Taking the time to learn helps build skills for a lifetime
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Welcome to a new series at Driving, one in which we chronicle the adventures of a new driver getting the keys to a decade-old economy car with 347,000 kilometres on the clock. We will be talking about smart ways to buy a used vehicle, how best to approach simple repairs, plus ways to make an affordable second-hand car safe and look good. We hope you find it helpful.
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As one might realistically expect, the car needed some work. Surprisingly, there wasn’t any serious rust of which to speak, with one of the former owners performing a solid if mismatched job of rocker panel repair some spell ago. During the two hours between finding the car in a gravel parking lot and its owner appearing with the keys, Lucas was encouraged to explore YouTube a bit to discover what good engine oil should look like and how to check it on this particular model – important in any car but especially key given issues exhibited by some cars with this powertrain. Him confidently hoisting the hood and checking this Elantra’s oil as part of the buying process was a great learning experience and hopefully helps set him up for success with future purchases.
This explains why, the next day, we were standing at the parts counter of Maritime Auto Parts, a vehicle recycler that’s been in our neck of the woods for the better part of a century. Collisions and mishaps take an innumerable amount of cars off the road every year, many of them with an abundance of useful parts which are in perfect shape and safe for the road. The fifth-generation Elantra was outrageously popular in Canada, selling well over a quarter-million units during its run, so parts are plentiful.
And affordable, as it turned out. New bearings would have cost $91.00 each (plus the headache of pressing them into the hub) compared to $51.00 for an entire hub-and-spindle assembly from a recycler like Maritime Auto. The assembly would have to be removed from the car for bearing replacement anyway, making the decision a no-brainer.
Any new drivers reading this post who may intimated by the thought of tackling a repair should remember that we all didn’t know how to complete a task the first time around. The cool thing about the 21st century are the multitude of resources to which one can turn for education – whether it’s a service manual, video, how-to post, or simply asking someone you know for a hand. Dig in, research, learn; so long as you take care and perform the work in a safe manner, the sense of pride and accomplishment will be immense. It certainly was for our young driver.
Nokian looks after new drivers who may not know how to check a tire’s tread depth but molding the numbers 8-6-4 into the rubber tread, representing the approximate number of millimetres of tread depth remaining. When the digits are gone, the tires are sufficiently worn to warrant replacement. It’s a great teaching tool and confidence builder for those new to cars. I’ve exclusively run Nokian winter tires on my rigs for years and highly recommend the brand after it has seen us through umpteen horrible Atlantic Canadian winters, so I know it’ll keep my son safe. These ones were mounted on the set of steel wheels which the previous owner included with the Elantra.
None of this stuff is incredibly difficult nor requires much in the way of exotic tools. What really helps tackle repairs like these the attitude that you can do it. Just because you don’t know today how to make the repair doesn’t mean you can’t do it, just that you don’t *yet* know how. And there’s all kinds of ways to learn: ask a friend or colleague who’s faced the same repair, dig into the subject online, have an annoying father with a back catalog of experience. Then once you’ve learned, as Nike used to tell us, you just do it.
You can bet that’s a lesson which will translate to other parts of his life beyond cars. Hey, who knew a cheap Elantra could be so profound?
The next post in this series will talk about getting a well-worn and grungy interior back into some semblance of order.
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