Skylancer wrote So just out of curiosity, do any of you actually do any repairs/basic maintenance on your cars? As a technician in training I've not needed to send my car to to the shop at all.

I just want to know if any of you do any repairs or maintenance, if so what are they?

If you sent your car to the shop recently, tell me about it including the prices, I'm interested..

Im 18 right now, and in the past two years, I have put a supercharger on my mustang (alone) took it off (alone) and installed cams and heads (help with timing and such from a friend) I have definitely learned alot from some older friends, but if you just take your time and research, its pretty easy actually. This spring I also replaced my clutch, and I must say, it was a bitch haha.

Yes I repair my car myself I have a Ford Fiesta st, i usually change my oil and oil filter every 3-4000 miles and change the plugs every 6000 miles, don't need to change the air filter as I have an induction kit on lol. Ive also had to replace the gearbox and clutch as it blew up lol the differential just gave up and blew through the gearbox casing damaging the clutch.

I'm also a vehicle mechanic

I repair my own vehicle.

Some things i have replaced alone:
- Rack and Pinion
- Tires
- Wheel Bearings
- Sway Bar Link
- Ac Compressor
- Powersteering Belt
- Alternator belt
- Radiator Fan
- Cooling Fan for the compressor
- Door Handels

And probably some more. I have a 1993 Honda Accord. I had everything priced at my dads shop. Everything would have costed over $2,500 if i would have paid someone at a shop to do it. I probably spent jeez idek

I look at how much is my time worth. I can do a lot of stuff to my trucks, but I'll always call a shop and get a quote because if they can get it done in like an hour, odds are I'll do that so I don't have to deal with it lol. When it comes to mods like lift kits and such, I always put those on myself.

Other than that, I haven't had many repairs, all of them seem to be more maintenance repairs like replacing brakes, ball joints, U-joints, axles (cheaper to put a whole new axle in than replace the gears when you destroy them), etc. One thing I hate doing is ti-rod ends. I will usually send my vehicle to a shop for new ti-rods, sometimes ball joints too just because I HATE eyeball aligning a vehicle lol. Not only that, but my closest alignment shop is 27 miles away (via Google maps), so if I screw up my own alignment, I'd also screw up $600 worth of tires driving it to the shop (back when I had my trucks).

I've done basic repairs to my car, just not anything major.

I've done things like changing my oil to replacing my entire headlight assembly.

If you count changing oil.

Nope, my car isn't that old (2013) but I just take it to Pepboys, lol. Probably going to go there tomorrow as well.

On my old srt i threw a built motor, head, cams, trans, clutch, flywheel, exhaust, shift linkage, bushings, short shifter, manifolds, turbos, fuel system, fuel pump. Pretty much everything and you dont learn until you just go do it, even if you mess up you can still go back and fix your mistake

Ive rebuilt a 350 small block from the ground up. And my 1999 z28 camaro ive done heads, cam, rear end (4:11 Richman gears) trans (shift kit) exhaust(borla exhaust) done everything. Im 18 and since i was old enough to walk i been under a hood i learned from my dad that builds cars