Look at this air filter!
If you have a clogged air filter you will damage your engine. Most of the time slapping the air filter against your leg to get the dust out helps. If you see oil on it then there is a serious issue, that could have been from not changing your filter.
An old air filter will do one of two things. Make your engine run rough because it isn’t getting enough oxygen, 1/3rd of what makes your car go forward. Or allowing dirt to get into your engine and that will 100% damage your engine. Imagine if you will, instead of lube you used grit soap. Please don’t ruin your car over a $30 part. Filter is cheap, engines are expensive.
Change your own air filter. One of the easiest things you can do for maintenance. It’s either clips or a size 8mm socket… usually. Then you don’t have to pay some kid $100 for 2 minutes of labor. You’ll feel better for doing something and you will also get better gas mileage. If the answer to when was the last time you changed your air filter is “I don’t know” then it’s probably time.
Please don’t ruin your car over a $30 part.
The thing is, it’s only a $10 part at walmart.
If you fork out a little extra for a K&N filter then you’ll never need a new one again, and your engine will perform a tiny bit better.
So go to Walmart on your way to the oil change place.
OR - admit you’re not really going to Walmart and just pay them to get it done.
Air filters are such an easy part to replace it’s insane. I pop that bitch out once in a while and slam that bitch against the wall. Also you should check you vacuum filter too since it’s basically the same thing.
Air filters are such an easy part to replace it’s insane.
Lots of things are so easy to fix or replace it’s insane, both in terms of car maintenance and other sorts of DIY. Folks are way too intimidated by simple repairs when they shouldn’t be.
I, for one, blame the relegation of classes like shop and home ec to the “technical” high schools that only the non-college-prep kids go to. They should’ve stayed part of the normal curriculum for everybody.
I’m broke so I always look things up before determining if I need to pay someone. I had a landlord say she was going to have to pay someone to put in the original showerhead because she didn’t know how when we moved out. I grabbed that thing and screwed it in in front of her. Like sure you may want to put some tape there for leakage but it wasn’t there when we moved in.
Last time that happened, I had just changed it two weeks before. I was more than a little annoyed.
Nickelback starts playing in the background
You laugh, but I never would’ve found out that my blinker fluid was low if the mechanic didn’t tell me after changing my oil.
Don’t waste your money at the mechanic, you can change your blinker fluid yourself!
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I change my own oil. However, I went to get my tired rotated and the guy tried to sell me some windshield wipers when I had just replaced them
You change your own oil, but don’t rotate your own tires? Changing tires seems like the easier of the two, especially if you already have everything to lift the car?
“Easy” in terms of complexity, yes. “Easy” in terms of strength required to mount and dismount wheels (especially the big heavy ones on the SUVs so many folks have these days), no.
Rotating tires can be free depending on where you bought them from. If that shop is in a convenient location then why not?
I do most of my own maintenance on my cars for two reasons. I kind of like doing them myself, and I can make sure it’s getting done (and done correctly). Not saying all shops are like this, but I have seen some shady and damn right ignorant practices going on. From not actually doing the service you paid for, to totally using the wrong oil, or over tightening lug nuts, or worse not tightening them enough. My aunt had a tire go rolling down the road after she pulled out of the tire shop she just bought the tires from… I get it not everyone wants to do it themselves, or they don’t have the tools or the space to do it. Just verify the work is being done right is all…
paying for oil change
Even my automotive engineer friend who can basically repair his whole car alone often pays for his oil changes because of the convenience of not dealing with old engine oil and its disposal
In most places you can drop off used oil at your local auto parts store for free. It’s still super easy.
The only vehicle I don’t change my own oil on is my truck, which has off-road skidplates you need to remove first. I could do it, but I decided it was better worth my time to have a shop do it.
oil
/smugEVdriver
Mechanic here. Most ev’s have oil. Check your owners manual when you should change it.
/TiredMechanic
Since I once again have to get serious after a shitpost, Most EVs definitely don’t, because most on the road are Teslas, and there is no oil to change in their regular service.
My bolt has oil for the reduction gear but it’s not part of the regular maintenance. Expected interval for that would probably be similar to a transmission fluid change.
It’s probably built so that the fluid lasts for the lifetime of the car, or whenever there’s any issues it’s able to be changed. Only thing is lifetime is different for everyone especially depending on driving conditions.
“Lifetime of the car” means different things to manufacturers vs drivers. VW would have you believe that their transmissions are maintenace free and will not need to be serviced for the life of the car. They neglect to mention that they only expect the car to do 100,000km. They’re not exactly wrong, in that when the transmission starts to fail you’re probably going to write it off rather than drop 5k on a replacement valve body, but if you had serviced it every 60,000km or so, there’s no reason that transmission shouldn’t be good for 300,000.
Way too many people get news and information through shit posts :/
Do you know how many people think because they have a hybrid they don’t have oil. I’d much rather be called a dumbass for not knowing make/model/year on a random “ev’s” than someone destroying their car. So yes, I will do this till I become the meme and the “ev’s don’t require any maintenance” meme dies.
Uninformed speculation: they need oil changes, but aren’t in the regular service so it will break down, causing costly repairs or forcing you to buy a new one. The planned obsolescence is baked right in.
The motors are sealed and will last long beyond drivetrain warranty periods (which is 8 years, 120k miles on Model 3/Y). Battery packs do have a coolant that is intended to last the life of the vehicle, though I’ve heard of it being drained/replaced after maintenance where someone had failed valves in the coolant system.
ICE vehicles break down far faster, requiring loads more maintenance and parts replacement over their lives, even when properly maintained. More moving parts, more friction, more points of failure.
My man, change your drivetrain oil. Call me old fashioned but vehicles should last longer than 8 years. This “lifetime transmission” stuff is hogwash. I have a 5 year old ICE car that I plan on changing it’s transmission oil and filter…in about 3 years.
Your drivetrain is made out of actual materials. Not some marvel movie space metal. It will shed some metal into the oil when it moves. You don’t want to drive around with grit soap for lube.
It’s different from a normal car though because you don’t need to change it as often if you even need to change it at all
if you even need to change it at all
Every car oil needs to be changed eventually. Even “lifetime” transmission fluid really just means “it’ll last until it’s out of warranty and no longer our [the manufacturer’s] problem anymore.”
Yep. Had a 2012 Sentra with 150k KMs (close to 100k miles) wanted to check transmission fluid - no dipstick! Wtf? Dealer says not serviceable - f you Nissan.
Yeah but I may not own the car long enough to ever have to change it was my point
I stopped believing their shit when I took my car for an oil change the week after the cabin air filter was changed (confirmed visually).
I’ll be damned if I didn’t have a bad cabin air filter that needed replacing.
