How Much Car Maintenance Do You Perform on Your Vehicle Yourself?

Is there anything you can or have fixed yourself as far as your car is concerned? All I can do is change a tire and put on the wiper blades....everything else has gotta be handled by a pro.

Noooo. I'm not mechanically inclined at all.

Absolutely nothing! I drove around for 2 weeks with no wiper fluid, and a streaky windshield. Then I went to Jiffy Lube.

I can check tire pressure, and inflate tires, but I don't like it.

When I was driving a used car, I learned how to do a lot of repair work on it. I changed the breaks, did my own oil and fluids, changed the air filter, painted it and so on. When I bought a new car, I stopped doing most of that (still check my tire pressure) and just take it in to be serviced.

I can change the oil, but I don't do it. I can change a flat tire, fix the rearview and sideview mirrors and that's about it. I pretty know most of the basics about the mechanics of a car but I won't attempt to do any major repairs. I'll let it get serviced.

I can chage the oil and filter, a tire and jump a dead battery.

I don't have a car, just a bicycle, which I take to the bike shop to get any work on.

Years go I did most of the maintenance and repairs myself. Now I take my Honda in for regular service and do very little myself.

Auto repair today requires some very high-tech equipment, not really feasible for a home mechanic unless it's an expensive hobby. We should all do more routine maintenance such as checking the oil and fluid levels and checking tire pressures but I don't and I refuse to feel guilty about it.

Seriously, Shale, I'm a little envious that you can commute on two wheels under your own power. It would be about a 30 mile round trip for me which I'm confident I could do it 5 days a week but it's bad enough I have to share the road with some of these morons when I'm in a car. I don't think I'd last long on a bike.

alan smithee wrote:... it's bad enough I have to share the road with some of these morons when I'm in a car. I don't think I'd last long on a bike.

Yeah, forget running with the bulls in Pamplona. I run with the SUV's in Miami.

(With more power and less intelligence than the bovines)

Timetrvlr wrote:Years go I did most of the maintenance and repairs myself. Now I take my Honda in for regular service and do very little myself. Auto repair today requires some very high-tech equipment, not really feasible for a home mechanic unless it's an expensive hobby. ...

When I was young and got my first car, a 57 Chevy 6 banger, I took the engine apart and put it back together and it ran. (closest thing a guy can come to giving birth to see your engine spread out on a bench in parts and by the end of the day have it pulling you in a car) Things were more mechanical back then, very little electrical (windshield wipers ran on vacuum - fuel pump ran off the cam shaft).

Now, I look under the hood and don't even know what the stuff is I'm looking at. Makes me feel sort of ... well Jurassik.

i dont do any car maintenance at all!!

Not much. I can change a flat, and I check my oil; that's about it.