How much preventative maintenance do you do?
 

I'm thinking mostly about cars, but really this applies to lots of things, your home, motorcycles, lawn equipment, aircraft, pool equipment, maybe even computer equipment, etc....

How much preventative maintenance do you do?

How would that change if you do the maintenance yourself or if you have to pay a mechanic or someone else to do the maintenance for you?

I've always done as much of my own work as possible whether that's on vehicles or our old home or whatever. It's often hard to find a mechanic, plumber, electrician, etc.... that you can trust to do the work correctly and not rip you off either with a crazy bill or unnecessary work in the process so that's one of the main reasons to do the work yourself besides the sense of accomplishment and money savings.

We sold our home and moved into an apt in town. We bought my boxster and it is our only car. Part of that was the missus stipulating that the car be kept in tip top shape, the theory being 1 With the reduced expenses, we can afford to pay someone else to do the work and 2 since it is our only car, we want and need it to be in great shape.

We bought the car 5 years ago with 21k miles, and it was CPO. In that time, I've put a little less than 5k miles a year on the car (no more long commute since we live in town). The car got front brakes about 1.5 years ago, it's had new tires and oil changes, but that's it.

I will be picking it up from one of the top rated Porsche specific Indie shops today. I have been putting off taking it in for regular maintenance and it's 40k mile checkup for a few months, but last Sat, the high pressure relief valve on the AC let go (major "smoke" through the AC vents, looked for a min like something was burning behind the dash, pretty big pucker moment, fortunately the smell was wrong for an electrical fire). That was the catalyst to drop the car off. The AC fix was <$250. I asked them to also change the oil and check things out. I'd gotten an occasional squeal when turning the steering wheel slowly at low speeds, and started to notice squeaks when hitting bumps at low speed or going over speed bumps. I'd noticed that one of the CV boots looked like it might have a small crack because I could see a line of grease that'd been flung out.

The CV boot ended up being R&R of that axle ($1000). The reason for the full replacement vs just a boot replacement was that by the time they had pulled everything apart and put it back together for one of the boots, the labor would have eaten up a big part of the cost of a new axle and one of the boots would still be old, so while a little more expensive, it's better just to replace the whole thing. OK, I buy that, assuming it's not just a slap dash job of slapping the new boot on and they do a full clean and inspect and repack job on the old joint.

40k mile maintenance includes plugs, not because they are necessarily bad, but also just to make sure they come out every once in a while and don't end up stuck which makes sense to me for an 11 year old car. Then, while doing the plugs, they recommend replacing the coils ($80 ea) because the ozone and heat makes the plastic and rubber bits brittle, so a replacement while not necessary is recommended. I can see that too, especially assuming these are coil on plug.

Then the squeaks in the suspension ended up being the strut top mounts and the strut top bearings. The struts themselves are fine, but to get rid of the noise (which is a very early sign that things are starting to get old) those things need to be replaced. The parts themselves aren't expensive, but the labor to get to them and put everything back together for all four corners is I think about 10 hours if you include the required alignment.

The missus and I were expecting the AC to be pricey (because AC work usually is) and it was just about the cheapest thing we had done. The missus nearly choked on the grand total, and I must admit, it was pretty hard for me to swallow as well. Fortunately, I'm pretty confident that this place is honest and does good work.

They get unanimously good recommendations by the PCA. When I dropped the car off they had everything from an old 356 speedster to a new GT3 and a bunch of 70s and 80s bellows bumper cars and a few front engined water pumpers including a '95 928 GTS with a manual trans. There was also a pretty smokin' hot ferrari in the shop. One of the guys has built a hotrod original mini. The owner has a 993 as a daily driver.

I have in the past on a couple of miatas done the timing belt and a few "while you're in there" things like the water pump, maybe thermostat, some gaskets and hoses. I've never done anything like "replace the coils while you're replacing the plugs".

I do get replacing the axle, and have done that in the past, but that was when I could get the entire axle for $100 or $200 and the boot and associated labor was going to be a pain in the rear. The axle wasn't $1000.

The bill hurts, but it will be nice to know that a lot of that isn't likely to go bad any time soon. Hopefully, the water pump doesn't decide to go in a month or two.

Lots.

My daily driver is a 365,000 mile El Camino I have had for 28 years. My toy is a 85 Carrera that I just rolled 170,000 miles on this Wednesday.

I am the worlds slowest mechanic, because I always seem to get distracted on the first project, and see some other thing that needs attention now, or will soon, so I fix it "while I am there" or something I want to change.

My wife asks why I drive the same OLD cars and don't get something new and not spend all that time in the garage tinkering. It is my hobby, and I don't do it under a timeline, and if it takes a week to do a simple task, well so be it, I have two cars for my use.

Right now I plan to drive my 34 year old 911 to Key West soon, and add another 5,000 miles to it. If I had a valid reason to drive my Elky long distance I would not hesitate to go wherever. It is not a great highway car due to wind noise. We still have made over 100 trips to Enid, OK and back and that is a 100 miles each way.

Every bit of both cars work as designed, or better in many cases. I put fuel injection on my El Camino long ago, before the days of FI kits everywhere. It starts and runs like a modern car. I changed the transmission from the pitiful 200 metric to a 2004R with lockup, and changed to a limited slip rear end.

The 911 has AC that will keep me cool in 115 degree heat and all the projects stock Carreras need, have been done.

Someday if I get too old to drive a 85 911, I may sell both cars and get a new 911 with PDK and let the dealer do the work. No time soon.

i need to do more preventative maint on my body!!

i already FBI, nightly and sometimes daily. FBI = Floss, brush, irrigate.

i exercise 3x a week on my mountain bike. i need to up that..and i need to effen eat better!!. my car and stuff is easy by comparison.

and SUNSCREEN!! friggen sunscreen!!

Just "by the book" on both cars. I'm to the hire most of it done stage of life. Crawling under cars at age 75 hurts...

Slight variant on body. I am in the rust belt and bought a 2004 RAV 18 mos ago. I did the Fluid Film spray underneath last fall even though it has very little rust. I mean there is some rust scaling on heavy parts but welded floor/unibody sheet metal parts are pretty sweet. Interesting that most 2004 Tundras and Tacomas have had frames replaced and have rotted wheel well arches.

I am not a rabid PM guy. I hear a noise, I throw it on the rack and fix it then or determine if I have some time before it's mandatory. Sometimes it bites me in the butt. Example is it's alternator that had a low RPM whir and would not put out decent voltage until 1,000 RPM. Milked it for a year. Finally would not start and had to get a jump and changed then. That ain't PM.

I don't cheap out on parts though when it is repaired. Not factory but better aftermarket.

I try, but 4 cars can be mentally draining sometimes.
There is always a list on my desk of parts to buy.

About $500K/year including labor...

This reminds me I need to flush out my water heater.

FYI, doing it once every 2 years REALLY extends the life of newer water heaters.

I try to take care of the cars (both Honda's) since I haven't found an indy I trust since the one I used to use for my commuter retired and sold his place. I won't trust the local dealers to change the oil so I still do that.
My wife got after me to do some PM on her sewing machines since we have a little money tied up in them. She uses them every day and since the min $ for a service call is now $125 or more, it pays to keep them in shape. I've figured out how to time the mechanical ones so they really sound nice at full tilt.

I would have replaced that alternator ASAP. Usually when I need a jump it it 110F or snowing and blowing like a blizzard. I replace batteries at the first hint of issues.

I don't like working on cars anymore - I used to love it. I bring all the cars into a shop on schedule for all maintenance/oil changes, etc. I'll have them change out additional stuff depending on how the car/truck is riding, usage, etc.

Farm equipment is a whole other matter. Before a machine is started all fluids are checked, air filters checked (dirty air is the bane of farm equipment), tires checked and all grease points hit on heavy wear points.

Every time. Even the pull equipment, finishing mowers, sprayers, etc, get checked and lubed. My battery powered grease gun has been a blessing!

I also change the fluids and all filters at 4/5 time from the maintenance manual...or on condition depending on the visual inspection.

I have two MF 2300 3 cylinder diesel small tractors going on their 15th and 16th year. I just replaced the larger tractor with a new one - just hit 70 hours total time. What a dream machine.

I still do all of the maintenance, have never used a shop for any car out of warranty, four vehicles. Trying to sort out a transmission problem in my wife's car right now, installed a lift years ago makes the work easier. Still building the house so I also do all of the work on that, plumbing electrical drywall, I try not to hire anyone at the moment, usually just a waste of time, it's hard to find good trades people around here.

One reason I still enjoy the tinker in the garage is actually more than one reason. :confused::confused:

After a lifetime of jacking a car up, now I have a scissor lift. I put the cars in the air just to wax them or do electrical work in the engine compartment on the 911. It is great to not have to bend over and kill my back.

Also, I have the garage heated, and an air conditioner. Teo ceiling fans, and lots of lights, my music playing through a decent set of speakers. There is a fridge in the garage and mostly water, but almost always a celebratory beer after a complex project is done.

Oh and I have a bathroom in the garage, so I can wash my hands easily and regularly and the facilities are right there.

I sufficient tools to tackle the project and I have to work hard to find a reason to go buy another tool.

I can work at my slow pace and there is no deadline, except mine. In other words, I can do it comfortably and at my schedule as a hobby. Lots cheaper than golf, boats, and tons cheaper than airplanes.

I do believe Glen has got it figured out.

I would be surprised if you ever parted with your old Carrera, Glen.

I've always done maintenance and repairs on my vehicles, houses, equipment, etc. I take the cars to the shop if there is something requiring special tools or expertise I don't have. I'm getting more inclined to take medium things to a mechanic, like my wife's car for instance. She needed to have the plugs changed which involved disconnecting all kinds of electrical stuff, removing the intake manifold, etc. etc. I said screw it & paid the $578 to have it done. I'm wondering if/when I will need to start getting serious about finding people to do things because of my age. This summer I need to get a lot of maintenance things done on my property - some stucco repair, reapply my elastomeric roof coating this spring/summer (4K s.f.), keep up with the weed whacking and fire mitigation work, reseal my concrete, and a lot of other things. Maybe it's age, but I'm finding I have to make myself get out there and get started.

Mechanics change the water pumps in their DDs when it takes more than two jugs of water to get to work.

I'm constantly doing preventative-maintenance.
(mainly because I didn't do it right the first time aroud)

I do PM on my house. Replaced the water heater at 15 years just because they do not normally last that long due to the hard water here. Had the roof done before it was a problem because it was looking sort of bad. Same for the windows. I do the PM on the car early to avoid problems. I do not like the inconvenience of emergency repairs, house or car.

Haha!

I've been letting p/m slide longer as I get older. That said, I'm in the process of swapping transmissions on my 2000 v6 camry. Going on 5 months! Her MDX needs an oil change, a job for her son. I'll buy the stuff, supply tools, oversee.