Saturday, October 27, 2007

Everything I ever wanted to know about car maintenence (but was afraid to ask)

Today was spent with my mother and her husband, who graciously helped my husband fix a few of the more minor things on the van. J. is an interesting guy. He builds antique cars from parts he has bought in junkyards and on Ebay...including a Model T and a beautiful VW. He knows more about cars and cart maintenence than I ever thought possible...

When I asked a simple question ("is it possible to fix struts and shocks on a van at home or is it best left to the pros?") I got a lengthy, informative lecture about the exact functions of the various parts of a van, how they all work together, what shocks and struts actually do and how they may break down over time (and the various things that may have gone wrong), and so on and so forth. I took about 4 pages of notes while I talked to him on the phone the other day, and finally asked him if he could just show us how to do it...and in exchange for finding out what was wrong with his computer, he agreed for us to come over, and do some auto shop in his garage.

As he looked at the old shock/strut from the van, he asked us when the last time we greased it. Uh.....never? Were we supposed to grease it? Why don't they tell us these things?!?! He said that it should be done at the time of each oil change....and that most places should do it, but you should ask anyway. From the looks of ours, it has not been greased in a very long time.

He looked at our transmission too (after giving me a very detailed description of the various parts and functions of the transmission, and how to maintain one, and of course all of the different things that might go wrong with a transmission, of course). Apparently, some cars have only certain kinds of Transmission Fluid that can be used with them (that would have been handy to know!). Then there's the fact that when the transmission fluid gets too hot, it gets thick and sludgy, causing things to malfunction or to not function optimally, and eventually causing you to be sitting by the side of the road watching traffic fly by you, waiting for a tow truck. Our next task is going to be to drain the transmission fluid and refill it with fresh, to see if that will help the situation. We were going to do that today, but it took 6 hours to do both shocks, and when we went to start on the trans, we realized they had given us the wrong sized filter at the auto parts store. Another day, I guess.

It was nice to drive home without bouncing down the road. ;) Thank God for some help!

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