Why does car work take forever?

[sciphi]

Why, oh why, does working on my damn car always take waaay longer and cost so much more than it should?:confused: :confused: Every time I go out to work on the thing, something always comes up where I end up spending so much more money and time than should be necessary to complete the project! Is it just me? Is it the fact that I drive an 8-year-old car that has spent all it's life in the salted wasteland known as upstate NY? Why???

[jayupark]

salt kills cars.

[bdiggy]

They use way less than CT. I swear the state doesn't care about killing our cars so long as they produce enough cracks and heaves in the road to give them spring time road work!

[jalmir]

sciphi, I have the same problem, but it's always due to rusted parts, hard to take off and that I end up changing (mostly bolts).

But yeah it always takes me more time then I thought it would take. (minus maintenance work, I know what, how and when to do it).

[ghrpdx]

It seems to me that every time I do ANYTHING on my car, there is always one bolt, nut, screw, fastener, or something or other that strips, breaks, or is seized that doubles my time!

For instance ... when I installed my spoiler, I dropped one of the screws inside the trunklid. I had to remove the entire lid to shade out the stupid screw. Add another HOUR!

It's always SOMETHING!

[Doohickie]

Part of it is salt, part of it is experience, or lack thereof. Your profile says your 21; when I was that age I didn't know sh1t about cars. You have to work slow, and make a few mistakes along the way, to learn. It seems like a PIA now but it's an investment. When I do a job I haven't done before, I recognize it will take probably 4 times longer than the shop quote, and I might have to spend as much on tools as the shop would have charged for labor. The second time I do the job, it takes far less time I already have the tools, so the investment from the first time pays off.

Hang in there; you're learning.

...and go Sabres!

[DJ Hellfire]

Why, oh why, does working on my damn car always take waaay longer and cost so much more than it should?:confused: :confused: Every time I go out to work on the thing, something always comes up where I end up spending so much more money and time than should be necessary to complete the project! Is it just me? Is it the fact that I drive an 8-year-old car that has spent all it's life in the salted wasteland known as upstate NY? Why???



I wish the world could experience what you have. Then there wouldn't be so many b*tchy customers that don't understand why there car can take so long when it seems like it shouldn't. Sh*t comes up!

[thewilson]

I am in the same boat as you dude. I think its a learning curve and having the funds for tools when you need them.

[sciphi]

Very true. All the stuff I've done has been the first time for any major car work. Timing belt, rebuilt rear brakes, stuffing a GK rear sway bar on, etc., I have been very lucky in getting everything back together, and what's more, actually working better than before! (knocks on wood) Very, very, very lucky.

I personally don't have a garage. My friends all do, though, so here's a shout-out to my roommate and friends who have helped me a lot.

DJ, I still ***** sometimes, like when the shop has royally messed up, or is obviously wasting time. Other than that, I sit and do the ever-present schoolwork. During the summer, it's car repair time! Hopefully that will mean less time and money spent during the school year, when I can least afford to be sitting in a shop, paying $$$ for something I could have done myself over the summer. Of course, cars being mechanical, I inevitably will.

[Tricked]

It goes that way for me, too. I just did the clutch and flywheel in my sentra this past weeken on Saturday. I though I could do it all on Saturday by myself (it's only a 1.6L). I ended up running into the bolt that I couldn't find that prevented the tranny from coming out. When I found the bolt, it took about an hour to get to it and loosen it. In the mean time I got pissed and pushed my creeper away from me and it hit the pan with all the gear oil in it. It sloshed onto the creeper, bottom of the car and all over the floor. I spent another hour cleaning up a stupid mistake. Then I ran out of parts cleaner so I had to make do with 409. Then I was pulled away from the job in order to go out to dinner with the wife and friends. By the time I got home it was too late. I started the next morning and was stuck trying to put the axles back in. That took another hour. In the mean time I ripped the passenger side ball joint boot. I finally got it back together with about 12 hours of work and 4 of those hours I had my 1 year old running around the garage. I estimated 6 hours of work.:rolleyes: I should have known better! It's all worth it, though. I know it was done right!

[Pase]

same thing for me!!! 4 hours to do my oil change!! twice!!!!! *?*%$)*&?) and it's not a lack of experience.. lol it's a oil change!! lol

[jalmir]

4 hours ... lolll noob!!! :D

jking Pase

[Pase]

stop laughing on me lol.. it's not funny &(?%$*&?$% bolts!!!!!! lol

[KeWLKaT]

How the hell can it take 4 hours to change your oil....?

Just out of curiosity ;)

[jalmir]

If I remember correctly the oil filter was stuck on the engine, even the "screwdriver into the filter" trick didn't worked!

[KeWLKaT]

What? He spun it and it just cut through the metal filter so it got cut in half? lol

[jalmir]

nope he told me the screwdriver bended ... and that he was near psychological brakedown! lolll

[KeWLKaT]

... as usual ;)

Hehe just kidding I love my little pascy LOL

[Pase]

How the hell can it take 4 hours to change your oil....?

Just out of curiosity ;)

I had make you a really big post detailed but I touch wrong button and lost all my post :mad:

this one will be very shorter...

no place to work below the car,
bolt of "oil tank"?? jammed (problem gone with my fumoto!)
screw of protective plate of oil filter didn't unscrew, they were stripped, I was out of me so I broke the plastic and pull out..
and oil filter didn't unscrew (jalmir was right) screwdriver bended but with lot of patience, I did hole every centimeter and finally after 6-7 holes successfully took it out

big part of story are missing but most important is there.... half day to do oil change!! :mad:

ohh.. I forgot...... your right jal, I was really near psychological brakedown!! it's not a joke lol

[hgoalie85]

same thing for me!!! 4 hours to do my oil change!! twice!!!!! *?*%$)*&?) and it's not a lack of experience.. lol it's a oil change!! lol

Yeah it takes me a while to do my oil changes too but i time it in beers consumed. That might be why it takes so long... but by the time I am wrapping things up i feeling pretty damn good!

[Pase]

yeah anyone who told me that it took same time took 3 hours of brake and lot of beers lol

[sciphi]

I hate things that go wrong like that which slow down car repair. Oh well. At least all this stuff that's been talked about has been fixed.

Pase, yeeowch! That is one gnarly story!

[KeWLKaT]

Well right yesterday we had such a problem

What started out as a normal clutch install... We discovered that I have 2 out of 3 bolts holding the rear motor mount in are stripped.

It's not that bad since it's the back motor mount, the front one getting more stress when accelerating and the back one getting pulled up (hence its mounting pounts) but I still need to rethread stuff which pisses me off.

[jalmir]

Yeah, the stripped bolts were quite badly stripped ... unfortunately Felix tap kit was missing that exact bolt size! lolll

[sciphi]

What happened to the bolts? And whose car was this on?

[KeWLKaT]

It's on my car.


It's still on stands tonight (just came back from working on it), need to buy the correct tap tomorrow...

The bolts I guess just got torqued too much (i torqued them by hand...lol), or just that when removing some rust breakage occured..?)