Agree with doing your own work sentiment. Up to the point where the repair is not exactly apparent or cost effective.. Example: Have had two instances of Coil on Plugs (COPs) going bad. (Last instance was the week before last.) Since I've seen the same symptoms before (engine bogs and bucks) rather than swapping COPs around in the hopes that I find the right one/s I'd rather take it into a dealer for a diagnostic which typically runs ~$200; helps me narrow down the issue and worth it in my mind vs throwing spit wads at the wall.
That said. Once I have a definitive answer I always do the repair myself unless I just can't due to physical ability or the job is beyond my expertise. That usually has been the best trade off in my experience and saves me hundreds if not thousands in inflated repair costs. The most recent visit to the dealer said COPs 7/8 were bad which the tech moved to 5/6 to validate... (problem moved so I'm thinking easy fix). Then the service person quoted me a price to replace those two COPs -
$800... for two COPs; or get this $1800 for all 8. Yep, $1800 for about an hour's work (even if you're slow).
I literally told the service person that was insane... He said yeah he told his manager it was unlikely I would accept the quote... yeah, ya think?
Anyway, I took her home and after about 30 mins; it's literally one 7mm bolt and one electrical connector per COP (Yeah, I'm slower than molasses these days (and supercharged so I had to move some things out of the way)). So, two OEM COPs later (which I already had) she's running fine again and I saved at least $800. Of course I'm thinking to myself the entire time "It's no wonder everyone avoids the dealer." Don't get me wrong, I don't mind paying a fair price... but I'm not going to be financially raped either. Going forward I don't see that repair costs will improve so as long as I'm able to do my own repairs I will do so. And when I'm not? Probably time to let someone else enjoy her.
