Changing the belts on my car and learning to do other things
Improvolone
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Two of the three belts on my engine are dry rotted and the place I was at wanted $240 for both. I'm a pretty handy guy, but I never learned to really work on a car. Is this something I could reasonably pull off by myself?
I also need to learn how to do all of the other basic car maintenance. Again, I'm handy and not afraid of buying a tool or getting dirty. I can change a tire, replace a battery, replace an air filter, and jump a car. What else should I learn, how often should I do it, and omg please help.
Changing the oil
Changing the transmission fluid
Changing the power steering fluid
Rotating my tires
(how often should I) change the air filter
What type of brake work is "easy enough"?
etc
I also need to learn how to do all of the other basic car maintenance. Again, I'm handy and not afraid of buying a tool or getting dirty. I can change a tire, replace a battery, replace an air filter, and jump a car. What else should I learn, how often should I do it, and omg please help.
Changing the oil
Changing the transmission fluid
Changing the power steering fluid
Rotating my tires
(how often should I) change the air filter
What type of brake work is "easy enough"?
etc
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If there's one available, getting a service manual written for your specific make/model will probably make maintenence a brain-dead task, it will tell you what to disconnect in what order and how to put it all back again (the second part is the key).
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As for the others:
Changing the oil - laughably easy once you've done it the first time. Every 3-5k miles is probably fine.
Changing the transmission fluid - hard. Transmissions in general are pretty difficult to work on, it's probably better to get it done by a shop instead of trying it yourself. Every 75-100k miles
Changing the power steering fluid - depends. Most cars don't need this done unless something disastrous happened, ie the car was completely submerged in water for a while or the power steering pump a-sploded. I don't know how it is on newer Fords but for those built in the 90s there is no such thing as power steering fluid, they just use transmission fluid instead. Research carefully before mucking around with steering or brakes.
Rotating my tires - easy if you've got a hydraulic lift, otherwise it's probably too much trouble to do yourself. Just take it to a shop and have them rotate and balance your tires at the same time. The most important maintenance you can perform for your tires is making sure they're properly inflated.
(how often should I) change the air filter - eh, every time I change the oil I pull out the air filter and take a look at it. If it looks totally disgusting, I'll bang it on the bumper to dislodge dirt/feathers/clown blood. If it looks ok after that I pop it back into place. If not, I'll buy a new one.
What type of brake work is "easy enough" - none of it, really. Pads and shoes you can change yourself but it's time consuming and requires a nice hydraulic jack at the very least. Changing brake fluid is even worse. Seriously, next to transmission work brakes are probably the hardest to deal with.
It probably won't fit right at all if it's on wrong.
When I changed the belt on my car, I just drew out a little diagram of circles to show where it went, then realized after I was done that there was a belt diagram on the hood directly above me. So check for that!
Cars that don't have a diagram on the underside of the hood were engineered by geese of the highest magnitude of silliness. Or the hood was replaced because a tree decided to fall on the car one fine day, like mine.
My car's belt recently came due. I did some research on the task and it would have required an engine jack and 4-6 hours of work with little guarantee that I wouldn't misplace something critical. I decided that it was worth it to pay to have it done.
Some cars are easier than others for certain tasks. I could do an oil change easily, but I couldn't change the belt.
Most filters, lights, fuses and fluids are very easy to do on most cars though.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Tranny fluid can be changed however 2 things, one it usually doesnt need done untill very high mileage (on some Hondas not until like 148k). Two, although you can change it you can't really flush out all of the old fluid without the proper machine to do so.
By the way, as far as brakes go, replacing pads for disc brakes is generally pretty easy, and doing anything to drum brakes is hellish. What kind of brakes do you have?
Also, FYI - it's imperative to list the car make/model/year when asking questions about it... it really helps with providing accurate advice b/c your OP is essentially equivalent to "I have a game. How hard is it to get to level 2?"
On a very generic level:
Accessory and drive belts are generally very simple... you either put a breaker bar on a tensioner pulley or loosen one of the accessories to get the old belt off and new belt back on - should take 15 min max unless your car has one of those awesome serpentine belts that weaves in and out through a motor mount
Oil changes too - the first oil change will be more expensive than doing it at a quick lube place, as you'll need to buy a filter wrench, a drain pan, a funnel, some drain plug washers/gaskets (maybe), etc. - but from then on you'll just need to buy oil and a filter - and those go on sale quite frequently. Plus, an oil change is a great excuse to check out your car from underneath - see if anything new is leaking, rusting, cracking, etc. and should be taken care of.
Transmission Fluid - can be easy or difficult depending on car... on some well designed cars its as simple as changing the oil - on others you need to remove a suspension cross member just to get to the transmission pan, and then you get to cover yourself in tranny fluid since there's no drain plug. One of the manuals i mentioned above would be able to help you here...
Power Steering Fluid - i would just syphon out what i can from the reservoir (using a turkey baster or a syringe) and replace with fresh fluid - you don't really need a full flush on a regular basis IMHO
Brakes and Brake Fluid - you didn't mention this above, but these are very simple to do on most vehicles and parts are cheap - yet mechanics charge an arm and a leg for this - highly recommend that you learn how to do this
Rotating Tires - if you don't mind wasting a little time, this is a simple job - just follow the diagram in your car's manual and swap the tires around... i guarantee you'll get dirty and tired, but hey, you can use this as an excuse to check your wheels/tires/brakes/suspension carefully
Air Filter - whenever it gets dirty - i seem to do this about every 1-2 years but i drive in the city only, so i don't get mud, bugs, sticks, etc. clogging mine up
if you feel like taking this on get a set of jackstands. you can get them for less than $20 at walmart.
I like to call those emergency jacks widow makers. I've seen many of the scissor types fail with disastrous results.
Woah, woah, don't misunderstand me. Never, ever get under a car that's supported only by a jack. Doesn't matter if it's an emergency scissor jack or a big stout hydraulic unit; don't go under it until it's on jackstands.
Oh yes. I wasn't suggesting that you would do it. I was just pointing out the relative inexpensiveness of the tools and how absolutely important they are to the OP's well being
So far my biggest boon has always been Google. I bought a service manual for my car and supplement it with Youtube videos and Google searches. I usually Google what my car is doing, find a how-to to replace the part, then start replacing parts until it gets fixed. Really, that is pretty much it. Generally, everything can be boiled down to replacing a part, anyway.
I'm assuming you have the tools you need, but in the event that you don't (and you're in the states) I've always heard to get Craftsman. Life time warranty on something you'll be using during stressful "throw the part across the shop" moments are extremely awesome!
edit:
This!
That being said, I noticed a good pair of 3-ton jack stands on sale on Saturday for like $40, so I'll probably pick those up.
I'm upset that this confused me for more than an instant :P
o_O
I've never heard of that. Are you referring to cars for domestic sale in Japan? I've worked on a number of Japanese cars in the US and never run into any that had reverse threading on their bolts. The only time I've seen reverse threads is on pressurized air tank fittings (not related to cars) and that has a reason for it that has nothing to do with country of origin.
P.S. I suppose that sometimes pulley fastenings call for reverse threading, but that would also have little to do with the country the car company and more to do with the direction of the load on the pulley. There's no reason to use it on a bolt on a non-moving part like an oil pan.
Bitchin'.
On the other hand, if you are not made of money, Harbor Freight usually has tools that are just about as good (ah, who am I kidding, they're worse but still good enough) for far cheaper than Sears.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH