Doing your own vehicle maintenance is frequently touted as a money saver, but is it really? What about tools and time? I frequently DIY things on my cars, so I’ve decided to analyze a recent project using my actual numbers and a few different scenarios so you can decide for yourself if the benefit is there.
The Project: 2007 Mazda3 2.3l Front Suspension Refresh. Specifically, replacing the lower control arms (non-serviceable ball joints), outer tie rods (aka tie rod ends), and struts.
Dealer Quote: $1750 plus tax from a reputable and reasonable dealer I’ve used before. The specific breakdown is about $1000 of labor and the remainder is OEM parts. I didn’t get a quote from one of my favored independent shops because it’s rude to waste their time when they won’t get the business, but let’s assume they’d only charge $800 in labor and buy the same aftermarket parts I did (see below). That makes their best-case scenario about $1225, which in my opinion would be a good deal.
My Actual Money Costs: Total = $425 (rounded up numbers for simplicity). Tie rod ends $21/each (Moog), control arms $70/each (Mevotech), complete quickstrut assembly $110/each (KYB), plus shipping. Purchased from RockAuto. There is also a future cost of about $100 for an alignment, but that would be the same no matter who did the work, so I’m excluding it from the analysis.
Tool Costs: This is where it starts to get complicated. I own quite a lot of tools so the only tool cost was a new grease gun and grease, which was optional on this job because I could have opted for parts with sealed fittings instead of greaseable fittings. But let’s just say my additional tool cost was $100 (I bought a nice Lincoln gun and paid retail at NAPA, eww). But what if you were brand new to this? What would your total tool costs be?
Hypothetical Tool Costs: If I were starting from scratch and shopping at Harbor Freight I would need/want the following - costs are rounded off/up. Jack ($100), jack stands* ($50), metric socket set ($15), ratchet ($20), metric wrench set ($25), metric Allen wrench set ($2), pry bar ($15), pickle fork ($10), torque wrench ($25), needle nose pliers ($5), large adjustable wrench ($15), 3lb sledgehammer ($10) and miscellaneous supplies ($20). That comes to right around $310. Alternately, you could buy one of the mechanic toolsets ($200) which comes with most of that and much more, and spend about $400 altogether but be better supplied for next time. I also didn’t include a cordless impact, because this can all easily be done without one, but I highly recommend one if this is something you might do regularly. If that were the case you could also consider better tools than HF, but they’ll do a job like this just fine and a few more after that.
Time Costs: My wife actually did most of this job because it’s her car. She works painfully slowly because she’s new at it, which makes her perfect for this example. Overall, working by herself, it would have most likely taken her about 10 hours total. That makes her “compensation” compared to hiring it out $80-100 per hour. That is definitely more than either of us makes at our job. I would have probably done it in about 5 hours, making my “compensation” $160-200/hour. Nice!
Other Considerations: This isn’t a particularly dangerous job (to you or the car) but it’s always possible to get injured or do damage to the vehicle, so there’s some risk there. You need to have suitable, level workspace that’s not too hot or cold to work in. You might really not like doing this kind of thing and maybe it’s not worth it if you hate every minute. You need to actually have the time to do it, and that’s not something everyone has. It’s also very possible to get stuck on something or not have the right tool, so it’s important to have resources on hand like shop manuals, pictures, YouTube videos, walkthroughs from a forum, or an experienced friend. It’s also good to have a plan for alternate transportation if you need to go get a part or tool, or it takes longer than you thought and you have to go somewhere. The worst-case scenario (barring serious injury) is that you get so stuck you have to get it towed somewhere and pay for it after all, so it’s good to know in advance what that might cost for peace of mind at least (I’ve never had to do this, even when I was young and very stupid, but it’s a comfort to know you could).
TL;DR: Did medium-difficulty car maintenance and saved $800-$1325 with 5-10 hours of labor. Adding in “starting from scratch” tool costs, hypothetical savings are were still $500-$1025. And then the tool costs are free next time.
January 20, 2022 at 11:31PM
