Ltooz

I create this web page to document things I'd done or discovered. I always believe in taking control of everything. It's OK to have money to let other people to do it for you, but if you can do it yourself, you will do it right because you would care about the things you do. I'm sure there are professionals out there that are true professional and have great integrity which we can depend on. Regardless, I know I would do it right the first time.

There are a few mottoes that I always believe:

If it works, don't touch it.

The less you touch your cars, the longer they will last (except your significant other.... ).

All cars are made to serve people, I don't buy cars to serve them. The less times I take them to the dealers or shops, the longer they will last.  The original seals always last longer than the after market seals.

I've been driving all makes of cars that many are known for being "unreliable" and they all last long without being fixed daily: FIAT, LANCIA, ALFA ROMEO, JAGUAR, PORSCHE, AUDI, MERCEDES, HONDA, TOYOTA. Most "unreliable" cars are unreliable because the technicians don't know how to work on them. They're designed so badly that working on them is a pain even with little things. Japanese cars are reliable because any shops can fix them easily because they're well designed for servicing. All cars are built to last if you know how to service them when the work are really needed. All the parts I got for my cars are mostly from AutohausAz which are OE parts, cheaper than dealers, prompt delivery (order Monday, receive Thurs/Fri for the weekend work), great return policy. I know many people are religiously getting parts from dealers which is supposed to be the best for our cars, it may be true, but the OE parts I got are performing quite well.

Many car owners love to boast that they change the oil every 3000 miles and they're proud of it. If they read the user manual maintenance schedules (that comes with the car), they will see that oil changes are 7500 miles intervals. All my cars last well over 100k miles with 7500 miles oil change. Again, the more you take it to the shop, the more chances for the shop to screw up on your cars because people do make mistakes including your mechanics.

Yes, it would cost almost the same to change oil at home as if I let the shop to do it, but I do like to make sure that I will never strip the threads or over/under fill the oil.
I like to replace my own spark plugs because the shops do screw up the aluminum threads sometimes, although it's seldom, but there is still a chance and I don't want to take any chances. The spark plugs these days last 30-60 thousand miles, which would last me a few years. It's OK to spend a Sunday morning to replace them every few years.

My wife always asks me about NOT tuning up the car after a long time. She feels guilty if we don't do anything to the cars. The questions are always:

- Does it start up every morning?
- Does it drive/accelerate smoothly?
- Does the gas mileage is the same +/- 2 MPG?
- Are the levels of coolant, power steering fluids, brake fluids still between min & max levels?
- Does it still stop with authority when you press the brake pedal?

If all the answers are Yes, then why do we have to open the engine to do tune ups?

I remembered my first 65 VW bug that my father bought me for school. My friend's 70 bug was so much faster than mine and I took my car to the shop and get a tune up hoping that it will drive faster, I paid $40.00 (my savings) and the car ran worse than before. The shop told me "you wanted a tune up, we gave you a tune up..." when I complained. I didn't know about the engine sizes and horse power at the time. Since then, every time I had time off, I went to library to read about cars ( I should study mechanical instead of electrical engineering) and I worked on my own cars.

Now the internet brings wonder to the world, people can learn from each others from all over. Everything I fixed or built, I like to write them up for people to use as references because I got frustrated when I couldn't find the info to fix my stuffs. Pictures do tell thousands words and I have a digital camera (another technology wonder).

Cheers and hope everything runs well with you,

If you have any question or comments, please email me

Ltooz_audis@yahoo.com