Post #259,055
6/15/06 12:51:36 PM
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Unless you REALLY trust this mechanic...
Tune up - Precision Tune
Radiator flush - Jiffy lube/Precision
Serpentine belt - concur with da box
A/C charge - Jiffy lube/Precision Tune
Rear Brake rotor and pads. Can you use a wrench? If so, do it yourself. Easy enough. I've had to replace Rotors and pads on two different vehicles. Cost for front and back on my Chrysler was $250 in parts. I had a warpped rotor. Ask why rotor needs to be replaced.
Front brake adjustment - WTF? Ain't no such thing (assuming you have front disc)
Oil change - Jiffy lube
One new tire - If you have full size spare, swap 'em. Use the "bad" tire for emergency spare. Then when another tire should be replaced, replace the pair.
My 3 cents (adjusted for inflation)
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. (Herm Albright)
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Post #259,069
6/15/06 4:28:26 PM
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Nit
Rear Brake rotor and pads. Can you use a wrench? My wife's last car needed a special tool to rotate the piston back into the caliper. There's no way you did this brake job without it. Cost of the tool: $200+. And on something Box said. I recently had to replace the front rotors on mine. One of the pads had completely detached from the metal plate. Every time I hit the brakes, it was wedging the pad between the rotor and the trailing edge of the caliper. The rest of the time it kind of skidded along, squealing whenever I turned left. The other side, the rotor was so heavily rusted around the perimeter that a couple of chunks of rust broke off. One of those chunks was large enough to be into the area the pad touched. I've never seen either of those things happen before. The mechanic said he'd seen rust like that, but had never seen a pad detach from the backing before it was worn almost to nothing. ===
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Post #259,077
6/15/06 4:54:52 PM
6/15/06 4:56:35 PM
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Brakes can be really hard work
But on the other hand, they're not expensive; mine has discs all round and the pads are about fifteen sheets a set, with the rotors going for about a pony each. (Rear rotors are a shade cheaper, being a bit smaller)
That said, My Mate Down The Pub who serviced my car last had a rare old time getting the brake shoes freed so he could put new pads in, and he does that sort of thing all the time - I'd suggest that a non-expert would be vulnerable to applying insufficient force in the grunt bits, and applying too much in the fiddly bits.
I had fluids changed, new filters (air/oil), new plugs and the aforementioned brake work all done for \ufffd160 including parts. And I have to have all-synthetic oil, which accounts for about thirty smackers.
Peter
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Edited by pwhysall
June 15, 2006, 04:56:35 PM EDT
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Post #259,085
6/15/06 5:51:37 PM
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I agree with Peter.
Brakes can be trivial, or they can be a nightmare depending on how rusty and how seized the bolts and screws are. We spent $800 on brakes all around for my wife's Corolla (disks front, drums rear). It needed wheel cylinders in the rear, rotors, etc.
They put new rotors on it, but they warped within a week. Rather than taking it back and having to drop it off and pick it up and so forth, I changed them myself for about $35 and a couple of hours on a Saturday. They've been fine since then.
Oh, and on the serpentine belt. Around here there's an annual state auto inspection requirement. If the shop you happen to take it to says you need it, you have little choice even if its just surface cracking, etc. On my old Buick I changed it myself in such a situation and kept the old one as a spare in the trunk/boot.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #259,110
6/15/06 9:23:49 PM
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Serpentines are nightmares on newer cars.
On my van the belt goes down the side of the engine... there's not even enough room to get a serpentine wrench in there properly.
I finally brought it in, and it took the poor guy 3 trips up and down the hoist to get that thing changed, and he had someone else helping him.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #259,113
6/15/06 10:05:52 PM
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HELL == Serpentine Belts == Heaven
Yes, it is true.
I would Love to be the first person to cut off all serpentine belt from every engine ever produced with them.
But, I'd step over the chance to do that to Kill the sunnombiatch that invented V-Belts.
I love Serpentines for the "flattening" of the front of the engine.
I HATE CHANGING THEM.
I Love V-Belts when it comes to changing them. But I hate the basic tennents of how they work and do not like the failure prone design.
-- [link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg], [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwetheyFreedom is not FREE. Yeah, but 10s of Trillions of US Dollars? SELECT * FROM scog WHERE ethics > 0;
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Post #259,118
6/15/06 10:48:07 PM
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can you say single point of failure :-)
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #259,122
6/16/06 12:08:54 AM
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Yeah, but they make them a whole...
helluva lot stronger and they typically have 3 times the gripping strength for an equivalently wide v-belt, and typically have less tension than the said v-belt(s), plus they are typically able to "right" themselves if something like a finger gets in the way.
Onlything that would grip better, a cog and toothed belts.
-- [link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg], [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwetheyFreedom is not FREE. Yeah, but 10s of Trillions of US Dollars? SELECT * FROM scog WHERE ethics > 0;
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Post #259,144
6/16/06 11:56:53 AM
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Wait about 30 years and you'll get your wish
as cars go to 42V electrical, most or all of the engine belt driven accessories (A/C, etc) will be driven by electric motors instead -- at least, that's what the 42V proponents say. And, most likely it will happen (for one, because it's more efficient), but it will take a long to happen.
--Tony
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Post #259,095
6/15/06 8:02:32 PM
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C'mon
I can use a wrench. I'm fairly handy around the house. But work on a car? No way. I gotta draw the line somewhere.
And it's running like a dream now. Smoooooth.
Follow your MOUSE
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