Thread 28655264

What are some repairs you are absolutely willing to pay a mechanic to do them for you? For me it's wheel bearings

Replacement wipers, blown bulbs etc

>>28655264 (OP)
Motorcycle tyre changes. Bought the tyre irons to do it myself, even with rags it was going to scrape the shit out of the rim.

>>28655264 (OP)
tyre changes, engine rebuilds, mostly because it's a 'been there, done that' affair

For me it's anything that involves fluids. It might not be a hard thing to do but I hate dealing with it. Also anything involving wires. I don't have the patience for it. And of course anything that requires big expensive specialist equipment like mounting and balancing tires. Also anything where if you do it wrong then it destroys the car like anything involving the engine or transmission. And anything that involves removing body panels or interior trim pieces because I never figured out how to get those plastic things off without breaking them. But pretty much anything else I'll do myself.

I’m considering finding someone to do my transmission fluid/filter but only because my car requires the subframe to be dropped and it sounds like a pain in the ass with only jacks.

>>28655417
>But pretty much anything else I'll do myself.
So, nothing?

>>28655440
He struggles to bring the groceries inside in one trip and rides that high of feeling like a man for a week

>>28655440
Hey now, he could still give his gas cap a twist when he gets an evap code

>>28655264 (OP)
Clutch replacement. Any issues that need the gear box dropped (or the subframe dropped).

>>28655264 (OP)
>be me
>engine swapped car that never came from the factory with a manual
>Take it to shop to get the clutch done
>mechanic quits
>Thanks to the mining industry taking all the good workers and unlimited 3rd world immigration the labor marked is so fucked the the only mechanics they can get are dodgy 3rd world immigrants.
So my car has been at the shop for what? 1.5 years now?
It's a tough situation. I don't want some 3rd world retard to take on this aftermarket frankenstein clutch job and doing it myself would be a huge pain in the ass. The car is being stored indoors and I don't have under cover space for it at my place so I've just let this situation continue.

>>28655264 (OP)
Oil change

>>28655264 (OP)
I only trust the dealership to do a transmission drain and fill. I don’t trust Latinx chopshoppers to not fuck it up.

>>28655264 (OP)
Brake lines.

>>28655264 (OP)
Windshields

>>28655264 (OP)
Alignment, you are a nu-male

>>28655285
>engine rebuilds, mostly because it's a 'been there, done that' affair
Lol bro you've never seen the inside of an engine just shut the fuck up you larping fruitcake

I'm at a point I don't trust anyone to work on my cars. Good mechanics exist but I seemingly cannot find them, so for that reason it's just me, a cold beer and an afternoon of fixing shit in ADVANCE so it won't go kaboom when I need to get somewhere.

I guess it's my autism at play, but I find it enjoyable and essentially a free way to spend my time... and my vehicle always works.

>>28655604
I found working on cars enjoyable when I was in that social circle but the idea of working on them alone doesn't appeal to me at all anymore

>>28655264 (OP)
Head gasket, transmission rebuild, A/C compressor or line replacements. I've done motor mounts but I've paid to have some changed as they're annoying on certain cars.
I can't imagine paying anyone else to do any fluid changes, I'm autistic enough about brands and measuring amounts to not trust anyone else. Watching ugly fluid drain and clean fluid go back in is also incredibly satisfying.

>>28655601
>why yes I only set my toe to dead zero how could you tell?

>>28655604
You basically have to do everything yourself at this point, from house work to fixing your car, unless whoever you're hiring has a reputation for not cutting corners and they charge a lot to reflect that effort.

>>28655673
1/16 to 1/8" toe-in you noob.

I have a great local shop that specializes in my car's make and they do everything because I'd rather spend my free time on my hobbies. The only thing I do myself is swap summer and winter tires.

>>28655680
This. I make 2500/day at work. Why would I want to spend free time wrenching?

>>28655264 (OP)
Walnut blasting. Yeah, I'm not dropping $1600 on equipment I only need to use every 50k miles.

>>28655707
no you don't

>>28655417
Is the joke that you can't wrench and won't do anything?

>>28655735
He changes his own wiper blades...

>>28655724
Cope

>>28655741
how is this proof of literally anything bro lol

anybody can make this in excel or MS PAINT for that matter.

>>28655741
So you’re saying you work 11 hours a day?

>>28655741
just say you're a poorfag next time

>>28655707
If true then please tell me what you do for work!

>Paint
>Welding/Rust Repair
>Windshields
>Tuning, especially if the car is fast (dyno better + less likely to have problems)

I guess transmission jobs are a easy one too. I hate pulling a transmission. I'm tempted to sub out the steering rack on my Subaru too if its under $500.

>>28655741
Are you literally a traveling nurse anesthetist?

>>28655741
why is the hourly a different font size?

>>28655264 (OP)
>wheel bearings
lmao we got a subaru owner here. For me it's tire changes and alignments. Changing tires is already hard enough like >>28655275
mentioned: cars are even harder. Alignment is pretty tedious shitasss work and you still won't get close to what a shop can do.
>weee time to jack up the car and crawl under it for the hundreth time to adjust toe of one wheel 1 mm and the cam bolt is starting to strip out.
>>28655673
There's not much wrong with dead zero. Toe in makes the car more stable driving straight while toe out makes it more responsive turning. Both increase tire wear. Zero toe is unironically a good compromise. I'd say a little toe out on the rear wheels probably okay as most cars tend to under steer with factory alignment.
>>28655712
If you get an oil catch can and do it even less than that, anon.

>>28655781
>>28655741
how do you have time to work when you have to line up at the food bank and welfare office just to survive?

>>28655556
>Thanks to the mining industry taking all the good workers
happens a lot

Literally anything that an expensive shop owned tool makes 10x easier.

Since I only have one car, everything. If I try it I'll have to make a million trips to autozone and home depot and it'll take 3 week for me to even muster the willpower just to get up and do it. Getting up and doing it was always the hardest part for me.

>>28655602
yes i have. i no longer have the tools nor the motivation to do a complete tear down. i still do top end rebuilds though.

Anything suspension. Wheel bearing, anything involving removal of the axle nut.

>>28655264 (OP)
>Wheel bearings
Anon, old style bearings are ez.
New ones are even easier to replace.

>>28656051
by new, are you talking about the ones using sealed bearings? i feel like they'd be more involved because the last one i had needed a press to get them in and out

>>28656056
New sealed bearings are usually 3 bolts.
Doesn't get easier than that

>>28655707
Because you like cars?

>>28656073
interesting, never seen one of those. must be in american makes then. maybe even yuro, although knowing them they'd probably make it as painful as possible. Am used to 90s toyotas where snap ring pliers and a press are needed.

>>28655264 (OP)
Pulling a transmission or engine, I don't have room for a cherry picker and that's too involved for my small workspace.

>>28656096
>I don't have room for a cherry picker
do you work on industrial equipment or something? at least for cars you just need an engine crane and a stand, though they do take up a bit of room. but nowhere near as much as a full blown cherry picker

>>28655264 (OP)
everything. i'm not a grease monkey

>>28656094
FWD cars have slightly harder wheel bearing changes but they're still not hard.

>>28656109
right, so that's taking off the hub, but what about the actual bearings races and rollers? can they just be grabbed right out like on older cars?

>>28656134
Modern wheel bearings are all sealed.
You don't have to pack or set any lash.

>>28655841
>oil catch can
That's the plan, but they don't make one for my model. Thinking of adapting one made for a similar model and doing a little fabrication.

for cars i cant rebuild auto transmissions, but at the same time ive never tried to.so the next time i shit one ill give it a go. I also cant do details well so when assembling an interior ill mostly just give up and leave it half baked. Also i hate doing things twice so if ive rebuilt my front suspension and something subsequently breaks ill get mad and not work on it so i make sure to do everything once and correctly. For motorcycles if it has starting issues im usually at a loss, for some reason making a motorbike run is harder than making a car run, maybe its something to do with bikes being fiddlier, but once its running ill happily work on anything it has going on for it.

i cant mount car tyres since i dont want to buy a niche one purpose machine for the job and i can de mount motorbike tyres with irons but fuck putting them back on.

>>28656073
>New sealed bearings are usually 3 bolts.
Clearly you've never dealt with ones corroded in place. And that assumes the bolts weren't seized in place either.

FWD/AWD you also get to deal with the axle stub going through the bearing. First, is the big-ass nut that most people don't have a socket for and has to be ordered because no one stocks a fucking thing anymore. Second, there's a non-zero chance the splines of the axle and hub have worn and meshed so you're never getting them apart.

Then some designs are that the bearing is pressed into the knuckle which means you have to remove the knuckle from the car, press the bearing out of the knuckle and then press the flange out of the bearing and reverse the process to assemble.

tl;dr wheel bearings can and will be a shitshow

>>28656139
right, but you still need to press them in and out with a press right? You kinda got my hopes up that new bearings are just held in with some bolts and that's it lol

>>28656168
No those wheel bearings just installed with three bolts. There's no press involved no lashing no greasing.

>>28656167
This nigga is afraid of a CV axle nut

>>28656189
>ignores the rest of the post in order to try and look smart
How so very brown of you

>>28656189
wait what. so that entire hub unit is just replaced with the bearings built into them? I mean that does sound incredibly easy but...I dunno how I feel about tossing an otherwise good hub just because the bearings in it are trashed

>>28656207
That depends entirely upon what vehicle you're dealing with. Could be as easy as he's saying. Could be much more difficult like the other guy is saying.

>>28655437
Why did you buy that piece of shit? Must be a ford or kraut car right?

>>28655264 (OP)
changing tires
thats literally it
I dont even bring the car to the shop, I bring the wheels seperate
I dont even get legitimate inspections, I just pay some tech to rip stickers out of the book for me

Tire change/balance, anything Hvac besides a freon refill, transmission rebuilds, deep wiring harness shit. I really hate finding electrical issues the industry should work to simply electrical shit since everything is interconnected now and among the most common issues. With all the huge 10"+ infotainment screens in every car with quad core CPUs why do I need to plug in a OBD2 scanner and get a code that I have to google that puts out a vauge issue.

>>28656204
I'm the epitome of a white dude.
Born and raised on a Dutch dairy farm.
Drank unpasteurized milk for my early life.
Every male in my family is over 6ft3in tall.
I still drink 2 gallons of whole milk a week.
You cannot stop me.

>>28656207
Those sealed wheel bearings are like $200 bucks. When they wear out, you just chuck them and get a new one.
They usually last 200,0000+ miles as well
Swapping wheel bearings and newer cars is stupidly easy.

>>28655264 (OP)
I have shops deal with charging the AC system, mounting and balancing tires, and alignments(with my provided target specs). I do everything else

>>28655417
>And anything that involves removing body panels or interior trim pieces because I never figured out how to get those plastic things off without breaking them.
what i do is look up pictures of where the tabs are in the trim pieces, then i start prying it off from there.
i think those tabs break when you apply force elsewhere.

>>28655264 (OP)
Ball joints. The fuckers are always rustwelded in there and the bigger the truck the more they suck. Had ball joint press spacers explode on me. If I need to do it I'll take the whole control arm off so I can swing a 5lb sledge at it, and that still takes a bloody half hour and then you're in there with a debur wheel making sure the new one will fit

>>28656219
Yes, it’s a kraut car (RS5)
They don’t make anything easy to get to

>>28655264 (OP)
Probably anything transmission related in my SUV. It's over 180lbs and it's a real cunt of a job taking it out on the ground. Being a 4x4 makes it a lot worse.

>Unmodded, no stickers manual Subaru, clean interior
>Took it in for tire replacement
>The wheel shop on the mil base
>Come home
>1 of the studs on the FL wheel was completely stripped with no nut
>3 of the nuts on the FR wheel can be turned with 1 finger
Goddamnit guys. It's not difficult to replace a stud, but wtf.

>>28655264 (OP)
nothing short of having to take my shit to the machine shop for boring cylinders.

>>28656237
>Tire change/balance
unless you have low profile tires it's not hard to fight them on with tire spoons, if it's atleast got 3" or more sidewall it's not hard to do.
balancing is kindof a meme if you have good tires on wheels that aren't bent or damaged.
I only recently had to have my shit done by a shop because it was like 235/45 18s.
usually you can tell how much of a bitch it will be to mount by putting your knee on the sidewall and feeling how hard it is to deflect.
smearing soap along the bead usually helps alot.
I would run these bitches over 120mph very regularly and never really felt an extreme vibration out of them.

>>28655264 (OP)
Transmission/Fluid and taking apart the engine. I can reasonably do anything else, but I don't want to fuck up my transmission or engine by thinking I know more than I do.

All of them, you are coping poorfags

>>28655264 (OP)
Some nig cut off my ECU plug to steal my ECU (fucking Miami man), and I rewired the whole thing into a replacement terminal. After measuring voltages and resistance and whatever for dozens of hours, I never want to touch electrical shit again. Also fuck Honda for using the same color wires for different things

>>28655264 (OP)
I replace the wiper fluid myself. anything else goes to the wagie

>>28655675
In my experience the good mechanics and contractors don't generally even charge the most. They're mostly slightly to the right of the mean. The main trustworthy indicator is that they're backed up with work because they have standards that mean they can't raise their capacity easily by hiring shitters.

>>28655264 (OP)
The only thing I don't do is mount and balance tires because I haven't bought the tools for it yet.

>>28656073
and a hydraulic press

If you live in the US you should be doing your own AC work. It's like $200 for a set of gauges and a vacuum pump and pure R134a is easily attainable. Shops seem to put fucking brutal markups on AC parts and repairs.

I own 3 vintage fast European sports cars, I would go bankrupt if I had to take them anywhere to fix but my own garage, I like working on them when I have the time at least

Its an abstract feel, you wouldn't get it

>>28655264 (OP)
>willing
Willing to try anything once, I've been forced to be a wrenchlet for years, only recently getting the chance to do an oil change for the first time. Having the ability to fix things is nice, even if the upfront costs make me cringe.
>things I will make a mechanic do
Anything requiring multiple days of my only car being disassembled/nonfunctional, anything requiring expensive specialty tools that I will only use once. Anything requiring an actual garage.

>>28658096
Specifically tools are often worth it even if you only use it once.

>>28655602
if you'd ever done an engine rebuild or touched a wrench in your life you'd know it's typically the kind of thing you only want to do once so you can say you did it. after that just pay someone else to have the headache

>>28655741
lmfao nigga didn't even try to make the numbers look correct lmfao

>>28656642
>unless you have low profile tires it's not hard to fight them on with tire spoons
>balancing is kindof a meme if you have good tires
reminder that these are the people you're on the road with.
I'll just pay $10/tire to not have to do this and have better results.

>>28658629
I meant specialty tools more like machinery, or stuff I can't store in a house and then move outside due to aforementioned no garage. I'm thinking of like a sandblaster or a tire balancer, real particular stuff.

>>28658666
you'll pay 10 dollars extra to sling a lead weight off in traffic, stupid ass sheep.

I paid someone to do my motor mount since I'm afraid of getting under my engine with nothing but a floor jack holding it up

>>28659071
Sure thing, Mr. Free Thinker

>>28658658
x2 this I did a lot of stuff when I was younger and I bought a new truck so I can focus on work and not being up a 2am with a must do repair. Not fun anymore and I don't beat on my trucks like I used to either.

>>28656105
>do you work on industrial equipment or something? at least for cars you just need an engine crane and a stand, though they do take up a bit of room. but nowhere near as much as a full blown cherry picker
Not that Anon, but curious as to what you are calling a cherry picker? Most people call those engine hoists like Harbor Freight sells a cherry picker.

>>28659555
must be an australian thing. pic related are cherry pickers

>>28655264 (OP)
everything, i value my time

>>28655264 (OP)
I drive roughly 6000 miles a year so I get an interim service with my MOT because it's cheap and does all the essentials which means oil flush because I'm not jacking my car up. I change filters, bulbs, fluids myself. I don't know anything about cars but you save so much money for example buying a filter off amzon for 7 while they try and charge you 50+

>>28655417
>>28656293
honestly I'm thinking I need to just spend the $20 on a set of trim removal tools instead of using a flathead screwdriver

>>28660805
use the metal ones, they don't actually mar surfaces as much as you'd think they would because the force is still spread out over a larger area, but they don't flex like the plastic ones so you can still get decent leverage for those really stuck clips. If you're still unsure just do what a lot of factory manuals say, and put tape on it to avoid damage.

>>28655264 (OP)
Mounting tires
>>28655275
Yep. I actually did change a tire by hand once and it was so labor intensive and destroyed the rim I swore I'd never do it again.

>>28661620
Yep.
>"replace your tyres"
motherfuckers didn't tell me brekaing the bead was the easy part. I've got a black aluminium rim, if I'd kept at it with the tyre-iron it would have had a silver stripe all the way round where I took the paint off
hope on a car you can at least do it on the back-side of the tyre but idk

>>28657948
I'm planning to do this on one of my cars

Alignment and tire replacements.
When I fuck up the alignment with my bars, that's a good 300 to 600 bucks down the drain for new tires, when I fuck up my CHROME RIMMZ when I wrestle the tyres in place with irons, that's too bad because my fancy mangels aren't made anymore or another grand down the drain for a new alloy wheel.

If a shop fucks it up, I get new tyres and/or wheels. If not, they get a brick through their window.

>>28661785
i got a vacuum pump and manifold gauge set when i regassed mine with propane. it's actually kinda fun.

>>28655264 (OP)
One-piece rear mains.

>>28656146
Just don’t.
> https://youtu.be/jgGCTVWmJq4
Especially not if you have a boosted (turbo) gasoline engine.

Alignment
Tires
Timing belt on a transverse engine
Lash adjust on a modern car where it takes 3 hours just to take the valve cover off.
Rusted as fuck bolts that are ready to break off. Let them deal with that.

>>28655264 (OP)
Spark plugs on my frs. Fuck that noise.

>>28655264 (OP)
>belts
>brakes
>bulbs
>fluids
>filters
>plugs
>injectors (if its not an engine out situation)
>wheel bearing (If I can get the hub and bearing as an assembly without having to use a press)
>dampers
>MAF/MAP & o2 sensors
>evap stuff
>fuses
Stuff I do and have done happily

>Valve train
>bottom end stuff
>engine-out situations
>control arms (I don’t have a 4 post to get under the car and torque everything down under load)
>and much more
I don’t do.

>>28664653
>I don’t have a 4 post to get under the car and torque everything down under load
Just set the car down on four ramps.

>>28655712
if you're in the UK, you can rent a walnut blaster for around £15 a day.
Do you have tool/equipment rental companies in the US?

>>28664611
>Timing belt on a transverse engine
Does it suck that bad? I have a new honda and haven't done one before.

>>28656167
>Clearly you've never dealt with ones corroded in place
its not hard, its what hub busters and 12lb sledge hammers are for, give it a few taps and they come out after 12 years of chicago salted winters

>First, is the big-ass nut that most people don't have a socket
if you dont have sockets >1 inch they're not that hard to buy alacart on amazon for like $10

>Second, there's a non-zero chance the splines of the axle and hub have worn and meshed so you're never getting them apart
thats what a 3 jaw puller is for, you can use it to force the axle back and to gain clearance for the bolts holding the hub assembly in to the knuckle.

>>28657948
>If you live in the US you should be doing your own AC work. It's like $200 for a set of gauges and a vacuum pump and pure R134a is easily attainable. Shops seem to put fucking brutal markups on AC parts and repairs.
you have no idea how to recharge an AC system if you think you need gauges. thats not how it is done at all you retard. AC systems are charged by weight, not pressure

>>28664910
The weight is printed right on the can.

>>28664989
That has fuck all to do with anything you retard. Go show me this 2.32 pound can of refrigerant. also that you have to purge the lines of air everytime you swap cans means you're losing an unknown amount from the can every time you swap cans.

>>28655604
Time spent doing what you enjoy is no time spent at all. To enjoy is the purpose of life

>>28664800
in many cases you need to remove the engine mount, wheel, fender liner. its a tight as hell spot to work in and you constantly need to work from under the hood and under the car. no thanks

>>28664995
>show me a 2.32 pound can of refrigerant.
You mean three of these? Maybe you shouldn't have flunked out of special ed.
>you have to purge the lines of air everytime you swap cans.
There's a shut off valve at the can and at the manifold. You've never done this work.

>>28665007
>You mean three of these
you mean more than 3 of those cans. also if you had ever used them, you would realize they have constant slow leaks, so it wont actually have a full 12oz either

>There's a shut off valve at the can and at the manifold
that can doesnt have a valve and again you retard, you have to purge this manifold and the fucking 8 - 12 feet of hose hooked up to it

>manifold
and lol at the poor who previous larped they had gauges now having to admit they only have a manifold. pic related sadly has no room for my fieldpiece leak detector

now post your 609 cert

>>28665016
>that can doesnt have a valve and again you retard

>>28655264 (OP)
>For me it's wheel bearings
Bearings in general, and oil if I have a coupon.

>>28665125
you can come up with whatever nigger-rigged workaround you want, you're still ignoring you have 8 - 12 feet of hose you have to purge. and how much refrigerant is that hose (and manifold) going to contain which will never made it in to the compressor? how do you even know when the can is empty? this is the entire fucking reason why you use scales. now keep on larping that you have the slightest idea of how this works. manifolds shouldn't be used for charging systems, they're legacy equipment which became deprecated a long time ago, and the very fact you're trying to guess what the charge is based on what the pressure is proves you have no idea what you're doing.

im scared to get under cars on hoists so anything that involves that

>>28664989
ehh, from experience, weight on the can is kinda useless. it's a lot better if you can just use scales to measure how much is actually going in. you can use pressure as a guide if you're in a pinch, but it's not ideal, scales are best.

Air conditioning

>>28655264 (OP)
tire changes. can swap wheels myself but man I hate doing tires