how do you advise friends when they ask if they should d.i.y. stuff like oil/trans...

[brainhulk]

They ask me and i say yes i do mines myself. Before I used to say heck yeah it's super easy. You can youtube everything, go on car forums, or just buy the Haynes or chiltons.

Two of my coworkers just recently asked me and I changed up my advice to its dangerous and you better be confident in your setup with the proper tools going under there or you might as well go look for a good shop. They have never worked on cars and I don't have the time to show them.

Am I doing it right? or should I go back to stop being a wuss and do it yourself...

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

I just say "if something goes wrong then there is no one to blame but yourself. But the only way to know if it was done properly is to do it yourself."

 

[Jimzz]

Yea when I ran my shop I got a lot of work from repairing other DIY work. Had several cars that had to be towed in after the owner/friend worked on it.

Not my repair but had 1 shop tell me how someone borrowed a friends car and they wanted to thank them by changing their oil. Yada yada yada car needed a new Northstar motor.

Best thing to say is its not to hard if you have the tools, experience, and ability to follow up if anything goes wrong. But NEVER say yea I have the ability to do it or they will want you to do it and if anything else on the car breaks in the next week-year it must be your fault.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

The situation varies depending on the person and what car they are talking about. The buddy who you know has a full set of tools, can read, has a space to work on their car, has a backup ride in case, etc. is a good person to say "hell yeah you can do it"

The neighbor who walks across the street every time you have the hood up, does not know the difference between a skid plate and a skid mark, stands there yapping about the one cool car he had, and then asks how to change stuff on his CamCord = NO

 

[T2urtle]

The situation varies depending on the person and what car they are talking about. The buddy who you know has a full set of tools, can read, has a space to work on their car, has a backup ride in case, etc. is a good person to say "hell yeah you can do it"

The neighbor who walks across the street every time you have the hood up, does not know the difference between a skid plate and a skid mark, stands there yapping about the one cool car he had, and then asks how to change stuff on his CamCord = NO

Pretty much how i attack things.

I dont openly go out and say i know how to do this or that. I actually in many ways just keep it to myself. You dont want to be guy at work EVERYONE goes to when they have an issue. My co-worker is that guy and he comes to me for advice or just to watch over.

You can predict who/what people can do. One person overheard me talk to my co-worker about be doing a SOHC timing belt in about 2.5 hours with little to no effort. And he tried to do the same, lets just say that car hasn't been running in 6 months now. I think the motor is trashed as he knew nothing of TDC. Since then i kinda really learn to shut my mouth.

While they love to go to big name chains that hoses them down, its better then them screwing up the car.

 

[pauldun170]

Step 1. Decide if person is lazy, full of it or is simply nervous about tackling their first "using the wrench thingy on the car that mechanic said its very very complicated because of computerz" event.

Step 2. Find out if they have actual tools aside from the stuff that comes with ikea furniture.

Step 3. Find out the type of car.


If the formal interview process goes well...

For oil, I say yes that it is extremely easy to do and it is simply a matter of time and money.

Time - Advantage (usually DIY)
To have someone else change your oil = Time spent driving to location + waiting on job completion + time spent driving away from location.
vs
You change your oil - The time it takes you to change your oil.

My time is worth a lot to me. Doing it myself takes less time than having someone else do it.

Money - I think its about even in some cases.
You can usually find sales\discounts on oil changes. However I find it cheaper to do it myself.

The instructions I give them is
1. Open the thing in your glove compartment called "Owners manual" and see what type of oil you should use and the amount the car requires.
2. Buy that oil.
3. While buying that oil, ask the person for "The oil filter"
4. Buy that thing called the "Oil filter"
5. Google "Oil drain bolt location" for the car

...around that time I just say go the dealer and leave me the hell alone.

If its family, I say bring your car over to my house and I'll walk you through it. Typically what will happen is that I'll get a text message that "I just brought it to the shop around the block. They gave me a free coffee while I waited"

please pardon grammar and all that crap. To lazy to edit.

 

[Vetterin]

If they have to ask....they prolly shouldn't even try.

 

[JCH13]

Be honest. It's doable, anything is doable, but if you screw up it's going to be painful. Make sure they go into it eyes wide open and make sure they have a 'do it right' attitude with a healthy amount of self-doubt. You are the first-line defense for keeping idiots from working on their own cars.

When it comes to brake or suspension work I like to point this out:
'If anything fails, it could kill someone. Think REAL hard about that, your mistake or negligence could lead to someone's death. '

When it comes to basic maintenance stuff:
'If you screw up, you have no recourse. If you botch an oil change you aren't getting a free engine out of it, it's all on you.'

I helped a local guy fix his WRX, he thought his front bearings were toast because "I rebuilt everything, except the bearings are sealed cartridge, so they must be broken." Welp... turns out this twat didn't know that axle nuts had to be, you know, torqued. Or that the cone on an axle nut had to be peened into the axle keyway as a safety precaution. One axle nut was gone, the other was just floating around on the axle threads. Only his brake caliper bracket was keeping his front wheels on. Oh, also, tie-rod ends were loose and not cotter-pinned, strut bolts were loose, etc. This car (which had like 350whp) was basically a rolling time bomb being driven around at 100mph on the interstate.

There was also a user on ATG who snapped a lug stud off his car and drove around for weeks on 3 studs until his wheel finally broke an/or fell off. He had convinced himself that 3 lug studs was okay (no self-doubt) and did not understand why one would use a torque wrench to tighten lug nuts (no 'do it right' attitude). He was lucky that his wheel didn't let go on the interstate, or when he was braking for a school bus...

 

[JCH13]

If they have to ask....they prolly shouldn't even try.

In some cases, perhaps. In general asking questions shows foresight and reasonable self-doubt, both very good qualities in a DIY-er (or any mechanic). The truly horrific people are the ones who never ask questions and just assume that they know best right off the bat.

 

[Midwayman]

The extent of me helping anymore is letting people use my tools and garage. Otherwise I'm rolling around on the ground for hours fixing other people's cars while they drink beer. Should be the other way around.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I don't do any of the work on my cars myself and neither do any of my friends.

I like wrenching on my bike but the cars I just take in to the shop.

 

[thedarkwolf]

One of my friends impressed me 2 months ago. His alt died on his old beater explorer and was dead in a parking lot about 10 miles from home. I was sure when I got the call that I was going to end up out there fixing it for him but using a youtube video he managed to do everything himself.

 

[TridenT]

Be honest. It's doable, anything is doable, but if you screw up it's going to be painful. Make sure they go into it eyes wide open and make sure they have a 'do it right' attitude with a healthy amount of self-doubt. You are the first-line defense for keeping idiots from working on their own cars.

When it comes to brake or suspension work I like to point this out:
'If anything fails, it could kill someone. Think REAL hard about that, your mistake or negligence could lead to someone's death. '

When it comes to basic maintenance stuff:
'If you screw up, you have no recourse. If you botch an oil change you aren't getting a free engine out of it, it's all on you.'

Yeah, most of this.

There's only one person that I help with their car. It's usually for simple stuff like spark plug changes or unscrewing the oil filter off. (She knows how to do oil changes but doesn't own a torque wrench) I don't think we've done anything extensive on her car before.

Of course, this Friday we're both meeting down in PDX and going to look over her "new" car's exhaust since it doesn't have a catalytic converter on it anymore. (It was a riced out car with a CF hood and all that shit. She swapped the CF hood for a stock hood with someone on craigslist. (Whatever)) She never consulted me on what car she /should/ get and just bought one instead. :thumbsdown: Now we have to work on her "new" (super used and full of so many issues) car that she got. :thumbsdown: Hopefully this weekend I'll fix all of the problems with a trip to a junkyard or two. (So many problems)

Also, it's a car model and brand that I know nothing about but I'm going to give it a shot. What could go wrong? D: :thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

 

[T2urtle]

If they have to ask....they prolly shouldn't even try.

Not true at all. Some people are gauging time and if they are extra labor intensive. Spark plug change is easy on a 4 cylinder but not as easy on a fwd v6, like a 3800 Pontiac.

A diff fluid change is cake with drain plugs on some imports and stupid on some domestics without plugs. No different in work but the mess it can be.