Mechanic Soap Box
Why do I do my own work on my car?
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Why?
Because I can't trust a mechanic to put as much time, effort, and TLC into my cars as I can. They aren't the ones who are driving my vehicle. They are in it for the business at worst, and don't know my car as well as I do at best.
The worst mechanics realize that they charge a minimum amount of labor...for example, it may be a minimum 1 hour labor. If they can get a job done in 30 minutes, then they've basically doubled their earnings for free (minus income tax). So the worst mechanics rush the job, which anybody in any profession realizes leads to mistakes. When a single point failure (of which there are many on the average vehicle) can leave me stranded, injured, or dead, then this risk is simply unacceptable.
I even have issue with good mechanics. There are two varieties of good mechanics. Type I are the cynical types who, through no fault of their own, must assume that they are dealing with a person unfamiliar with their car. When you walk into their shop and describe your problem, what you have done to troubleshoot, and offer suggestions as to possible solutions, they are largely ignoring you and/or will forget what you are saying. As I say, I don't fault them...they are used to dealing with people who don't know how to properly maintain or repair their vehicles. That's why most folks take them to a mechanic. The problem is, a good mechanic can quickly become cynical, and curses the person who works on their own car. If they think that you've been working on your own vehicle, they will curse you under their breath and, if you catch them on a bad day will chew you out for working on your own car, whether you actually did anything or not. This type of person, snubbing their nose at those less experienced, grates on my nerves terribly, and unfortunately you find them in every profession...even in optics. It was meeting this type of mechanic which started me working on my own car back in the days shortly before I went off to college.
Finally, there are the very rare good mechanics who know what they are doing and act the professional. These are the folks that I respect, who act professional even if they are dealing with "duct-tapers" (the kind of people who would consider holding a wheel on with duct-tape). I don't mind taking my car to these types, and I do for stuff requiring skills and/or equipment which I don't have, like mounting and balancing tires, compressing front springs, welding (no welding equipment except a butane torch), radiator work, and body work. I've searched around and found people that I trust, who I can tell exactly what I need and have a professional conversation. However, while being good mechanics, they still don't know all the idiosyncracies of my individual vehicles. For example, who but I knows whether the carb on my '78 is stock or not? You can't tell by running smog checks or by looking at it on the vehicle.
On top of that is a built-in desire to tinker, do-it-myself, and the need to answer the question "how?". This is the same stuff that drove me to become an optical engineer. In some odd way, working on my car is relaxing and is a stress-reliever.
A disturbingly significant number of mechanics hate my type. They've probably fixed a lot of problems started by people who tried (like the P.O. of my first Fiat, who swapped cam wheels when he put them back on, leading up to the incident I alluded to above). It's kind of like machinists who hate when engineers come in and use the lathe. This attitude is a problem in my opinion, particularly when you also consider how many people gripe about how the younger generations don't know how to use tools. They complain about wasted youth, but when it comes down to it, they don't want others coming in and taking away their work.
Oh well, that's enough ranting I guess. Scroll up and click the Home link to go back to the Fiat Spider page.
Last updated: 28 April 2005