Repairing your daily driver - I hate throwing in the towel and paying someone
 

...for repairs that I could probably do myself...but I called 'uncle' this week and did it. My son and I have been troubleshooting his 2000 Civic - CEL (misfires) and overheating. We fixed the misfire issue with new plugs, wires, and spark plug tube seals (one of the tubes was completely filled with oil...), and troubleshot the overheating to a probable bad head gasket. Work that we could most likley do - it looks fairly straightforward but time consuming.

But with Thanksgiving holidays, an unheated 2 car garage that houses 2 nice cars (one of them the 911) that I don't want sitting outside for an extended period, a full time job, tired as hell of staying up to late working on it this last week, juggling the family DD's every day, etc...I threw in the towel and took it to a shop. My diagnosis is correct, and it makes sense to do some more 'while we're in there' work - timing belt, water pump, etc....

So it'll be done by someone who has done it multiple times, and much quicker than we could have done it.

But man, it burns me to shell out all that $...! How many have been there done that?

I do it all still.... Other than tire change/balance I have not paid anyone to repair any of my cars in 15 years. In the 15 years prior to that, I only paid once for collision repair, several times for AC repair and alignment work.

At 47, it is getting old and lately I have thought about getting rid of a couple older daily cars and buying cars that are a bit more modern with less miles that will require a bit less work to keep on the road.

At 49 I have to admit it's getting harder and harder to motivate myself to swing wrenches.

Used to eagerly look for things that needed attention and loved running to the parts store them spending the day crawling around a cold hard floor getting dirty.

These days, not much.

Having a company car that has to be taken somewhere is teaching me to ease up. I'd take a honda in no doubt in the situation you describe. My time is worth something too, and I certainly rather spend it doing something I enjoy.

There is some truth to this. My problem with the time/money argument is that I can change my own oil and/or rotate my own tires faster than I can drive to the dealer, wait while they do it, and drive home.

I feel the same Nick, plus you don't have to worry about some yahoo using an impact wrench on your drain plug.

Yes, completely agree. I do the 'easy stuff' like that on all of our cars, for both the time rationale, Scottt's 'yahoo with the impact wrench' rationale, and the fact that this stuff doesn't tie up a bay in the garage for an extended period of time. Plus it's still fun to me...

My dad did everything himself. Built homes, fixed engines, if there wasnt a tool, he made it. I grew up with that. I live it every day. You make time as far as Im concerned.

Honda head gasket jobs are easy, btw.

This is a question of "opportunity cost." There are only so many hours in the day...

I am confident that I can tackle most any car maintenance task. I built the engine in my 930 from the crankshaft out (with the help of Wayne's book and this forum). I had it in my head that i was going to do 100% of the maintenance on my wife's DD, a 2006 Mini Cooper S. Oil changes, no problem. Then the clutch master developed some issues, easy peasy I figure. NOPE! Bleeding the clutch circuit on the Gen 1 cooper S is damn near impossible (known issue). I gave up after a couple of hours, called AAA and had it flat bedded to the shop. My time is valuable, I get paid well to be a bean counter so I can afford to pay someone else to deal with that stupid POS (it took the dealer something like 4 hours to bleed it).

Working on the Porsche as a hobby is one thing, and the old 911s were engineered to be taken apart and put together again. There is joy in that for me. Newer cars...not so much.

Two years ago, on Thanksgiving weekend in my tiny two car garage, I did that very job on my wife's 2003 Civic because of coolant displacement and overheating. I straightedged the head and found a .005" low spot between #2, and #3 so machine work was necessary. I was lucky that the machine shop I use for head work was open that Friday.

Even though her's has a VTEC head, and COP ignition, it's still about the same amount of work. In all, I believe it took me about 8 hours total.

In my opinion, it's a good call to farm out the job to a shop. There might be some head warpage that'll need to be addressed.

Oh, BTW, try replacing the radiator cap first before condemning the head gasket.

Have only paid out maybe 5 times in my life. A lot of wrenching when owning up to 22 motorcycles (13 now) and 5 snowmobiles.

Best thing I ever did was to pay John Walker to put the bigger engine and oil cooling system in my 73.5......

We have a local guy that works in a shop behind his house. $40/hr when the dearler charges $125....Just starting taking him a few jobs I just don't want to tackle anymore. Thinks like timing belts, CV joints on my 4x4, etc...

I feel your pain.

Nope, won't do it. The only thing I'll pay for is body work mostly because it sucks and I hate it. Anything mechanical I do myself - I'm not getting ripped off.

I have no trouble paying somebody to do work on my car that can do a better job than me. I do my own oil changes, filters, change wheels etc though.

The same with the stock market. I buy good mutual funds as they are the professionals. The same principle. Mutual funds do better than my stock picking.....:)

On my Jag, yes. But that's because we don't have a decent Jag mechanic in town.

I almost 100% DIY. My tranny cracked a year ago. I dropped it off at the shop with a used tranny to swap out. That was cheaper than renting a car while I fixed it.

And my power window failed, same thing. I looked like a B@5t@rd of a job, so I dropped it off, only to find out the repair kit has everything all assembled and it's a piece of cake.

A year ago I bought all new suspension parts. They sit on the shelf uninstalled. No time.

And I did the head my five cylinder Volvo, I remember how pissed off I was that the bores were like new, I was hoping to scrap the car. :)

^ This
That's why I do some stuff. Oil changes, brakes, alternators, water pumps, etc.... I've also done bigger jobs, timing belts and top end jobs. But some jobs, I'll farm out either from a time, cost or difficulty standpoint.
It's not uncommon for me to have to tweak, fix, connect or tighten something in the cases where I've had to take a car somewhere. It's darn hard to find a good shop these days. Again, that's why I do most jobs myself.

56 yo lifetime mechanic here Porsche only for last 30.

Daughters Honda? Pop's Lexus? straight to the dealer

Semi truck and race car transporter? Take it away truck mechanic dude.

Doesn't bother me one bit. I'd rather ride my bike or drive my race car

It's -27c here today. I payed someone to change my oil because I'm to (old) smart to freeze my bum off doing it myself.

Recently I did farm out 2 jobs 2 different mechanics and wasn't satisfied with the work of either. Bottom line is I'm the only mechanic I trust for the money.

I'd like to find a good mechanic who works from his home garage.