Poll: do you do your own maintenance & repairs?

Just curious how many people here are doing their own maintenance & repairs.

I do 95% of my own work, and always encourage people to learn. Being able to look after your own vehicles is a path to independence (financial & other) and you never have to wonder if the repair shop is trying to rip you off!

Being able to fix your own stuff also means you can more confidently drive used/older vehicles, and save a gigantically huge pile of cash over your lifetime rather than making payments on new cars.

If you don't do your own work, why not?

If you do, how did you get started?

The only thing that I don't do myself is the oil changes. Mainly because the dealership does them for free for life. If it wasn't free, I'd do that myself like I plan to do with everything else. I only have 14700 miles on my Aveo, but if I run into something where I need help, my dad can help me out. He was rebuilding engines before I was born, not to mention the performance work that he had done to the G8 and the Camaro. When it comes to stuff that I actually care about, I learn pretty dang fast.

I have the shop do things I absolutely can't do. Like the crankshaft relearn procedure on the Aveo when I put the new engine into it. I also have them mount and balance my tire... Thats about it.

Now that I think about it, balancing and mounting tires is something that I'll leave to the shop. And welding. I doubt that I could ever make a good weld. But as for everything else, I think I can pull it off.

I do want to learn as much as I can, because I want to run my own shop some day.

i just turn the key and go..

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Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

i just turn the key and go..

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You may regret posting that.

I do all my own work except oil changes, things under warranty, and recalls. I got started by helping father repair the clunkers he drove when I was a kid.

Edit: After giving it a little more thought... There are a few more things I think are best left to those that do it everyday.

AC work - the equipment is too expensive
Major structural body/frame work - again frame measuring equipment is VERY expensive
Painting - Color matching is an art I'm sure I'm never master
Alignments - I'll let the shop put it on a rack; not worth trying to get right without the sensors IMO

Mechanical aptitude skipped a generation in my family - both my grandpas were good DIY mechanics (one was a farmer, one was a draftsman). My dad, not so much. When I was a kid, I loved hanging around my grandpas when they were fixing stuff. Probably where I got the interest. When my older brother got his first used car, I really got interested!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wylee

You may regret posting that.

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whys that? karma gonna break my car?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

whys that? karma gonna break my car?

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That's what I was thinking. jinx, karma, whatever ya call it

I do most of my own work. If I need to crack open a motor or transmission then I leave that to professionals but I've found over the years most everything can be worked out with a decent set of tools and a Haynes manual.

I do as much work as my skills and research allow. If I don't know how to fix something I attempt to learn from asking around or google. I started off with 2 honda preludes that were a year apart. One of that had skipped on the timing and had a bad motor, the other was ironically a parts car that I ended up fixing and driving. This was my first project car, and I was overly dependent on my dad for a lot of it. (he did more than was fair, and I do regret my stupidity about it.) I took the entire interior out of both cars, we exchanged the moon roof (wish the aveo had one) and I swapped the interior wiring harness. The one was bad from the previous owner not bolting a seat down and cutting out the carpet. From there I started doing more of my own work, and paying attention to what my dad did when something broke that I could not fix. This was also where I found my first car forum Honda Prelude Forum : Honda Prelude Forums and began to realize the pride of owning, maintaining, and modding my vehicle. Now not only do I maintain what I can, with a jack in the driveway, on my own vehicle. I also help out many of my friends with their vehicles. I have been doing this since about 2008 and have learned a lot in just 4 years. I continue to learn every chance I get.