Quote:
Originally Posted by Xist
Would you have paid a mechanic $500 for parts and labor?
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No. When I drove $300 - $1000 beaters I did all the work myself. Driving beaters went hand in hand with not being able to afford to pay a mechanic to fix my car.
Now I buy 3-4 year old cars for daily drivers so I don't have to worry about doing much besides routine maintenance.
I've had to do quite a bit of work on my Astro van but it isn't a daily driver so I can work repairs / upgrades around my schedule. (I have a pair of front shocks in the garage waiting on a nice day when I don't have anything better to do)
The biggest job I did on my own was replacing the engine on a 1990's 3.3L Caravan. It had a similar situation as your alternator where to remove one of the accessories you had to remove a half-shaft and also remove the ball joint to swing the hub out of the way. The engine swap took about 35 hours.