15K/30K DIY Maintenance

[smurray]

I'm cheap! I hate to pay someone else to do something that I could do myself. I don't have a someone come in and mow my lawn, I try to perform my own home repair (as long as it's simple). And I used to do my own automobile maintenance until it became too difficult for me. I imagine there are others like me out there who would perform our own maintenance if it didn't seem so difficult.

In that vein I started on the accessories forum for DIY accessory installation instructions. I figure if someone watched (virtually) another Joe (or Jane) do it, they might be bold enough to do it themselves. Considering what most delearships charge per hour for labor this could save hundreds of dollars.

In keeping with that attitude I thought about starting a DIY 15K/30K maintenance thread where one could go to find instructions, preferably with pictures, submitted by some of our more handy members that shows, step by step, how to perform the tasks required for normal drivers for the 15K and 30K maintenance intervals.

My idea was to list all of the maintenance items individually, then as they are submitted, add links to those items in you all's threads. We could link like items from the two lists with one post so if one of the items on both lists were "go drink a beer", I would only need one person to submit that post, with pictures, and link to that post once for each list. We could rank the maintenance item on a 1-5 wrench scale, 1 being easiest, 5 being leave this one to the dealer.

Before I get started I wanted to find out from you if you felt this was a good idea or not. Please vote and reply and I'll continue based on your wishes. If we all decided that this was a good idea then I would need lots of help from the mechanically minded crowd to actually be the knowledge base. I would need you to perform the maintenance and take lots of pictures along the way. IF you think this is a good idea then please let me know if you have any suggestions for making this better. Should we try to get sponsorship from Tim to maybe award a prize for the best submission? Anything you have to add will be taken into consideration.

Thanks for your opinion.

[kemosabe]

smurray: I like your idea!!! I, for one, would find this to be very helpful for the do-it-yourselfer... You've got my vote!!!

P.S. I don't think we need a prize from Tim...

[timchen]

Those don't think idea good can find someone (dealer) to do their service. You thread will become useful for DIY people like me.

[Birdman]

Good plan. I've always done my own maintenance and repairs. For some reason I took my Pilot to the dealer for the 7500 mile service and got stuck with a $150 bill, so I learned my lesson. I'd be glad to help others with basic stuff. The first thing I'd recommend is to use the first of the savings and order the factory repair manual from Helms http://www.helminc.com for $70. It's a wealth of information and very well laid out and useful.

That will help a lot, but it will need to be supplemented with some photos and real-life experiences, much of which have been discussed in the maintenance threads. I can take some photographs when I do the 15,000 service, coming up in only 3500 miles, and post them to supplement the service manual.

[smurray]

Originally posted by Birdman
Good plan. I've always done my own maintenance and repairs. For some reason I took my Pilot to the dealer for the 7500 mile service and got stuck with a $150 bill, so I learned my lesson. I'd be glad to help others with basic stuff. The first thing I'd recommend is to use the first of the savings and order the factory repair manual from Helms http://www.helminc.com for $70. It's a wealth of information and very well laid out and useful.

That will help a lot, but it will need to be supplemented with some photos and real-life experiences, much of which have been discussed in the maintenance threads. I can take some photographs when I do the 15,000 service, coming up in only 3500 miles, and post them to supplement the service manual.

That sounds great birdman. So far it sounds like this is a go. I'll give it a couple more days for input then set out on the intial post.

[smurray]

Well, at this point we're 13 for, 2 against. (Insert Florida voting joke here). I'll go with it and begin by posting 2 threads, one for the 15K maintenance, and another for the 30K maintenance. I'll begin by just posting all the recommended service items for each scheduled stop and my hope is that some of our kind folks here will be able to provide the steps required to complete each item, and some pictures to help illustrate these steps.

Thanks for your input. And a pre-emptive thank you for your posts.

[kemosabe]

smurray: Do you think pictures or a thread of something as simple as changing a tire would qualify? I'm thinking that it might since people may not know how to crank down the donut spare and use the jack...

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it can be very basic stuff for the novice who may not want to change out the brakes or drop the transmission, but are interested in how to change out a burned out tail light or change the wipers, you know???

[smurray]

Originally posted by kemosabe
smurray: Do you think pictures or a thread of something as simple as changing a tire would qualify? I'm thinking that it might since people may not know how to crank down the donut spare and use the jack...

Kemosabe, Certainly. That may be as much as some people want to tackle. Everyone should know how to change a tire. Most people probably have never done it themselves and may have never seen it done. It could not only come in handy for doing a 4 tire rotation but also in an emergency. If you, or anyone, could provide pictures and intructions on performing the tire rotation we could kill two birds with one stone.

Thanks for the question!

BTW, I don't even know how to lower the spare so you would be helping me out at least.

Oh, and to those of you who are going to tell me to read my owner's manual . It is always helpful to actually see someone perform the action, at least it helps most people.

[kemosabe]

A little off-topic, but for the (so far) two people who voted "No, I don't think it's a good idea", I'm kind of curious as to why you don't think it's a good idea...???

[smurray]

Originally posted by kemosabe
A little off-topic, but for the (so far) two people who voted "No, I don't think it's a good idea", I'm kind of curious as to why you don't think it's a good idea...???

My thought exactly. I think some people just want to be contrary. Or, maybe they are mechanics who are afraid of losing business.

[aerostar45]

My 15K service cost me $120, which to me only worth for $50, oil included. So, I am all for it.