The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Doing It Yourself [View all]

[MineralMan]

Like a lot of people, my income has gone down somewhat since about 2007. My wife and I are staying afloat, but it's trying at times. Unexpected expenses are always a problem. Also like a lot of people, one of the ways we compensate for that is by doing some jobs ourselves that we would normally have done by others. Yesterday is an example, and made me think about all of the aspects of doing a job myself that I wish I could give to others. Someone who earns his or her living doing this work wasn't going to get this job. That bothers me, and is why I'm posting this.

We drive a 1991 Volvo station wagon. Right now, it's our only car, since the 1999 GMC Jimmy finally cost itself to death in repairs. About three months ago, the road salt from five winters finally took its toll on the Volvo. The connection between the front exhaust pipe and the catalytic converter just flat rusted off and broke. As a temporary fix, I installed a flexible exhaust pipe in place of the catalytic converter, knowing that was not a solution, but just then, our property taxes were due, and there was no extra money available. Worse, that put the car in the Check Engine light, emergency mode, which pollutes badly. Not a good thing at all.

In preparation for getting the thing fixed properly, I took the car to an independent shop I trust to get an estimate for the repair, which would involve replacing both the front exhaust pipe that attaches to the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter. The estimate wasn't good news. $1200. I tried another place, but it was still over $1000. For us, that's a lot of money to come up with, and we have gotten rid of all of our credit cards to stop the madness of having a convenient way to put ourselves further in debt when things like this come up.

At this point, I should say that I worked in my father's independent auto repair business for about five years, back in my 20s, so I have the skills to do this myself, along with the tools that have followed me since then. But, I'm 66 years old, and no longer enjoy working on cars, especially when it involves working underneath them in my driveway. I'm creaky, out of practice, and always seem to pay, physically, when I do.

No choice, though, in this case. So, I went online and hunted down the parts from a discount auto parts store. Using generic parts (all made in the USA, by the way), I found that I could get the front pipe and catalytic converter, along with the various other bits for almost exactly $250. Now, these were not OEM parts, by any means, and probably won't last as long as better quality parts, but the car may not either. I ordered them.

I hate working on exhaust systems. They're terrible. Stuff rusts together and won't come apart, and I don't have an oxy-acetylene torch to heat stuff up. Even worse, it's very common when working on header pipes that the studs on the exhaust manifold break off when you attempt to remove the rusted-on nuts. Generic exhaust parts have a habit of not fitting exactly as they should, too, and sometimes require modifications to components they're suppose to mate with. To make matters worse, working on exhaust systems in your driveway, even if you have drive-on ramps to raise the front of the car some, involves much lying on the driveway under the car and applying force to things when you can't get into the right position. Anyhow, it's not a pleasant system to work on without having a nice hoist to raise the car up so you can work on it standing.

Because of all of the negatives about doing this kind of work yourself, I worked myself up into a nervous state the day before I was going to attempt the job. Since this is our only car right now, my wife borrowed her mother's car so I could make the inevitable additional trips to the parts house. I drove the car up on the ramps at 8AM, yesterday. Luckily, things came apart pretty well, although I had to resort to using a reciprocating saw to remove one rusted clamp, and to saw off one pipe, rather than removing it from its coupling joint, where it was rusted solid together. None of the studs on the manifold twisted off, but one stud had damaged threads near the end, so I had to saw off 1/4" of it so the new nut could be started. A Dremel tool with an abrasive blade handled that OK. (Thank goodness I have one. There's no other way to do it in that confined space.)

Only one issue cropped up. The generic catalytic converter and its attached pipe were about three inches shorter than the original. Fortunately, my having to saw off the old pipe at the connection meant that nothing more than a trip to the parts store to buy an inexpensive adapter and a couple of new clamps solved the problem. Everything went back together OK. It's the tearing apart that is the hardest thing about exhaust system work. After tightening all the clamps and other connections, plus re-installing the oxygen sensor in the new catalytic converter, I started the car. Nothing leaked. The Check Engine light was off, and all was well. Mom-in-law got her car back. I only spent four hours on the job. Had I been working in an actual garage with a hoist the whole job would have taken about an hour or so. Working on a driveway...about four times longer.

Afterwards, I took a shower, and assessed the damage to my person from the job. A big bruise and raspberry on my left elbow. A big bruise on my left hip bone, from rolling around on the asphalt, plus a few assorted dings on my hands and elsewhere. Not too bad, but this morning there are also a few aching muscles from dragging myself in and out under the car and from applying force from awkward positions.

So, the good: We saved several hundred dollars. The Volvo's emission controls are working properly again. The car's not running in emergency mode from the disconnected oxygen sensor, so the gas mileage will go back to its decent normal 24 MPG or so, and the car's not spewing toxic fumes so much. Finally, all of the parts I used were made in the USA by workers here.

The bad: Some auto repair place did not get this job, which may mean that they're not getting other jobs because people are forced to do the work themselves. If they're not getting the work, someone's not doing the work, so a skilled worker isn't getting paid. It's about 4-5 times more expensive to have jobs like this done than to do it yourself, but auto repair businesses have expensive tools, expensive facilities, and make a profit on the parts they install. They won't install the cheap parts I bought, because that can lead to customer complaints, so all the parts are more expensive. I can take that risk, but they can't. I don't begrudge independent auto repair places their high prices. It's the economy that's the problem. The cars have to be fixed.

The ugly: Me. I'm still ugly. Fixing the car did nothing to fix that. In fact, the scrapes and bruises, etc. make things worse. The car's still ugly. It's out of style, the paint's not what it used to be, and there is still a small rip in the driver's seat, a stain on the passenger seat, and a headliner that keeps trying to sneak out from the edges. It runs great, though.