Do-it-yourself car repairs not always money savers
NEW YORK - When the taillight of Laura Musall’s five-year-old Nissan Altima burned out, she hoped to avoid the repair shop by letting her husband replace it at home. It seemed simple enough: Buy a bulb, pop off the cover, and make the switch.
But her husband struggled to remove the plastic casing, and when he used a screwdriver to pry it off, it shattered. What came next was worse. Her Nissan dealer wanted $250 for a new one.
Musall, a real estate agent from Fishers, Ind., figured “10 bucks, we’d be done.’’ “But apparently,’’ she said, “it’s not a do-it-yourself thing if you don’t know what you’re doing.’’
Car owners looking to trim expenses are sidestepping the mechanic and plunging into their own repairs.
Their efforts can backfire, costing more in the end and creating do-it-yourself horror stories.
Mechanics say they have seen it all recently, including incorrectly applied brake pads and antifreeze poured into engines.
“A lot of people, they’re in dire straits,’’ said Pam Oakes, owner of Pam’s Motor City Automotive in Fort Myers, Fla. “They try to do this stuff at home in their driveway.’’
The results can be frustrating, and sometimes dangerous.
Beth Riggs, who lives near Lebanon, Ohio, took her Chevy Trailblazer to a car-savvy neighbor nearby who charged $500 to replace her front and back brakes, far less than the going rates at nearby repair shops.
Later, on a highway ramp, her car suddenly froze and pulled to the side of the road. The problem? Riggs says her neighbor neglected to put a certain part on a bolt of the wheels, setting off a chain reaction that caused the tires to lock.
The car had to be towed, and Riggs ended up paying an additional $400 to have it fixed at a suburban Cincinnati auto shop.
While well-intentioned, many people forget that today’s cars are vastly more complicated than models made just years ago. Most are so computer-controlled that owners cannot spot problems without access to specific tools and data programs, said Dave Striegel, owner of Elizabeth AutoCare in Elizabeth, Pa.
Even jobs that were once simple, such as changing the oil, can take hours to complete now.
Even so, some car owners remain undeterred. On
Other car repair search terms remain at three-year highs, reflecting “a renewal of the good old American independent spirit,’’ said Vera Chan, a senior editor for the site.
Many people who try their own car repairs work as contractors or handymen in another trade, said Craig Douglas, owner of ASG Automotive in Indianapolis. “It’s those people who have that mindset, “Hey I can fix this, I can fix that,’’’ Douglas said. “Bob the Builder type people.’’
