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Steve Trapani

Notes & Thoughts

It became apparent to me when I began working as a musician many years ago that a well-maintained vehicle would be just as important of a tool of the trade for me as a trombone, a tuxedo, and a bag of mutes. Turns out that simply showing up on time is a pretty big part of making it in this business. Having a trustworthy vehicle in good mechanical condition is key. 

I didn’t really understand what it meant to drive as much as a freelance musician has to drive until I was a couple of years into my undergraduate degree. At first you don’t get any calls at all. But when the calls do come in, there is no such thing as going to work at the same location every day. Not only does the location change, but the city changes, the county changes, and sometimes the state changes. No problem, I thought. I grew up in California where everyone has a car.

When I set off to college to explore my dream of becoming a professional musician, I had a brand new trombone, the necessary items to furnish my dorm room, and my bright green 1971 Plymouth Duster. This is the car I cut my mechanical teeth on with all of it’s tune-ups, brake jobs, and oil changes. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, however, because before I got the Duster it was also one our family vehicles that I spent countless hours hours holding a flashlight or fetching a 7/16” wrench for my father as he cussed his way through the repairs. I didn’t want to admit it, and accepted the reality reluctantly, that all of that time was actually going to be a very important reason for the success of my career.

My dad was an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force during the Cold War and Vietnam. He had a very methodical way of checking through all the wires and tugging on this or that to make sure that there were no loose connections. It didn’t matter if he was in car-fixing clothes or dressed up to go out, he’d just fling that hood up or jump underneath the car to zero-in on the problem, coming back with blackened hands and smudges of grease on his face. At the time I couldn’t understand why he didn’t just take it to a shop like all of my friend’s fathers did. Why he felt compelled to dive headlong into an engine compartment, forcing me to stay there alongside of him as his unwilling assistant until the job was done and I had learned some new swear words.

My father’s methodical process began to mean more to me after I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig in my early 20’s. In it there is a passage where he talks about the state of mind one has to be in order to be receptive to discovering what is wrong with a problem. He described not being in a rush because to rush through a process meant that you no longer cared about what you were doing, and that it was the caring that actually mattered when it came to effectively fixing something. I’m not sure my dad really cared for any of the vehicles that I watched him repair, but he certainly had the mindset to not rush and to thoroughly check all of the systems in order to discover the offending relay in the dashboard or the cracked exhaust manifold gasket.

As it turns out, a 20 year old Mopar was not the right vehicle for a busy, young, and ambitious college student, so sadly I had to trade it in for a newer ride. It went to my cousin and the last I heard, someone had dropped a racing motor in it and painted purple flames on the side. The “Boogermobile”, as my high school friends referred to it because of its particular shade of green, remains the “one that got away” for me. Every Mustang, Charger, Challenger, or other retro styled muscle car that has come out of Detroit in recent years makes me wish I would have kept the Duster around.

One way or the other, however, if you want to be a freelance musician, you need a reliable set of wheels. Of course, the simplest thing is to buy a fuel efficient vehicle with a good Consumer Reports rating, and keep track of the mileage so you can schedule all of the routine maintenance with the dealer or a trusted mechanic. The problem with this solution, however, is that it can become quite expensive to buy a reliable low-mileage vehicle outright, or to maintain a $300 or more monthly payment. Auto repair costs can range from the $29 Jiffy Lube oil change to several hundred, if not thousand, dollars for more involved maintenance. Being a struggling musician means low credit scores, and a lack of savings. Add in the higher insurance costs associated with financing a vehicle, and this solution can often times end up being kind of impossible.

The only real solution for me was to have a good used car with not too many miles on it and keep the thing going for as long as possible with duct tape and baling wire. After the ‘71 Duster, there was an ‘86 Pontiac Firebird, an ‘89 VW Vanagon, and a ‘97 Saturn. Subaru become my brand of choice when I purchased a ‘92 Subaru Legacy from a colleague with the intent taking the motor and putting it in my ‘89 Vanagon. 

I rebuilt the motor, put it back in the Legacy to make sure everything worked, and then put it into the Vanagon to take the horsepower from 90 to 126. That may not seem like a lot, but after years of clogging up the right lane at 35mph, I almost cried the first time I made it over the Grapevine at 55mph. After pulling the engine out of the ‘92 Legacy, I had grown so attached to “Scoobie” (the previous owner’s pet name for the car) that couldn’t bear to junk it so I rebuilt another engine, dropped it in, and drove it for another few years. Finally I donated it to a family member in need. 

Subaru maintenance, as with every make of vehicle, has its own set of idiosyncrasies. I’ve found that you really start to develop a feel for every manufacturer and can begin to get inside the psyche of the men who designed and built them. For example: VW’s engineers design their vehicles right up to the required specifications and no further. No need to build in extra power or take into account the possibility of higher speed limits or expectations of harder driving conditions. You can almost hear them saying, “Ja, das ist genug.” That’s enough - no need to think about the realities of an outdated drive train that included the routine maintenance of rebuilding or replacing all 4 CV-joints every 30k miles - a huge and messy job I have performed at least 10 times in the 20 years that I have owned my van.

Subaru’s idiosyncrasies are generally in the other direction. They have chosen to over-engineer their vehicles. The parent company for Subaru is Fuji Heavy Industries which is a defense contractor for the Japanese government who also make parts for Lockheed and Boeing. Their cars and motors are designed to deliver the power and endurance of their intended purpose, plus about 50% extra from what I can determine, based on tearing a few of these motors apart and personally putting on about 300,000 miles on the assorted Subaru models that I’ve owned and driven. Since the Legacy, I’ve owned an ‘08 Impreza, an ‘06 Outback, replaced the head gaskets on a friend’s ‘03 Forester, and participated in the purchase of a 2016 Crosstrek and 2019 Forester. My current daily driver and coolest car I’ve ever owned is a 2017 Outback 3.6L which basically drives itself in L.A.’s bumper to bumper traffic with its fancy Eyesight system.

Not to say that there aren’t any issues or frustrations. They seem to have not cared too much that replacing the timing belt or the relatively frequent head gasket replacement would require a major tear down of the entire front and/or top of the engine. The only good news is that you get faster every time you do it. Taking everything into consideration, though, I still prefer Subaru’s to other makes. I think Toyota’s and Mazda’s are probably better in terms of not requiring maintenance for longer periods of time, but in my view are not nearly as interesting of vehicles as a Subaru. Only my opinion, of course.

Practical stuff:

A basic set of mechanics tools, a jack and a set of jack stands are minimum requirements for going down this path. It is also helpful to have a flat(ish) driveway, carport, parking spot, or garage where you can actually do the work.

The number one maintenance item you have to become religious about is the condition of your engines oil. Get in the habit of checking the oil level at every fill up, and changing the oil and oil filter often. Most modern cars will putter along nicely for a couple of hundred thousands miles with no other maintenance required than a regular oil change. If you’re using the cheaper conventional oil it’ll be every 3,000 miles and with a more expensive synthetic oil you can push that limit to 5,000-8,000 miles. You can usually get a deal at your Friendly Local Auto Parts Store (from here out it’ll refer to them as FLAPS) for about $25-30 for the new conventional oil and filter. Plan on adding about $10-15 to that cost for synthetic. 

In addition to the items mentioned above, get yourself an oil pan and oil filter wrench to fit the oil filter for your particular vehicle. A box of Nitrile Gloves from Harbor Freight will ensure that your skin doesn’t absorb any oil or gasoline while you work on the car. You may also want to get a set of mechanics gloves to protect your hands from getting cut on any of the sharp edges that are abundant in every engine compartment. Finally, buy some hand cleaner and a few rolls of those blue disposable paper Shop Towels to clean up. I shy away from using cloth towels for auto cleanup because of the risk of the oily towels catching fire after sitting in a bin. They are also pretty nasty for your washing machine.

Invest in quality mechanics tools, as opposed to Harbor Freight tools which are fine for light duty, but which will break when you need them the most. Snap-On, Craftsman, Kobalt, and Husky are solid brands. Mine are almost entirely Craftsman which are priced fairly and have a lifetime warranty. Simply bring a broken Craftsman tool to any dealer, such as Sears, and they’ll replace it with an equivalent for free. I use a slightly longer Flex Head ratchet to loosen the oil pan drain plug because it gives me more leverage than the standard 6” ratchet that comes with most socket sets. The head also swivels to provide many different approach angles for those hard to reach bolts.

You’ll also need to plan on a used oil disposal strategy. My weekly curbside garbage and recycling pickup includes used motor oil and filters, but I have to make arrangements with the city ahead of time so they can provide the containers for the oil and bags for the filters. Many FLAPS will accept the used oil too, but you’ll need to have your own oil jug to transport the oil back and forth. An old empty 5-quart oil container or two can be used for this purpose. Ziplock bags will make sure the oil filters don’t leak all over your interior.

After considering all of these issues, you may decide to simply take your vehicle to a Jiffy Lube type place, but you’ll have to steel yourself to the 29 point inspection and inevitable sales pitch that will follow. Hey, if it costs me $30 to change the oil myself and I have to get dirty and dispose of the oil, how can Jiffy Lube possibly make any money by charging you $29? It’s ok. Learn these words, “No thank you. Just the oil change, please.” Repeat them as often as necessary to make the well meaning garage employee go away.

I’d say the number two maintenance item would be the tires. Under-inflated or worn tires can cause all sorts of noises and drivability issues that have the uncanny ability to project their symptoms to the opposite side of the car from the location of the problem. An issue with a right front tire can sound or feel like it’s coming from the back left and visa versa. Modern cars will have built in electronic tire pressure monitors which notify you when there’s an issue. For older or more base line vehicles, a trusty $3 tire pressure gauge kept in the glove compartment and used every few weeks will do the trick and at least make sure that your tires are properly inflated. Keep in mind that cold tires will read lower pressure and hot tires will have higher pressure. Tire pressure checks are intended to be made when the tires are cold and have not been driven for long. You can usually find the manufacturer’s recommended pressure located on a sticker somewhere in the drivers side door jam. 

Check out your owners manual for their suggested tire rotation scheme and rotate them every 15-20k miles or so, or whenever it seems that you can feel something a little off in the drivability of your vehicle or you can see clear wear patterns on the tires themselves. As far as a tire’s lifespan, the rule of thumb is to use a penny as a tire tread gauge - if the depth of the tire tread is less than the distance between the top of Abe Lincoln’s head and the edge of the penny, you need a new tire. Running your hands around the driving surface of the tire (while parked, of course) or around the inner facing sidewall can uncover flat spots or bubbles in the rubber that will sound like tennis shoes in the dryer and make it feel like the wheels are going to fly off. 

A new set of tires can solve many noise issues, not to mention make it much safer for you and the precious cargo you are transporting. Get used to the idea of changing two tires at a time - if you’re driving an all-wheel drive vehicle make it all four. The tires wear relatively evenly and if you replace one damaged tire but leave the others, you won’t be happy with the way the car feels and will end up having to change it eventually anyway. With all wheel drive, the wheel rotations are all integrated and it can be unsafe to have one tire’s diameter larger or smaller than the others. Most garages won’t replace just one tire because of liability issues. Many times Costco or Pep Boys will have deals for buying a set of 4 tires at once which may also include future tire rotation and balancing.

To remove the lug nuts that hold your tires onto the car, invest in an inexpensive cross arm lug wrench, which will give you more leverage and which you can spin once you loosen the nuts, making the removal of the 4 or 5 lug nuts go a little faster. Before jacking up the wheel, loosen each nut and lightly snug it back in place. You’ll find that it makes the removal of the nut much easier as opposed to trying to loosen the nut once the tire is in the air and spinning freely. 

Make sure that at least one is the tire is in contact with the ground and chocked whenever you jack up the car, by the way, to avoid the very unpleasant and terrifying occurrence of the vehicle slipping off the jack or jack stands. Even the smallest car weighs a couple of thousand pounds and will ruin your day real quick if it ends up falling on any part of your body.

Once you’ve done a few oil changes and rotated your tires once or twice, you may feel confident enough to venture deeper into more involved auto mechanics. Brake jobs aren’t too difficult and replacing spark plugs, drive belts, alternators, and starter motors can be done after viewing some YouTube videos. Seriously, plug your vehicle’s year, make and model into YouTube plus whatever repair you’re curious about and many times you’ll get a direct hit for the exact repair you need.

Most people don’t go down this path, and that’s ok. If you can find a trustworthy mechanic, the bottom line between buying tools and investing in the time to do the repairs may be pretty close to even. For me there was no other option, and if you have made it this far in this article, perhaps you are in the same boat. I know I would have gone bust early on in my career if I didn’t do all of my own car repairs. 

I guess, although it’s hard to admit sometimes, that the old man had a method to his madness other than making me a human flashlight holder. I must thank my father, Ron Trapani, for turning me into the mechanic I am today, but mostly for the man I am today.

Zen and the Art of Subaru Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Subaru Maintenance

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