Lyle Pruitt asked me a good question back in April while he was handing over his torque wrench. "You know why you're doing this one yourself?" I said to save money. He said that was a reason, not a plan. He worked on combines and tractors for forty years, so I took that seriously.
Since then I've worked out a plan. It's three questions, and I ask them in order before I pick up a wrench or a phone. I'm not a mechanic and this isn't advice for anybody else's car. It's how our family decides, and it's kept me out of trouble most of this year.
The three questions
1. Do I have the tools, and the right ones? Not "can I buy them," but do I own them or can I borrow them, and do I know how to use them safely. A floor jack and two pairs of jack stands, yes. A torque wrench, Lyle's. Refrigerant recovery equipment or a spring compressor, no, and I'm not buying them for one job.
2. Can the car sit for a weekend? If I get halfway through and need a part I don't have, can that vehicle be out of service until Monday or longer without wrecking anybody's week? The Silverado is my only ride to work. The Sienna hauls Lainey to volleyball and Tina to the flower shop. That changes the answer more often than you'd think.
3. What happens if I'm wrong? If I mess up a wiper blade, I'm out twelve dollars. If I mess up brakes or a cooling system, somebody could get hurt or an engine could be ruined. The worse the downside, the more I lean toward the shop, even if I think I could probably do it.
If all three answers are good, I do it. If any one of them is bad, I start calling.
Five jobs from this year
Here's how that played out on the last five real repairs in our driveway, with what each one cost.
The Sienna's front brakes, April. Tools: yes, with Lyle's torque wrench. Could it sit: yes, we planned it for a Saturday and had the parts in hand before the wheels came off. If I'm wrong: serious, which is exactly why I took my time, torqued everything to spec and had Lyle look at it. Parts were $142 for pads and rotors against a shop quote of $489. My dad sat in a lawn chair and narrated. DIY was the right call.
The check engine light and gas cap, April. Tools: a free code read at the parts store, then my own $38 reader. Could it sit: it never had to. If I'm wrong: the light comes back on and I pay a shop to diagnose it. That's about as low a risk as car trouble gets. $19 for a cap.
The Sienna's AC compressor, June. Tools: no. The refrigerant has to be recovered and recharged with equipment I'll never own. Could it sit: not in June. If I'm wrong: I've wasted a compressor and the van still blows hot air. Three bad answers. Shop, $1,140.
The sliding door cable, July. The passenger sliding door on the van stopped closing on its own. Tools: basic hand tools and a trim panel tool. Could it sit: yes, the door still worked by hand, so there was no rush. If I'm wrong: an annoying door, not a safety issue. The part was $86 and it took me most of a Saturday afternoon, including the twenty minutes I spent looking for a clip I dropped inside the door. DIY.
The Silverado's water pump, August. Tools: mostly yes. Could it sit: no, it's my commute. If I'm wrong: overheated V8, which is the expensive end of the scale. Shop, $612, done in a day.
What the tally says
Two of the five went to the shop and they made up most of the money: $1,752 of the $1,999 total. The three I did myself cost $247 in parts. If I'd paid the shop for all five, my rough guess is it would have run something like $2,400, so doing the three easy ones saved us a few hundred dollars. That's real money, but it isn't a fortune.
The bigger thing I learned is that the shop jobs weren't where I'd have saved money anyway. Those were jobs where being wrong costs more than the labor I'd avoid. The savings are in the boring work: brakes on a car that can sit, filters, bulbs, a door cable. That's the stuff I want to keep doing myself.
A few things don't go through the questions at all. Anything with the transmission, the airbags or wiring under the dash goes straight to the shop. And I never get under a car that's only on the jack. Jack stands every time, even for "just a minute."
I told Lyle about the three questions when I returned his wrench, cleaned. He nodded and said, "Add a fourth: did you clean the tool before you brought it back." Fair enough.