Interested in doing my own car maintenance.. Advice?

[mouser]

car jacking successful, oil change done.  super fun!!!!
coolant flush in progress!

[MilesAhead]

car jacking successful

-mouser (April 29, 2015, 01:35 PM)

If I heard it on the news I would wonder how the terrorists were going to drive to Cuba.  

Have fun.  

[tomos]

 

well done mouser
you might inspire me yet ;-)

[Stoic Joker]

car jacking successful

-mouser (April 29, 2015, 01:35 PM)

If I heard it on the news I would wonder how the terrorists were going to drive to Cuba. 

-MilesAhead (April 29, 2015, 02:25 PM)

What!?! ...You don't remember the - Cuban Truck Raft - news reports???




 

[IainB]

^^ What a great picture! Inventive mechanics those Cubans. Not careless either - looks like most of them are wearing safety jackets.

[mouser]

Coolant flush complete.. Pretty time consuming because i was pretty paranoid about bringing coolant up to temperature and then letting it cool before draining, over and over.  I did a very thorough flush because i was changing coolant types and i had no idea if it had ever been done over the course of 7 years of prior owner.  In future I'll just do a simple drain and replace every year or two.

Very fun.  I'll be posting a bunch of car maintenance gadgets I have used in the gadget thread in the upcoming days.

[IainB]

car jacking successful, oil change done.  super fun!!!!
coolant flush in progress!

-mouser (April 29, 2015, 01:35 PM)

For your next service, consider stopping throwing the oil away, by installing a parasitic or non-parasitic oil filter bypass system - e.g., Frantz.
 - and checking the pH (I think it is that) of the coolant fluid.
I don't usually service my car nowadays, but I was impressed that my garage always check the special coolant fluid at "check/replace coolant" service intervals, because the coolant is expensive and it's not necessary to throw it away and replace it afresh if its anti-corrosive properties have not chemically deteriorated.

[MilesAhead]

^^ What a great picture! Inventive mechanics those Cubans. Not careless either - looks like most of them are wearing safety jackets.

-IainB (April 29, 2015, 08:15 PM)

That amphibious design looks a bit slow.  Perhaps it is good on gas though.  Especially with auxiliary propulsion using long paddles or a team pulling a rope in Miami. 

[MilesAhead]

Speaking of oil.  One project may be to install an electric auxiliary oil pump.  You switch it on before starting the car.  Avoids dry rings moving in the cylinders.  I'm surprised this has never become standard equipment.  After all nowadays there is remote car starting for people to let the A/C or heater kick in before leaving the house.  Just as easy to program the oil pump on for 20 seconds before hitting the starter.

Avoid dry starts and the beast may run forever. 

[Stoic Joker]

Coolant flush complete.. Pretty time consuming because i was pretty paranoid about bringing coolant up to temperature and then letting it cool before draining, over and over.

-mouser (April 29, 2015, 08:16 PM)

Zoiks!

Open drain on bottom of radiator.
Open radiator cap.
Start engine.
Turn heater on full..
Insert water hose in radiator cap spigot, with a steady running stream (vary to control overflow).
Let water and engine run until drain water clears (~10-15min).
Turn off water and engine.
Close drain, fill, cap, and done.

[mouser]

A post-action report:

I had my car up on 4 jack stands this weekend and:

1. Replaced front rotors and brake pads; bedded in brakes.
2. Replaced brake fluid and bled all brakes.
3. Cycled out the power steering fluid.
4. Drained and refilled the Rear Differential gear oil and front transfer case gear oil.
5. Already changed oil previously.
6. Did first pass of draining and refilling transmission fluid (needs a few more times since only half comes out each time).
7. Replaced lug nuts.
8. Installed hitch.
9. Flushed and replaced coolant.

Tip: I was never in any danger but I did literally almost destroy my car, by draining the engine oil when i thought i had drained the transmission.  I was getting complacent and over-confident and just wasn't double checking things the way I should have been.  I sure was proud of myself for everything i had done until that put the fear of god into me.

[IainB]

I learned to avoid draining more than one thing at a time, so as to minimise the potential for making any really careless mistakes - for example, such as (say) in refilling the drained engine oil with transmission oil or brake fluid.
With family/children around there can sometimes be many distractions, on top of which I can become very absent-minded sometimes when performing longer mundane tasks. My body sort of goes into automatic mode and my thoughts can become far removed from whatever I am doing and time ceases to exist for me. When that happens, it can give me quite a shock when I come back to reality a few hours later.

[MilesAhead]

I learned to avoid draining more than one thing at a time, so as to minimise the potential for making any really careless mistakes - for example, such as (say) in refilling the drained engine oil with transmission oil or brake fluid.

-IainB (May 11, 2015, 10:31 AM)

The funniest one I saw when it came to putting the fluids in the wrong place was at a gas station.  We had a novice kid pumping gas.  Some lady came in with a foreign car with a rear engine.  The kid couldn't find the gas fill.  She told him to open the back and he would see the pipe sticking out.  That's it.  He proceeded to open the engine compartment and stuck the gas nozzle in the air cleaner horn.  He managed to somehow get the nozzle clip to stay in place while he went about wiping the windshield.  After a bit the gas started to stream across the lot.

The guy who owned the station was a real stickler for detail.  You had to do everything exactly as taught.  But it was so ridiculous he just broke out laughing.  He blew out the lady's air cleaner with compressed air and filled her tank for free.  No harm done.