hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr3247.txt

Episode: 3247
Title: HPR3247: Saturday Morning Automotive Routine
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3247/hpr3247.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 19:39:10

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This is Haka Public Radio episode 3247.14.
You may be 12th of January 2021.
Today's show is entitled Saturday Morning Automotive Routine.
It is the first show my new host trumpet on,
and is about 19 minutes long, and carries a clean flag.
The summer is, I have developed a relaxing 10-step routine
for keeping your car in running condition.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by an honest host.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code
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Hello Hacker Public Radio. This is trumpet john.
I chose that moniker. It kind of is reflective of my particular trade,
and also my enjoyment, my passions, which is music.
I'm a pastoral musician in the Midwest of the United States.
So I have only gotten to know Hacker Public Radio in the past two months,
but absolutely love it. And you all have taught me so very much.
I'm not a hacker by trade, not a computer guy.
I mean, I love computers and things like that, but you guys are well above my standard.
However, I keep hearing the requests for more content, more content,
and being a free program, I get that.
And so what I thought I would do is give you something that I use.
You can take away from it what you will.
First of all, I will tell you I'm also not a mechanic by trade,
but probably my the thing that I have to offer in these kind of situations is I understand systems
very well. And I find that systems work well in life management.
And so what I wanted to share with you today was my Saturday morning vehicle routine.
Because I have found in the past couple of years, this has aided me greatly
and making sure that I have two cars that are running well all the time.
Now, when you live in the Midwest United States, a car is practically vital.
You you just about have to have one, especially if you don't live in big city.
And I do I live in in St. Louis, Missouri, but but still the car is is a vital piece of equipment
when you live in in areas that sprawl like the United States does.
And so having working automobiles is paramount. My wife works and I work.
And so with that, I feel that it's important for me to keep the vehicles in running order
all the time. So for years, I was constantly playing catch up. You know, you you leave for work.
I used to teach at a university and you you have a nine a.m. class that you're going to be
teaching. It's 830. You're leaving the house and you realize the gas needle is on e
that you don't have enough gas to get to work and that all of a sudden you are now in a rush.
And that's when I started working on my Saturday morning automotive routine that I'm going to share
with you. And it's it's a 10 phase system. You can match, mix, borrow, whatever you want to do.
The thing that I would encourage you is to have a system. And so again, not being a mechanic,
I choose to do this system because I'm able to keep up on my cars this way.
The first thing is I choose a day that at least an hour hour and a half that I feel like I
can commit and do it in a restful manner. The nice thing about this routine is it can actually be
very relaxing. It's it's very isolated. You're alone doing it. You you spend time yourself
making this this happen. And so I've gotten to the point where my Saturday morning routine is
something that I enjoy greatly. And so what I wanted to share with you is very quickly a couple of
things ahead of time. My 10 steps very quickly and then I'll close the first thing you want to do
is you want to scope out that one gas station that you feel is nearby that you feel has
good quality gasoline. When I first moved to our house, now there was a there is a very close gas
station that I rejoiced and seeing. And once I put a couple of tanks of that gasoline in my
mini Cooper, which is very touchy about what I put in it, I had to change the spark plugs.
And so I have found that that particular gas station is just not suitable for my requirements.
So I found a quick trip. Now that may not mean anything to you if you're outside of the Midwest,
but quick trip is kind of the gold standard in our area. And we have a quick trip gas station
about a mile and a half from my house. So that works out perfectly. And I use it every time.
I use the same kind of fuel every time I've researched what is the best fuel for both of my cars.
And so I choose that. So anyway, not only that, you need to have a couple of things. You need to
have a tire gauge in every vehicle. I have a tire gauge in every vehicle. I have a tire gauge in
my garage as well. You also mechanics gloves are very handy. I would almost say crucial in this work
because what you do when you inspect the tires is I rub my hand around the tire,
make sure there are no knots or lumps. And also just feeling the tread makes me feel a little
bit more careful, more like I'm in control of the tires wear and know what it's doing.
Okay, so that being the case, you have spent your time, you've made this little modification in
your life. Here are the 10 things that I do. The first thing that I do is I take each car separately,
of course, one person. I top off the gas at the same gas station. Okay, it's a quick trip for me.
Ever once in a while, I will skip a Saturday and let the gas deplete. That way I get to put in a
full tank which most mechanics say instead of topping off constantly, it's good to let the gas
exhaust itself. However, because I get it from the same source, I feel I feel pretty comfortable
in topping it off there. So the first thing I do, I pull in, I top off the gas. I also, by the way,
I keep my receipts. And the nice thing about this is if you use a program like CAM scanner or
something like that that I do for my receipts, I can at the end of the year say, okay, here's what we
need to budget for gas because what I do is once I get those receipts, I scan them under the word gas,
don't think another thing about it until we have to come up with our budget for the next year.
Then I can look and see exactly what I've been spending on gas and what I expect to
spend on gas in the future. So that's one, top off gas. Number two, tire inflation and inspection.
Now, the next thing, and understand when you are Tuesday morning in a hurry, you are 15 minutes
behind schedule and you've got to get gas, you don't check your tires, you don't check your oil.
And that's why this Saturday morning thing for me is so important because what I do then is I get
down with every tire with my tire gauge, I inspect the tires. I feel around on them, make sure
there are no knots I've had and not in my tire one time that came up within a five mile driving
distance and ruined my tire. So that happens, especially if you have high pressure tires. So I
check my tires, make sure there are the the pressure is I keep them all within five pounds per square
inch of each other and you know, just do a visual and actually with my mechanics gloves,
I feel the tire, make sure it feels nice and round, make sure that the threads look good.
So that's number two. The next thing as I check my battery, I look to make sure there are no corrosion,
there's no corrosion on the posts of my battery. That's very simple. Fourth is very simple as well.
I just give a visual look at the hoses and belts and again with mechanics gloves, even though
that my gas station is a mile and a half from my house, it's still things get a little warm.
So I'm able with mechanics gloves to feel the hoses and make sure that they respond to a light
squeeze that they're not brittle or anything like that. And I look at my belts, a visual inspection
looking at your belts. That's number four. Number five is I check all my fluids.
I check my oil and I check my power steering fluid, which right now I have a small leak in my
my many Cooper, which is my commuter car. I have a small leak in it and I'm monitoring it and I
need to fix it on the next it's winter. But on the next warm day, I need to to tighten up
something or fix it, but I can't see where it's leaking currently. But I check the power steering
fluid. I check the transmission fluid, check the coolant level every time. Just check it. Just make
sure everything is is up to par. Even windshield wiper fluid. Make sure that's ready to go.
The next thing number six is I do an external inspection. I just look around the car. I look,
I have a couple of little rust spots, you know, and I go, okay, one of these days I need to fix it.
But also I'll go through sometimes if I have time, I'll go through the lights. I'll go through
backing lights, turn signals, that sort of thing. My turn signals, both of them, if they go out,
you can easily tell that in the back because you'll you'll hear that it changes the resistance
and the overall circuitry. And you have this very quick click instead of the slow click on the
turn signal. So, but I check all that stuff. Check, check everything. Make sure that all of that is
is in good working order. Number six is, or that's number six, number seven is I review my oil change
mileage and date. Just take a look, look at my, you know, just take a look at your odometer,
look at your, your next oil change. I change my own oil in both cars. And so I don't often times
have a little sticker on my windshield. And I have it written in my journal when I changed the,
the oil the last time. I have a back page in my journal that I just write those things down and
make sure. The next thing is I will schedule and buy replacement parts. So one of the nice things
about having this Saturday morning routine is perhaps you find something that maybe your windshield
wipers are started. Maybe it's been six months or maybe maybe you have a light out or something small
like that. You may go well, I don't have time this Saturday, but what you can do is throughout the
week, you can pick up those parts, which for me oftentimes just picking up the parts takes more
time than the actual exchange of the parts. And so pick up the part, you know, make a note to pick
up your part that week. And then the next Saturday, I have the part in hand and I pop it on there.
And that's what especially I do with windshield wipers. And I also, if I buy lights backing lights,
turn signal lights, I always buy an extra set that way. I have them there if one should go out again.
And if you replace turn signals, just replace both bulbs. Replace the set. Don't replace one.
Both of them because they're both the same age and that way you just start fresh and a new. And
it takes approximately five extra minutes to change the other signal once you kind of know what
you're doing. The next thing, number nine, is I'll do a slight cleanup. And so when I'm at a quick
trip, you know, I will kind of go through the car and pick up little scrap pieces of paper and
things like that. We have these, most of you, if you have a car, have these side caches in your door
like we do where you put, you know, notes, lists, receipts, soda straw wrappers, all sorts of
napkins, all sorts of stuff. And on Saturday, and I don't do a deep clean, I just do, it's, you
know, maybe it's a 30 second kind of thing, you know, and I just kind of pick all that stuff up,
put it in the garbage while I'm at quick trip filling up my gas. Then this is kind of interesting.
I choose one of the cars each week for a car wash. We have a car wash that is approximately a half
a mile away from our house and it's not used that much. It costs me a dollar 50 to hand wash for
four minutes of the car there. It's real cheap. So I'll choose one of the cars and just run it
through the wash, you know, just hit the hit the major spots and you know, it takes me again,
five minutes to do, but when you've parceled out this amount of time, it doesn't seem like much time
at all. And it's just kind of a nice way to pass the time. Now what I want to also, before I conclude
this short podcast, and I know it would be short, but short doesn't necessarily mean bad.
One thing that is number 11, and this is just for me, is reward. I'm a big believer in reward.
There is a new book out that I would encourage you to read. It's called Tiny Habits,
and it talks about that reward principle that you have. And for me,
quick trip makes really good custard donuts and I eat very little sugar or gluten. And so,
usually what I will do is after I've done my top 10 things, which I will, I'll go through again
for you in just a moment, I'll then pick up a custard-filled chocolate-covered donut there
at the quick trip. I will drive my last car. I don't do it on the first car. I do it on the last
car when everything is done. I'll drive it to a vacant school parking lot on Saturday because
it's always vacant. I will, if it's a beautiful day, I'll roll down the window. I will have a coffee
and a donut and reward myself for a job well done. So, let me run, and I know that maybe
to you, you may be shaking your head. But for me, I find it helpful. So, let me review the 10
again and the very simple. One is top off the gas. Keep the receipts. This is actually a time
that you can use the receipts. Again, it will help you in budgeting. Find some way to track
the receipts that you use. Second, check your tire inflation and do a visual external and even
a field check on your tires. Make sure your tires are looking good. Check for anywhere on any of the
side walls or anything like that. You want to find this here. You don't want to find this. Again,
if you're in the Midwest and you're driving 40 miles between towns, and I've had this happen,
you don't want to find it on the side of the road, 20 miles from town. So, you want to find it here.
So, two, check your tires. Tires, again, is your contact with the ground. So, it's vital that they
are in good shape. You can also take a look at your brakes, but that's for another mechanic and
another podcast. And honestly, I don't spend any time looking at my brakes for that. Number three,
you check your battery. Make sure that your batteries posts are corrosion-free. Also, you might
ever once in a while just choose to take a tool, a screwdriver, or a wrench, whatever your battery
uses, and make sure the posts are nice and tight. You want to have good contact. You guys are
electrical electronics guys. You know that good contact is very important. Number four,
check your hoses. Check your belts. Just a visual check. You can do a squeeze check on some of your
hoses. Number five, check your fluids. Make sure they're topped off. Make sure they're at the
correct level. Number six, external inspection. Look over the car. Make sure that the car is in good
shape externally. Look for little cracks or dings in the windshield. That sort of thing.
Number seven, review oil change, mileage, and dates. Make sure you're keeping your oil changed.
Most people know this is crucial to the operation of any car and the life expectancy of any car.
Number eight, schedule and buy replacement parts. Be cognizant of what you need and buy that part.
And consider like for me, when I had to change out spark plugs, I didn't just buy one set. I bought
two sets. Now I have an operating set of spark plugs. Should I need to change them in the near future?
Number nine, slight cleanup. As you're waiting for that gas to pump those, you're going to have
plenty of things to do while you're doing that. Just clean out your little caches and stuff like that.
Number 10, choose one of your cars for a quick car wash. If you have two or you have three,
choose to wash one of them and kind of give it a treat. Now why do this? Why take this kind of time?
Because your car, if it's like mine, is its operation and its consistency is invaluable.
And I just wanted to give you an opportunity to do something that would be good for you
and good for your car as well. And so for Hacker Public Radio, I'm trumpet john and it's great
talking to you.
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