[wipeout97]

General Question - Who works on your E?

As I scroll through these forums my mouth drops with how many people do not perform their own maintenance and pretty much any breakdown on their vehicle themselves. I know most people take it to the dealership but I have too many invoices for work "supposedly" performed to our E while I was either out of town or unable to find time to fix it and my wife jumped the gun on it had to be done.

So the question is how many people allow someone else to touch their E? No one touches my car but me (unless it's inspection time) and since my E has only been touched by me I have had zero problems with it every breaking down on me where I could not get it home and do the work myself. Coming from two Accords and Accord forums the level of people knowledgeable in mechanics is a pretty big difference.

Thanks for answering my question.

 

[lizzurd]

I used to do all my own services when i had time. These days it is easier for me to drop my keys off at the service desk and let someone else take care of it for me.

 

[munscher]

I do all of the work on my E myself. I've only had it a year, and done little to it other than oil changes to date.

My previous car (which i sitll have and drive) is/was a 93 Prelude. This is the car that taught me the ropes for the previous 7 years. Oil changes, swapped suspension, strut tower bar, sway bars, new exhaust, intake, headers, new ball joints, camber correction, brake swaps, cv boots, axle changes, rewired JDM headlights, fog install, LED dash cluster conversion, swapped alternators, starters, radiators, and even a swapped engine. That was how I spent many a days and nights in college. We would tackle any job, assuming we'd be able to get it done, despite having never done it before. It typically worked out well.

I take it as a personal mission now to convince those around me to work on their own vehicles. It pains me to watch people shell out large sums of cash for such simple things. As a matter of fact, I just helped a buddy swap a belt last night. The belt cost $15, the dealer wanted $120 to swap it. The worst part is that a lot of these friends are fellow engineers like myself. It's blasphemous in my mind to not do these things ourselves.

 

[in2steam]

I tow my own vehicles when they break down, and I work on my own vehicles unless its a warranty item, or something way outside my realm like pulling apart a tranny.
I have gone the honda route to avoid working on my cars all the time and thus far it seems to have worked.

Chris

 

[JroCc]

One of my closest friends is a mechanic at a Ford/Honda dealership...why buy tools etc etc etc when he has an entire shop at his home with lift....He's been a mechanic all of his life and could service my E in his sleep....I don't see the need to get involved so I let the professional handle it.

Now if I didn't have this luxury...I would seek out something similar and probably do all of the general stuff myself...

 

[patm]

I've had my E since Jan 09. Until last weekend, when I gave it a good wash/wax/and Back to Black, I had never opened the hood! I made myself open it just because I was so embarrassed that I had never done it since I got it. I'll plead being a "girl" - I really don't know anything about engines - I know that if I by a well-made car, get the oil changed regularly and drive sensibly, I don't have too many problems. My husband is very good at keeping all our "small engine" things running, but he doesn't touch the cars either. I used to change my air filters, but it was so difficult to reach it, that I quit doing it.

 

[94eg]

Unless it's warranty work, I do everything myself. I own 4 Hondas and they sure keep me busy with just regular maintenance sometimes. I think the Element is gonna have to go though cause it had so much warranty work it was rediculous. Now that warranty is up and things are still going wrong. I'm really scared about owning this thing past 100k miles with all the problems in the past. I just wish it didn't have them...

 

[hotrodder]

There are some things that don't justify the equipment costs for home use, like exact charging the A/C system.

The A/C system on the Element is of very efficient design and contains only 1.2 lbs of refrigerant. After all of my playing around with my A/C issue, I was curious how close I had it to the recommended level. I took it to a trusted friend who has one of those exact charge units (about 3 grand for his.) I had it close (a little high,) but he was curious too and played with it to see what the efficiency range was. As little as 1.12 and as much as 1.28 made a big difference in cooling efficiency.

In the old days, you could be 1/2 lb off in a system and it would still work. Not any more.

 

[wipeout97]

My jaw dropped over the amount of people who trust someone to touch their car. When I first came to this forum I was shocked by the lack of hands on people so this sort of confirmed my suspicion. Maybe as this car ages it will have teenagers and older finally doing more hands on work.

 

[Alaskan_Toaster]

Well, your poll is kinda misleading - I do ALL the regular maintenance on my E, but, had the speedometer recall which had to be performed by Honda. So, by your poll question, I would have to answer "Yes", even tho it's only for "official" purposes.

NOBODY else has touched my E..... :lol:

 

[wipeout97]

Well, your poll is kinda misleading - I do ALL the regular maintenance on my E, but, had the speedometer recall which had to be performed by Honda. So, by your poll question, I would have to answer "Yes", even tho it's only for "official" purposes.

NOBODY else has touched my E..... :lol:

Don't think it's misleading at all but that's your opinion. I don't consider warranty work to be a technical definition of someone else working on your E myself. I, however, will not let anyone at Honda touch my vehicle for warranty work and instead grab the part and replace it myself since the warranty also gives consumers the right to their own repairs with free parts. My problem with warranty work is again I have invoices for work never performed . Congrats though on keeping up with your car yourself. ;-)

 

[hotrodder]

Don't think it's misleading at all but that's your opinion. I don't consider warranty work to be a technical definition of someone else working on your E myself. I, however, will not let anyone at Honda touch my vehicle for warranty work and instead grab the part and replace it myself since the warranty also gives consumers the right to their own repairs with free parts. My problem with warranty work is again I have invoices for work never performed . Congrats though on keeping up with your car yourself. ;-)

I didn't realize Honda would give you a part to replace yourself under warranty. I thought they had to verify the part's need to be replaced. Interesting---

 

[marksbug]

but it's a honda!!! I thought they never needed any thing done to them.time to ponder this. & the dealer wont do any thing under warranty any way.

 

[slimerdogs]

I do all the work on it other then a few oil changes when the dealor has a sale and a warranty issue. No reason to spend $90+- and hour for someone else to do the work that I used to do for a living.