It seems like we might be headed into one of those unfortunate times when layoffs increase and good paying jobs are harder to come by. I already know a few people who are struggling financially and more than a few of our customers are opting to put off maintenance and repair work unless it’s absolutely needed.
In the East Bay Area, having a car is pretty essential. For example, it takes just over 2 hours to get from my house to work using public transportation, but the trip is only 20 minutes with a car. That’s a 3 hour per day penalty for not having a car. Also, when times are tough many people will turn to gig work for some income (Uber, Instacart, Amazon, etc.), and most of the time that type of work requires a reliable car. And in the worst-case scenario, some people end up sleeping in their cars. My point is that not having a car will certainly make your situation worse, so keeping it running and avoiding major repairs is important.
If you’re finding you’re needing to make some hard financial decisions lately, this article will help you keep your car running and avoid causing any damage from neglect. You’ll learn what types of maintenance and repair you can safely skip until your fortunes improve. You can keep your car running well in the medium term for very little money, especially if you’ve been taking good care of it previously.
Do your part
Take care of the simple basic maintenance yourself. I’m not suggesting you start changing your own oil, but there are things you’ll need to do if you’re going to stretch maintenance intervals.
Check your oil level
The most important thing you can do is get into the habit of checking and topping your motor oil regularly. If you don’t know how, we’ll gladly teach you. And if you’re not in the area, you can find tutorials on YouTube for just about everything.
A cautionary tale
I tell this story a lot. It’s a sad one, but it teaches a valuable lesson.
We had a great customer. She was super friendly, and we always liked seeing her. Unfortunately, we saw her far too often. She had an old Mazda RX7, which was falling apart, and it broke down all the time. It seemed like she’d come in with something broken at least once per month.
At one point she stopped coming, then a couple years later she came in on a tow truck, except she didn’t have the RX7. Instead, it was a brand new 2001 Honda Civic.
2001 was the year that Honda decided their cars could go 105,000 miles between major service intervals. Apparently, the salesman at Honda had told her she could, ” weld the hood shut for 105,000 miles”.
She made it to nearly 20,000 miles before running out of oil and destroying the engine. The engine wasn’t covered by warranty because it wasn’t properly maintained. She still had the bulk of the loan to pay off, which she could barely afford in the first place.
Here’s the moral of the story, maintaining your oil level is the single most important thing you can do to prevent serious damage to your car. All cars consume motor oil. Most cars don’t consume enough that they’ll run out of oil between oil changes, but some do, and if you’re going to stretch the interval, checking and topping up the oil becomes even more important.
If you can afford gas, you can afford a quart of oil
Even if you don’t have $100 to pay for an oil change, you certainly have $8 to buy a quart of motor oil.
If you have one take away from this article, please let it be this: check and top your motor oil as frequently as you need to. How frequently is that? Every car is different. Until you’ve figured out how much oil your car consumes, check the oil every other time you get gas.
Check your tire pressure
Even inexpensive tires are over $1000 per set these days. Driving around with low tire pressure increases gas consumption and substantially decreases tire life. In California gas stations are required to provide free air and water to motorists who purchase gasoline or diesel fuel from them. You don’t need to put $2 worth of quarters in the machine, just ask the station attendant after you purchase fuel.
Make informed choices and find a mechanic you can trust
Most people would rather someone else change their oil, but at many shops you’ll be hit with requests to do additional maintenance or repair work after the oil change. How should you handle this when you’re on a tight budget?
Sometimes you really need the work. Sometimes you don’t.
Take time to weigh your options
First, if you drove in, you’ll be able to drive out. Leave and do your research. Read about the issue. Get a second opinion. Don’t give in to pressure. Mechanics who use pressure and scare tactics are typically the ones that are selling unnecessary work. Unnecessary work gives you zero benefit for your dollar and it’s the worst possible way to spend limited funds. If your mechanic becomes dramatic when you decline work, find another mechanic; it’s a bad sign.
Ask questions
If we assume your mechanic is acting in good faith and giving you good advice, it’s still good to ask questions. When we recommend maintenance, we’re assuming you want the car to last as long as possible. We may recommend a service or repair, and it may be a good recommendation, but if we know your situation we might not have made the recommendation. What’s a good idea is all a matter of perspective. Is the bushing worn and will it cause premature tire wear? Yes. But is your money better spent on that or maintaining your insurance?
Let your mechanic know money is tight
We don’t know money is tight unless you tell us. But if you do, we’ll do our best to come up with a plan to match your budget, even if your budget only covers topping up the oil and tire pressure for a while. We’re not the only shop like this. Most shops are staffed by humans who can relate.
Don’t use it as a price negotiation tactic
A quick side note. I’d recommend against trying to get sympathy discounts like you’re bargaining on Facebook Marketplace. It’s likely to backfire. People under no financial stress do this all the time and it’s annoying. People will opt to repair all sorts of non-essential items while telling us they can’t afford the repair, and they need a lower price.
Ask for advice
It’s far better to explain the situation and ask for advice in a “What would you do if you were in my situation?” kind of way. You’ll likely get good advice and may find the discounts come without asking. Back in the day Art used to say, “Hmm, I’m going to need to sharpen my pencil on this one.” once the customer had left and proceed to cut prices to a near zero profit level.
Things you can wait on
First, all necessary maintenance and repairs have a purpose and benefit. I’m not saying you should skip maintenance. However, when money is tight, these are the best things to skip. But don’t you dare email me blaming me for your failed transmission because you skipped maintenance. Every choice has some risk. This is only to help you minimize that risk.
Oil change interval (you can extend it if you keep your oil full)
You can push your oil change interval up to 10,000 miles if you’re responsible about adding oil. It will cause a little extra engine wear, but it won’t ruin your engine, at least not for a very long time.
Cabin filter (Throw it away)
You can simply remove your cabin filter instead of replacing it. A blocked cabin filter will cause problems (excess blower load) and smells, but a missing cabin filter won’t hurt anything (except maybe your allergies).
Engine air filter
You can push your engine air filter beyond 30K. You may lose a little power, and if you leave it too long it may tear and let dirty air into the engine, but despite what people say, it won’t affect your fuel economy at all, at least on any modern car. Also, you can probably replace it yourself. YouTube it.
Coolant
Coolant intervals are very stretched out already, but modern Japanese coolant really does last a long time. I’d put coolant very low on the “I’m broke” priority list. Also, it can be tested.
Brake fluid
Some manufacturers don’t even recommend replacing brake fluid. We think it’s a good idea at least every 30K / 2-3 years, but if you skip it for a year, or even two or three, it’s unlikely to cause any issue.
Transmission fluid
I’d recommend asking your mechanic. It depends a lot on the car / transmission. That said, many cars have no transmission fluid replacement interval, so the manufacturer thinks it lasts forever. I should mention that the transmission warranty usually expires before the fluid has degraded substantially and they really don’t care if it fails out of warranty. Also, manufacturers do require periodic inspection of the condition so the put the question of when to change the fluid on the mechanic.
Differential oil
We typically recommend replacing differential oil every 30K miles, but you can push it to 60K fairly safely.
Valve adjustment
This depends on the car. Some engines have issues; some don’t. It’s best to ask your mechanic if they’ve seen a lot of issues with tight valves on your vehicle. Many mechanics may tell you that failing to check/adjust tight valves may cause engine damage, and that’s true. A better question is to ask them if they have seen valve damage on your particular car frequently. You can also try Googling “[year model] tight valves” and see what you find.
Spark plugs
Modern cars have very long spark plug intervals, nearly all are between 60K and 120K for the first spark plug change. You can push the interval, but address any misfires immediately to avoid converter damage. I’ve seen iridium plugs 30,000 miles past due that actually still looked pretty good but plug wear does depend on how you drive.
Power steering flush
This is very low on the priority list. I’ve never seen it recommended by a manufacturer. There is certainly an argument to be made for this service, but the chances of breaking even or coming out ahead are lower than with most maintenance expenditures.
Fuel injector cleaning
A total waste of money. You can get the same benefit by adding a $10 bottle of Chevron Techron additive to the tank or consistently using Top Teir gasoline.
Throttle body cleaning
This is a valid maintenance item, but extremely low on the priority list when money is tight. In the worst-case scenario, you’ll develop a rough idle or stalling at idle that will be completely reversable with no lasting effects by performing this maintenance as a repair should trouble arise.
Things you might be able to wait on
Oil and fluid leaks
If you are able to add oil or fluid to prevent it from getting low, AND nothing rubber or electrical is getting soaked / ruined, you can probably skip fixing your oil leak until your ship comes in.
Bushings
Suspension bushings are often recommended too early. Minor cracks don’t affect their performance. However, if it’s totally gone it may fall into the “you should probably do it” category. Did your mechanic give you a picture? Show it to another mechanic for a second opinion.
Struts
Struts are another oversold component; they can get pretty bad though. If your car is bouncing around like a pogo stick or there’s a loud knocking noise over bumps, you may need to consider replacing them.
Battery
12V batteries technically have a binary mode of failure. They are either good, or bad. There is no gray area in between, at least not technically. A battery is “bad” when its voltage level drops below 9.6V when loaded at half its CCA rating, and good when it’s 9.6V or above. However, in practice you may be able to drive for quite a while longer on a “bad” battery.
If you opt to keep driving with a questionable battery, it’s a good idea to carry a booster pack ($60 for a cheap one) or jumper cables as low as $5 at Pick and Pull yards. You can give yourself a jumpstart with a booster pack. You’ll need a good Samaritan to help you if you have cables. If you go the cable route, look for cables with a thick conductor (copper wire). This is important.
Things you’d better have looked at
Check engine light (at least check the code and research)
You don’t necessarily need to have your check engine light diagnosed, but at minimum you should read the codes and do a little research. If the check engine light is flashing, it’s very important you have the car repaired. A solid check engine light on the other hand could be anything from a loose gas cap to a more important issue.
If you’re broke, some auto part stores like Autozone and O’Reilly will check trouble codes for you for free. We will actually do the same, pulling OBDII codes is easy. However, if you go to an auto parts store to have codes pulled, don’t make the mistake of purchasing whatever part is related to the code. We’ve seen many cars with multiple low-quality parts installed in place of the high-quality originals and still possessing the original problem.
Getting a trouble code is not diagnosing the problem, but checking the code without diagnosis still has value. Many times, we can tell you what is LIKELY wrong based on our experience with your model and that trouble code and offer advice. And if you’re not one of our customers, you can also use the internet or your favorite AI to research possible causes and consequences. A word of warning though, AI often make dire pronouncements because it’s training data often includes the ad copy posing as information found on most auto shop websites.
Oil light (stop driving)
Stop driving immediately if the oil light comes on and check the oil level. If it’s low top it up and continue driving after verifying the light goes out. If the light does not go out, have the vehicle towed.
Brake noise other than squealing (use caution)
Cheap pads are often squeaky but safe, but sometimes squealing is caused by a wear sensor, so it’s hard to say if a squeak is OK or not. However, grinding is always bad. Drive no further than your shop. When in doubt, have the brakes inspected. We charge $44. Some places do free inspections, but I’d be less inclined to believe the results.
Coolant leaks and overheating (stop driving)
If the car is losing coolant or overheating stop driving until you can fix the issue. Overheating and low motor oil are the primary causes of catastrophic engine failure (think $5000 – $15,000 repair). If your coolant level is low, you won’t necessarily see the temperature gauge rise until it’s far too late.
Battery / alternator / charging light
If the battery icon or “CHG” light comes on, your car will break down shortly after. This light is a warning that the generator that powers your electrical system and charges your battery isn’t working. The car will continue to run for a while on the power stored in the battery. How long it runs depends on the capacity of your battery at the time of the failure. If you want to save yourself a tow bill, head straight to your auto repair shop without stopping the engine. However, you should be aware that the car may stall before you get there.