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[Valdezi]

This:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

2011 Prius

[Bacchanalian]

Ah yeah, one of the nicer sedans I was considering for a second car. Volvo's always been one of my favorites when it comes to driving comfort and performance in its price-class, especially when you take road safety into account. How is it when it comes to working on it though? Some of the 2k and onwards models of various cars can't even have their freakin' oil changed by the owner. Hell, the Volkswagen ambulance we have needs to be taken into the shop when you need to change the lightbulbs in one of the headlights.

It's expensive, but frankly I don't know fuck-all about cars anyway.  I grew up in a city where I, too, used my feet/public transportation, and didn't get a car until college.  That one belonged to my parents, so they helped pay for the maintenance (ie, they didn't trust me not to fuck it up), and since then I just take good care of mine and try not to give it any reason to need to be taken in other than for basic check-ups.  I change my tires out for winter, so generally speaking I'm in every 6 months for that, and can get my oil changes taken care of then.  As long as I don't take it to the Volvo dealership, it doesn't cost a whole lot more than a month's worth of gas anyway.

[Mithfindel]

I've changed the headlights on my current car. It taught me one thing: The next time, I'll take it to the repairshop. Rear lights, though, are still remotely user-serviceable. In the previous Fiesta, no tools were necessary, in the current one, you need a screwdriver, though. Except the extra brake light on top. No idea how that can even be accessed without a sledgehammer. (And I admit, destructive testing is not ideal if you need the car.)

[Wanoah]

I have had one of these for the past five years:


Bought it new (against my better judgement: ohgoddepreciation!) after years of owning boring practical cars and I've loved every minute of it. It's a basic, no-frills rear wheel drive sports car that's tremendous fun to drive.

[Mizhara]

Ah yeah, one of the nicer sedans I was considering for a second car. Volvo's always been one of my favorites when it comes to driving comfort and performance in its price-class, especially when you take road safety into account. How is it when it comes to working on it though? Some of the 2k and onwards models of various cars can't even have their freakin' oil changed by the owner. Hell, the Volkswagen ambulance we have needs to be taken into the shop when you need to change the lightbulbs in one of the headlights.

It's expensive, but frankly I don't know fuck-all about cars anyway.  I grew up in a city where I, too, used my feet/public transportation, and didn't get a car until college.  That one belonged to my parents, so they helped pay for the maintenance (ie, they didn't trust me not to fuck it up), and since then I just take good care of mine and try not to give it any reason to need to be taken in other than for basic check-ups.  I change my tires out for winter, so generally speaking I'm in every 6 months for that, and can get my oil changes taken care of then.  As long as I don't take it to the Volvo dealership, it doesn't cost a whole lot more than a month's worth of gas anyway.

Think you misunderstood. Any car can be taken in to a shop for all these things. I was more concerned with whether or not it was easy to work with yourself. I don't take mine into a garage unless I'm 100% certain I can't do it myself with my current collection of tools and that I can't create the tool in question. (Hell, I've made the tools needed more than once. Two small bolts, one large bolt, a piece of steel and a welding apparatus? Voila, you got a ters.)

You take it in to change the tires?

[hellgremlin]

Two old ladies got splattered on my main intersection two days ago. I'm never driving a fucking car. Goddamn exploding coffins.

[Mizhara]

Gnnrgh. Fucking Hollywood.

The following is not a joke or a myth. There was a study done about the usage of seat belts throughout generations, comparing the US and Europe. There was a marked drop in using the lifesaving seat belts in the US at one point and when the cause was finally discerned it was a facepalm moment across the world. Apparently following the Hollywood action-movie spam, seat belt usage dropped severely because 'cars exploded when they crashed and strapping yourself in was a death sentence.'

Cars don't explode. Seriously. For a car to ever explode you'd need such an elaborate and insanely unlikely chain of events to occur that it makes winning the lottery look like a sure fucking thing. Yes, it -may- catch fire if there's sufficient damage done to a few key points and there's ignition sources, but even then you will be far more severely fucked if you don't wear the seat belt. In fact, if the car is that damaged in those areas that it catches on fire, the seat belt will have saved your damn life for long enough that you can get out and away from the burning vehicle.

Srsly, fuck Hollywood and fuck the people who perpetuate that bloody myth.

Seat belts saves lives and if you're not wearing one in a crash, you just might find that the emergency personnel that shows up just might focus on the people who did wear one instead of being utterly fucking retarded.

(Yes, derail, but the 'exploding coffins' bit triggered it.)

[Bacchanalian]

Thought Pintos used to explode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFFTa3JzIOA

Anyway, yeah, I take my car in to change the tires.  I don't know enough about rotating/tread/tire condition to a) know if mine are in good shape, b) need rotation, and I don't have access to a lot of the fun toys they do at the dealership.  So I happily pay a bit of money for someone to do it for me while I am at work, thus not only preventing the possibility that I fuck up a very nice car because I'm an idiot and wind up paying 20x what it costs me to have them do it to unfuck what I did to it, but also freeing up my free time to do things that I find more engaging like attending soccer matches, getting pissed with friends, or playing EVE. 

Kinda simple equation for me.  My free time+peace of mind>a bit of money.

[Mithfindel]

The tl;dr of changing tyres on your car.

The local laws may vary about the groove depth. Most tyres have some places marked where there will indicators within the groove (if the indicators are surface level, switch asap). Locally, if you insert a two euro coin in the groove and the different-colour edge doesn't completely fit in the groove, time to get new tires.

Assuming you are not having tyres that fit on both sides, you will need to place tyres so that the grooves move the water out from beneath the tire, i.e. the V-shape points to the direction the wheel is turning. Which practically means that when looking from above, the smaller grooves point forward.

The tyres usually have more stress on the powered wheels, so put the tyres in a better condition on those wheels. (They're supposed to be somewhat even, though, so if for some reason one tyre is not looking the same as the other, go safe and get a new one/new pair.)

Additionally, you're supposed to fasten the bolts so that you don't fasten them clockwise/counter-clockwise, but rather pick alternate sides, but these days it's not that important, since the wheels usually fit quite well and there's little risk on then not aligning properly (in older cars, if you fasten one side first, the wheel might be twisted on that side).

Tyre pressure is found on the car's manual, and must be checked with the tyres loaded (i.e. with the car's weight resting on them), preferably just after change and then after some distance (week or two) has been driven.

And when lifting the car, get a good jack. The one that comes with the car will do, but it isn't a big investment to get a better one. The lifting locations are marked under the car, usually by some kind of a notch. (This information can also be found at your car's manual.)

[Mizhara]

Welp, gotten all the wheelbolts replaced. Damn that was a lot of work on this car. Had to basically take apart both front hubs on the damn thing. Kissed the right asscheeks and got room at a fully stocked service garage nearby with the right tools. Tools required: A variety of cups and wrenches, the right kind of tongs, screwdrivers of various sizes, one huge (55mm) cup and wrench, a chisel and two massive hammers. One rubber hammer. The process:

Had to take off the brake caliper, the breakpads and so on. Remove a bunch of nuts and locking discs. This is where the hammer comes in, as you beat the everloving shit out of the outer hub to loosen the coned locking rings. Once all this is done, you've barely scratched the surface as it turns out you can only now remove the outer part of the hub. Then there's another locking ring, another nut, a locking tin, another nut and another locking tin. (And to do this, you need that one giant 55mm cup which is expensive as fuck.) After all this you can finally get out the hub and brake disc. Then there's another six bolts to remove, so you can split the hub using a chisel, a hammer and a lot of RAEG!

Only after all this you can start hammering out the wheel bolts and insert the new ones, once more using a hammer and a fuckton of RAEG to pull it off. After that, cleaning everything, then dirtying it all up again with bearing grease, assemble in reverse order. A crapton of work and raeg all for six little wheelbolts. Not to mention all the adjusting you'll have to do to make sure the wheel still spins as it should without being too loose or too tight.

EDIT: Adding a split blueprint to illustrate the sheer amount of fiddlybits that needs fiddling: Split Blueprint.

On the rear wheels it's easier. Shit will still stick like hell and need copious amounts of RAEG and HAMMER, but there's much less in the 'bits that need to come off' department. If you do this thing, always remember to bleed the brakes afterwards, or you're fucked.

Oh, and discovered I'm going to have to buy new brake pads. Never taken apart a brake caliper before, so that'll be interesting.

Anyone else done any mechanic work lately?