Author Topic: $700 Car Maintenance  (Read 4289 times)

SyZ

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$700 Car Maintenance
« on: October 28, 2016, 09:42:00 PM »
It's funny, I put aside $750 from my check every two weeks towards retirement and never see it, but I can't justify $700 for a once every 3-4 year repair / maintenance on the car

2011 Yaris, 79k miles

Serpentine Belt broke, that's $150
Rear brakes need adjusting, that's $80
Tires need replacing (been 25-30k miles for each, might visit family this Christmas, don't want to die on the side of the road) - anywhere from $300-$500 for a set, tires are something I'm not really keen on saving $3 on and risking something happening

Add in parts and labor and we're looking at $600-$750 ish for a repair at the local Toyota dealer.

This, on the same day that Skyrim comes out and I can't play because my TV won't turn on, and after spending an hour dealing with the capacitors I don't think it's fixable.

Sigh

worms

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2016, 12:52:11 AM »
I sympathise, but running costs are inevitable. 

Suck it up...but avoid the dealership!

HPstache

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2016, 11:47:16 AM »
It's funny, I put aside $750 from my check every two weeks towards retirement and never see it, but I can't justify $700 for a once every 3-4 year repair / maintenance on the car

2011 Yaris, 79k miles

Serpentine Belt broke, that's $150
Rear brakes need adjusting, that's $80
Tires need replacing (been 25-30k miles for each, might visit family this Christmas, don't want to die on the side of the road) - anywhere from $300-$500 for a set, tires are something I'm not really keen on saving $3 on and risking something happening

Add in parts and labor and we're looking at $600-$750 ish for a repair at the local Toyota dealer.

This, on the same day that Skyrim comes out and I can't play because my TV won't turn on, and after spending an hour dealing with the capacitors I don't think it's fixable.

Sigh

Serpentine belt replacement is a super easy job if you want to save some money... $15 belt and 30 minutes max.  What kind of adjustment is being done to the rear brakes? Are you having braking issues?

TomTX

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2016, 12:50:21 PM »
It's funny, I put aside $750 from my check every two weeks towards retirement and never see it, but I can't justify $700 for a once every 3-4 year repair / maintenance on the car

2011 Yaris, 79k miles

Serpentine Belt broke, that's $150
Rear brakes need adjusting, that's $80
Tires need replacing (been 25-30k miles for each, might visit family this Christmas, don't want to die on the side of the road) - anywhere from $300-$500 for a set, tires are something I'm not really keen on saving $3 on and risking something happening

Add in parts and labor and we're looking at $600-$750 ish for a repair at the local Toyota dealer.

This, on the same day that Skyrim comes out and I can't play because my TV won't turn on, and after spending an hour dealing with the capacitors I don't think it's fixable.

Sigh

Serpentine belt replacement is a super easy job if you want to save some money... $15 belt and 30 minutes max.  What kind of adjustment is being done to the rear brakes? Are you having braking issues?

On my old Saturn it was very doable, though you needed a fairly specialized wrench. Which the auto parts store was happy to loan me while I changed the belt in their parking lot.

JLee

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2016, 01:25:02 PM »

JAYSLOL

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2016, 04:46:20 PM »
What are the rear brakes doing?  When i installed new brake shoes, drums and all the internal hardware for the brakes in the rear of my old Toyota Tercel (Which is the grandfather of the Yaris) I just drive in reverse and apply the brakes to set them to the correct level.  Also, as others are suggesting, watch YouTube and do as much of the work yourself as you can.  Anything you absolutely can't do (which is Tires) should be done somewhere other than the dealership, price out the best place and see what you can save.  The Toyota dealer where i live charged $110/h last time I checked, and that was a while ago. 

Also, congrats on saving $1500/m for retirement, that number is my goal as well.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that not many expenses come up by the end of the year so I can make that the average for 2016. 
« Last Edit: October 29, 2016, 04:49:33 PM by JAYSLOL »

SeaEhm

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2016, 09:04:36 AM »
It's funny, I put aside $750 from my check every two weeks towards retirement and never see it, but I can't justify $700 for a once every 3-4 year repair / maintenance on the car

I am worse and more illogical.  I would get rid of the car when I start having to fork out 4 figure repair bills for an old car that I do not truly love.

I start calculating how much a repair is in proportion to the overall value of the car.  If it gets past a certain point, I would rather just get a new car.

use2betrix

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2016, 11:21:45 AM »
It's funny, I put aside $750 from my check every two weeks towards retirement and never see it, but I can't justify $700 for a once every 3-4 year repair / maintenance on the car

I am worse and more illogical.  I would get rid of the car when I start having to fork out 4 figure repair bills for an old car that I do not truly love.

I start calculating how much a repair is in proportion to the overall value of the car.  If it gets past a certain point, I would rather just get a new car.

The problem is, around 90k-130k miles, there's a lot of wear and tear items that are pretty spendy for the non do it your selfer. Once those items are complete one should be able to run another 100k miles on the right car.

I've been having this problem a lot lately with my wife's car. 1999 Camry with 120k miles. We bought it with 88k miles. Lots and lots of wear and tear items but I feel like once they're done well be another 100k miles if we want.

Since owning (trying to remember)
Timing belt
Starter
Alternator
Front struts (need rears soon)
Brakes and rotors (still had original rotors)
Steering rack thing (maybe not a wear and tear item)

We've driven this car all over the country the last 3 years. It's never left us stranded. It's maybe only worth 3k max and looks outdated though in good shape. I just have a hard time spending another $10k-$15k on another vehicle. Any less and I'd be looking at something with higher mileage that will soon need all the same wear and tear items my wife's car has been going through. Everything I've read points to these car reliably lasting 250k-300k no problem. We just paid off my truck (that I use to tow our fifth wheel we live full time in) so don't feel like dropping a ton more on vehicles right now.

I will admit though, the $500-$1000 jobs are getting old. I feel like once we do the rear struts we should be pretty good for a couple years.

SyZ

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2016, 10:15:26 AM »
One of the problems is I'm an emasculated man-child who didn't have any sort of shop class growing up. I had my first car for two years which had no issues (Corolla, 60 when I got it, 71 when I was hit from behind and it was totaled), and then I didn't have another one for a few years. Got this one four years ago and have really only had minor issues since, this is the first big expense. I could get another 10 years out of it (assuming there's no law passed in CA in 2020 that you need a self-driving car because the government gets kickbacks from manufacturers for every one sol ... er, to be environmentally friendly ... yea, that's it)

The belt was also cracked last time I took it in (3k miles ago) and they wanted it replaced. I had made a note to look up comparable prices elsewhere and totally forgot until it came up again. I've never even opened a car hood and replacing a belt that could be a life and death difference isn't really something I'm comfortable with - that would be changing the wiper blades or a headlight. I looked around online and was finding similar prices for lesser quality tires elsewhere. The breaks haven't really been acting up - I typically don't break very heavily (or accelerate heavily) as I'm trying not to put too much stress on any part of the car. Low RPMs, minimal shift changes, etc.

Prairie Stash

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2016, 10:47:11 AM »
One of the problems is I'm an emasculated man-child who didn't have any sort of shop class growing up.

If you like being an emasculated man-child then continue to be so, whatever makes you happy. If you want to change then stop using the excuse you didn't have a shop class. Now there's YouTube videos that demonstrate the entire procedure, there's books with diagrams for extra reference. For some of us we phone a friend and ask for help; still a viable option.

You're the only person emasculating yourself, you have the power to change. Its all in your mindset.

JLee

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2016, 11:00:45 AM »
One of the problems is I'm an emasculated man-child who didn't have any sort of shop class growing up. I had my first car for two years which had no issues (Corolla, 60 when I got it, 71 when I was hit from behind and it was totaled), and then I didn't have another one for a few years. Got this one four years ago and have really only had minor issues since, this is the first big expense. I could get another 10 years out of it (assuming there's no law passed in CA in 2020 that you need a self-driving car because the government gets kickbacks from manufacturers for every one sol ... er, to be environmentally friendly ... yea, that's it)

The belt was also cracked last time I took it in (3k miles ago) and they wanted it replaced. I had made a note to look up comparable prices elsewhere and totally forgot until it came up again. I've never even opened a car hood and replacing a belt that could be a life and death difference isn't really something I'm comfortable with - that would be changing the wiper blades or a headlight. I looked around online and was finding similar prices for lesser quality tires elsewhere. The breaks haven't really been acting up - I typically don't break very heavily (or accelerate heavily) as I'm trying not to put too much stress on any part of the car. Low RPMs, minimal shift changes, etc.

I've never taken a shop class either, and I hand-built a high performance engine a few years ago.  The internet can teach you a lot.

Syonyk

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2016, 12:21:19 PM »
One of the problems is I'm an emasculated man-child who didn't have any sort of shop class growing up.

Cool.  Do you like being a boy who shaves?  If so, ignore the rest of this post and keep whining.

You've got the Internet, apparently.

There's this thing called "YouTube" that has videos of basically every single bit of auto service you might want to do for all common cars.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=2011+Yaris+serpentine+belt

You can guess that it might show you videos for serpentine belt replacement on your engine.

A nice automotive toolkit is $50-$100, depending on quality and tool count.

I didn't work on engines growing up.  At this point in my life, I've rebuilt a rotary engine, done massive amounts of car maintenance, and my thought about a full engine rebuild is along the lines of "Eh, that's annoying..." vs panic.

You can learn, if you want.  It's a whole ton easier now with YouTube than when I learned, when the option was to find the Chilton's or Haynes manual and dive in more or less blind.

TomTX

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2016, 07:42:36 AM »
One of the problems is I'm an emasculated man-child who didn't have any sort of shop class growing up.

If you like being an emasculated man-child then continue to be so, whatever makes you happy. If you want to change then stop using the excuse you didn't have a shop class. Now there's YouTube videos that demonstrate the entire procedure, there's books with diagrams for extra reference. For some of us we phone a friend and ask for help; still a viable option.

You're the only person emasculating yourself, you have the power to change. Its all in your mindset.

Either quit being  a little whiner or go elsewhere.

I had to self-teach before Youtube. Reading the actual Haynes manuals. No classes, no background and a very un-handy father. He managed to send himself to the ER using a hand saw. On the first cut.

rulesofacquisition

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Re: $700 Car Maintenance
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2016, 07:52:17 AM »


This, on the same day that Skyrim comes out and I can't play because my TV won't turn on, and after spending an hour dealing with the capacitors I don't think it's fixable.

Sigh

Obviously, you don't have your priorities straight, I mean, it's freakin' Skyrim, go spend $5000 on a new TV and just drive the car into the ground!