Car Maintenance: Costs, Recommendations, and Debates

[kyphysics]

A thread where we chat about car maintenance.

What maintenance are you doing lately? What cost did you pay? What are things you've been recommended by your servicer that you're undecided on doing?

Here is one for me: "engine system cleaning" ($200) The tech said it's recommended. However, when I pressed further, he said it's not urgent and some people literally never do it. However, it can "help" with maintenance of the vehicle.

Ummmmmmm, why do I feel like this is one of those "let's make money of this dude" recommendations that are unnecessary. Anyone ever do one of these? NOTE: This is not a transmission fluid change/flush, which I do think can be helpful/needed.

 

[mcastillo356]

I've got no car. In Europe is not mandatory. Public transport available and useful
Greetings!

 

[DaveE]

Here is one for me: "engine system cleaning" ($200) The tech said it's recommended. However, when I pressed further, he said it's not urgent and some people literally never do it. However, it can "help" with maintenance of the vehicle.

Ummmmmmm, why do I feel like this is one of those "let's make money of this dude" recommendations that are unnecessary.

I think he's telling you "you can't trust my recommendations". From which I'd question what else I can't trust. Ask him to show you where it says that is normal service in the manufacturer's manuals.

BTW, AFAIK "engine system" isn't a thing. Go somewhere else.

 

[gleem]

Could he have meant fuel system cleaning? This apparently does help ( especially for injectors) but you can do it yourself with a gas additive.

 

[Lnewqban]

Use the recommended maintenance schedule from the manufacturer of your car.
Do yourself the most that you can, you will learn more about your machine, and what it really needs, and when.

The rest of any needed work are repairs following any unexpected failure: find a honest mechanical shop or mechanic for those, as you may not have the required tools and space.

Keep up with regular recommended maintenance, and your car will suffer less and will serve you better and more safely.

 

[kyphysics]

Could he have meant fuel system cleaning? This apparently does help ( especially for injectors) but you can do it yourself with a gas additive.

No. The report says engine system cleaning.

They have color-coded categories with red being urgent and yellow being recommended, but not something that will make or break your car immediately. This was listed in the yellow section.

Again, when I asked him when it was needed to be done, he said there's no timeline and some people never do it, but that given my mileage, it's just something they "recommend." *shrug*

I'm not doing it.

 

[Lnewqban]

No. The report says engine system cleaning.
...

Any car engine is composed of several systems: cooling, fuel injection, lubrication, ignition, electronic control, etc.

 

[kyphysics]

Any car engine is composed of several systems: cooling, fuel injection, lubrication, ignition, electronic control, etc.

I just called Nissan and they said it was FUEL system cleaning.

I asked if it was urgent and they said they could only tell me it was a recommendation, but not RED/urgent.

I have 38,000 miles and drive belt is recommended to be replaced every 60K-100K miles. They are recommending that NOW (mine's fine...but car is 4 years old and they said it's recommended to be replaced about every 5 years...they are 1 year early...just to LET ME KNOW it's "upcoming").

 

[kyphysics]

Getting stuff done "early" when my part is fine means they make money.

The fuel system cleaning was also said to be "preventative." Some people never get it done.

 

[DaveE]

OK, fuel system cleaning is a thing (the injectors, mainly). But how often something needs cleaning depends entirely on what you did to make it get dirty. The cleaning procedure/products mostly exist to fix fuel system contamination problems, like if someone put a dead mouse in your gas tank*. IMO, this just isn't an issue for well cared for cars that buy reputable gas.

Manufacturers will naturally be reluctant to suggest not cleaning, but they also don't want to put a bunch of extra maintenance requirements in the manual. Dealers will suggest it to make money, after all, it could be dirty. This is why I prefer to ask the people that made the car, not the people that want to maintain it.

OTOH, we also couldn't tell you how often you should clean your kitchen floor.

I would suggest changing the fuel filter once (or maybe twice) in the car's lifetime (the car's lifetime, not how long you'll own it). That's the part that gets dirty.

* Don't ever replace your gas filler cap with something else, like a rag or newspaper. It's there to keep the fuel system clean.

 

[russ_watters]

Could he have meant fuel system cleaning? This apparently does help ( especially for injectors) but you can do it yourself with a gas additive.

For 1/10th the price.

 

[Lnewqban]

I just called Nissan and they said it was FUEL system cleaning.

I asked if it was urgent and they said they could only tell me it was a recommendation, but not RED/urgent.

I have 38,000 miles and drive belt is recommended to be replaced every 60K-100K miles. They are recommending that NOW (mine's fine...but car is 4 years old and they said it's recommended to be replaced about every 5 years...they are 1 year early...just to LET ME KNOW it's "upcoming").

If you have replaced oil regularly, with 38K miles, any system of your 4-year car should be in close to new condition.

I have found these products very effective and free of side effects:
https://seafoamworks.com/product/fuel-injector-cleaner/

https://seafoamworks.com/product/sea-foam-motor-treatment-oil-fuel-additive/

If you live in a humid climate, replacing the brake fluid will prevent internal corrosion of calipers.

If recommended by the manufacturer, replacement of cooling fluid helps the water pump to be happy.

 

[kyphysics]

If you have replaced oil regularly, with 38K miles, any system of your 4-year car should be in close to new condition.

I have found these products very effective and free of side effects:
https://seafoamworks.com/product/fuel-injector-cleaner/

https://seafoamworks.com/product/sea-foam-motor-treatment-oil-fuel-additive/

If you live in a humid climate, replacing the brake fluid will prevent internal corrosion of calipers.

If recommended by the manufacturer, replacement of cooling fluid helps the water pump to be happy.

My car is now officially 5 years old (2018 Nissan) and has 50K miles finally! Time for a thread bump.

re: fuel injector cleaning
Several people mentioned you can buy stuff over-the-counter. Here's a question: What if my owner's manual says not to use stuff that is not approved by the manufacturer?

I know you guys think I could save a lot of money, but my only concern is if an OTC product somehow doesn't fit with my car and/or isn't approved and thus may have some untested negative effect(s).

 

[kyphysics]

Could he have meant fuel system cleaning? This apparently does help ( especially for injectors) but you can do it yourself with a gas additive.

For 1/10th the price.

See my post above. But, yes, gleem. . .after I checked with that guy's co-worker, she said it WAS IN FACT a fuel injector system cleaning. I never got it done last year, though. I'm considering it now, but lean towards no still. I do need an oil change and will get one next week. I'll decide then whether to get this cleaning or not.

 

[Flyboy]

I'd only mess with the injectors if you have good evidence there's a problem. Usually a fault code would be logged saying "Hey, somethings wrong here" and then you'd dig into it.

The only time my dad and I ever messed with the injectors on his 1990 Mazda B2200 truck was at engine overhaul at 300k+ miles. I think we pulled them out on the Civic once just because we were doing some other work like a timing belt and my dad used it as a learning opportunity, but other than that, nothing. No cleaners, no additives. Just use reputable gas stations and don't fill up when they're filling the underground storage tanks.

As others mentioned before, regular oil changes do wonders for your engine. It'll easily crack 30 years of service as a daily driver and 300k+ miles without issue if you do regular changes.

 

[kyphysics]

I'd only mess with the injectors if you have good evidence there's a problem. Usually a fault code would be logged saying "Hey, somethings wrong here" and then you'd dig into it.

The only time my dad and I ever messed with the injectors on his 1990 Mazda B2200 truck was at engine overhaul at 300k+ miles. I think we pulled them out on the Civic once just because we were doing some other work like a timing belt and my dad used it as a learning opportunity, but other than that, nothing. No cleaners, no additives. Just use reputable gas stations and don't fill up when they're filling the underground storage tanks.

As others mentioned before, regular oil changes do wonders for your engine. It'll easily crack 30 years of service as a daily driver and 300k+ miles without issue if you do regular changes.

Helpful info. here.ANOTHER recommendation Nissan gave me was a transmission fluid flush. As others pointed out, this one is actually legit. The only issue is that Nissan (my local dealer/service center) recommended it the 38K miles mark, saying I was close to 40K and that they recommend it at 50K.

The owner's manual says 60-90K! (Again, they recommended it to me at 38K - rounding up to 40K to get me to conceptualize the timing better and never told me the manual says 60K - only that THEY like to tell people to do it at 50K. . .and that I was close to it and could do it soon if I wanted to). . . .Such a slippery slope of getting to earlier and earlier work done - probably so they can make faster/more money.

Lesson - cross-check the dealer/servicer's recommended time-frame w/ the actual owner's manual. If there's nothing wrong, I'd just wait until the manual's recommended time-frame.

 

[Lnewqban]

My 2018 Nissan Rogue just arrived to 100K miles, with its virgin engine and transmission working in perfect order.
I have only changed the oil and rotate tires at regular times.
Ask a trusty mechanic to verify the level and condition of the transmission fluid.

 

[JT Smith]

My car is nearly 30 years old and just about to hit 300K. Still works pretty well, although it has a fuel issue that needs some attention. Occasionally it won't start instantly but will if I wait a couple of minutes with the key on.

Lots of little things add up though and I can afford a new car if I really want one. I don't drive nearly as much as I used to as I live where the subway and walking work pretty well for the majority of things. But a new car would likely be more reliable.

So should I just keep repairing this old thing? It's an Acura Integra. I noticed that they reintroduced that model recently, one of the few remaining cars that is available with a manual transmission. Six speeds sounds pretty nice but all of the new crap that new cars include is kind of turn off to me. The last car I rented would nudge the steering wheel and even hit the brakes for me at various times. I couldn't turn that off.

 

[jtbell]

My car is a 2013 Chevy Sonic with about 80K miles. I've never used it for daily commuting, because I live a few blocks from the college where I used to teach. I normally take it out once or twice a week. Usually I'm going out of town, either down the road 5-10 miles to the next town where most of our doctors and shopping are, or on a day-trip to a nearby city, or on a longer road trip. So most of the miles are "highway miles", with very little stop-and-go city traffic. It's needed very little maintenance besides the usual oil changes, lube, etc. And new tires like on my trip to Atlanta which I reported in one of my road-trip threads.

However, recently I've had a couple of odd little problems.

First, the automatic transmission shift lever (on the floor) began to misbehave. When shifting, I have to depress a latch button on the lever. Normally it comes right back out when I release the lever after shifting. Recently it started to stick in the depressed position, popping out several seconds after I released it.

This caused a problem when parking. After putting the transmission in Park, I couldn't take the key out of the ignition until the shift lever button had popped out! I worried that the button would stay stuck and I wouldn't be able to take the key out at all. So a couple of weeks ago had it replaced at the nearest Chevy dealer (now about 20 miles away ). No problem since then.

Yesterday I had another, more ordinary problem. While driving home from a doctor's appointment, a numeric service code appeared on my instrument display. Previously I'd only seen code 28, which means "oil is overdue for changing." This time it was code 26, and disappeared quickly. I looked it up in the manual, and found that it means "left rear turn signal failed." I went out to the car to check it, and sure enough, that's what it was. The code appeared only while using the turn-signal lever. So I drove to a local repair shop, hoping that it was just a burned-out bulb and not an electrical problem like a short circuit (squirrel chewing through insulation, perhaps?). Fortunately it was just the bulb, which the shop actually had in stock (for a 10 year old car!) and replaced for free because I was a regular (albeit infrequent) customer.

(Good thing it wasn't one of the newfangled fancy-shaped LED lights which I've read are horribly expensive to replace.)

I do have a nagging doubt about this. The old bulb's filament looked fine. The problem appeared as some kind of burnout at the base, which had a multi-pin plug that I'd expect to see on a computer board (e.g. SCSI or SATA cable), not a screw-in type base. So I'm wondering if maybe there's some problem elsewhere that might have caused that burnout. I'll be keeping my eye on this, and exercising the bulb by making extra left turns for a while, to see if it goes bad again quickly.

 

[Flyboy]

My car is a 2013 Chevy Sonic with about 80K miles. I've never used it for daily commuting, because I live a few blocks from the college where I used to teach. I normally take it out once or twice a week. Usually I'm going out of town, either down the road 5-10 miles to the next town where most of our doctors and shopping are, or on a day-trip to a nearby city, or on a longer road trip. So most of the miles are "highway miles", with very little stop-and-go city traffic. It's needed very little maintenance besides the usual oil changes, lube, etc. And new tires like on my trip to Atlanta which I reported in one of my road-trip threads.

However, recently I've had a couple of odd little problems.

First, the automatic transmission shift lever (on the floor) began to misbehave. When shifting, I have to depress a latch button on the lever. Normally it comes right back out when I release the lever after shifting. Recently it started to stick in the depressed position, popping out several seconds after I released it.

This caused a problem when parking. After putting the transmission in Park, I couldn't take the key out of the ignition until the shift lever button had popped out! I worried that the button would stay stuck and I wouldn't be able to take the key out at all. So a couple of weeks ago had it replaced at the nearest Chevy dealer (now about 20 miles away ). No problem since then.

Yesterday I had another, more ordinary problem. While driving home from a doctor's appointment, a numeric service code appeared on my instrument display. Previously I'd only seen code 28, which means "oil is overdue for changing." This time it was code 26, and disappeared quickly. I looked it up in the manual, and found that it means "left rear turn signal failed." I went out to the car to check it, and sure enough, that's what it was. The code appeared only while using the turn-signal lever. So I drove to a local repair shop, hoping that it was just a burned-out bulb and not an electrical problem like a short circuit (squirrel chewing through insulation, perhaps?). Fortunately it was just the bulb, which the shop actually had in stock (for a 10 year old car!) and replaced for free because I was a regular (albeit infrequent) customer.

(Good thing it wasn't one of the newfangled fancy-shaped LED lights which I've read are horribly expensive to replace.)

I do have a nagging doubt about this. The old bulb's filament looked fine. The problem appeared as some kind of burnout at the base, which had a multi-pin plug that I'd expect to see on a computer board (e.g. SCSI or SATA cable), not a screw-in type base. So I'm wondering if maybe there's some problem elsewhere that might have caused that burnout. I'll be keeping my eye on this, and exercising the bulb by making extra left turns for a while, to see if it goes bad again quickly.

Regarding the first, I would have tried to spray some non-conductive dry lubricant into the area, but since you got it changed already, that's a bit late.

Regarding the bulb... Most lightbulbs for stuff like turn signals or interior lights are pretty standardized. You can probably find a new one at the local auto parts store for cheap. (And yeah, integrated LED lights are a jerk to replace. I'm glad my truck doesn't have them.) Probably just an age issue, not a wiring issue. If that bulb was factory still not surprised it finally went "pop!".

 

[Tom.G]

The problem appeared as some kind of burnout at the base, which had a multi-pin plug that I'd expect to see on a computer board (e.g. SCSI or SATA cable), not a screw-in type base.

Check for a minor water leak to that bulb and socket; that's the usual cause of corrosion.

Cars used to use Bayonet base bulbs. That's a spring-loaded socket where the bulb is inserted and given a 1/4 turn to lock it in, much more reliable due to the high contact pressure. Oh well, that's 'progress', sometimes to the rear.