I had a honda civic that I changed the spark plugs on a couple of years ago. That was a 2004 and a very basic car. It was a total bitch to get done. Just changing the plugs was damn near impossible for an ordinary person. That' when I realized it was probably the last time I would work on a car. I changed the starter on that bad boy too. That may have been easier than the plugs. When I was in high school, I had an old ski nautique boat. It was a ford engine marine converted as an inboard. You could get to everything easily on that boat. Looking back, it was a joy to work on.
I still work on my own vehicles. I don't like paying mechanics. In a couple weekends, I'll be changing the injectors on my truck and fix a couple oil leaks. If I sent it to the repair shop, I'd be looking at a couple thousand bucks in labor.
@mobius481 Yep. When I was in high school I got handed down a '69 F-150 with a 3 on the tree. I could pop the hood, crawl in there and set my tool box on the fender well. Had room for another engine in there.
I repaired (not replaced) the FICM on my 6.0 diesel. Getting it out was mostly by feel because you couldn't see where the freaking bolts and screws were. PITA. But, a new one installed from Ford was around 900-$1000 plus labor. I diagnosed it and fixed it for 10 cents worth of solder.
Google and YouTube are the modern shade tree guy's best friend. Amazing the diagnostics you can do with the help of the internet.
Nobody does, but I don't do anything more complicated than changing shocks, pads, plugs, and fluids anymore. It takes more specialized tools than a good set of sockets to do engine and drivetrain work these days, the computers, sensors and wiring complicate the shit out of it, and I really don't have a good place to work out of the weather. Seemingly straightforward tasks tend to take me too long to get finished and frustrate me. Since I value my time highly, I put that shit in the shop and let a better mechanic than me get 'er done.
I get it. Hell, the starter when out on my boat not long after I bought it a few years ago. I lifted the cover and took a look at where the starter was located and quickly surmised that a mechanics time was well worth my $$. Hooked that bitch up and dropped it off on the way back to the city.
I changed every major part of my boat including carburetor, fuel pump, fuel filter, starter, alternator etc before I finally figured out the problem.
