How much car maintenance do you perform on your vehicle yourself?

Wow, I was just considering a survey like this today (while I waited for a mechanic to replace my car's battery and check the electrical system).

My dad used to do all the work on our family car. He got me to help when I was a kid (he paid me 50 cents an hour... later it was 2 dollars). I was delighted when I grew up and realized someone else would do it for me. I do do a few very small things; the real breakthrough was no longer changing my own oil.

I wash it and keep the fluids topped off. Other than that I go to a mechanic. Who am I to deprive them of their livelihood?

I do fluids and hand wash the car (because of the stripes). I also paint up dings, and wash the inside of the car pretty thoroughly (to get the mountain bike dirt out of it).

God I feel like such a sloth. . . Three toed, even.

I don't like that I don't know how to do more maintenance myself because I feel at the mercy of garage mechanics who can either be really nice and fair and helpful or can gut you and fillet you like the flopping mackerel you truly are when you know as little about car stuff as I do.

I wash my windshield once in a while.

You mean you have to change the oil???

I oil my bike chain and buy my own T-pass.

I did a lot more of these things when I had a car that required frequent work and I had more time/less money. Ballancing tires requires tools I don't have. I would do (and I believe I'm capable of) all of these If I had more time and the space to do it.

I will check the fluid levels and add fluid if needed but I don't change it myself.

I put gas in the car -- SELF Serve!! and then I run it through the automatic car was. Nobody does that for me! (ok, well, sometimes someone does, but only on the nights I'm doing laundry!).

You left out the "I don't have a car." option. ("None," while technically true, does not imply the same thing, now does it?)

None, I don't have a car.

By "brake job" I assumed simply replacing the pads. I might consider rebuilding the calipers, but then again I might not, and I don't have the right equipment to turn rotors. I'd probably balance the tires myself, too, if I had the right equipment. What about an option for people who don't own cars?

I can also change my own radiator, plugs, plug wires, test the battery(and someday I will actually buy my own tester), replace the battery, headlights, and take apart the dash and fiddle around (actually fixing problems, though some are partial or temporary). Daver and my dad have been fonts of knowledge in helping me learn this.

Car?

If I'm a pedestrian, what is my vehicle? My feet?

All of the above with the possible exception of using a code scanner. I don't own a code scanner; I do it the hard way (paperclip and analog VOM). I have balanced my own tires, but I prefer to let a shop do it.
**lizzie: That's exactly why I did my own brake work (and axle bearings and steering bearings and chain master-links, etc.) on my bike. I have far more incentive to get it right than a mechanic does. Maybe there's a correlation between this and the "Are you trusting?" survey?
**jer: Do you clip your toenails yourself?

It's easier to pay an expert to do it than to wonder what I've done it wrong as my brakes fail and I hurtle towards a cliff... ***daver: I would think a big honkin lawsuit is reason enough...these people haven't met my dastardly sister!! woo hoo!

It's still new enough I let the shop do it. I imagine as the car gets older, I'll do more.

My husband takes care of the vehicles. I am so spoiled I never even get my own gas. He also sees to it that it gets washed since he HATES to see a dirty car. It's a trade-off; I spoil him, too.

i used to do more, when I had the Evil Jeep that needed to be cared and fed every few miles, but i never did enough. I would love to bne able to do my own everything, but i think i'm bad at automotive hacking.

in times where i have been strapped for cash i have done some work on my car. otherwise, i prefer to let my mechanic do the work.

Okay, I haven't painted those scratches yet, but I willl RSN. (Really!) In general, I find cars very dirty and gross to work on, and would much rather pay someone else to do it. I like things with moving parts, so I can force myself to deal with light lubricants, but once you start adding other icky (messy/toxic/smelly) liquids, I don't want to touch it. I deal with mild manures (horse & cow) much better than gasoline.

I've done most of these myself in the past, until I bought a new car. The new car was brought into the shop for a service every 7,500 miles, and most of these things would be done then, so I fell out of the habit. These days, between work and parenting, I haven't much time left to myself, and prefer to spend it doing things other than vehicle maintenance.

I get very different answers here depending on if you mean my primary vehicle (my Trek), my secondary vehicle (my Rollerblades), or my tertiary vehicle (the Honda). I've never added windshield wiper fluid to either my primary or secondary vehicles.

phi, you rotate the tires? I had no idea. What a sweetie. Or do you mean that you rotate them about their axis when you drive?

I don't have a car.

Over the past few years since I've gotten out of college and a decent paying job, I've tended to do less and less of my own auto work.

I change windshield wiper blades, which wasn't listed here, and add oil (but don't change it -- I used to, in the dim dark past when cars were far enough off the ground to change oil without a lift). I suspect I'm not the only person here who rotates their own tires but doesn't crossthread their own oil drain plug change their own oil.

Topper: I haven't done it on our car yet, only Will's, but I'll do it on ours the at the next race...

i don't have a car.. and wouldn't know anything about car maintenance if i did..

Grrrr.... You remembered me my last air filter change. A real odyssey!