Home auto service... let's talk about the realities.

So, I decided I want to flush and fill the ancient coolant in my '92 Camaro. It looks awful and is probably original. This seems like it would be an easy enough job to do at home. However, I live in the burbs and I do not have a lift. Simple things like catching a couple of gallons of coolant so it doesn't cause a hazmat situation and poison local pets seems like a big problem to me. Not to mention, what to do with it if I do contain it. Would autozone (or similar) take it for disposal or do I need to take it to the county hazardous materials facility myself?

I'm 99% likely just to take it to a shop and let them deal with the mess but A) I hate spending money and B) it makes me feel like a loser every time I decline to do something simple myself.

In terms of point B, is it OK to let a shop handle routine maintenance like this without losing man cred? In the early years of car ownership, I always did my own routine maintenance, but it has been years since I've done that. I also feel like I do a better job when I do things myself, because it is my car and I care. However, these things haven't been enough to get me to overcome my reluctance to deal with spilling fluids all over my relatively clean driveway in view of my lawn obsessed neighbors.

I am probably over thinking this. It probably should have gone in the rant thread.

Is buying a secluded home in the country with a big garage and a lift the final solution? It should be noted that we were not the best at "responsibly disposing" of fluids back on the farm when I was a kid. I hope people are doing better these days, but I suspect there are still people who just let their fluids flow anywhere.

Oddly enough our metro waste department says that antifreeze should be flushed down the toilet. Apparently the treatment process deals with it . I haven't tried this as it sounds suspect, and definitely don't do this if you have a septic tank or field for a wastewater system. I boiled mine off in a cheapo stew pot I bought for that purpose. It has about an inch of crud left over that is now stuck to the pot. I'll eventually toss that to a steel scrapper and get another when it stops boiling the coolant off effectively.

Personally, I have one big-ass pan for coolant capture and just fill it back into old milk jugs, coolant bottles, etc. The local quickie lube places supposedly accept it for recycling, but I just accumulate the jugs under my workbench and make a trip to the local waste facility every few months and take everything all at once (coolant, oil, etc).

I don't trust the quickie lube places to touch my vehicles at all, and I'm not paying 21st century hourly rate for someone to do a simple fluid change. On top of that, as long as you think ahead and work carefully (and save the beers for the refill part), the risk of an "As Seen On TV" ad-style multiple gallon spill is pretty minimal.

It also really helps if you use the little drain cock on the bottom of the radiator that 90% of mechanics seem to ignore in favor of yanking the lower hose and making a huge mess...

I hear what you are saying. But your anti-freeze example is the least concern when we speak of stuff in the water. Have you ever given any thought to how much windshield antifreeze gets dumped into the environment? Being dispensed in small quantities does not make it any less harmful and its pretty much the same stuff in the coolant.

We have oil and toxic waste stations available in pretty much every city. I take my oil and solvent collection every year or two.

Most parts stores only take oil products for recycling. I bet though if you take the coolant to a small indy repair shop you can pay them 5-10 bucks to take it. They pay for disposal of their antifreeze.

I don't think I would boil it off inside my house, but that's just me. I have thrown away probably a gallon before from a spill, mostly soaked up in rags.

I thought this post was going to be about wanting to start a service where you come to the customer to do routine maintenance like that, and I was going to say I think its a good idea.

itsarebuild wrote: Oddly enough our metro waste department says that antifreeze should be flushed down the toilet.

I have a buddy who worked for a major metro Division of Water for nine years who told me the same thing: pour it down the toilet b/c the wastewater treatment plant is equipped to deal with it. He also said to NEVER pour it down a storm sewer though - that water returns to the environment without being treated.

rcutclif wrote: I thought this post was going to be about wanting to start a service where you come to the customer to do routine maintenance like that, and I was going to say I think its a good idea.

It CAN be a good idea, but there are pitfalls. I know some guys...they swing from having a great gig to looking for work at McDonalds on a customer by customer basis.

Liability is a huge consideration. Not so much if you don't own anything.

Everyone wants dealer level of warranty for what you do

You often don't get called until they berkeley the job up in the first place

Lots of people just want to complain; it's programed into them.

"That was not broke before"

Is that a smudge on the upholstery?

It takes longer than you think and a lot of times it cant get done on the day for whatever reason. E36 M3 happens.

If you run an account, the IRS will figure it out. If you don't have an account you are not making money on parts and you will be using your time and $$$ to fetch them, maybe even on your card.(paper trail)

Local shops will turn you in as you are competing with an unfair advantage

People call you 24/7. And they are all Craigslist/Walmart quality. "Do I get a loaner?" "Will you pick me up and drop me off at the Mall while you do the work?

And the real killer is that you will have WAY too much friend and family and close co-workers who think you do this for fun.

I probably can catch most of the old coolant, but I do have a bad track record of spilling things, even when it seems unlikely. I don't want to poison my dog (or anything else) and I also want to avoid upsetting my cranky old neighbors. On a related note, do you guys do the hose in the top of the radiator "flush" procedure? I doubt a shop would do that, but it seems like it would get much more crud out. Unfortunately, I don't see any way to do that without just letting that unclean water go into the storm sewer (though our sewers are combined here, so it's all supposed to go to waste water treatment). Am I right in assuming the "right" way to do this is just to drain and refill the rad repeatedly a couple of times to get it cleaner?

Maybe I'll just buy some large shallow pan and do it myself after all.

I had a patient once who drank about a half gallon of Prestone......probably not the cheapest alternative to getting rid of it though.

bluebarchetta wrote: I have a buddy who worked for a major metro Division of Water for nine years who told me the same thing: pour it down the toilet b/c the wastewater treatment plant is equipped to deal with it.

I recommend checking with your local public utilities first. Some allow it, some don't.

The best way to get all the crud out is to use a flushing tee going into the heater core, which is what most shops do. Just sticking a hose into the radiator isn't going to get any significant circulation through the system.

I generally empty the system as much as possible from the drain cock, then fill completely with fresh water and burp the system, drive around for a little while to circulate everything, then drain again and fill with fresh coolant. Sure, you have to drain and fill twice, but it's clean and ensures that any old coolant left behind is minimal.

Drain the block too.

I had the radiator replaced on my Tahoe for similar reasons. It cost me a LOT more than if I had done it myself. My problem was, no place to dump the antifreeze. Parts stores take oil no problem, but I couldn't find one that too antifreeze.
Our city has a yearly (or twice a year) dump your waste day, but it opens at 8:00 and 5-6 hour waits in line are common. They actually recommend that if you don't get there before 9:00, don't try. Kinda makes it difficult to be a "good citizen".....

I have heard that some fire departments will take chemicals, but that may only apply to things like fuel and paint thinners.

-Rob

Yeah. To be clear... Do NOT boil of antifreeze in the house. I did mine on a turkey drier setup in the back yard. Stuff smells terrible when most of the Fluid is gone.