This should send the hive into quite an uproar, I quietly thought to myself

Stupid article of stupidness

I usually really like Popular Mechanics site, its a great time killer with a ton of interesting stuff. When I saw the headline about car maintenance that should be left to the pros I expected maybe timing components on vvt engines, brake repairs for safety reasons, or servicing the electrical system on a hybrid or electric car. But what do I get? Why I shouldn't change my own oil. Or spark plugs. Or wash my own car. I think the part that really grinds my gears is the fact that its from POPULAR MECHANICS! I'm guessing the author is a real life version of the huge spaz you see in commercials for those "as seen on tv" products that can't open a jar of peanut butter without hurting himself. Too frustrating not to share.

After reading that, all I have to say is: "what the berkeley is wrong with those morons!?" Good thing I don't subscribe to their magazine, because that would be enough for me to cancel my subscription on the spot.

Playing to the base.

Hmm I kinda see the battery and the oil change but not for the reasons listed. Mostly because if you buy a battery at a parts store they will put it in for you so why not let them do it. For oil changes most places can do an oil change for the same price or less than I can buy the parts. So for my car I do my own oil changes because I'm picky but for my wife's appliance I have her take it and have taught her to just say no to everything but the oil change.

In reply to Maniac0301:

I've had those same thoughts. And then I think about it a bit more and end up at "no, I'd rather not have them touch my car, I'm better off doing it and knowing exactly how it was done."

It's a desperate attempt to preserve what is left of the American economy. Our workforce, which was once technically proficient, is now largely made up of minimum wage burger flippers with Liberal Arts degrees. If we can't put some of these geniuses to work changing your oil and installing batteries, what else would they do but live in their parents' basement, play video games, and collect welfare?

On the same page there's a link to an article on repairing your own power windows. It's almost like the articles on the site are there just to drive traffic to the advertisers.

You know what's easier? Pay the guys who do this every day and can knock it out in ten minutes.

I don't think I've ever been to an oil change place that can do it in under 45 minutes. Plus I like to look at the suspension and tires while I'm down there. I've also never forgotten to put my drain plug back in.

Generally, the more modern the car, the more aggravating the battery swap. Just for fun, I popped the hood on a 2017 Audi Q7 to test my hypothesis. Unsurprisingly, there's no battery in the engine bay—

It's probably under the plastic cover that you think is the engine.

New Spark Plugs

Maybe but I drive mostly high strung 4 bangers and they're all super easy to get to. I seriously don't trust other people to install my TMIC correctly again. Do you know what I don't want to do after I get my car serviced? Track down a boost leak.

But you'll never do it as well as the real car wash.

I've never met a touchless that'll get all the crap PennDot sprays on the roads off. It always seems to leave a haze on my glass.

Ones that use mechanical removal. Well...do a search for ex-employees giving stories about only changing the wipers when someone with an expensive enough vehicle has the paint scratched.

My tools are clean and I can buy a gallon of car wash that lasts for years for 20 bucks. I only use automated in the winter to get the undercarriage.

After watching a video on where the Q7 battery is located, I'm pretty sure the autozone kid isn't going to have a clue how to change his battery either.

Hmm... When I was in NH and 300+ miles away from home and my tools, the "Change Oil" message came on in the GC. There was a Valvoline quick-lube place near my apartment, so I figured I'd let them do it. Sure, the oil change might only take 10 min, but if I have to wait in line for 45 min before they can perform that 10 min service, I'm going to say "F-this..." and do it myself. An extra 400 miles on the old oil isn't going to kill anything.

Yes... if you work for Popular Mechanics and can't find the battery in a car - no matter how well hidden - you should be fired. It seems they've taken to burying them under access panels in the firewall. This isn't exactly something new - MINI started it with the R56 back in '07. I remember when a buddy (who is a pro indy MINI wrench) and I were looking at one of the early cars in a showroom back in '06, we immediately started pulling panels and stuff off the engine bay to find the various maintenance items.

Spark plugs... might agree with him there. Especially since after 100K miles the plugs may be seized into the head as well as being hard to get to. I don't have the tools (yet) to extract a broken plug. My mechanic does.

Car wash... well... I tend to only wash the classic cars with any regularity. The poor GC has seen soap twice (I think) during the 3 years I've owned it. Yeah... I should probably wash them more often. That said, the one time I did have one of my daily drivers professionally washed, they missed about as much as I often do.

1988RedT2 wrote: It's a desperate attempt to preserve what is left of the American economy. Our workforce, which was once technically proficient, is now largely made up of minimum wage burger flippers with Liberal Arts degrees. If we can't put some of these geniuses to work changing your oil and installing batteries, what else would they do but live in their parents' basement, play video games, and collect welfare?

As a Liberal Arts degree holder, I'd like to take the opportunity to shove this condescending post up your......... never mind, some people aren't worth the time.

The Orville Wright of Chevy Berettas? Just makes my head hurt.....as does that entire article.

The0retical wrote:

You know what's easier? Pay the guys who do this every day and can knock it out in ten minutes.

I don't think I've ever been to an oil change place that can do it in under 45 minutes. Plus I like to look at the suspension and tires while I'm down there. I've also never forgotten to put my drain plug back in.

Generally, the more modern the car, the more aggravating the battery swap. Just for fun, I popped the hood on a 2017 Audi Q7 to test my hypothesis. Unsurprisingly, there's no battery in the engine bay—

It's probably under the plastic cover that you think is the engine.

New Spark Plugs

Maybe but I drive mostly high strung 4 bangers and they're all super easy to get to. I seriously don't trust other people to install my TMIC correctly again. Do you know what I don't want to do after I get my car serviced? Track down a boost leak.

But you'll never do it as well as the real car wash.

I've never met a touchless that'll get all the crap PennDot sprays on the roads off. It always seems to leave a haze on my glass. Ones that use mechanical removal. Well...do a search for ex-employees giving stories about only changing the wipers when someone with an expensive enough vehicle has the paint scratched. My tools are clean and I can buy a gallon of car wash that lasts for years for 20 bucks. I only use automated in the winter to get the undercarriage.

We average 15 minutes for a full service oil change. What kind of places do you go that it takes 45mins? Doesnt even take that long to do a 2014+ cummins and there miserable bastards.

its probably to hard to do that work yourself when you haven't put your purse down...

In reply to Joe Gearin:

LOL.

Much to your credit, you have risen well above burger flipper status.

Oil change is when I detail the undercarriage, rotate tires, check brakes and make a checklist of things to keep an eye on and replace.

1988RedT2 wrote: It's a desperate attempt to preserve what is left of the American economy. Our workforce, which was once technically proficient, is now largely made up of minimum wage burger flippers with Liberal Arts degrees. If we can't put some of these geniuses to work changing your oil and installing batteries, what else would they do but live in their parents' basement, play video games, and collect welfare?

I have never changed the oil on my Buick and only done a few on the Fiat. The dealer did it for the first 24,000 miles and now the girl at the quick lube place does it. A Mobil 1 oil change and a wash in about 20 minutes is quicker, less aggravating and only a few more dollars than doing it at home would be

1988RedT2 wrote: It's a desperate attempt to preserve what is left of the American economy. Our workforce, which was once technically proficient, is now largely made up of minimum wage burger flippers with Liberal Arts degrees. If we can't put some of these geniuses to work changing your oil and installing batteries, what else would they do but live in their parents' basement, play video games, and collect welfare?

Uhh... I don't have a liberal arts degree, but I do take my car in to have its oil changed.

Most of the people that I know who do work on their own cars do have a liberal arts degree.

Wall-e wrote: I have never changed the oil on my Buick and only done a few on the Fiat. The dealer did it for the first 24,000 miles and now the girl at the quick lube place does it. A Mobil 1 oil change and a wash in about 20 minutes is quicker, less aggravating and only a few more dollars than doing it at home would be

Plus, even if it is a snotnosed kid doing it, he does a lot of them every day. I don't--even if I did do it, it would only be about 8 times a year best case. And I mess up a lot, so to not mess up, I have to go very slowly.

Plus, the local place I can drop the car off and then walk home or go to my FIL's and drink his beer.

Maniac0301 wrote: For oil changes most places can do an oil change for the same price or less than I can buy the parts.

For me it's worth the extra $10 and an armpit full of oil to get exactly what oil I want, make sure they don't crossthread the drain plug, double-gasket the filter, and forget to put the oil back in. And it doesn't take any more time out of my day at all; maybe less.

mtn wrote: Most of the people that I know who do work on their own cars *do* have a liberal arts degree.

Is that because they can't afford to pay someone to do it on a fry cook's salary?

Yeah, in a lot of places oil changes are so cheap, even at good shops, that it doesn't make much sense from a value of time perspective unless you have no kids and are retired.

For cars that require dropping the subframe or removing the entire cowl to do the plugs and then scraping your knuckles, yeah, not worth it.

On a lot of "regular" cars these days, a lot of stuff can't be done without dropping the subframe. With professional equipment you can drop the subframe in an hour tops, but in your own garage, it would take alot of us half the day and we'd have to have a big bulky engine jack or hoist in addition to having a lift to actually have enough space under there to do it right (I really don't think it's super safe to drop a 900 lb subframe with a car on jack stands - for an old D-series Honda, where a big guy could lift the subframe himself, yeah, that's fine, but not on these bigger modern drivetrains).

Huckleberry wrote:

mtn wrote: Most of the people that I know who do work on their own cars *do* have a liberal arts degree.

Is that because they can't afford to pay someone to do it on a fry cook's salary?

It's because they spent their welfare check on video games.