Car Maintenance Makes Me Cry
Jun. 9th, 2011 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisI love my Honda Civic but money has been short for a while as I've been trying to catch up on a series of large expenses --a campground annual lease, a new furnace, a wedding, etc.. All of that neglected regular maintenance has been hovering over my head, slowly ratcheting up the fear that eventually something would break and I'd be marooned out in the wilderness somewhere.
While my immediate cash supply isn't any better than it was months ago, at least there is only one known major upcoming expense --our Atlanta IAGSDC convention at the end of the month. Because of a confluence of external factors, I resolved that I would catch up on the bulk of the neglected routine car maintenance this week.
I just collected my Civic back from NTB.
Adding in taxes, I paid $1,792.56.
Ouch. That's $250 more than our monthly mortgage payment. :-(
Worse, this doesn't include the replacement of the timing belt, the water pump and the air bag cartridges, all of which are very overdue and still pending.
On the brief drive from the shop to home, the only noticeable difference in performance was the vastly improved feel of the brakes --they're no longer mushy and soft. I hope the other minor improvements will become obvious as I drive to the data center tonight; a slight increase in fuel performance would be nice although I was averaging about 37 mpg prior to the work anyway.
I'm consoling myself by focusing on how much more reliable the Civic will be, how I've extended its working life a little bit and how much more confident I can be while using it on extended road trips. It's not helping yet, but it's all I have currently.
While my immediate cash supply isn't any better than it was months ago, at least there is only one known major upcoming expense --our Atlanta IAGSDC convention at the end of the month. Because of a confluence of external factors, I resolved that I would catch up on the bulk of the neglected routine car maintenance this week.
I just collected my Civic back from NTB.
- Oil change $10 (had a coupon)
- Oil disposal $3
- Four new tires @$74 each $296
- Tire disposal $12
- Maryland tire recycling fee $3.20
- Basic tire service $52
- Wheel alignment $115
- Coolant flush & exchange $110
- Serpentine belt (AC & alternator) $55
- Serpentine belt (power steering) $50
- Tune-up $80
- New sparkplugs & install $71
- Front brake pads $150
- Brake rotors $150
- Rear brake maint $30
- Brake fluid exchange $60
- Transmission fluid exchange $145
- Labor $296
Adding in taxes, I paid $1,792.56.
Ouch. That's $250 more than our monthly mortgage payment. :-(
Worse, this doesn't include the replacement of the timing belt, the water pump and the air bag cartridges, all of which are very overdue and still pending.
On the brief drive from the shop to home, the only noticeable difference in performance was the vastly improved feel of the brakes --they're no longer mushy and soft. I hope the other minor improvements will become obvious as I drive to the data center tonight; a slight increase in fuel performance would be nice although I was averaging about 37 mpg prior to the work anyway.
I'm consoling myself by focusing on how much more reliable the Civic will be, how I've extended its working life a little bit and how much more confident I can be while using it on extended road trips. It's not helping yet, but it's all I have currently.
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 11:31 pm (UTC)