How many of you guys actually do work on your own car?

[Brew]

I never work on my car.

[FredK]

Yeah, oil changes barely take any time. Probably takes around half an hour to 40 minutes, and that's including cleaning up. I guess having ramps saves a few minutes of jacking the car up and setting it on jackstands.

[Sean]

I managed to CHANGE my engine mounts WHILE in college - which means I had no access to a garage or a hoist. So what'd I do? I asked my friend to use his garage, and we used a FLOOR JACK to change my mounts. haha...good times indeed.

I change my oil in the parking lot, and changed tires, and maintained little things here and there - in college.

At home, I have access to a lot, but when I need any special tools, I just buy them. Frankly, mostly everything can be done with intuition. Spring compressors are CHEAP (like $40) so that's a sorry excuse.

The cost for tools will outweigh paying someone to do the work in the long run. That, and you get more use out of tools.

The only things I have had people do thus far include: alignment, tire balancing, and engine boring and machine work.

Other than that, I don't trust anyone BUT myself. Hell, I had a hard time letting my car go in for an alignment. I like to know everything going down with my car - which is why I'm the only one that will touch the mechanics of it.

Including oil! Changing oil takes maybe an hour - it's not that hard - and I would never trust some quick lube place. That, and with a fully rebuilt engine, I'm making sure I run full Mobil 1 after breakin! lol

That's my $.02 anyway ;)

[bimmers4life]

i do everything at home that i can. The stuff i leave up to a shop are allignments, tire changes and oil (i get a huge discount at my old place of work!)

Working on your car is a love hate thing at times. Its a pain in the ass at times but at the end of the day you know you did a good job and if it fucks up its on you!

[Justin B]

Ive done all the work on my car so far aside from getting my head rebuilt when I blew the timing belt right after I bought the car (arrh). I plan to continue to do it all except internal motor work.

[fretburnr]

i've done exterior engine work (replaced hoses/belts/basic maintenance parts,ignition parts, etc), done valve adjustments, done brakes, done suspension (new CAs/CABs/sprins/dampers/strut mounts/the works), replaced seats and various interior bits, lots of electronics work.

on my previous car (mk3 supra turbo) i replaced the head gasket and all top-end gaskets, as well as tbelt and waterpump and etc etc etc. pretty much the only things i haven't done are diassemble a head or rebuild a bottom end.

i pay for alignments, and i pay for oil changes sometimes ... its not always worth it to me to get dirty for something that costs $20. but i still find it enjoyable from time to time.

[BENdashdash]

I used to work on my car... then I got something more reliable.

[eurostyl e30]

I was in a hurry for work and really needed an oil change so I took my car to the quick lube place up the street. I only did it that once though. All the other work on my car has been done by myself and sometimes with the help of friends.

So? I get my oil changed at a shop most of the time. I work 45-50 hours a week and the last thing I want to do on my spare time is change my fucking oil. I supply my own filters and it comes out to like 14 dollars. That's practically as much as the oil.

I don't really feel like I need to justify this shit. Quick lubes rule.

[Digitalwave]

I had my car aligned last year. Thats the only time its been in a shop.

[Court M3]

Before that year (which was when I bought my first E30), I had mostly just done very basic car maintenance-change oil, plugs, filters, etc.
Buy a Bentley manual, read how-to articles online-whatever you can do to familiarize yourself with the proper procedures and gotchas that each job has.

Those are about the only things, I've done on my car, but now that I have a garage, I plan to do a lot more starting with brakes this summer.

[sticksdaman]

i feel like a waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles after reading thiis ..kuz ive had my motor replaced and suspension installed at a shop ....but that was only kuz i didnt have time to do it and i needed the car asap as for the susp work i dint have a a spring compressor

I was in a hurry for work and really needed an oil change so I took my car to the quick lube place up the street. I only did it that once though. All the other work on my car has been done by myself and sometimes with the help of friends.

[Dave]

The Sears Jacks are all available at Harbor Freight for less $$$$.

[Eric Giles]

I pretty much started off in 2000 with an 80 piece Craftsman metric/standard socket/wrench set and a combo Larin 2.5 ton jack with two jackstands. For basic work, that will probably suffice-although you will invariably have to run down to the local tool store to get something else as the need arises.

Before that year (which was when I bought my first E30), I had mostly just done very basic car maintenance-change oil, plugs, filters, etc. Six years later, the only thing I have not done is pull and rebuild a motor-although I did change the rod bearings in my M3 a few months back.

Buy a Bentley manual, read how-to articles online-whatever you can do to familiarize yourself with the proper procedures and gotchas that each job has. Start off with a few easy jobs such as brake work and suspension, and take it from there. It becomes pretty easy after you get the hang of it. Once you have a good place to work, I highly recommend buying an air compressor and some air tools. It really makes things go much quicker, and will help when you just can't get enough muscle on something that might be stuck.

And regarding the cheaper jacks like the Larin that I bought-these will work fine, but take longer to lift the car. I would personally buy one of the steel/aluminum jacks from Sears for around $100 or so. Not the best available, but are relatively light weight and have better lifting capability.

[1991 318is]

It's all good.

I am fortunate to have access to the fab & prep shop I was associated with for 25 years. Lift, tons of tools, drill press, lathe, boring mill, welder, tire machine, etc. Old racing parts and all kinds of stuff laying around including a complete inventory of nut. bolts, rivets - everything you need to build a car from the frame up. The main resource is talent.
I do everything except change oil. I go to Quick Lube. Oil changes only - I tell them that if they don't take anything off the car, they won't have to put it back on.