Do you maintain your car yourself?

[Geeky1]

I'm curious to see how many of you guys (or girls) work on your own car(s)... I do some of the work on mine- e.g. changing lightbulbs, changing the oil & coolant, etc.- but I don't do most of the work myself.

I did disassemble most of the upper part of the engine in my '87 560SEL parts car last summer (I had the heads rebuilt and put on the '86 560 I drive), and I've swapped the spark plugs and wires on my car before too... And I replaced the speakers in the car myself (although I had the subs installed by an audio shop)

But, like I said, MOST of the work I don't do myself. I know how engines work... before I got into computers I was practically obsessed with cars... I know the theories, the basic engineering, etc., but I don't have much in the way of practical, hands-on knowledge with working on cars, and my car is not the ideal car to practice on, just from a complexity standpoint. And besides, I don't really want to deal with the mess under the hood of the damn thing...

//EDIT
Oh, and I've pulled the door panels on both driver's side doors before too... replaced the door hinge on the driver's side front door, etc...
//END EDIT

The mess (this is all hidden by the air cleaner when it's on, but pull the air cleaner and this is what you get...)

[godzilla525]

...basically anything that doesn't require really expensive specialized tools or heavy shop equipment (e.g. no engine swaps or extensive suspension work)...

[Leonardo]

I do routine maintenance like oil changes, filters, fluids. I suppose I've got too many other interests to invest in tools, manuals, and TIME to do more.

[Lord_Night]

My Car I do it all..... no one touches my baby... except for my wife.. and even she knows about cars.

[TheSmJ]

I do everything I can provided the tools to do the job aren't too expensive.

[Geeky1]

My Car I do it all..... no one touches my baby... except for my wife.. and even she knows about cars.

I looked for a post by you in the S-M Web Garage thread, couldn't find one... so, I've gotta ask... what is your baby?

[Clutch]

I'm with Lord_Night.

[CyrixInstead]

I know jack sh!t about cars. Sorry, but they just never interested me. Would love to be able to do all that stuff.

I have a new car now which they don't have a Haynes manual (book telling u how to take your car to bits and put it back together with no spare bits) out for yet I don't think. Plus it's still under its warranty etc.

Don't even know how to change the brake pads or oil. Sad, I know.

~Cyrix

[primesuspect]

When was younger (read: poorer), I did almost everything myself. I did most of the engine work, I rebuilt the brakes (disc and drum), tuning, etc.

I was pretty close to becoming ASE certified at one point, my employer (a local auto parts store) was going to pay for the training and testing. I worked the parts counter for a while, so I have a decent overall knowledge of cars.

With that said, the last three cars I have had, I have been a wuss with. I have barely done anything more extensive than change the oil, and now I don't even do that anymore. My wife's car needs a thermostat and I went out and got one and popped the hood and stood there looking at the crazy throttle body and air intake assembly and noticed that it would all have to come out in order for me to access the thermostat housing, and I just kinda gave up. :(

Lame. I'm getting old.

[289Mustang]

I do pretty much everything. I have swapped engines and the entire suspension on my '66. Have a 5 speed sitting by it waiting to be swapped in when I get a house/garage.

I replaced both head gaskets, exhaust and gas tank on my '89. I did let a shop rebuild/replace the trans because it was too cheap not to and I had a guy change my gears for $50 rather than screw up a $175 set of gears trying to figure it out myself with the crappy tools I had at the time. Otherwise I've done everything myself.

[floppybootstomp]

I used to do everything myself, but I'm getting older.

I just can't be bothered to go crawling around underneath cars anymore and getting covered in crap.

I've found a good local garage - he's always booked up 3 to 4 weeks in advance - and I let Rob and his crew do all the work now.

I still do stuff like swap out spark plugs, air filter, distributor cap and other easy to replace parts, but not a lot else.

Biggest job I ever done was change the ring gear on a Transit van. Have swapped gearboxes, replaced clutch, rebuilt one engine (OK, it was only a little sidevalve ;) ) replaced brake master cylinder and lots of other stuff.

But time is money. Instead of doing that, I work, and let somebody else look after the motor.

Speaking of which, it's overdue for a wax, but it's snowing out there...

[derek]

do it all myself.

derek

[GHoosdum]

For me it depends. On newer cars, I usually just do maintenance. I won't touch an automatic transmission. I've had to let the shop do a few trans rebuilds for me in my old pickup... On my car ('99 ZX2) I've had to change the brakes and basically just change the oil every 5K... I've also had a few weird things happen, like the hood cable snapped, so I had to buy a new one from Ford and I put that in myself... but that was more like a puzzle than a mechanical job. I've also replaced the thermostat and temperature sensor, but that's about it. I had the mechanic replace my radiator (the original got cracked because the car was stolen from the po and wrecked) and replace my engine mounts.

On my older cars (my previous project cars) I did all the work myself. Those engine bays are simpler, so it's much less hassle to get to the parts that need work. The way I look at it is, if it'll take more than 4 hours to work on my daily driver, it goes to the shop. Otherwise I do it myself. I plan on performing an engine rebuild on my next project vehicle..

Heres' a photo of a slant six in the back of my truck. I picked it up off of eBay for $25 a few years ago, and intended to put it in my project car at the time. Unfortunately, I lived with my parents then and had to get rid of everything. :(

[FormFactor]

Nope, I dont have near the patience to work on my own car.

To get to 1 part you hbave to remove 50 other parts. Waaaay too frustrating!

[lightnin]

i built the rear subframe + connectors on my 73 firebird from scratch. out of 3x5 mild steel box tubing. of course i had to also built a jig and special jack stand to ensure the chassis was perfectly level. i've welded in trunks, floorpans on various cars. replaced various body panels, built more than a dozen engines, from nissan 4 bangers to all out methanol-burning 355 ci SBCs making around 650 hp for sprint cars. in fact i built the 455 in my 80 model and the 400 in my 73 model. and the 350 that was in my old impala. about the only i've never done to a car is rebuilt an automatic tranny. done rear ends and helped rebuild a couple manuals but i've still yet to get into automatics.


i really really really really wish i could open some sor tof race/hotrod shop but i know it would fail around here.

[TheBaron]

all work except alignment and brakes
brakes because they're still under warranty and have been for 2 years (apparently if i burn out the pads and calipers before 15k they're obliged to replace them and reinstate the warranty for free, mwahahahaha) and alignment because A) i dont have the equipment and B) since its dropped theres only one shop i trust to tune it to specs...

[primesuspect]

i really really really really wish i could open some sor tof race/hotrod shop but i know it would fail around here.

where do you live?

[beregid]

i have changed my motor in my chevy pickup. went from a 4.3 v6 to a 350 v8, re-wired the electrical(had to put wireing harness to accomadate 350 accessories. changed computer, and transmission. pain in the a$$. but its not actually that hard.

[GnomeWizardd]

I do fluids and oil and stuff like that IF i didnt have a warrenty Id do fans belts radiators starters fuel pumps and stuff. Its nothing new ive only done a few on my own but i am capable

[abortretryfail]

I used to work as a driver messenger in Los Angeles and I did all my maintenance because otherwise it was not a cost effective job. I stopped when I quite that job, now I do absolutely nothing myself, it's worth the money to me not to have to do it.

[QCH]

I was a mechanic in another life (About 10 years ago now).

I have rebuilt an engine, swapped a few engines, brakes while eating lunch, oil change to get loosened up, fixed flat tires during a sneeze, and redone exhaust at a stop light. I've done some body work, some front end work, speakers, stereo or two, speakers, modded a few car parts, and the normal belts, hoses, valves...

But now... Time is money and I make more (barely) than the shops do for normal maintenance. Both of my vehicles are under factory warrantee, so the dealer gets them....

Given a older vehicle (say 70's or early 80's) and I would love to get my hands dirty, but not on the newer cars...

[Gargoyle]

I don't do much. One of the ideas behind getting my '67 Volvo was that it'd be an easy car to learn on, but it turns out that I lacked the time. The most complicated things I've done are change a thermostat (on the Volvo) and an O2 sensor (on the Toyota).

[pseudonym]

I do everything I can generally, but most of my street cars lately have been leases, so I haven't really done any work on them. I used to do all the work on my old Mustang though, brakes, clutch, tranny. If I had to do the motor though, I'd prolly send it somewhere else, less it was something easy.

When it comes to the race car though, my father and I do everything on it.

[Buddy J]

I try to do everything I can. Usually that is just oil changes and various filters but I'm an ace at interior stuff.. I'm in the process of restoring a 72 Saab and building up my Supra so I'm getting there. I plan on doing the full suspension/rear subframe in the coming months for it, and then the tranny and engine. So i'm getting there. I really really wanna rebuild my engine but don't have the money or a good spot to do it yet (low comp pistons, 2mm hks head gasket, balanced everything, and a ported head so when I turbo it I'll be nice and happy.)

[RWB]

I try to take as good of care of my truck on my own, though for the harder stuff I have a whole family of mechanics. Dad does brakes and tuneups, Uncle(dad's twin) does Performance tuneups and other cool stuff, another Uncle does Glass, and another does Body and Paint. They can all do various things of course, but it's nice being able to go to one that will do specific work. They're my favorite side of the family, my mom's side is a bunch of geeks ;D

Since college started until now, I haven't done anything really. But usually I try to keep the engine nice and clean, oil checked, and general stuff like that. Preventive maintenance so I don't need to take it in or anything since my family are all back in Texas. Once I get a job, I'll be cleaning my baby up again, and make her real purty.

My baby's a 1991 Chevy S-10 Tahoe, and she runs just as good as she did back when I got her 6 years ago, my first and only vehicle. :thumbsup:

[Rot Katze]

Well, I am completly restoring my 84 El Camino so I am learning as I go from a local shop friend and as many manuals I can get my hands on..

Once it's finished I will be able to do just about everything..just taking it apart I know a TON about G bodys

[RADA]

I've done almost everything.

The biggest job I did was when I rebuilt the 289 HI-PO in my '66 Stang, and installed a shift kit in the tranny. (1993)

Since then I try to do everything I can, plugs, wires, etc. I've had nice enough cars, with full warrantys, so I haven't had to do too much. I am a warranty co.'s worst nightmare though, I'll bring my car in for free work everytime, and as many times as necessary for them to get it right.

[entropy]

Being as I'm 16, I don't do crap. Actually, that's not the biggest reason. The REAL reason I don't do anything is because I don't own a car. I drive the Uber Van, sure, but it isn't mine. Thank God :p. I've watched my stepdad and grandpa do some work on their cars, but I basically know nothing. I could change brakes if I needed to, but it'd take me an unbelievable amount of time.

Once I get my own car and stuff goes wrong with it (and believe me, it will), I'll start learning. I've always loved cars. Just don't have enough opportunities to learn. And if you're thinking, "Well, watch your stepdad more," let me tell you a little about him. He can change oil, and a few other things. But he is NOT a handyman. It took him a year to build a 3x10 closet downstairs ;D Eventually my grandpa and uncle said screw it and came over and helped :p So yeah... it's hard lol.

[muddocktor]

I do most all my routine maintenance work and even changing stuff out like an evaporator core but for anything involving the engine or tranny internals I just bring it to my little brother, who is the head Nissan mechanic in New Iberia's Nissan dealership. :D

[tcith]

It depends on which car

my 11 year old Toyota Carolla hatchback I do everything (replaced the transmission earlier in the year) my brand new Peugeot 206 I have the dealer to everything as it's ony two months old

[Zuntar]

Brakes, fluids & filters, tune ups, axle bearings, belts, bolt on stuff like starter/alternator, yada yada yada. nothin too big, cuz I just don't wanna. ;)