One of the benefits to having grown up around cars and working in our family auto parts business for many years is the ability to work on my own cars when I choose to. Well, today I had to put new brakes on my Toyota truck. I’ve known that it was coming and planned ahead. First, I called around to get prices for a brake job. I needed new brake pads and new rotors. The rotors had a bunch of grooves on them and were in pretty bad shape. Not too surprising since they had about 95000 miles on them. The quote that I got to do the job was about $280. They were expecting that they could resurface the rotors, although from my past experience, I knew that they couldn’t. (They hadn’t actually seen how bad the rotors were). So, if I’d had to have them replace the rotors too, I can imagine they would have added about $80-100 to the quote. Since I wasn’t really looking to spend nearly $400 on my truck brakes, I decided to do them myself. I had previously changed the brake pads on this truck and knew what the job entailed.
About a week ago, I called a wholesale company that sells brake parts to most of the auto parts stores in my area (an old vendor from our family store). I always enjoy talking to this guy and he’s known our family for over 25 years and was happy to sell me the parts at wholesale. I got brake pads, and two new front brake rotors for a total of $55.
I took all the parts down to a friend of mine’s house this morning. I could have done it at my house, but he offered to do one side while I did the other to speed things up. He’s very car savvy and actually took some training years ago at the local college when he was trying to decide what to do with his life. The best part is that he’s got every tool ever made, in his shop, so I always know we’ll have exactly what we need to do the job.
We jacked up the truck and each took a side. We had the wheels off in no time with his impact wrench. It took each of us about 15 minutes to do each side so we were completely done in about 20 minutes (from start to finish). Needless to say, I was glad that I opted to do the work myself. Instead of a $400 brake job at the shop, I was able to put on all new brake pads and rotors for $55.
The one job that I don’t do myself is change the oil. I’ve changed the oil in a lot of cars and now that I make a good living and have some excess income, it’s worth the extra $10 or so in labor to let someone else do it. It’s probably a little bit of laziness on my part, but it’s so much easier to stop by the dealer and get an oil change for $29.95 and I don’t even have to worry about what to do with the old oil.
So, all in all, a fairly productive day. The job was cheap and fast to do, and I have the satisfaction of having done the work myself, and I know it’s actually done right.
Well, I suppose it is a little bit of a PITA to figure out what to do with the spent oil, but after some digging, I found out that every Jiffy Lube will take used oil for free! Works out well for me since there is a Jiffy Lube about a mile from my home. I figure that I can spend about $35 giving my car a fully synthetic oil change using Mobil 1 and a K&N air filter where the dealer will chareg me ~75 for the same thing.
I suppose it also helps that I enjoy changing the oil since my mind can run while I’m busy working with my hands.
On a side note, I don’t comment very much, but I really enjoy reading your blog. Read it first thing every morning!
ooopsss.meant K&N oil filter, not air filter ;-)
Definately one of the best ways to save money– IF you know what you are doing. I personally have to get it done by someone who “knows” or I get paranoid that I didn’t maintain it correctly or the work is not up to par with someone who does it for a living.
Well, there really is nothing to changing oil, but I do agree with you that there is a certain sense of unease when doing work on one’s car. The other thing you miss out on when you change your oil is that most places will do a quick spot check of your car to make sure nothing else is glaringly wrong.
If you’re interested in learning, Visionary, I recommend you check to see if there is a “Haynes” auto manual for your car. They give you step by step instructions on how to do maintenance (also includes pictures). I suppose it is kind of like managing one’s retirement portfolio. A lot of people want to let someone else figure it out, but when you get down to it, its not as difficult as it first appears. My .02
Thanks for the info. I use to have an old beat up Plymouth Horizon hatchback. It was the worst looking piece of junk I ever owned however it got me from point A to point B. I changed the oil probably about 10 times myself, but I just dont have the time or the energy anymore to work on the car. Other than jiffy lube, I go to my dealership and they charge me $20 for filter and oil. I think for piece of mind and a little warranty, I can spare the extra cash… but again it just fits my lifestyle. I would LOVE to one day, get back to working on cars. Haynes is a great auto manual and highly recommended for first timers!
Hazzard, this post made me so jealous….I’d love to get to this point with auto maintenance. I have a friend that took a mechanic’s correspondence course (just to inform herself) and she got some tools and a patch out of it, but none of us even have garages. sigh. Sounds like a good time.