Truck Maintenance

[QuarterMillionMan]

Thanks James.

[james.hendrickson]

Good for you QMM, thats a nice reward sir.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Just bought two of these 1 oz gold bars at $1936 each with the money that I saved to reward myself with the extra work that I did on this project.

[QuarterMillionMan]

All done w/no extra surprises, labor $250 OTD. Saved ~ $3000 to ~ $4000 declining Pepboys & the Dodge dealership installing only OEM parts.

[QuarterMillionMan]

This is the new $899 catalytic converter out of the box.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Thanks Kork, yes I'll be happy when it is over.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I told the mechanic that he can keep the old OEM catalytic converter. In California the law requires proof in documents before selling catalytic converters to cut down on the thefts so he'll be able to sell it legally which I estimate he can get $200 for the old OEM catalytic converter. This was one heck of a project of a head ache and I'll be relieved once it is completed and done with.

[kork13]

My car is currently at a muffler shop in Los Angeles near where I live. Before the mechanic took the job he went to his computer to ascertain that the new catalytic converter matched the specs that is compliant with the California Air Review Board, which everything matched along with my engine tag under the hood. The cost he said would take 3 hours for a total of $250 to install which I accepted graciously. He even knew the engine light code asking if I got PO420, which I said yes. The catalytic converter was $899 so with the install my total will be $1150. A far cry from Pepboys $4000 or the Dodge dealer at $5000.

Looks like reason finally prevailed .... Congrats on saving a bundle on it.

[QuarterMillionMan]

My car is currently at a muffler shop in Los Angeles near where I live. Before the mechanic took the job he went to his computer to ascertain that the new catalytic converter matched the specs that is compliant with the California Air Review Board, which everything matched along with my engine tag under the hood. The cost he said would take 3 hours for a total of $250 to install which I accepted graciously. He even knew the engine light code asking if I got PO420, which I said yes. The catalytic converter was $899 so with the install my total will be $1150. A far cry from Pepboys $4000 or the Dodge dealer at $5000.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I use this $69 Viair portable 12V compressor which can inflate a 31 x 10.5 x 15 truck tire from 0 to 36/lbs psi in 3 minutes. Rather than pay $1.50 at gas stations for 1 minute of compressed air I recommend everyone who owns a car to get a similar portable compressor most of which runs about $50 but not the cheap $25 emergency air compressors which takes a lot longer to refill air in the tires. It is worth it and will pay for itself over time and keep your tires in optimal conditions and very convenient not having to keep going to the gas station to buy air.

[kork13]

Sorta related, I'm having a dilemma about tires right now. Just over 10 years ago I put a new set of Goodyear Duratracs on a Jeep. I've only driven it about 45,000 miles over the same time, and I've done regular rotations including a 5th tire. The tires are still in really good shape, plenty of tread. But 10 years is the advertised expiration date within the tire industry, and with enthusiast groups too. If you're playing and using the tire what it's meant for, it's not a bad idea to replace based on age.. In the motorhome world, 10 years on a set of tires is riding on borrowed time, basically. There's no signs of cracking or dry rot, so I'm hesitant to buy a new set. I probably should, though. I'm obsessive about maintenance stuff so this is one of those moments. Should I be cheap like my father (he'd run the old tires until failure), or should I pay money to be theoretically safe and have defensibly new tires. We'll be taking the Jeep to Moab in about three months.

The local Les Schwab bent over backwards for us on something recently. Basically we brought them a flat tire to repair and they ended up damaging the tire, destroying it. Well, can't have just one new tire and 3 old ones on a performance AWD system. The circumference of all 4 tires need to be within a narrow range of each other (I think they said no more than 4/32"). Long story short, they sprang for 4 new tires for us, no charge, and those tires were about $300. Each. So I might go up and have them put a new set of tires on the Jeep and it will probably cost $1200. One of the very rare instances of a corporate-owned entity going above and beyond!!

My family's experience with Les Schwab is pretty similar. Between a few different experiences with them, my parents became devoted Les Schwab customers. Although it's a fairly large corporation, I believe Les Schwab is primarily a regional (Pacific NW) company, and those sort somehow tend to be the ones both most interested & most capable of having company-wide policies that really focus on customer experience & relationships.

As for the replacement.... I'd say take them in & get them inspected (at Les Schwab, of course ). If there's no sign of age & excess wear, with plenty of tread & the rubber hasn't degraded .... I would see no reason to replace the tires just because you've hit an arbitrary age on them. The actual state of the tires is far more important than how long they've been around.

[ua_guy]

Sorta related, I'm having a dilemma about tires right now. Just over 10 years ago I put a new set of Goodyear Duratracs on a Jeep. I've only driven it about 45,000 miles over the same time, and I've done regular rotations including a 5th tire. The tires are still in really good shape, plenty of tread. But 10 years is the advertised expiration date within the tire industry, and with enthusiast groups too. If you're playing and using the tire what it's meant for, it's not a bad idea to replace based on age.. In the motorhome world, 10 years on a set of tires is riding on borrowed time, basically. There's no signs of cracking or dry rot, so I'm hesitant to buy a new set. I probably should, though. I'm obsessive about maintenance stuff so this is one of those moments. Should I be cheap like my father (he'd run the old tires until failure), or should I pay money to be theoretically safe and have defensibly new tires. We'll be taking the Jeep to Moab in about three months.

The local Les Schwab bent over backwards for us on something recently. Basically we brought them a flat tire to repair and they ended up damaging the tire, destroying it. Well, can't have just one new tire and 3 old ones on a performance AWD system. The circumference of all 4 tires need to be within a narrow range of each other (I think they said no more than 4/32"). Long story short, they sprang for 4 new tires for us, no charge, and those tires were about $300. Each. So I might go up and have them put a new set of tires on the Jeep and it will probably cost $1200. One of the very rare instances of a corporate-owned entity going above and beyond!!

[QuarterMillionMan]

Add another problem albeit a small one but one tire has a slow leak and 5x's the low tire indicator comes on so I refill the air. Today I took it to a Tire Depot and the guy said no visual screws or nails using a light. I told him the tire needs to go in a water tub and air bubbles might be seen. He said today is raining and air bubbles would show on the wet tire. I gave up and told the guy that I will take it somewhere else. I told the guy that I used to fix tires and used to always put the tire in a water tub which is the only way to check for air bubbles. The guy was lazy and didn't want to pull off the tire to check it the proper way. Sheesh wasted 2 hours today at the Tire Depot in the rain.

[ua_guy]

Ua_guy, I see the Rock Auto $1885 OEM Mopar cat. converter which is a good price for OEM genuine Mopar part. I may get that instead of the after market one at $889. Which got me thinking Pepboys was going to charge me $3500 for that same $1885 OEM Mopar part. The Dealer at Dodge was going to charge me triple the Rock Auto's $1885. It's making my blood boil that they wanted to charge me double or triple Rock Auto's price. They are almost criminal.

Rock Auto does have discounts too.
they post codes on various car forums. I just used this one for an order which arrived today. 5% is about all they do but on a $2k order, that’s lunch for a week at least!!

223553393201161409

that code should be good through Feb 3rd. They roll the codes every few months, just have to Google. You enter it in the “how did you hear about us” field. Tab out of the field after entering the code and it should recalculate your total.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Ua_guy, I see the Rock Auto $1885 OEM Mopar cat. converter which is a good price for OEM genuine Mopar part. I may get that instead of the after market one at $889. Which got me thinking Pepboys was going to charge me $3500 for that same $1885 OEM Mopar part. The Dealer at Dodge was going to charge me triple the Rock Auto's $1885. It's making my blood boil that they wanted to charge me double or triple Rock Auto's price. They are almost criminal.