some oil once in a while.

I listened to the motor after the new oil was in. A definite lower end noise in it's beginning stages. I'm not the greatest maintenance person cause I have so many to keep track of, but Ive never run a motor that low before. It just bugs me that a good motor is ruined by not checking the oil.
 
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that suxs, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.


i have a hard time keeping up w/ all the maintanence on the many vehicles i own, but i do it, cause i know what the result of not can be. most people don't understand it though, hopefully your friend will learn a lesson from it.
 
Some people are just not mechanicly linclined. They just don't understand stuff like that.
 
So does he think it's your fault for selling him junk or does he understand that he is the one at fault?
 
I, and I suspect most people on this board, spend too much time and money on my truck to let the maintence go. I religiously change the oil, check the tranny/transfer case and have even changed the diff fluid, bled the brakes, flushed the radiator and changed the power steering fluid since I got the truck.

The PO, to his credit, changed things that I had never thought of just because the maintence manual said it was time (two sets of spark plugs in 80,000 miles just because) so I am lucky.

I can't imagine taking a chance on something as simple as fluids when we all abuse our rigs to some degree. Maybe I'm crazy, but why risk it?
 
He realizes it's his own fault. I want to feel bad about it, but he did it to himself. I told him to keep checking the oil level regularly.

But anyone should know that anyway. He says he is interested in auto-related stuff and wants to learn, but I havent seen him truly show a genuine interest. In ways he has, but I don't get the feeling that its what he really wants to do. He doesn't have the patience that it takes sometimes to deal with certain issues.
 
nobody cares anymore!

I see this all the time--my sister and her husband are both mechanically incompetant,at least my sister will bring the car or truck to a repair shop and have the oil changed at least once or twice a year--her husband?--he's better off leaving the hood closed,like many other people,as soon as he opens the hood and touches anything,it a disaster!--one time he checked his oil,and it was a quart low--he twisted the screw on oil filler cap right off!--broke off in the valve cover!--after he got the remains of it off with a hammer and chisel,he folded the dipstick in half while trying to put it back in-

-after he straightened it out,he checked the level again--still a little low,so he adds more oil--then discovers its not oil at all,its RED!--he added a qt.of dextron tranny fluid!--and he then realized he had topped off his plow pump with 10W30 motor oil!.....then he brushes up against the dipstick while adding the OIL to his motor,and it touches the battery terminals--ZAP!!!--one dipstick trashed,melted into the battery's case!-:doah: :doah: -he shuts the hood and calls me up,asks me if I will change his oil,and will it hurt the motor,having dextron in it??--:dunno: (it ticked like a timex watch for two weeks!--but it finally quieted down again...)

Took 50 bucks to change the oil,find a new dipstick,the oil filler cap,and a gallon of prestone(that failed to fill the radiator all the way up--and it tested for +10 above!)--I saw about 10 things that were ready to fail at any moment--fan belts,heater hoses,wires chafing on hot valve covers,a leaky oil cooler rubber hose that could blow off and wreck the motor in 3 minites!--and this is on a 95 GMC!!

I guess some people are better off NOT trying to maintain their vehicles themselves--one thing I cant figure out is WHY,despite my best efforts to have good belts,hoses,radiators,good engines,frequent oil changes,good tires,etc--I cant seem to go a hundred mile trip each way somewhere without SOME kind of problem(usually minor,but still a PITA after all this work and expense!)--YET someone like him who knows SQUAT about cars can drive the damm thing on bald tires,shoestring fan belts,and dry rotted hoses, for 3 YEARS without a hitch!!??? I DONT GET IT!!!!:confused: :confused:

It makes me mad when they call their vehicles "F'n Junk" when they fail to start,or breakdown,when the loose nut behind the wheel is to blame most of the time!!!(and I'm the one who has to fix it most of the time,since a "real" garage would cost too much to do it for them--it sucks fixing relatives vehicles,especially when all you get is a free meal or a handshake!--and God forbid anything on the rear of the car fails after you fix the front end--guess who's getting the blame??) :frown1: :frown1:
 
Well, he and folks like him, are the ones that keep the garages in business.. sad, but hey, if you aren't mechanically inclined, or want to learn, and your too dense to take it and have it done... then that is what happens.. I killed my first car that way, and never another since.... about a hundred cars/trucks/bikes later........
 
I had a feeling that he'd mess up the motor or something on the Blazer. Cause after the 2nd month of him owning it, I asked him if he had checked the oil. He said he hadn't. So I checked it for him and told him he needed to add a quart.

A month later he came up to me and said "Hey, I just added that quart of oil you told me to add." So it ran at least a quart low for a month. He didn't understand, despite me telling him, that if oil is low, you dont just wait till whenever to add it... you make sure its where it should be at all times. So it didn't surprise me when this happened recently and the motor was nearly out.
 
I hear ya, but around here, its only the girls that do that kinda stuff. All of my buddies take pride in their car, no matter how gay or beat up it may be, even the ones who arent gearheads. I guess we just had good parents :haha:
 
My ole man used to say "Son, oil is cheaper than iron"
 
another tale of woe...

One friend asked me too check his oil,since he wasn't qualified(he's a lot like my sisters husband when it comes to cars)--I told him its 2 quarts low,you need oil--he says"I dont have the money right now,when I get my paycheck next friday I'll buy some!!"..I just looked at him and said,"if you cut yourself real bad,and were bleeding to death,would you wait until next week to go to the hospital and get stitched up??"--its the same thing!!--he just couldnt beleive me when I told him running it that low is murder for an engine!..I told him to put at least drain oil from a gas station in it,better than nothing!!!--this was his late aunts car she left him when she died,a mint 68 ford galaxie with a 289,I guess because it was a gift,why "waste" a dollar or two for oil??....:screwy: :screwy:

A few weeks later he returned,with an exhaust leak--the air pump pipe had rotted off the exhaust manifold,another friend had screwed a sparkplug in the hole to block it off--then he decided to try and "tune it up" by putting new spark plugs in--he did pretty good until it came to putting the plug wires on again,I told him only do 1 at a time,and he did--but he put one wire on the plug in the exhaust manifold by mistake, and it blew the muffler right off when he started it up!!---he shoved it back into the y-pipe the best he could,then wired it up with coathangers--right to the driveshaft!!--almost cut the shaft in half before he got to my house!!....that car didnt last long after that...:frown1:
 
I would say that 75% of the stuff I see is due to poor maintenance.

Amerigas brought in one of their rigs because it wouldn't turn over, they thought the starter went out.
I tipped the hood and seen a nasty oily mess, pulled the dipstick and it was dry,
pulled the drain plug on the oil pan and about a cup of tar oozed out.
They had ran the engine out of oil and it locked up.

Same for gearboxs and diffs, the majority of those failures are due to being run dry.
 
ah. i hate people like that more than anything, it amazes me how they can do that to a car thats worth so much money and prevent it by just puttin a few bucks into it.
My girlfriends family is like that, her dad has had the original windshield wipers from 1997!!!!! on his toyota camry, he wont get new ones. They also have a 2001 suburban, brand new when bought with new tires, they have around 40,000 miles on it and the tires are worn down sooo much. Every time there is a lil snow they wont let her out cuz they say its way to slippery.. THATS CUZ OF THE TIRES! Her car isnt any better, it needs an oil change, and needs a tranny fluid change but they claim her mechnic said the tranny fluid shouldnt be changed cuz its used to the burned up fluid and it will wreck it if u put new fluid in it.. is this true? doesnt seem right to me. bla well sry for that little rant, i had to get it out of me.... like i said i dont like people who wont maintain there cars.
 
learned my lesson early at 16 and locked up a motoor in a $600 dollar truck. Now I look a truck over good keep the oil checked and other things, but not changed because of the fear if i change the brown power steering fluid for fresh fluid it will start leaking. Or if i change the oil in the axles or tranny it will start leaking so i just keep them topped off. keep it tuned so so now my last 2 cars that cost less than a weeks check lasted 3-4 years. Take it easy and don't abuse it it will last. The more abuse the more maintenance. It is that simple. Just like million dollar machines at work. Also for those that don't believe you have to have faith in your vehicle. I have left on long trips with bad vehicles and made it there and back. When i dought It will make it but try anyway is when i have problems or that might just be the final hint before the end.
 
Here is another story of great woe:

About 5 years back I came home from school and found a 77 3/4 ton Suburban sitting on the driveway, looked at the dash and saw 23 000 km on the odometer, figured it was 123 000, but no, it was 23 000, my dad had bought his company's ambulance, it had only been used just a few times to move people with injuries at the work site to a hospital a few hours away, had always been shop stored, and was simply in mint condition. I mean, that truck's frame looked brand new, the interior looked as good as the day it rolled off the assembly line. We used the truck to haul our trailer with for a few years, as we didn't have a truck at the time, the 350 in it was barely broken in, and the TH400 had a nice quick shift, just amazing all the way around, the thing rode like a new truck, and got great gas milage.

We sold it to my uncle about two years ago for 3000 dollars, 500 more than we got it for becuase we put on about 500 dollars in tires over the time that we had it (it still had the factory tires on) The truck had about 60 000 km on it at that point. I went to my uncles place a while back, and I nearly cried when I saw that poor truck. I cannot believe how badly they managed to beat it up. With just over 110 000 km on it, the engine is smoking, knocking, the transmission is slipping, the pinion in the rear is full of slack, the interior is just trashed, the dash pad is all tore up, the body is rotted out, and almost all the windows have big cracks in them. I was there and asked my uncle about the maintenance he had done on the truck, he goes, oh, thanks for reminding me! I haven't put oil in it yet this year! Runs out to his garage, and starts filling the engine with oil, and filled it so the indicator on the dip stick was nearly an inch and a half above the full mark! I ask him what the HECK he was thinking, that there was a very good reason for the F on the dip stick!

I crawl underneith to drain some of the oil and do a proper oil change on it, and I am disgusted to find that the same oil filter that we had put on the truck just before selling it to him was still there! He had been just adding oil, and never once changed the filter. The whole engine was a greasy mess, I did the proper oil change for him, topped up the near dry power steering, the nearly empty rad, and all the other fluids, and was just disgusted with how badly he managed to trash that truck in such a small amount of time. I the thing was running so poorly already that he could barely get it to start anymore.

That was the kind of truck that a guy could have taken to a show, and won first place for stock vehicles, I've only ever seen one as nice as it in stock condition (the kid takes incredibly good care of that truck, I'm proud of him!) Such a shame :(

I mean, all of us have forgotten to check the power steering pump oil, diff lube etc, but I mean for crying out loud...

The thing that made me real mad -- He sent me an email a few weeks ago, saying that he knows I love that style of truck, and offered to sell it to me. Get this, he wants 3 grand for the peice of crap! I simply laughed, and said "good luck!"
 
I hate to say it but I am one of those knuckle heads that never checks oil :blush: . That is one of the problems/ruts you get into when you have a new or good motor/vehicle that when you do check it its in good shape. My Blazer does use a little oil but for some reason my I check the oil in my $800 (the Blazer) rig but not my $34K dd :confused: go figure.
 
i feel bad for the poor cars that get abused by these kinda people.

my girlfriend was riding with her sister in her 2000 jetta,they were in a parking lot when she started to complain about how the motor sounds funny now. making a rattling sound lately she said, just then the oil light comes on, so what do they do? nothing. drive the 30 miles home like it was no big deal. that night my girlfriend told me the story and i was amazed. i said if that light comes on your motor is in trouble, you should have shut it off right then!

i offer to drive to thier house and check it, turns out it was 3 quarts low, dipstick was bone dry. i think im more upset with VW for making such a crappy engine. theyre motor burns oil like crazy for a new car. my sister has a jetta too, needs about one quart a month, ever since it was new. she has talked to them about this and there response is, oh thats normal. WTF? most people who buy new cars expect it to not burn oil like that. im suprised its not an epidemic with VW since its mainly girls who buy these things. my 89 k5 with 150k doesnt lose a drop between oil changes, why cant their engineers figure out how to do with with a brand new motor?
 
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