Automotive Question

[BarryBobPosthole]

Who here has a Chiltons for any of their vehicles? It used to be de rigeur to have one for every vehicle if you did any work on them yourself. You can still get them for $40! Of course now we have Youtube!

BKb

[quercus alba]

I can do a lot of things, no, let me rephrase that. There are a few things I can do but mechanics ain't one of them. If you ask my wife she'll tell you I can do very little and none of it correctly. A Chiltons might as well be written in Sanskrit for all the good it would do me.

The sole reason I've worked my entire life was to pay mechanics to keep my vehicles running, I even get my oil changed at Walmart

[Thumper]

I used to have a whole bookshelf of Chilton Manuals, but sold most of them on eBay. I probably have a few still hanging around someplace, I'm just not sure where. These days? I won't even open a hood. In fact, I'd be willing to bet I've bought new cars, drove them for years, then traded them without ever once opening the hood. That's total opposite of the way I was years ago. Heck, long ago, I'd never even buy a NEW car without opening the hood. I'm not sure why, it's just something I always did. Heck, for some reason, opening the hood was more important to me than a test drive. It got to the point, I'd just buy cars without even opening the doors. Example, I traded our 2018 Highlander for a 2023 Highlander back in November of last year. A month or so after buying it, I opened the back door to put something in the back seat. WTF??? It has bucket seats in the BACK! (Captain's chairs? I don't know what they're called) The 2018 had a bench seat (which I would have preferred), but I never even thought about it (the buckets are an option). Oh well, our 2023 9-seater is actually an 8-seater .... that is, IF it has a third row seat ... I've never actually checked. I grew up as an absolute 100% car nut and probably knew every single nut & bolt of every car I ever owned. When cars became cookie cutter cars, I could care less ... as long as they're reliable and don't start falling apart once they're a year old. That's one reason I drive Toyotas ... all I have to do is start them, drive them and take them in for service when the little message on the dash tells me to, then trade them when I start missing that new car smell.

After writing this, I'm a little ashamed of myself. :(

[BarryBobPosthole]

I still do my own brake jobs and on my old Z71 I even did new wheel assys. Replaced a water pump on it. Was a snap. I take my truck to a place in town to get my oil changed. Not much to do with hoopies these days. Spark plug wires wear out before the plugs do. By the time my yote hits 100k I might not feel the same. I still like futzing around with mine.
BKB

[airbud7]

cars/trucks don't break anymore like they used to.

any of y'all remember the C4/C6/turbo 350/400 transmissions?....modern day tires last longer than they did!

[Bwana]

For me YouTube has taken the place of the Chilton's Manual.