HBT Mechanics

I just wondered what range of do it yourself mechanics we've got here on HBT. I'm getting my hands dirty and doing some maintenance and repair on my 2002 Saturn SL2.

I'm doing the routine oil change, air filter change, and overall check on the engine.

I'm also replacing my water pump. It's a small engine so I have to remove the front passenger side wheel and inner splash guard to do it. Fun times.

Generally, I do a lot of my own vehicle work.

When it's something real in depth and it requires specialty tools, or it could be disastrous if I screw it up.......I'm more prone to take it to the shop.


What about the everybody else?

Not too much. I'm sure I could change oil, etc... but I lack a garage it's against the rules to do an oil change in base housing. I could rent a stall at the auto hobby shop, but Firestone is much quicker. I have changed spark plugs and air filters on my truck, installed a stereo, and sucessfully diagnosed and repaired a check engine light on a previous vehicle. (Cheap piece of rubber hose burnt through. 60 bucks from the dealer or $3 from a car parts store).

If I had the space, I'd do more of my own work for sure. I love working with tools and getting my hands dirty.

Depends.
On my 80 camaro: everything
My 1951 Roadmaster: everything
My wife's 96 Toyota Corolla or my 2003 Durango: basic maintenance

I probably have the most tools out of any non-professional mechanic I've ever met, so I can do darn near anything. The lack of a lift is what holds me up most times.

I used to do it all, but the older (and busier) i get, the more I appreciate the extra time and lack of profanties afforded in just letting the shop take care of things for me.

I don't have a car! I rent one when I need, and it's cheaper than parking in NYC.

Tally, you can also do a transmission fluid change on that saturn. the filter is a screw on just like the oil filter. I miss my saturn.

I could do most of the work by myself on most of the cars I've owned. I've swapped out exhausts, redone breaks, pulled new wiring, body work, ect.

I kinda miss it when I see a garage type show on the boob tube.

B

I live on a farm so over the course of the years I have had to learn how to do it all. Plus in my past life, I went to the John Deere Technical Institute for 2 years and worked as a service technician repairing the large chasis row crop tractors. I still have all of the tools, and some of the knowledge I acquired during those 9 years with Deere. Now it is a good excuse to go to the shop and do some repairs/fabrication, 'specially since that is where the keezer resides

I pretty much do anything that doesn't require special tools and go beyond the Haynes book (I know, they suck!). But I'm sure as I get older, the work will be less and less worth the trouble. I've changed a timing belt, radiator, starters, alternators, etc. But as long as I have the free time and know-how, why pay someone $100 an hour (or whatever the going rate is) doing something I can do myself.

I just have a skepticism with many auto repair shops (nothing against mechanics). I took a car into a shop for something (can't remember) and got a call saying the radiator was leaking. I knew the car pretty well and was confident the radiator wasn't leaking when I took it in there. Come to find out it was leaking on the top... like, maybe someone dropped a tool on it? So, I told them no don't replace the radiator. I showed up to pick up the car with a replacement radiator in hand and told them I'll do it myself. Yeah, it took me a week (not a lot of room for hands and wrenches in the depths of an '89 Civic engine compartment), but I showed them! (I think.)

bad coffee said:

Tally, you can also do a transmission fluid change on that saturn. the filter is a screw on just like the oil filter.

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Yessir. I learned that one the hard way.

On older cars (pre '73 or so) I used to do it all, including engine swaps and stuff but on these new cars it takes a computer and someone with real small hands to work on them. I had to take off the intake manifold on my 2003 Escape just to change the spark plugs. I had a '71 510 Datsun that was easy to work on. Liked the fact that all the L-series engine parts were interchangable.

On my current truck I just do basic maintenance (under warranty right now). On my last vehicles I did everything unless some specialized tools I couldn't rent were required.

i do most of my own work on my Harley-Davidson Street Bob (new air intake, exhaust, ECM computer, tons of misc parts) as well as my 2006 Mustang GT

I do as little as possable, because I can make any 1/2 hour job take all day !!!

I do nothing on my cars- absolutely nothing. I can get an oil change for $14.95, so it's much easier for me to have a shop do it. I don't even do any minor repairs- I know nothing about cars and it's too late in life to learn now!

I've done just about everything on my cars/truck from oil changes to body work to engine swaps. I don't like people I don't know working on my car or truck and I hate paying people too much money to do something that I know I can do myself.

DrinksWellWithOthers said:

I've done just about everything on my cars/truck from oil changes to body work to engine swaps. I don't like people I don't know working on my car or truck and I hate paying people too much money to do something that I know I can do myself.

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You hit the nail on the head DWWO. I had a mechanic that I trusted, but the last time I went in for something he was no longer there. The whole shop was a bunch of no English speaking gangster mechanics blasting mariachi music. No thanks.

I get a sense of pride out of working on my cars myself. I'm making sure that my car is safe and therefore taking care of my family. Plus I'm being frugal. I spent about 120$ on the water pump, air filter, oil filter, and all of the necessary fluids, and a belt tensioner tool(which was too big for the job...I ended up using a 14mm box wrench and it worked just fine.)

It would have cost easily double that if I took it to a shop. Mechanics out here charge 80$ - 100$ per hour. It may have taken me a little bit longer, but I learned a few things about my car. For example......a few months ago I threw my serpentine belt while in Arizona. My father in law and I spent about two hours trying to get the new one put on. We didn't have the right tool for the job, it was dark, and there is absolutely no hand room in the engine compartment. Well today, with the tire off it literally took me less than a minute to put it back on by myself using nothing but a wrench.

It's a good feeling.....and it is easily topped off with a good beer at the end of the day. I've got a sixer of Oaked Arrogant Bastard waiting for me in the fridge.

1958 VW Bug. can and did, everything including engine and transmission rebuild.
Now I let the younger Generation fix them. My son designs and builds custom cars for a living so I let him fix my car now. He started learning from me and now he is teaching me about the new stuff. I can see it in his eyes that he loves showing up "The Old Man". I do too. Makes me proud to see how good he is.

I'm a professional mechanic. I'll do the light stuff, but will pay the guys with the right equipment to do anything past a fuel pump or brake job.

I built my GTO from nothing. I know and love ponchos.

My 07 Silverado is nice because I have a 8 year warranty and never have to pay for oil changes. So I dont do them

I've always been into modifying my vehicles. I'll do just about anything as long as I haves the tools and the time. My 78' Kawasaki has been almost completely torn down and rebuilt, including the motor and paint and body work. I've even upgraded the front and rear end on it with parts from more modern bikes. I love learning new things and I love tearing things apart and making them work like new again. I guess that why all-grain brewing is such a perfect fit for me.

I've been regressing. My first four or five cars, I pretty much did all the work myself ... except for the new fuel and brake lines on the bottom of my Olds, but that was casualty of a snowy parking lot, and a well-hidden concrete barrier.

Then I bought my SUV, and got a warranty with it. Now, I won't even change my oil myself.

A good part of why is that I had most of my "good" (read: just good enough to be usable) tools stolen from me by a past roommate. At one time, I had multiple sets of sockets, wrenches in all the necessary sizes, ramps, jack stands, a good jack, two drain pans, etc etc etc.... These days, all I have is a power drill, and some screwdrivers, and I mostly use those to fiddle with my CO2 regulator.

If I still had tools - might be a different story.

So in a sense you've swapped your automotive tools for HB tools.

That's right by me.

I'm a fully qualified mechanic and spent 5 years professionally restoring classic cars.
I prefer to pay someone else now.

From years of owning a POS car that I spent way too many hours working on and swearing at, I have found that I absolutely hate cars and will gladly pay to have someone work on them for me. The frustration is too much for me to handle working on the goddamn things.

I take care of all the maintenance on our vehicles and have done brakes, shocks, etc. Easy when my dad has the lift and all of the tools.

It may come as a surprise to everyone that I am a professional mechanic...

The only thing I won't do myself is body work... just don't have the 'artistic eye' for it. I am a master tech & GM World Class Technician so mechanically, there isn't much I can't do. I just don't trust other people with my cars. SWMBO likes to tell her friends when the discussion turns to buying cars, that she is only allowed to buy a Chevy(we have leased new cars for her for the last 9 years) because I wouldn't be able to do the warranty work on it!

EvilTOJ said:

From years of owning a POS car that I spent way too many hours working on and swearing at, I have found that I absolutely hate cars and will gladly pay to have someone work on them for me. The frustration is too much for me to handle working on the goddamn things.

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I think I may have some masochistic tendencies. When I was a kid, I had this 70 Camaro that put out waaaay too much torque for the weak secondary sprag in its TH-350 transmission.

A normal person would have purchased a TH-400 or would have replaced the sprag with a steel one. My solution? Continuously replacing the sprag with a stock one.

On the upside, I can change the transmission in a 70-81 Camaro in exactly 60 minutes.

I've done engine rebuilds in the past and used to do most of the work on my vehicles. I still do the motorcycle, lawn tractor, post master, and other small engine stuff. For the van, I'll do purely mechanical stuff; but I'm not messing with a 30,000 psi computerized, common rail injection diesel.

Ive done all the work on the cars Ive owned (3 at this point) and on my motorcycle. I got my first car at age 14 for free and had to do an engine swap, which wasnt that big of a deal (my sister and Id been rotating tires, fixing belts and doing oil changes starting at age 8.)

Lack of a lift in my fathers garage prevents us from doing major undercarriage work, but we can basically do as much work as our free time allows us. We also have a top notch VW mechanic for when we dont have time to maintain the fleet, but my parents will be sending my mom's Prius to the dealership for any work other than oil and tire changes!

Engine, transmission, axle, suspension and a big brake conv.

I have a little over 20,000 in tools.

Do all my own work, my workbench actually right now is covered in a dismantled manual trans that i'm rebuilding for my daily commuter car. Pretty much the only thing I don't work on is my wife's volvo just because they are very picky about who does what to preserve the warranty. But once it hits 36k it's all mine.

I do the minority, but can do the majority including body work. A shop and tools are what hinders me. That and I have a mechanic a mile away that is experienced, honest and charges (imo) less than what he should.

Pretty knowledgeable. I'm on my third Jeep now I've built from stock to crawler. Rebuilt axles, engines, xfer cases. Can weld fairly decent now.

My buddy has a 1952 Willys CJ2A. I have helped him do all kinds of work on that old thing. Gotta love the old jeeps.

Just sold my 72 Scout II on friday ... hate to see her go!

I have done this work myself:

Transmission
Clutch
CV joints
4x wheel bearings
Replacement intake
replacement ecu
replacement exhaust
replaced interior (seats and door cards)
replaced all lights
installed fogs
All oil changes
installed new cam and followers
installed new suspension (coilovers)
replaced stereo system when it failed

And a bunch of other stuff I'm sure I've forgotten over the years.

It's my first car. I got it when I was 19. I've had it for four years, now.

Here's a pic or three.

Thats pretty funny, my commuter is a Mk3 Golf

Pretty darn easy to work on, actually been working on rebuilding the head this last week but I haven't been able to find the right valve spring compressor.

jcdillin said:

Thats pretty funny, my commuter is a Mk3 Golf

Pretty darn easy to work on, actually been working on rebuilding the head this last week but I haven't been able to find the right valve spring compressor.

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Do you go on VWVortex? That forum is the only reason that I still have my car. They are really easy to work on.

You can use a nylon rope to compress the valve springs.

I used to do it all when I owened a Beetle. My payment for the car to my father was doing the engine restore myself. Some sort of appreciation conditioning he considered it.

Once my income level was high enough to buy new and had, untily my current vehicles, never kept them long enough to go out of warranty.

As for the Oil changes it's just a cheap to take it to the $15.00 oil change place. For another $10 they re-charge my air filter too so I don't even do that.

The only real maintenance I do myself is on the Aero. Checking and tightening cables and such, changeing the oil, etc... nothing major. It's just a PITA to drop it off or wait a half day for them to get to it.

just routine stuff, oil changes etc. anything that requires the car to stop or go forward, i leave to the guys who know what they're doing.