1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[paulplom]

Unless you own something vag related

[panhard65]

Or a Transit !

[PhilA]

The only time I see the same sort of regular routine care and maintenance schedule is where the factory equipment has been removed- generally in highly stressed, high performance applications (think 1000 bhp Honda Civic) where the design is being pushed to limits way in excess of factory spec.

I look at it this way, I'm forced to get up under the vehicle in a regular fashion, so it recieves a regular inspection for faults. That's not a bad thing.

Phil

[mercrocker]

I'm no engineer or even a competent mechanic but that is why I am a big fan of regular level checks and greasing. I feel it is the one thing I can do that gets me under the car where I can spot stuff that needs sorting before it gets too expensive.

[PhilA]

Yeah, tolerances today are so much tighter that I rarely see any change in levels, anything leaking to a real degree in my modern cars, even after the same number of moles traveled.

People forget that there's still mechanical bits under the plastic covers, though.

Phil

[captain_70s]

Yeah, tolerances today are so much tighter that I rarely see any change in levels, anything leaking to a real degree in my modern cars,

It's when they start using a touch of something or other that people get caught out.

I remember when I got the Acclaim I religiously checked the oil every week, because British Leyland. It never used a drop and I got complacent and stopped checking, it sounded a bit tappety one day after a motorway run and a look a dipstick showed it a touch below minimum.

I've since found that if you stick below 70mph it'll essentially never use oil but it drinks a surprising amount by comparison if you're doing a lot of motorway work.

[DodgeRover]

I got caught the same way with my CB750 keep it under 100 then reasonable oil consumption, hold it at 120 and it burned oil the same rate as petrol leading to an oh shit that sounds noisy moment

[PhilA]

20210817_211949.jpg (108.08 KiB) Viewed 1290 times

Weather was nice and I wasn't feeling too bad so I went for a drive last night.
Glad I did because today I ended up taking off sick because I got a fairly bad reaction to the second vaccine shot yesterday.

Feeling better this afternoon which is good

[mercrocker]

That's a great shot. ( The pic, not the jab.)

[xtriple]

My first car ( a Mini Cooper 1275 of 1969 vintage that I saved up for bloody years to buy) always told me when the oil level was low as, when you went round a roundabout, the oil pressure would disappear, a sure sign it was in need of a top-up!

I will admit to not being a great one for checking stuff when I was young, in fact, the horror story that I received when it went for its MOT shouldn't have come as a surprise as I was vaguely aware that the brakes required several pumps on the pedal before retardation occurred to any noticeable degree and none of the tyres seemed to have those squiggly bits that meet the tarmac...and that people seemed to find desirable, especially the nice chaps in funny hats that stopped me and told me so!

I didn't really start to take any interest in maintaining my cars until I stopped driving and used vehicles with just two wheels and a HUGE engine when my continued desire to carry on breathing and an equal desire to thrash the tits off my bike without having to push the fucker home became pre-eminent.

Incidentally, my first bikes were all treated to as much contempt as my cars which did result (at least in a tiny part) in my five-month stay in Warwick general!