i've got my dealer going "eh, son... yer sitting on almost 50,000 miles here and you need..." proceeding to ramble off almost $800 worth of maintenance stuff that i should do.

so my question to anyone in the know is... waht the hell DOES my car need? i'm very, very good at keeping up on oil changes and tire rotations, and they do a 35-point inspection every time to make sure my shit's all right. but do i need to worry about spark plugs? cooling system flush? radiator... uh, anything? it's a 2004 saturn ion II. i love the thing and wanna keep it around awhile.

what do i REALLY need to spend my money on the keep my car in good shape? thanks in advance!!

try these folks:

http://www.ehow.com/

they also did the Book How to Do Just About Everything, that had a great chapter on automotive maintenance. I don't know if the entry on the site is the same, but it seemed like good sound advice.



cheers,



Faiz

Look for a scheduled maintenance section in you owner's manual. That will tell you at what milage you are recommended to replace what parts. Or you you could pick up a service manual.

Is the car under warranty? If not, skip the dealer and find a good private mechanic.

I've only owned older cars so I have no personal dealer experience, I've just heard you are better off with a private mechanic, unless the car is under warranty.

On the other hand, recently, the guy at the Toyota dealer's parts department gave me some exhaust nuts I was having trouble finding, for free!

-Amos

did you but it from a saturn dealership?

do you get those stupid flyers that they mail out?

do you toss them without looking at them?

i finally looked at one and they have all sorts of really good deals on repair/general service work.

i have brought my 98' saturn wagon in for a general tune up (spark plugs, belts etc..) at about 85k miles and new brakes at about 100k. both quite affordable. it now has about 107k and is going strong.


EDIT: i just saw that you say your dealer is pushing you to get the work done so obviously you got it from a dealership. fuck me.


-e

Forget about the dealership.

Do you have Angie's List where you live?

www.angieslist.com

If you don't know anyone w/a good mechanic, go to Angie's List and find somebody there.

Print out the maintenance schedule and keep it maintained accordingly. The place(s) I take my car charge about half of what the dealership does and they do better work.

My car (Subaru) is under warranty, and I still refuse to take it to the dealership. They overcharge, and they don't do a very good job.

bellulah wrote:what do i REALLY need to spend my money on the keep my car in good shape? thanks in advance!!

Premium grade, as in 93 octane, gasoline is one thing you should spend your money on. Don't use 87 octane, regardless of what your manual might say you "should" use. You'll do the motor good and save money in the long run. Even if the price of gas skyrockets, use premium.

Go to Car Talk's website. Type in your zip and it will bring up a list of mechanics in your area. You'll find reviews and recommendations. I found two excellent mechanics using this servive.

I highly recommend it.

Synthetic oil

matthew wrote:

bellulah wrote:what do i REALLY need to spend my money on the keep my car in good shape? thanks in advance!!

Premium grade, as in 93 octane, gasoline is one thing you should spend your money on. Don't use 87 octane, regardless of what your manual might say you "should" use. You'll do the motor good and save money in the long run. Even if the price of gas skyrockets, use premium.

What do you base this on? I had a 2002 Explorer and I filled it up w/93 and the fucker barely ran. With 800 miles on it I thought something was really wrong. Took it to the dealer and that was the first thing they asked me. RFTM was what that visit amounted to. Back to 87 for good on that truck, and never a problem.

I would venture to guess only high compression engines with advanced timing controls need 93. For instance I have an 04 MDX-put 87 in it and it sometimes runs great, sometimes I swear I hear the anti-knock sensor trying to do it's job. I am sticking to 93 for this truck for sure.

matthew wrote:

bellulah wrote:what do i REALLY need to spend my money on the keep my car in good shape? thanks in advance!!

Premium grade, as in 93 octane, gasoline is one thing you should spend your money on. Don't use 87 octane, regardless of what your manual might say you "should" use. You'll do the motor good and save money in the long run. Even if the price of gas skyrockets, use premium.

This is bad advice, especially for a 2004 Saturn.

EDIT: bellulah, I bet you could do a lot of that scheduled maintenance yourself, and you'd do a better job on your first attempt than 90% of the places you could take your car to.

If you can make toast, you can flush your radiator. Prestone makes a kit that's about $15 that makes it easy. Give it a shot.