2.23.2013

mainteinanced'ish

Rather than wait I called and had my appointment moved up to last Thursday to get the timing belt replaced. The cost of parts had dropped since my esimate so I saved about $150 off the total. I've never skipped on any maintenance needed before so there's no noticable difference in how it drives, but the spirit of my truck seems happier nonetheless.

In reviewing the original list of estimates I completely missed the part about the front CV boots needing replacement. That was quoted at $500. When I went back I asked the tech how critical was this, he said I could easily wait until the end of the year since there was only little grease outside of the clasp points. I don't have to even do that but it's something to keep an eye on. This works out perfectly since the verdict is also still out on whether I need to replace the catalytic converter. For the sake of being thorough I went ahead and called my CU to find out about loan options. The best one wound up being one where I can use my savings as collateral at 4.6% interest.

Although, I'm looking to register my vehicles in South Dakota when I officially begin full timing. They don't require emission tests there so it makes replacing the catalytic converter moot. There's an aftermarket part which allows you to bypass and kills the check engine light for it. It's drastically cheaper then the converter too. I may do this instead.

2 comments:

  1. I would start saving up for that CV joint replacement. Once that starts to go, it goes downhill quite fast usually. Although I have driven on a bad CV joint for months, as the tire sounded like it was ready to fly off. But, I was younger and more care free then. I think that I heard that it's not much more expensive to replace the entire front axle, which would give you two new CV joints with it. But I'm not sure about it exactly since I'm no car experet.

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    1. The CV joints aren't in need of replacement, it's just the boots that need to be replaced. They found some grease leaking out the edges is all. They refilled them and noted that there wasn't hardly any missing at all. All that being said I'm keeping an eye on it.

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