Just curious as to what everyone generally does...
Do you work on your ride, or do you have someone look at it for you? (For what reason?)
Are there some things you dont mind doing yourself?
Or some things you wont even touch?
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As for me, I like doing anything I can on my own. It gives me a reason to buy more tools. But if something is out of my league, then its out of my league.

 

I do some stuff.

-Strut brace
-Intake
-Turbo hoses
-Vaccum lines
-Metal polishing
-Ipod adapter
-Wheel wrap

Major things get taken care of my the pros.

 

I do everything that can be done using relativlely simple tools. I am cheap.

 

I like to look at it this way, I am not a mechanic, if i can fix it ill try but the majority of the time, Im the Pilot.I drive, i take it to an edge every now and then, i listen to the car. But when it comes to fixing it. Ill let someone who knows something about it to do it. I would like to list fixing cars to my accolades or talents, but as cars get more and more advanced, the less one person and a garage can do. We cant all be Mechanics, cause then we would all just still be drivers and vice versa.

 

I understand not everyone is a mechanic - me included. But I also realize quite a bit of regular maintenance can be done by regular folks like us with the help of forums like this one. That said, if I can do a small job myself and in the same time save myself $40-100, that's money I can spend elsewhere. Here's one that I think everyone could/should be doing themselves - oil changes. For the price ofsynthetic lubejob at Valvoline/etc (now ~$60), you could buy the filter($5 @ FCP) and choose your own brand/grade oil and still pocket at least $20 everytime - 6qts Mobil1 even. Sure there might be a small investment in tools ($5 for oil filter wrench, $5 drain pan, $15 jackstands), but the more you drive the more you could potentially save.

This is just me. For the time it takes me to make my money, I don't like to just throw it away. Others may not mind and that's perfectly okay. I like to look at the parts going into my car, inspect the quality and be able to compare to others. I feel when you leave it up to others, you miss out on that. My original post was truly meant for the common little things like oil changes, filters, brakes(rotors, pads, fluid), tire rotation, trans flush, spark plugs, coolant flush, etc. And to see what the techs might even leave up to the service dept.

I wanted to see what percentage of the people here did what.
I have done the oil, air/fuel filters, spark plugs and I plan on doing the trans flush soon @105K. I also want to replace the F/R suspension and F brakes(rotors/pads/fluid) before the summer is completely over. I am going to replace the radio soon since it stopped playing CDs completely, maybe a double-din??

 

I do everything on all my cars myself.

Except recalls of course.

 

very true, no one should just throw money away if your completely capable of doing the mantenance. yes i do the oil myself. However there are times when its actually better to have a shop do it. If i screw up my car, due to some type of neglagence. say an emergency phone call and i just forget to plug the oil completely. And the engine burns out. Im boned. But if a shop does it, they are liable. Not an excuse but sometimes if your not mechanically inclined one option out wieghts the other.

but yeah you definetly feel more in tune with your car when its your hands under the hood.

"Its a mystical bond between man and machine" Uncle Bobby B- Transformers ;p . little humor

 

^A shop will try to weasel out of those problems if possible...

 

I do try most things.
I have a copy of Vadis, although it gives you all the instructions, sometimes i don't have all the tools required, i do
oil changes, spark plugs, all filters cabin, oil, air, i havent really had to do much else...

I leave all the heavy mechanical up to a independant volvo trained tech, he is reasonable in his charges...
I'm going to change all the woodgrain trim for the aliminium look trim soon, i will have to pull all the door trims so that should be fun..

good luck

v70 2.4t

 

I do everything provided I have the time.

 

gotta respect people who can fix there own cars, its not rocket science, but it isnt playing with Play-doh.

 

I try to do everything myself....though I had to take it to a shop once to get a broken plug (which I didn't know about) that goes to the o2 sensor replaced. Aside from that, I use the forums as my guide to help me figure out anything that needs to be fixed. Thankfully it hasn't been much.

 

With the help of this forum I do what I can myself or with my son or son in law. Oil changes and brakes I definitely do myself.I refuse to drive somewhere and wait for somebody to change my oil when Icould have had it done in the length of time it took me to drive there, maybe even sooner. Brakes are just too easy to do to pay the ridiculous price. And I always have my wife test drive the car after I do the brakes to make sure I didn't screw up.

 

Jim - that's funny about getting your wife to do the test drive - hopefully you also have a good life insurance policy in case you failed to attach the brakes properly...

As for myself, I am not afraid to try anything myself assuming the tools needed don't cost more than the savings I can realize by doing it myself and I have some decent instructions on what to do. That being said, I'm horrible at diagnosing problems (though this forum has helped tremendously), so I've been known to stop by a shop and pay an hour of labor to find out what's going wrong. To date, I've done oil, air filter, fuel filter, PCV valve replacements, timing belt (on my Mitsu Eclipse - biggest and most challenging job so far), a/c compressor, serpentine belt,brake (disc and drum) andstereo replacements, coolant flushes, XM SkyFi radio hardwired installation. Also, the Eclipse has horrible exterior door handles so I've replaced both door handles. The factory also overloaded weather sealant in the doors so this tar-like substance drips down from the inside of the door during the summer and hardens up during the winter. That often gums up the door lock so I have to take apart the door to clean it up - I think I've taken the doors on that car apart about 30 times now and can do it about 5 minutes. I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting. Also, I just acquired my brother's riding mower that stopped working and my dad's 1981 Yamaha motorcycle that has been sitting for 3 years in CT and doesn't run. So, I'm going to expand my experience some more in the upcoming weeks. Oh yeah, I usually like to get assistance for the bigger jobs from a friend or neighbor (used to be my dad but he passed away 4 years ago now). I also like to help on other people's projects to build experience.

 

Well you see we live up off the road with a fairly steep driveway and there is a creek on the other side of the road. So if she doesn't end up in the creek I did the job OK. My excuse is alaways the same: "My close are too dirty to get into the car". So far she has never been in the creek.

 

I also forgot this.

If I didn't work on my own car, simply put, I wouldn't be able to afford it.

 

I do all I can on my own. It's why I have the shop and the tools. Why pay someone to screw something up when I can do it myself?

Seriously, I enjoy working on the cars. For me it is both interesting and relaxing. Good shop manuals and good posters at the forum are a big help, espcially with the "relaxed" part.

 

Totally disagree. Fixing cars (especially no start/etc) problems are possibly the most stressful thing you can do.

But having your car finally start is one of the greatest feelings you can possibly have.

 

I do and have done everything there is to do on cars, from brakes and body work, to total motor and tranny rebuilds. Nothing like startinga motor that you just went through!! Bwap!! Although that was in the past. Time is a limitter(sp?) now. A few electrical problems(^+Redturbo850) I've sent to the shop, with no regrets.
A morning bonding with your car, is a lot better than a $600 bill.Especially when we have friends like Tech and others, thanks for past advice.

 

I try to do most stuff myself. Unless it involves tearing the engine apart or having to pull it out of the car I usually do the majority of it myself and a friend / relative or two.