Servicing vehicles yourself, ie., DIY

I was asked when I bought my Taco if I wanted the service aggreement and I answered, NO WAY! Guys, every time I take any of my vehicles in for service like at an oil change place, every time something gets broken, it leaks when they are done or something now does not work anymore. I'll go a couple of years without taking them anywhere other than the tire shop and then I'll try one of the places and sure enough, something happens to reinforce the DIY in me.

last time I took my Jeep Cherokee in for a tranny fluid flush. Damn kid twisted my tranny lne damn near into and cracked the radiator boss where the fitting is. I only live a block away from that place and when I got home I had a puddle of tranny fluid in my garage immediately. Called the place and they sent a guy over to look at it and he says oh yeah, they'll buy you another radiator no problem. I wait for the owner to call, no calls. I call him and he informs me his guy he sent there said I did the damage after I got home! So after a couple of weeks with no response from the owner I filled a BBB report and complaint. To this day it remains an un-resolved dispute on his name. Hopefully if a fleet manager is looking for a place to have his trucks serviced he reads those un-resolved reports and will choose another oil change place. So you can see why I choose to do as much of my own service as I possibly can.

 

Yeah....

Anyone can do it. If you spend a little time researching and using the search button (on forums), you can learn how to do just about anything. Don't be afraid of doing it.

Make Safety your first priority - with vehicle jacking methods, to the proper tools, to the proper methods to avoid accidents, make sure you know the safety precautions involved.

Proper safety, proper tools, proper parts, and a little motivation is all you need.

And of course - if you don't want to do the work yourself, that's fine too. I'd highly recommend getting to know your vehicle and getting to know what to look for when or if problems ever occur. Because, afterall..... those service guys do make mistakes. You wanna make sure whatever service you get done is done properly and with care to your vehicle (investment).

 

Only thing I'd add is PATIENCE!
I've been working on my and my families vehicles since I was about 13 and have noticed over the years, the more patient I am, the less rework involved. Don't start something when you only have a few minutes. Set the time aside and don't be afraid to walk away if you get frustrated, have a cold beverage of your choice, and do a little more research. You'll save yourself stress, potential extra parts, and stress.

Good luck. Go slow and enjoy the learning experience that working on every different vehicle type, year, etc offers.

 

Amen to that!! You hit the nail on the head!

Sometimes when it feels like nothing is going right or you've hit a brick wall - stop - walk away. Sometimes as little as 10 minute break is enough to clear your mind and get you motivated again.

 

My answer is (D) all of the above LOL Good smart feedback

 

I've been real lucky not to have had felonious assaults on my vehicles by company pigweeds, mostly because I have taken stuff to a friend of mine who's a master mechanic.
When I bought an old VW Bus I had to learn to do a lot of that stuff myself because no one would work on it even if I could afford to pay for it.
So now I do most things at home because I found out I like to do it and I know it's done right.

I also like the time to get aquainted with the car. When you're draining the oil, look around. Check your brake lines, look for rust starting...that stuff.


However, if I ever want to change another front wheel bearing on a '94 Continental, will you please come over and smack me upside the head. What a suck job that was.


Rob

 

Anything other than warranty work or internal powertrain work, I do myself.

 

My daughter took her Kia in for an oil change at one of the major tire stores (Tire Kingdom). After they were finished and she paid for the service she left. She got about a block from the store when the engine siezed up. She called them and the technician that did the oil change came to see what was up. He looked and said to my daughter "Oh, I forgot to put the oil back in". The vice president of Tire Kingdom put a rebuilt engine with the same amount of miles in her car. From then on, I do all the oil changes.

 

bout the only thing i go anywhere for is alignments/ tire balances, and warranty work.......i do everything myself, as i dont really trust anyone else working on my vehicles. plus i like doing all this stuff anyway.....its fun and good insurance knowing it was done right, and if something does go wrong.....only have myself to blame!!

 

Yeah, I forgot tires/alignment. Obviously, most people can't do that at home, although I do rotate them myself.

 

I take it in for tires and alignment. That's it. On my old bug I did my own alignments. I rebuilt that car's motor a few times adding upgrades and producing a better motor than I could buy. I painted and reupholstered it too. Paint and upholstery are things I will never do again. Paint is just too much work and upholstery is something pros do better.

I took my GTI in for it's first oil change. The idiots pulled my air filter at 5000 miles to tell me I should replace it then then didn't put it back on right. They told me I should consider changing gear oil at 10,000 miles and then they "top off" my brake fluid and over inflate my tires after I told them to not touch the tires. The next time I heated the brakes up the reservoir overflowed and I smelled brakefluid burning for a few weeks.

Never again!!!!!

A word to the wise is to get air tools and a good jack. I love my air tools. I get excited when it's time to rotate the tires. A brake job is quick and fun. airing the tires is quick. And when I do wood working or bodywork (oh I hope not) I have tools to do the job quick and right. Hand tools have their place but an impact wrench in the right hands really makes some jobs easy.

My dream is to afford an airjack. Then the hardest part of tire rotation will be rolling the tires around.

 

the dealer maybe more expensive but you are more likely to get get screwed at private shops or places like jiffy lube by mechanics with no real training and making 10 bucks an hour, teh dealer you get factory trained tech who know what they are doing

 

^They are far from perfect, too. Maybe sometime I'll recount my Nissan and Ford service department debacles. To the contrary, I've had better luck with private garages

 

im a ford tech but its not the same every where we have a really good group of techs several senior master techs.

one thing to remember on older vehicles things do break and like the OP said some kid messed up his radiator and the place wont pay to fix it. if some thing like that happens at our place service eats the part tech eats the labor cust pays nothing

 

most dealers have a dedicated lube center if not the line techs do the maintenances.

 

hada guy come in with a F150 that had a clunk in the front end he had took it a private shop one of hte bolts on the lower control arm had came loose, the shop said he would have to buy a whole lower ctrl arm bolt nut plus alignment. I looked at it tigned the bolt down did the alignment it cost him like 275 instead of 2k

even if you have some thing really old the dealer has every thing needed to work on it for the most part.

 

Do you have to get the services done at the dealership in order to NOT void the warranty?

 

i know the manual says to change the spark plugs in the taco at 30k miles as part ofthe power train warranty, so for people who have the ability to do the work them selves like me im a technician so im not gonan go pay 500 bucks for a 30k service when i have all the equipment i need at my shop. So all you have to do is keep some sort of log of when you did the services and you would be good to go

 

Yeah, same with me, BUT..... I have BIG plans for my barn!

1. Craftsman Mechanic's tool set
2. replace wood floor with concrete
3. insulate walls
4. extend back wall about 10ft for more tool/equipment room
5. install wood stove (currently just sitting there collecting dust)
6. install 2 post lift
7. tire mounting and balancing equipment

I already have:

1. welder
2. 2 air compressors
3. air tools
4. chop saw
5. angle grinder
6. drill press
7. misc other tools

 

I do the work on my old stuff. I have the shop manuals and I am not in a hurry.
I also use a torque wrench. So I know the torque is correct. When is the last time you saw a mechanic use one?
I have not worked much on the Taco.
I will oversee the 10,000 ml. svc. I know the dealer and the svc.mgn. There is a lot to do. And if they screw it up, they have to fix it.
After this long list, I should be a stranger for a long time.
eg:I want to change to all synthect and I can`t flush the auto trans clean of Dyno. I have 5-30 in it now. I was thinking 0-30 Mobil 1.Or adjust the alingment. Or install the super charger and re flash the CPU. after the new exhaust is installed. I could do that. But I don`t want to.