Does anyone work on their own vehicle these days? (Columbia Falls: homes, to buy)

[Casper1212]

You have to be careful with today's washers of any kind. Some of them are made of aluminum so that they will "crush" when you tighten the bolt to them. The intent is to create a seal using the washer. I had to use them on my Honda whenever we had the oil changed.

[RANGER.101ST]

i dont on my newer ones but i have an older hunting truck that i do all the work on.just put a new engine in it last fall.do all the work on my kids car to.

[tankratt]

I like to do the work on my cars, not just because I am cheap but, I end up doing the same or better than the shops do, and you get to know the rig as well. Granted my stuff is older and easier to work on. I dont need Bill Gates to hack into the cars computer like most of the new stuff out there but I have a code reader for one of my cars. And it doubles as a hobby.

[starwalker]

Yes, I do as much as I can -- and that is one reason I am keeping my older (1990) pickup. K doesn't do much on the subaru on account of the computer stuff and his health.

But as long as I can crawl under the truck, I'll be doing my oil/filter changes and I see no reason not to do plugs and stuff too...

[Casper1212]

I think working on your own car is kind of like people who grow their own veggies--there's just something satisfying about it.

[cdodge04]

Originally Posted by SportFury59

Probably/maybe what happened with the oil filter is that the gasket on the old filter came off when removing filter and stuck to engine and mechanic didn't notice. Then when putting on new filter you have 2 gaskets instead of one and in that case 2 isn't better than one. It'll leak big time. Happened to a friend of mine. I learned from his misfortune. I change oil for family members (lucky me) and I'd say maybe 1 out of 4 oil changes that gasket thing happens.

That's exactly what happened, and if people go slow enough and pay enough attention most of the time that can be avoided. However when you get work done at shabby shops which employ meatheads that are too busy joking around and squirting each other with air guns, mistakes are bound to occur .

My personal favorite was when I had a 4 wheel alignment done on my SUV...I watched the guys closely to see exactly how much attention they were giving to my vehicle. They pulled the SUV in, put it up on a lift, walked away came back 20 minutes later dropped it down and pulled it out...they never even touched my vehicle! I watched them the entire time LOL! Needless to say the SUV went right back into the bay and that gentlemen went home.

I also had a little Metro that I was driving at one point which ended up in a local shop. The mechanic swore up and down that the engine was blown...I started the car up drove it home and put another 50k miles on it before parking it because of a rust issue. That's some blown motor right there!

People have to be really careful when and where they get work done. It's never a bad idea to keep an eye on your vehicle when it's being worked on or even get a second opinion on things.

[retiredtinbender]

Another good reason to do asmuch at home as possible on the cars cdodge. I miss points, and plug changes. I miss sitting on the fender under the hood and being able to SEE and get to everything. I had an old 69 Chevy stepside with tons of room under the hood. Now it takes an hour to move crap out of the way just to partially get to the pice of plastic and solder that needs replacing. I'm going on ebay and look for an old Hudson Hornet or Comodore 8.

[Casper1212]

What I really love is when men start talking mechanics, on the car, around the house, etc., they automatically turn to my husband. Some of them even address their remarks to him directly, as if I couldn't possibly understand what they're talking about . When we buy a new vehicle, they always turn and talk to him when they start talking techinical , which always loses them them the sale. I've had mechanics who will only talk to my hubby and treat me as if I should shut up and get out of their shop. And the one thing that really pisses me off are the mechanics who try to lie about what's wrong with the vehicle, thinking that I'm not going to know any better. And then, they have the brass to get indignant about it when I call 'em on it! Would you believe that on TWO seperate occassions I have had sales managers try to FORCE me to buy a vehicle I had been looking at? And another one told me I couldn't return a vehicle I had bought from him under the state lemon law. My bank begged to differ. It's not that hubby doesn't know anything about cars--he's a little bit of a motorhead, too. I just have more of an aptitude for it.

[SportFury59]

Originally Posted by retiredtinbender

Another good reason to do asmuch at home as possible on the cars cdodge. I miss points, and plug changes. I miss sitting on the fender under the hood and being able to SEE and get to everything. I had an old 69 Chevy stepside with tons of room under the hood. Now it takes an hour to move crap out of the way just to partially get to the pice of plastic and solder that needs replacing. I'm going on ebay and look for an old Hudson Hornet or Comodore 8.

A couple years ago I picked up a '70 Gremlin in very good shape (39,000 miles). Drive it all summer (I love attention and with a Gremlin you get it ) It's fun to work on - no sensors or codes - nothing in the way.

On another note - recently my sister (she lives in Phoenix) had her car in for service which included a tire rotation. She marked tires. When she picked up car the wheels were in same location - not rotated - mechanic claimed he rotated them but when she showed him marks he stuttered and sputtered and blamed it on another guy.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by Casper1212

What I really love is when men start talking mechanics, on the car, around the house, etc., they automatically turn to my husband. <snip>

I hear ya' there, sister! K is a good mechanic and general all purpose "fixer" too... he has done stuff I haven't BUT vice-versa as well.

Every now and then I get a surprise, too... as when we were both browsing the insulation in Home Depot recently... discussing options and trying to decide what way we would go for each of our remodel projects. Another customer -- somewhat younger male -- looked directly at me and asked me what product he needed for his wall. I asked him a few questions -- he was looking at the fiberglas batts and didn't have a clue, but once we figure out how his wall was made (2x4s, "2 feet apart" as he put it) I pointed him at the right stuff and helped him to figure out how many rolls he needed.

I don't think he ever figured out I wasn't an employee, even though I was NOT wearing an orange apron! LOL The ironic thing is that K DID used to work for them, briefly, and Lowes as well...