It’s been a lot of years since I worked on cars. In fact, I even resigned to sending the cars off to the local shop to change the oil these days since the cost of parts and oil plus my labor and time to dispose of it all properly are easily higher than paying somebody else 25 or 30 bucks to do it in less than an hour.
That changed on Friday however when I broke out my old tools and broke open a few knuckles to change the brakes on Kris’ Flex. It was one of those decisions I could have gone either way on, but in an effort to save a couple hundred bucks, it was worth it, especially for such an easy task.
It never really is as easy as you’d like though, is it? Thankfully, YouTube was invented since I last turned a wrench. Instead of breaking out the trusty Chilton manual, I followed along with a couple of shaky videos as shade tree and pro mechanics explained the nuances of that vehicle. So I knew I needed a special tool to compress the cylinders, and I would want to flush the brake fluid which involved another tool (which will be available for our other Fords as well).
All in all, it probably was a wash in value of savings vs time spent, but I feel good about getting it done in my own shop and on my terms. The cost savings will be realized once I do the same project on the other vehicles in the next few months.
