4 ms·
General maintenance on my last two gasoline cars was: oil changes, windshield wiper changes, engine air filter change, oil filter change, new tires every 30K or
by VLM 10y ago
General maintenance on my last two gasoline cars was: oil changes, windshield wiper changes, engine air filter change, oil filter change, new tires every 30K or so, new brakes every 50K or so, new shocks every 100K or so. Every 125K or so the engine mechanical thermostat went out on my GM, I needed two (lots of miles!) Every four to five years I needed a new starting battery. I can do the brakes myself its quite easy for the mechanically inclined and/or intelligent. The shocks require spring compressors and I fear failure so I went out for that. About every 100K I got tired of the old radio and got a newer one with better bluetooth or whatever, but thats a luxury hardly required. I'm about 40K into a toyota thats had nothing but oil, gas, and filters, literally nothing has broken or required unexpected service. I destroyed the oil pan on the GM around 100K by over-torqueing it, but thats not scheduled service.
So an electric needs suspension and tires and brakes and ... windshield wiper changes. So all work on an electric car would seem to happen in the wheel well, or replacing wipers. I think I can handle that. Everything else in my last two cars going back to the 90s has been IC engine related.
- csours 10y agoICE Fluids: Gasoline (or diesel) Engine Oil Engine Coolant (antifreeze) Transmission Fluid (of one type or another) Windshield Wash Fluid Air Conditioner Freon Brake Fluid --- EV Fluids: Battery pack Coolant (antifreeze) Transmission Fluid (of one type or another) Windshield Wash Fluid Air Conditioner Freon Brake Fluid --- In an EV, you surprisingly only get rid of 2 fluids: Fuel and Engine Oil
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y agoI just had a turbo replaced on my turbo diesel van at 225,000k (140,000 miles). Definitely not something I felt competent doing myself. Brakes, oil filters, etc I can do. It remains to be seen if an electric motor will do half a million kilometres without maintenance, or will the insulation in the motor breakdown, bearings need replacing. There's still CV joints too, or other drive-chain related components. I'm certainly hoping electric vehicles will have reduced maintenance requirements.
- londons_explore 10y agoThe same type of motors used in EV's are already widely used in factory production lines, conveyor belts, pumps, etc. There they run 24/7 for decades. Reliability is super high. The controllers used in EV's have only been around in their current form for ~15 years, also used in factories for controlling big motors, but even they rarely see failures. The new bit is the battery and associated computer system/sensors. That's where I expect possible reliability issues.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y agoGood points. And if I'd taken the time to think about it, in the metal fabrication workshop I work in there are 27 electric motors within about a 30 meter radius of my desk, and we've never had to replace any of them, nor do any maintenance on them.
- robocat 10y ago> The new bit is the battery and associated computer system/sensors. That's where I expect possible reliability issues. Unlike mechanical systems, electronic systems are instrumented to the max, so Tesla can usually: (a) detect systematic issues, and (b) mitigate issues by software update to reduce stresses.