No doubt you save money, but you spend a lot of personal time working on cars. If you enjoy the work, it's an easy trade-off. I enjoy the challenge of diagnosis and repair.

Auto AC repair is easily the most rewarding, both the financial aspectand derived satisfaction. A job that will cost over $1000 at an AC repair shop can usually be completed for < $200. I bought one Suburban w/ and got the guy to knock $500 off for bad AC that I was obvious; leaking compressor and leaking rear evaporator. He was grateful, as I'm sure repair estimates were probably north of $1500. I installed new compressor shaft seal and evaporator for <$100 of parts. Removing/replacing the evaporator was a challenge.

good luck

 

Working on your own machine makes you become one with it(cheesy i know) But remember, no one knows your car like you do.

 

Yes, save some money but lost some personal time working on the car but it always has been satisfying. Think of it as a hobby rather than work. I have been doing some basic maintenance services such as brake, fluid changes, and tune ups. All major repairs and other repairs that required expensive tools were done by a couple of local mechanics.

Luckily my mechanics allow me to hang out and watch them work and provide much useful informationthat allows me to do the work myself and they also loan tools to me at their shop.

Take care and have fun.

 

well i save money on the actual repair, and i get piece of mind knowing it was fixed right. its nice to know that some cheatn mech didn't just add stuff to the invoice to pad the bill. for example, my bother mazda 626 stopped running. i check it for spark and nada. i figured out it was the distrutor. now knowing that that cheap bother of mine won't even buy me a beer for my time, i told hime the problem, said i didn't have time for it, and told hime to take it to a shop with the info i told him. he called me later and told me that the shop did a compression check and said his motor was wore out and needed replaced for $6000. i told him they were wrong and to go get his car. i found a backyard mech for him, told him the prob, and it was fixed for $450. the point i am trying to make is you do save money working on your own car, and with the knowledge you gain, even when you do have to take it in for repairs, at least you have a clue as to what needs to be done.

 

Wow.....Your comments have been very helpful. Thanks for the insight guys

 

i wouldnt recommend much auto AC repair unless you have a freon recovery system (reclaimer?) and your state allows normal, unlicensed people to buy freon. before you pump in new freon after a repair you have to suck out all the old freon or air that got into the tubes during a repair.
not true with simple charges, though. thats fairly easy to diy from what i hear.