Although we might give off the idea that we are all paragons of automotive maintenance here at GRM, sometimes there are those things that need fixing that, simply, are more convenient to put off for another day–even if that “day” ends up being weeks or months from now.
What are some maintenance items you have been putting off? And don’t …
Suspension bushings.
Rear main seal and oil pan gasket on my Yukon
Getting the Z-bar to not go over center on my clutch. Welding in exhaust hangers to finish the exhaust.
I am terrible about "deferred maintenance".
Cayman-Brakes, tierod ends, new front wheel to replace bent one.
Charger-nothing yet.
Tacoma-rear end housing needs replacement due to rust, gas tank replacement due to split seam, rust repair welded in on rocker.
Golf-nothing yet.
The rest of my cars are projects that fall under "deferred project start".
2016 Silverado x 122,000 miles. All is good but it's running the original spark plugs.
Oil change on my Jetta that eats oil. It drinks it like it only has one job and two stores were out of filters. I just keep putting more oil in so its like changing it, right?
Cam/pulley for water pump seal on the daily....been leaking for years but changing the oil last weekend revealed low oil and large increase in the leak. Its getting fixed today along with that bad motor mount....which is now completely shot.
Pretty much anything on the daily gets ignored while fun car and truck get all the maintenance love.
Yanking a motor on one car and doing body work on another.
I am starting to get concerned about the play in the rear end of the truck. It does have 390k on it.
Pulling load bags on truck, and doing headlight work in the daily driver mazdas that requires pulling bumper covers
Ever since we bought our house this past May I've given every weekend to home improvement projects, and maintenance on our daily driver cars has been deferred. Not to mention the project car which now has a layer of dust on it.
I'd bought a catalytic converter shield for my Honda Element before we even moved, but only got it installed after completing new flooring for the home gym. (The thought of how ironic it would be to have the converter stolen while a cat shield sat on my shelf finally motivated me to get the installation done.) An oil change on the same car was put off until after the garage A/C installation was done, and just before we were due for a long road trip - at which point a stuck oil filter turned the job into an hours-long ordeal.
My wife had been bugging me to change the oil in her Acura MDX so long that it had already effectively consumed a complete oil change in top-offs. (Hers has one of the engines with oil consumption issues - as people who have also owned Preludes, we're no strangers to otherwise-great Honda engines with an oil drinking habit.)
I finally got around to changing the oil in my wife's MDX last weekend, but that meant I was left working after dark on the floor of the shed I'm building. An oil change shouldn't take that long, but in the process I also found a leaking battery had covered the terminal in green schmoo, and I spent some time scrubbing the cables. That reminds me, I also need to order new hood struts.
The big maintenance item coming up is the timing belt on the MDX. Yes unlike my Element which has a chain in it's K series I4, the J series V6 still uses a belt. For that I want to get my project car (a Prelude, no surprise) out of the garage. Since the project car doesn't currently have an engine in it (and I'd like it to be mobile before moving it out), that means I'm playing chicken between getting that done this winter versus the life of the timing belt on the MDX which is currently at 120K miles.
"clunk hunt" on my Suzuki. I think it needs balljoints up front again, maybe more, possibly strut top bearings. Rear has some odd clunk over specific bump shapes. Something making a rattle/tapping noise in the front passenger door or somewhere around there. Windlace on all four doors where the glass meets the door at the beltline of the car. Probably time for brake pads all around at minimum. Might as well do all fluids. Some cosmetics like replace the fog lights and re-clear the headlights. There's an underhood rattle that only shows up when I'm reversing, like a heat shield that isn't quite right, and maybe it's time for motor mounts as those have never been done and the car is 10 years old with 150k miles.
Lot of fun...
2010 Forester LF knuckle, LCA, and gas tank. Pretty sure the knuckle and LCA will go together over thanksgiving, but the gas tank is gonna wait til Summer.
No technically putting it off, but waiting for the struts. Once they're here I can put the new tie rods and stock suspension back in.
My BMW has been getting about 600mpg of coolant. Pretty sure it's a headgasket but I'll just keep topping it up.
I just did it, transmission service on my Infiniti G20/Primera. Found a loose bolt in the pan, but it's shifting fine so...
Need to fix the blend door actuator in the C1500, functional heat in the winter will be nice.
Total engine/turbo re-fresh of my 2004 MSM Miata.
It has a blown head gasket. I'm waiting on selling a house in order to finance this.
I've had new LCA bushings in a box in the trunk of the Focus for a few months. Definitely procrastinating on that one.
I was putting off a trans flush, now I'm regretting that! See other thread.
Wheel bearing, sway bar endnlinks.
Engine mounts for the Miata. It's a huge PITA on a Mazdaspeed because of the turbo, especially if you try to do it on jack stands.
Plugs, ATF change, etc on the TL. I'm being that "it's running great so why mess with it" kind of lazy with it right now.
Fixing the totally detached muffler on the excursion. I hate the sound, but building a new exhaust is expensive, because it needs manifolds, so might as well put in a Y pipe and a new cat and just rebuild the whole thing.
Front axle seals on the suburban.
$15 a side for the seal. 4-6 hours of work on my rusty junk. Just not worth it.
My 3.5 Ecoboost F-150 is a great machine and I really love it. But after 9 years, all the little seals and o-rings in the coolant system are starting to leak, and I need to top off the coolant every month or so. Unfortunately fixing it all involves dismantling half the engine bay, which leads to a bunch of "while I'm in there" stuff, which means it's easier and cheaper just to top it off with coolant for the time being.
Glow Plugs in my '96 F-350, and NV3500 swap in the Durango.
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