Thread: HELP!! My GP is Only Running On 5 Cylinders!!

I personally understand your thinking Zef. And I feel much the way you do and we were ALL noobs at one point either with the GP or with cars in general or both.

My experience has been that most people are:

1. Afraid to do the work because it seems overwhelming
2. Dont have the knowledge, tools, etc.
3. Dont want to do the work or dont have the time (so they perceive)

I cant begin to tell you the number of people that approach me to do work for them telling me that a shop quoted them such and such and want to see how much I can do it for and are pretty consistently shocked to find out just how inexpensively the work can be done for.

Furthermore, if I talk with someone and they seems someone inclined to learn, then I'll cut them a break if they get in there and help me so that they too learn. I encourage people to watch and take notes ask questions take pictures, whatever helps them build confidence and learn how to do the work themselves.

I am of the philosophy that I dont loose something of myself by teaching someone to do the the work. Quite the opposite in fact. But most people are just overwhelmed with most maintenance tasks with regards to cars. Even things as simple as changing the oil or plugs and wires, etc. Heck, when I was growing up it was quite the exception to take your vehicle and have someone change the oil for you. Now, its very much swung the other way and it more the exception to find someone doing it themselves.

But I agree with you in that there is enough knowledge and helpful people on here that one could begin with very simple things and work their way to a point of more complex things. You dont have to know how to pull an engine or tranny or rebuild one to have enough knowledge to keep your vehicle well maintained and around for a long time.

I have thought it would be a good thing, as a community, to have meets solely for the purpose of teaching basic maintenance and such.

One piece of advice I would give to each person that is daunted by such tasks, do them on the weekend. Start after you get off work on Friday. Clear your schedule and so on. During the week, post here and get tips, tricks and so on. Then determine the tools you need and get those during the week if there are any you need. Then when you get home from work on Friday, park the car, pop the hood and let it cool off a bit then get started.

In this way, you have the weekend to correct anything that may go wrong or you can just take your time, snap pics, take notes and so on so that you have personal journal and notes of how you did it. I have been doing this a long time and I STILL take notes or write down new techniques even for ordinary maintenance.

Some people don't really care to do the work themselves, whether they know how or not. I am one that enjoys driving, and will only work on stuff that I deem necessary and that I can get to from the top side, oil changes being the exception.

Originally Posted by SyntheticShield

I personally understand your thinking Zef. And I feel much the way you do and we were ALL noobs at one point either with the GP or with cars in general or both.

My experience has been that most people are:

1. blah
2. blah
3. blah

blah, blah, etc, etc.... for space sake...

I agree 100% with you Scotty. The only reason I made a point of it was that y1a3o said it cost him a few hundred. And to me it sounded like he was partially dismayed by this. But overall the end results were favorable. Just made a small point to mention what the plugs could have been changed for.

I know there are plenty of people that don't think twice about paying someone $250 to change a set of spark plugs. Or pay a dealer $600 to do a checkup on their vehicle. And there are many reasons for this. I have reasons why I hardly ever take my car for service anywhere. There are benefits to both. Just trying to show the benefits of the side I tend to take.