I'm either getting old, or growing up

Between OT and a now bum knee I haven't prolly turned a wrench on any of my vehicles in 9 months. Last real job was replacing the water pump on my GP last summer. The project truck still sits. Oil changes, brakes etc go to a local trusted shop now. Last week it took a few days of on/ off work just to clean my car, usually a Saturday afternoon job but I'm still in PT and not pushing myself yet. My knee lets me know when it's break time. Now that my folks are older and are having issues I spend a lot more quality time w/ them, cars can wait.

I realized I had reached that 'turning point' and things might be like this for a while... or from now on. No dreams and no dragging new projects home either till the old ones are done and the garage is cleaned out. It's disillusioning as I've always done my own work and had projects on the side.

It's like life gets in the way, but I hafta be good w/ it.

I don't know how some of you guys do it.

After spending waaaay too long doing the head gasket on my backup car the other week, I'm thinking more and more about getting the meotter into a shop for her transmission woes.

I don't know if it's just me, but some stuff I can handle just fine (suspension, for example), but other things (head gaskets, electrical shenanigans) make me want to end myself in a spectacular fashion.

I'm not able to play the getting old card, and based on how 'much' I make the same is true of valuing my time...
so I'll go with preservation of mental health.

If your guy will change to turbo drain on a XC for $100, he must be looney, or he's jamming silicone around the tube. Non-AWD, easy. AWD, NOT easy.

You might want to check for a recall on the fuel pump leak, too. Just sayin'...

whenry wrote: I work on my own but the wife's cars go to the shop unless there are extenuating circumstances. If I have to explain, you wont understand or have never been married.

pretty much the same.

Grtechguy wrote:

whenry wrote: I work on my own but the wife's cars go to the shop unless there are extenuating circumstances. If I have to explain, you wont understand or have never been married.

pretty much the same.

Same here. My cars may go to local independent shops, but my wife's Scion has only ever seen the dealership.

My inner redneck has a hard time admitting I either can't or shouldn't do certain things myself. From rebuilding an automatic transmission to roofing the house. My inner redneck believes I should be able to do it all.

Ah well. This job really is the pits and I really didn't want to do it. So I went and fixed the big mower and played with the various seats for the Harley. One was successful, the other was fun. I still enjoy turning wrenches. Very much so. Just far prefer doing it for fun than absolute necessity.

I did check on the recall. Volvo proudly let me know I just missed the window of opportunity for the fuel pump recall that they never told me or the previous owner about.

foxtrapper wrote: I did check on the recall. Volvo proudly let me know I just missed the window of opportunity for the fuel pump recall that they never told me or the previous owner about.

Complain and complain and complain. They know there is a problem and you are a loyal customer yadda yadda. They were such a pain to me and I GOT a letter to have mine done. Call the 1800 number and tell them to send the parts to your dealer and drive it up there with less that 1/8th tank and have them do it. It's a quick job for them.

It's already being done locally. The car had gotten to the point of pouring gasoline whenever the engine was on. I couldn't wait on it and argue with Volvo NA about covering the repair like they should, or not.

Volvo has thoroughly torque my wife off with this. Next car may not be a brick as a result.

Whether I work on a car, or not, is determined by the number of cuss words I think the job will generate.

Front brakes or plugs on the wife's Liberty, no problem.

Installing the hitch on the truck, got that. Even the rear brakes on the truck weren't that bad.

Brake booster on the wife's old Venture, not for all the tea in China. That thing was buried under the windshield. I said a couple of cuss words when I found out it was leaking.

On the Volvo I do it all but mount/balance tires & alignment.

On the TDI I used VW's provided service for the first 30K miles, "free" so why not. Since then I've done it all but 2 recalls, and took it to the dealer for the 40K mile DSG trans service, with fluids & filter I provided. I don't have Vagcom or the necessary tools to change the trans fluid/filter. I know there's DIY DSG service threads online, but for my time & not having the tools I'm happy to have the dealer do it every 40K.

• Lee

I'm also in the take the DDs to the shop and have toys to work on. I hate working on something I rely on, feel pressured, don't usually have the time and don't have the equipment to work on the new stuff. If I don't finish a project on the toys, it can wait till later. Plus they are old enough to be simple.

there are some jobs that are too nasty and too back breaking for me to want to do. Those and the really technical ones like rebuilding a trans.. I farm out

i do all my own work. unless im, dpwm to two running driving cars for the whole family, then i farm out the daily stuff while fixing the rest of the older stuff in the fleet. last things to farm out: timing belt in the camry. trans flush in the subie. washing the acr. trans tunnel fabrication in the duster. hub machining for the el camino.

the wifes subaru and my daily driven ACR are about the only things that i will farm out standard repairs on, unless its exhaust, major PITA, beyon my equipment, or the next to last thing we have running. no shame in doing what my dad told me to do with weed eater repair: pay the man.

I try to farm stuff out, but I get irritated with incompetence.

DILYSI Dave wrote: I try to farm stuff out, but I get irritated with incompetence.

This has been the downside on a startling number of occasions. I am not a pro wrench, but outside of totally standard R&R or maintenance, there seem to be issues all too often when I farm stuff out.

DILYSI Dave wrote: I try to farm stuff out, but I get irritated with incompetence.

That's always been the most irritating part to me as well.

I live on a steep hill with a sloped driveway and very little room to work on anything in the street. My garage is full to the rafters with stuff I can't get rid of, and even if there were room for a car, it'd take some work to get anything low into it. That restricts me pretty badly, and I don't really feel safe doing anything that involves getting the car up in the air and getting under it when it's on an incline. I'm working on the garage, but I live with two musicians and it's full of instruments and sound equipment, so even if all the junk is gone it's still gonna be pretty cluttered unless I build some heavy-duty shelves for their gear or something.

I especially don't do much on the 2, since it's under warranty and I want service records in case I ever have to make a claim.

I had the DD Saturn in the shop a few weeks ago to have the tie rod end replaced (initially though it was a CV joint). A job I could definitely do- but with the garage occupied by the Elky and scrambling getting my house ready to list, it was more than worth the cost to have it done while the GF and I were out to lunch and shopping. The DeLorean? Outside of a very small number of things, I'm the only one who wrenches on that... and the Elky, being a $Challenge build, I have to be the one working on it.

I don't change the oil in my truck not because it's hard, but because I don't want to deal with 15 quarts of oil.

The other half is currently pining for a new (like brand new 2013) M-B SLK250. I've heard even changing the oil on a new Benz is a PITA (not even a dipstick?), so she isn't keen on taking the car to a dealer for service. Who knows... It's a long-shot she'll get one anyway... but when she gets this level of 'want' it may be inevitable. The last time was 2003 and the MINI.

I just know that if she does get one, I won't be turning a wrench on it other than maybe swapping seasonal wheels.

I just threw in the towel myself.

With 2 race cars in pieces, a bathroom remodeling project that has gone long, kids sports to attend and an increased pile of real, career type work sucking my time away... I'm dropping my 2500HD off on Monday for a water pump, t-stat, all gearboxes fluids, and a steering damper.

All are easy but that is a full day's work I just can't spare. I will wince when I get the bill but... berkeley it. I need the truck to tow the race cars NEXT week. Something had to give but I feel dirty. Like I'm doing something behind my own back.

Same thing in my racing. I started turning wrenches only because I found "racing mechanics" to be so very unreliable. I didnt know much and sure didnt have the equipment but most of the work was monkey see; monkey do. We carried enough spare parts to rebuild the complete RX3 except for the engine. Later in my racing, I recognized the insanity and we carried only what I was willing to do on a Sat morning to save the weekend; otherwise we loaded the car and came back home to work in a more relaxed environment. Too many thrashes.

The fact that it seems like every car in my family's fleet (they're local to me, so I get to do the work) needed work in the last few months and juggling it all means I haven't had much in the way of free time on the weekends has made it no longer fun. I want to help them all out, ensure they have reliable, well running cars and save them a few bucks, and individually they aren't big things. Just the whole is crushing me right now. Everyone's car needs to be done quickly so they can go to work. My current personal project Saturn doesn't add to the stress, as it's easy to work on and isn't my main driver, plus the benefits to me once I finish it. I was just thinking I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when my daily sprung an oil leak and this;

I may have reached my breaking point this past weekend. My sister's C230k with it's stupid everything, after I finish this job, I refuse to do anything else to it. Maybe oil changes but she'll have to wait a month or 6 until the red mist clears. Dammit if it isn't behind on maintenance and the stuff I'm doing is saving her a metric ton, too bad it'll never get done if I didn't make sure I did it. And it's not like she's poor, she makes twice as much as me.

Last time I farmed something out, it cost me twice what I was expecting and they did it wrong. Which I found out months later when I had to go back and do it right. That made me hesitant to farm anything out for awhile.

This past weekend I helped my cousin do a suspension overhaul on his wife's Rav4, that went well as he's fairly competent and was willing to pay to have the springs compressed onto the new shocks which is a E36 M3 job that I fought with on my mom's Rav4. The shop did a great job and it was a fair price so that experience has restored some faith in local shops.

Then again I'll be purchasing a 20 ton press tomorrow if HF gets them in, to finish the C230k so who knows if I'm crawling out of the rabbit hole or just tumbling deeper.

Seems to be a common theme but...

I've been sick a lot over the past five years (four surgeries this year so far) and I've really moved to having two good cars, dealer serviced, ready to drive to work everyday. So the '12 Toyota Tacoma and the '11 VW Jetta (hers) are kept in tip top shape and are ready for any trip any time.

I've got a 90 Miata and a Triumph TR-250 to play mechanic with anytime without pressure or deadlines. Makes it a fun hobby.

The RX-7 with the 350 is for sale. I lost fire on working on it and it needs seats, belts, and guages worked on. I just haven't felt like it or had time for it or made it enough of a priority.

Having a car that starts consistently and that you don't have to worry about making it back home in is a great comfort. I'm getting old and I like where we are now on cars and so does SWMBO.

Makes you appreciate it when you find a good shop. One that's up front on price estimates, usually cheaper than book time, won't nickle and dime you for your own stupidity, and totally honest.

I lucked out with a few in my town.