To Fix Or Buy New

[Zaximus]

28 minutes ago, Bronn said:

yeah dude

The whole auto industry, from dealerships to mechanical shops, to insurance is all a racket. We don't buy new, but I've gotten almost new things over the years that have absolute garbage flaws that aren't user-end flaws.

Our daily driver now is a '16 Chevy Equinox. It only has like 39,000 miles on it, and it just started stalling out one day for no apparent reason. It turns out that Chevy, in these 'noxes especially, has had a known oil consumption/excessive use problem for years. Yet they still continue to put the same engines in these vehicles every year. I diagnosed the stalling issue online, it seemed like it was the VVT solenoids (Variable Valve Timing) which are located on top of the engine block. I made sure I could find them and access them, and went and bought two new ones for just over $100. I got them switched out no problem in like 10 mins and everything runs fine now. I guarantee you your average shop or dealer would charge in excess of $500 for that repair, lol.

The kicker is that we've now discovered we'll have to change our oil more frequently than originally thought/recommended by Chevy. We were going for 7,500 mile intervals because we run full synthetic, but it looks like we're back down to around 5,000 or even less now because of this oil issue that is found in 99% of these vehicles. I'm pretty pissed about it, but capitalism.

At least I feel comfortable enough to work on my own vehicles, I guess. But there are tons of people out there who go to the shop or even dealer for work that are getting robbed.
 

Yeah and now that there are 700 sensors in a car and they like to go bad often, it's just another scam.    Everyone freaks out over engine light, can't get their inspection done, etc.   

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, Bronn said:

yeah dude

The whole auto industry, from dealerships to mechanical shops, to insurance is all a racket. We don't buy new, but I've gotten almost new things over the years that have absolute garbage flaws that aren't user-end flaws.

Our daily driver now is a '16 Chevy Equinox. It only has like 39,000 miles on it, and it just started stalling out one day for no apparent reason. It turns out that Chevy, in these 'noxes especially, has had a known oil consumption/excessive use problem for years. Yet they still continue to put the same engines in these vehicles every year. I diagnosed the stalling issue online, it seemed like it was the VVT solenoids (Variable Valve Timing) which are located on top of the engine block. I made sure I could find them and access them, and went and bought two new ones for just over $100. I got them switched out no problem in like 10 mins and everything runs fine now. I guarantee you your average shop or dealer would charge in excess of $500 for that repair, lol.

The kicker is that we've now discovered we'll have to change our oil more frequently than originally thought/recommended by Chevy. We were going for 7,500 mile intervals because we run full synthetic, but it looks like we're back down to around 5,000 or even less now because of this oil issue that is found in 99% of these vehicles. I'm pretty pissed about it, but capitalism.

At least I feel comfortable enough to work on my own vehicles, I guess. But there are tons of people out there who go to the shop or even dealer for work that are getting robbed.
 

Do those have displacement on demand? I've had Tahoe's and Yukons forever and I always tune DOD out. It can cause oil consumption issues and is known to prematurely burn out valves. All for very little improvement improvement in fuel economy.

[Bronn]

54 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Do those have displacement on demand? I've had Tahoe's and Yukons forever and I always tune DOD out. It can cause oil consumption issues and is known to prematurely burn out valves. All for very little improvement improvement in fuel economy.

yep, sure does

our other, weekend driver is an older 2005 Honda Odyssey, which has it too

I've never disabled it as it hasn't been too much of a nuisance on either vehicle, but I did run into some issues when I did a Seafoam treatment on the Odyssey once. IIRC you're supposed to disable it before you run Seafoam through it, and I didn't. It can cause vapor to get trapped in two of the cylinders and lead to bigger issues like vapor lock, etc. Thankfully, I didn't have that problem, but I think cleaning it like that led to some leaky seals, etc, which has caused it to burn oil quicker. :-/

I like Chevy best out of US makers. Honda out of foreign. Both are relatively easy to work on, and pretty reliable if you take care of them.

[RealBitsOfPanther]

I'm definitely on team ride it out, but this is coming from someone that is meh about cars/vehicles and see's them as being no different than washing machines. 

[Bronn]

1 hour ago, Zaximus said:

Yeah and now that there are 700 sensors in a car and they like to go bad often, it's just another scam.    Everyone freaks out over engine light, can't get their inspection done, etc.   

This too.

Our Odyssey has a catalytic convertor (the hardest one to get to out of multiple ones, it is on the back side of the engine block) that is pretty much full of buildup I think. It threw a code over a year ago, and a random guy at an O'Reilly Auto parking lot read and cleared it for me with his personal OBD reader when he heard me asking the O'Reilly people to read the code for me. I bought some Cataclean and ran it through the gas tank, and the code hasn't come back. lol

To replace that catalytic convertor, a shop would charge over $1,000.

[frash.exe]

2 hours ago, Bronn said:

yeah dude

The whole auto industry, from dealerships to mechanical shops, to insurance is all a racket. We don't buy new, but I've gotten almost new things over the years that have absolute garbage flaws that aren't user-end flaws.

Our daily driver now is a '16 Chevy Equinox. It only has like 39,000 miles on it, and it just started stalling out one day for no apparent reason. It turns out that Chevy, in these 'noxes especially, has had a known oil consumption/excessive use problem for years. Yet they still continue to put the same engines in these vehicles every year. I diagnosed the stalling issue online, it seemed like it was the VVT solenoids (Variable Valve Timing) which are located on top of the engine block. I made sure I could find them and access them, and went and bought two new ones for just over $100. I got them switched out no problem in like 10 mins and everything runs fine now. I guarantee you your average shop or dealer would charge in excess of $500 for that repair, lol.

The kicker is that we've now discovered we'll have to change our oil more frequently than originally thought/recommended by Chevy. We were going for 7,500 mile intervals because we run full synthetic, but it looks like we're back down to around 5,000 or even less now because of this oil issue that is found in 99% of these vehicles. I'm pretty pissed about it, but capitalism.

At least I feel comfortable enough to work on my own vehicles, I guess. But there are tons of people out there who go to the shop or even dealer for work that are getting robbed.
 

sometimes i’m envious of ppl who can rebuild engines/trannies and do all their own repairs just bc they can take cars off of ppl that don’t run for rly cheap and turn them back into daily commuter cars just replacing parts and never having to pay for labor.

[CRA]

3 hours ago, Zaximus said:

Yeah and now that there are 700 sensors in a car and they like to go bad often, it's just another scam.    Everyone freaks out over engine light, can't get their inspection done, etc.   

yeah, my engine light literally came on today.  Those are the damn devil I tell you.   I mean, literally everything and anything triggers that damn light. 

[Zaximus]

1 hour ago, CRA said:

yeah, my engine light literally came on today.  Those are the damn devil I tell you.   I mean, literally everything and anything triggers that damn light. 

Half the time or higher it's a gas cap causing it I've found lol.    Either not on tight/right or a new one is needed.

[hepcat]

Co-worker of mine helped me solder the connections from the ribbon. It was a little tricky getting the old solder out without a solder sucker, ended up using a can of compressed air while heating up the solder. Just put it back in my car and it works GREAT. Just like new. Saved myself $900.

[CRA]

31 minutes ago, Zaximus said:

Half the time or higher it's a gas cap causing it I've found lol.    Either not on tight/right or a new one is needed.

Yeah, I got one of those Ford's that doesn't have a traditional gas cap.  First time anything has really popped up on it. 

But yeah, gas cap/tank issues were a big issue on my last car

[RealBitsOfPanther]

1 hour ago, CRA said:

Yeah, I got one of those Ford's that doesn't have a traditional gas cap.  First time anything has really popped up on it. 

But yeah, gas cap/tank issues were a big issue on my last car

Focus? Mine doesn't have a gas cap at all. It blew my wife's mind when she went to fill my car up for the first time lol

[CRA]

2 minutes ago, RealBitsOfPanther said:

Focus? Mine doesn't have a gas cap at all. It blew my wife's mind when she went to fill my car up for the first time lol

Explorer.  I was taken aback first time I filled up as I never looked at that when I bought the car.  Guess that is the new thing.  My wife’s Suburban is the same way 

[Khyber53]

Dude, if you are in Houston and need a great mechanic, you need to look up Scotty Kilmer.

 

 

[hepcat]

56 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Dude, if you are in Houston and need a great mechanic, you need to look up Scotty Kilmer.

 

 

I’m in Austin but thanks for the tip.

Despite them comping the tires I wrote them a scathing Yelp review. Awful shop.