I had a friend who for various reasons became very concerned about saving money and complained constantly that expenses and prices were out of control. When his car started running strangely and a tune-up was unavoidable, he contemplated the occasion with the attitude of a prisoner condemned to execution. “I can't afford a hundred dollars,” he wailed, so I suggested that he do what I do. Change your own damn spark plugs.
Although he didn't have much mechanical experience, he had some tools, and the idea that changing spark plugs would be within his capabilities intrigued him. He bought spark plugs and discovered to his frugal delight that a whole set barely cost ten dollars, in theory the only expense involved. “Just make sure you don't get them too tight,” I warned him.
He was also pleasantly surprised to find that he was able to remove and replace the spark plugs in a short time, and the problems with the car were cured. A couple of weeks later, however, things went bad again. I looked at the engine with him. We couldn't find anything abnormal. The spark was good. The wires were secure. “I don't know what to do, I said finally, “except wait until it gets bad enough to tell what the problem is,” my usual solution, for better or worse, of non-critical malfunctions that cannot be diagnosed.
About a week later he came by to tell me the problem had been fixed. His wife was on her way to work when the car suddenly lost power and she barely managed to coax it into a service center. A mechanic checked the car and quickly determined that one of the spark plugs had worked loose from it's operating position in the block. Short one cylinder, the engine was not running very well. They put the plug back where it belonged and charged her 60 dollars.
I consider it a learning experience. My friend refuses to ever work on his car again, but at least he stopped complaining about the cost of service. I suppose the moral to the story is to only do yourself what you can afford to pay for or that you know you can fix, or both. Either that or get friends who don't make mistakes. Unlike him, however, having learned things the hard way, I don't intend to give up now.
