Do you do your own maintenance?

[straight6pwr]

do it myself, except jobs that take diagnostic tools which I don't own, and specialty things like tire mounting/alignment.

[Dirty325ix]

I'm with hank hill on this one
ain't no one touching my baby but me and the day it is in a shop is the day it died

[AndrewBird]

The thing with me, while I enjoy driving my car, I enjoy working/tinkering on it even more. I'm a car enthusiast because I like working on stuff. I've noticed a lot of guys are only in it to own a cool looking car or only like driving them and have no interest in working on them.

I customize/modify pretty much everything I own.

[slammin.e28]

I do everything, but I have a fully equipped shop at my disposal. Everything except an alignment machine, but that's not something I need done all the time.

I'm also cheap as fuck. I'm not paying anyone to so shit for me.

But I HATE doing tedious shit. Tires and shit....dirty work. I'd rather pay someone, but my inner, cheap self won't let me. I've better things to part with my money on, especially when I can do my own work better than anyone else.

[jasonbk]

I mostly let trusty indy shop to do their magic, except bare minimum maintenance and replacing cosmetic stuff.

I freelance 20+ hours a week apart from full time gig, and I just don't have time to do it by myself.

[mbonder]

I do all the work myself on my cars with the exception of tire changes and alignments. I know that I could do the alignment myself but its so much easier and probably more accurate to bring it to a shop that has an alignment rack and can bang it out in 30 minutes.

Otherwise I have taken apart several e30s and put them back together, pretty much done everything you can do on an e30 as I've owned nearly a dozen of them over the last 14 years of my life.

My newer cars (e39 and e46) will make it into GutenParts if they need to be scanned and have codes read as I don't have the technology to do it. I have a pocket scanner, but that only gives you basic info rather than giving you realtime data. I did have them do some work to the e46 while it was in there for codes because it was January and I don't have a heated garage.

[binnavert]

I use cost vs time/effort expended. If it is a job that is a ball buster, I will work OT to pay BMW tech friend to do it. Basic maint. I do myself. I am MUCH better at what I do than wrenching. ( and keep a fuck ton cleaner)

[Project535]

I do what I can with the tools I have. Most basic maintenance like brakes, air/fuel filters, spark plugs/cap/rotor etc. I did replace the headgasket in my driveway, that was a PITA, but it got it back on the road. I don't do oil changes though, like others have said, it just gets old after a while. I will usually try to do anything once, and usually I make it work somehow.

[yungmike]

I try my best to do everything on my own with what i have at my resource but, street repairs & maintenance with limited space for any decent tools can only get me so far. Soon though i shall have the garage or at least driveway and tool closet my heart desires.

[totheredline]

I do pretty much everything myself. Even some body work on my truck and welding on my e30. Since I work at a shop I can even align myself. The only thing I've had a shop do is pull the frame on my e46

[e30onBBSs]

15 minute oil changes leaves more crap from your oil in your oil pan that doesn't have time to slowly drip out tho

[SubDad]

I voted indy shop because the "Do it myself unless it's too much of a PITA" wasn't there.

And this:

I used to do everything myself. Now I just do what I want and have the Indy do the rest. Oil changes and such get old

Somebody else will be doing my subframe bushings this year, and oil changes get done down the street. $25 and 15 minutes, can't beat that when there's other stuff I gotta do.

[GDA]

Yup. Pretty much all of it unless its a complete biotch of a job and if it gets ugly highly specialized tools or big $$ follows.

Couple big jobs I have passed to my local indy were on my M5 - timing chain and gears a bit over a year ago and quite a few years ago I had them do rod bearings and install new oil pump etc while in there.

[ELVA164]

Jiffy Lube? Really?



Also,

Took it to a local shop run by an old guy who specialized in British cars. I needed the side draft Weber DCOE tuned. After sitting in his shop for almost a week, he gave it back to me after doing nothing because he couldn't figure it out.

That guy should be embarrassed. At least it ended up working out for you in that you learned to do it yourself.

[UlrichFennec]

It's a good thing I joined this forum then. The general consensus works by themselves. I still have a long way to go and plenty of things to learn from you guys. Y'all kick ass!