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Car Maintenance
Aug. 23rd, 2009 12:46 pmI did a little maintenance on the Civic just now.
1. I topped up the washer fluid levels. Trivial.
2. I replaced the engine's air filter. The old filter didn't look all that dirty but according to the mileage recommendations for my car, my Civic was past due. Undo some the screws on the housing, remove the old filter, set the new one in place, screw the housing back on again. No problem!
3. I replaced the cabin air conditioning filters. These filters were utterly disgusting: I was a little surprised to find leaves & twig fragments embedded in the filter. The replacement was a more challenging but not by much: remove the glove compartment, remove two filter trays & filters, replace the filters in the trays, reseat the trays, reseat the glove compartment. No tools required!
4. I checked the tire pressure of the tires, including the spare tire. All are fine.
In all, these were trivial things but for someone who doesn't work on anything which isn't entirely powered by semiconductors, this is a big deal.
Since I needed to remove the glove compartment, it was also a good opportunity to sort through the contents. I really don't need several dozen spare paper napkins, leftovers from many a fast-food drive-thru. I also don't need the insurance certificates from 2005, 2006, 2007 or 2008, or the emissions testing paperwork from 2006 and 2008. And I really don't need the car charger for the Motorola cell phone I retired last December.
The oil still needs to be changed but I'm going to go to a local express change garage rather than do that myself: it's messier than I want to tackle and I don't have a convenient way of disposing of the used oil. I'll pay a little extra to let the professionals deal with this.
1. I topped up the washer fluid levels. Trivial.
2. I replaced the engine's air filter. The old filter didn't look all that dirty but according to the mileage recommendations for my car, my Civic was past due. Undo some the screws on the housing, remove the old filter, set the new one in place, screw the housing back on again. No problem!
3. I replaced the cabin air conditioning filters. These filters were utterly disgusting: I was a little surprised to find leaves & twig fragments embedded in the filter. The replacement was a more challenging but not by much: remove the glove compartment, remove two filter trays & filters, replace the filters in the trays, reseat the trays, reseat the glove compartment. No tools required!
4. I checked the tire pressure of the tires, including the spare tire. All are fine.
In all, these were trivial things but for someone who doesn't work on anything which isn't entirely powered by semiconductors, this is a big deal.
Since I needed to remove the glove compartment, it was also a good opportunity to sort through the contents. I really don't need several dozen spare paper napkins, leftovers from many a fast-food drive-thru. I also don't need the insurance certificates from 2005, 2006, 2007 or 2008, or the emissions testing paperwork from 2006 and 2008. And I really don't need the car charger for the Motorola cell phone I retired last December.
The oil still needs to be changed but I'm going to go to a local express change garage rather than do that myself: it's messier than I want to tackle and I don't have a convenient way of disposing of the used oil. I'll pay a little extra to let the professionals deal with this.
