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Comment by lastofthemojito | Hacker News Reader

The narrative earlier in the pandemic was that the reduction in driving was brutal for mechanics as it meant a reduction in need for auto maintenance and repair. Fewer of us are staying at home these days, but it looks like we're still not quite back to pre-pandemic levels of driving[0].

I'd imagine it's probably a bit of a mixed bag for mechanics, depending on what sort of vehicles they specialize in, where they're located, etc.

0: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M12MTVUSM227NFWA

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Might be anecdotal but on top of that, I've noticed that many car owners who previously only had services performed by a shop began doing their own maintenance. A friend who works as a service manager at CarMax had similar observations in conversations with some customers, including one DIY-er who forgot to torque their oil drain bolt correctly, lost the oil, and is now the recipient of a refurbished engine.

I had only done light maintenance/upgrade work on my cars prior to the pandemic. In the last year I've replaced a rear main seal, front + rear rotors + pads on all my cars, new control arms, shocks, and struts on a sedan, a ton of electrical work, cold air upgrades, every single fluid drained and filled, etc. DIY content on YouTube is getting to the point where a middle schooler can fab a car from scratch given enough time and motivation. YMMV (literally).

Jumping from only light maintenance to changing a rear main seal is quite the leap!

No better feeling though! Especially when running the numbers post-fix (insert CS joke here) and comparing to shop quotes. I keep spreadsheets for two cars and an older jet ski and I've saved ~$12k this year alone by wrenching solo assuming $100/hr = standard labor rate. I've learned a TON of cross-functional skills, have full control over the parts and repair, and it's just a feel-good way to step away from my desk when things slow down at work.

I remind myself of the the 5-digit savings whenever I'm in line at Harbor Freight... which is often.

You're quite right about how good it feels to do such work yourself.

Can confirm. I did brakes and rotors on all four wheels on my 4WD 2012 Tundra a while back. Went smoothly and I knew that all bolts were properly torqued when I was done.

That $12K is tax-free as well. You’d likely have to earn ~$20K to pay $8K in taxes to be left with the same $12K net.

You're absolutely right, I hadn't thought of that. Very interesting (and affirming) way of looking at those savings.

You'll probably be less time efficient than a full-time mechanic though.

I'm sorry, but this is an unnecessary and negative comment. I don't know why you made it.

Of course a professional will accomplish tasks faster than a DIY'er checking YouTube.

But, as OP says, there's savings AND personal satisfaction involved. Why is time-efficiency the metric you're weighting in value?

It has nothing to do with negativity. Maybe OP is accounting for an efficiency loss rate, but they didn't mention it, so I brought it up. What good are inaccurate calculations?

It matters if OP is multiplying the hours they spent times $100 rather than the time the mechanic would quote (usually from a flat rate manual) times $100/hr.

If a pro mechanic would charge me $100/hr times the book time of 1.3 hours to change pads on my car and I take 3 hours to do it, I saved $130, not $300.

For simple jobs, I can usually match or slightly beat the book rate. Because I don’t have a lift, a lot of undercar work takes me loads longer.

By a large margin, definitely. I was hesitant to attempt repairs on my daily before I picked up car #2 because it was my only mode of transportation. Being able to switch between the two now gives me a much wider time margin for potential errors and my feelings about DIY repairs have gone from "keeping this car alive is going to bankrupt me" to "this is a fun hobby."

When confidence in repairability is low and stakes are high, it probably makes sense to opt for a shop.

Congratulations

> one DIY-er who forgot to torque their oil drain bolt correctly, lost the oil, and is now the recipient of a refurbished engine.

Shops make sure this doesn't happen by lazily hitting that bolt with an impact gun. Might never come off again.

We had our oil changed recently and the shop forgot to put the cap back on from the fill port (Subaru). Figured that out after 15 miles and the smell of burning oil. Engine bay was covered.

It's always something!

Did a similar thing where I didn’t put the oil cap gasket back on right.

Was fine until oil pressure built up and the sprayed all over the engine bay.

Probably dirtier than yours. Originally thought “must be a plastic fire somewhere”. Oops.

Sounds like it's a problem that may solve itself.

"YMMV (literally)." ha, that's for a good laugh at the end

I've never gone as far as replacing suspension parts, mainly because the bolts tend to be very difficult to remove. Even brake rotors are hard to remove in some cases. The last time I changed the rotors, I had to use a sledgehammer and "lightly" tap on the rotor to get it to come off the hub.

As for fluids, I've done oil and automatic transmission changes. I haven't tried brake fluid or coolant though.

> The last time I changed the rotors, I had to use a sledgehammer and "lightly" tap on the rotor to get it to come off the hub.

I used a 2"x4" wooden beam. Felt a lot safer.

Those suspension bolts are no joke. The control arm bolts on my sedan took 25 minutes of the 'blow torch --> upside down canned air' cycle get them to budge with a breaker bar. And the first drive to the alignment shop is enough to induce cold sweats on occasion.

Coolant is typically pretty easy and the intervals are longer, although I end up sticky with glycol every time I do a flush. If you ever decide to tackle the brakes, I picked up a $10 vacuum hand pump on Amazon that saved me from jury-rigging a 2liter bleeder bottle and finding someone to pump the brakes for me. Highly recommend.

I think GP meant that it's going to be a boon because repairing your car instead of replacing it is becoming a better deal every day.

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