You know what makes me mad?

[Luis_G]

My friend drove a old Toyota corolla from the 80's. I think it was a 88 or 89.
She got it with like 70ks on it for $500. No oil changes, nothing. She ended up with 330k miles on it before she sold it or gave it away.

My dad on the other hand has a bad habit of picking up used cars that have issues. He doesn't change the car oil. Even when it's free we have a 2010 corolla with lifetime oil change. I usually have to take it myself because he's too busy.

Never changes anything until there's a problem. And usually there is.
I think the longest time he's had with a used car may be 2 years before something major goes wrong or is about to go wrong and he sells it.

 

[ARB1977]

The minute I neglect a vehicle it will blow up. That will be my luck.

 

[Andy636]

My dad's like that, he doesn't give a flying F about preventive maintenance but washes the car once or twice a week.

Doesn't care about oil changes, headlight bulbs, brakes, tires...you get the picture. A couple of times his brake pads ended up metal on metal.

He uses used engine oil in the tractor's transmission since it has a leak and fixing it it's not oh his priority list.

 

[dailydriver]

My brother's '99 Boxster is SO neglected, it is CRIMINAL!!

He does NOT deserve to own/drive this car, and it should NOT even still be running, but it does still soldier on at 180K+ miles, despite much periodic maintenance (brake fluid, transaxle fluid, dampers, CV joints, fuel filter, p.s. fluid, etc.) NEVER having been done in it's lifetime.
(His last oil filter change was done after 20K+ miles, and it did NOT have a long drain oil in the sump, although it was 'regular' M1.)

 

[gallydif]

Originally Posted By: ARB1977
The minute I neglect a vehicle it will blow up. That will be my luck.

same here lol

 

[Luisraul924]

When I was 17 my mom bought me a 1998 Chevy Malibu, it was the 3.1 V6 model (I think that was the only engine available for that model year actually). I had it for about two years, changed the oil once, maybe twice. Never died on me. Ended up trading it in though.

 

[NavyVet88]

Originally Posted By: philipp10
how do you get horribly maintained when he changes the oil 3x a year? That's plenty often for most cars. As far as cheap dino oil, just goes to show that most of us are probably wasting our money on all this fancy synthetic oils. I feel the engine design is far more important than the type of oil used. Some motors are [censored], some are good.


Horribly maintained as in it was 2x4 and he treated I like a 4x4, redlined the engine at EVERY single take off, and never changed fluids except the engine oil whenever he felt like it.

 

[Jason8691]

Kind of makes all those arguments about VIs and HTHS and how much PAO, etc. seem kind of pointless

 

[Fasttimez]

Originally Posted By: camrydriver111
Originally Posted By: Fasttimez
My aunt had a Chevy Chevette, NEVER changed the oil. At 69,000 miles with the original factory fill it finally gave up. It actually caught on fire in the crankcase because of all the heat generated & burned to the ground. Biggest FAIL I've ever seen....lol


LOL 69k miles on factory fill before failure, but BITOGers are worried about going extra 3-5k on synthetic.

The oil filter was probably in bypass at around 20K mark....lol

 

[Thebimmerfan]

Reading this thread I reach to the conclusion that there are to many non-bitogers out there.

 

[NavyVet88]

Negative son. We are the future!

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: camrydriver111
Originally Posted By: Fasttimez
My aunt had a Chevy Chevette, NEVER changed the oil. At 69,000 miles with the original factory fill it finally gave up. It actually caught on fire in the crankcase because of all the heat generated & burned to the ground. Biggest FAIL I've ever seen....lol


LOL 69k miles on factory fill before failure, but BITOGers are worried about going extra 3-5k on synthetic.


changing the oil at 68k won't make it last much longer though...

 

[Benito]

These stories reaffirm my belief that most cars have a premature end because of sloppy maintenance by shops and dealers.

Wrong coolant and the wrong transmission fluids would be my guess for the most likely reason.

The average consumer doesn't stand a chance.

 

[Branson304]

My dad never did anything besides oil changes on his vehicles for years. Then wondered why things went wrong at 80,000-100,000 miles... not a case of reliability but just throwing it out there. Thank GOD I became smart enough at 15-16 to know proper vehicle maintenance. I [censored] at him now to have transmission fluid changes, coolant changes, spark plugs, etc. done & I even got him to step up to a synthetic blend oil... no luck on synthetic yet.

 

[Bud_One]

Originally Posted By: ARB1977
The minute I neglect a vehicle it will blow up. That will be my luck.


+2 ...

 

[Barwich]

My dad had a 96 Chev Lumina Van. He changed the oil about once a year. I think he has logged 25k km couple times before an oil change was done, this was on factory dino and filter btw. Zero preventive maintenance on the 3.1L motor. The transmission blew around the 280k mark. He replaced it with an used unit. But aside from that everything was solid. The rotors/pads and drum/shoes were changed ONCE in 470k km of driving! He sold it in 2010 to a friend that lives on an acreage. He is still driving it today. I ran into him a few weeks ago and now the van has +600k km on the original motor that went thru [censored] and back.

 

[tsmay51]

My life lesson was a little different. At 16 my parents bought me a 1966 Chevy pickup and another wrecked Chevy with a 307 in it but only about 70k on the engine. We put the 307 in the truck and I proceeded to abuse it and not pay attention to overheating issues. Finally trashed the engine in 18 months. My dad paid for a complete long block crate 350 to be dropped in it and never said a word. Parents were self employed in the produce business and I worked for them part time during school and full time in the summers. That summer after a 40 hour week my dad gave me my paycheck and it was $100 short. I asked him what's up with that and he proceeded to tell me now I would be paying for that new engine. I started checking the fluids, paying attention to gauges, and listening to anything different from my truck. When you have to pay for something you tend to care for it a bit more. At least I did. One of many great life lessons my dad taught me the hard way. A new long block back then was about $1200. I think I paid him back about $800 and he quit docking my paycheck. I guess he figured I had learned my lesson. Which I had.

 

[Thebimmerfan]

Originally Posted By: tsmay51
My life lesson was a little different. At 16 my parents bought me a 1966 Chevy pickup and another wrecked Chevy with a 307 in it but only about 70k on the engine. We put the 307 in the truck and I proceeded to abuse it and not pay attention to overheating issues. Finally trashed the engine in 18 months. My dad paid for a complete long block crate 350 to be dropped in it and never said a word. Parents were self employed in the produce business and I worked for them part time during school and full time in the summers. That summer after a 40 hour week my dad gave me my paycheck and it was $100 short. I asked him what's up with that and he proceeded to tell me now I would be paying for that new engine. I started checking the fluids, paying attention to gauges, and listening to anything different from my truck. When you have to pay for something you tend to care for it a bit more. At least I did. One of many great life lessons my dad taught me the hard way. A new long block back then was about $1200. I think I paid him back about $800 and he quit docking my paycheck. I guess he figured I had learned my lesson. Which I had.


Nice story. Cars need some respect if you want them to respect you.

 

[dernp]

My next door neighbor bought himself at 2014 Honda CR-V last summer just like the wifes but a year newer. When I was back in Canada for the summer we went out for dinner and he drove. I noticed that his MM was +3000 which means 3000 km over which was when the oil should have been changed. I mentioned it to him. He didn't care and it was the FF. He hasn't even washed the vehicle since he's bought it. Vehicles just aren't his thing. Buy it, drive it, put gas in it. If it breaks, take it in to get fixed.

 

[fdcg27]

You see plenty of neglected vehicles that just keep on trucking along.
This is a testament to just how durable and reliable most vehicles are.
I prefer to take care of our vehicles, but there is apparently a large margin of tolerance for neglected maintenance.