For those of you who aren't DIY'ers, do you generally buy the required parts online and bring them to the service shop for repair, or do you just let the repair shop handle everything?

I'm thinking of installing non-OEM motor mounts (Innovative Mounts) and I also need my power steering replaced and I'm deciding whether I should just buy the parts online from all the online shops that are shared here at Acurazine and bringing them to an experienced service shop for installation/repair.

Thanks in advance for the responses!

 

Depends on how much you trust your shop I'd say.

If you think you can get a better deal on parts than they do, it'd be better to bring your own parts to save money.

If not, why bother?

I usually buy all my parts and bring it to my mechanic who works from his house garage.

I buy the parts, he does the labour.

$160 for Aisin timing belt kit + $260 for labour = happy me.

 

I buy the parts and try to do things myself. If I decided its beyond me or I just dont feel like doing it I take it to a local shop.

Guitarplayer where did you get the timing belt kit. Am getting close to doing the timing belt.

 

I bought mine on Amazon

You can also buy it on Rockauto, too.

 

DIYers buy parts and do it themselves, buying parts and bringing them to shop is not DIY. But to answer your question when I do have a shop do my work for me I buy parts and bring to the shop as I will buy "better" parts and for less or same price as they charge me for possible white box parts.

I have found lately some shops not willing to install customer supplied parts but what it comes down to there is no warranty on the shops work usually with customer supplied parts.

 

all of my shop/dealer willing to install part that I ordered, this works on Honda, Acura and Lexus. Best of all the indi shop provide labor 30% cost of the dealer labor cost e.g dealer quoted $2000 for rack and pinion replace meanwhile $275 (labor) for the same job but alignment is included in the deal. The shop also let me bring in used part too

 

I usually do everything myself, but occasionally I do let a shop do work when I'm too busy. When I have to take it to a shop, I ask myself, "can I buy the parts cheaper than what they will sell it to me for?" Usually the answer is yes, since oem parts from online dealers are about 30% off, and shops will likely charge you msrp for oem parts.

 

I also try to do as much as possible myself. This allows me to purchase more parts. haha

 

For durability, OEM parts sometimes are the best option. Sometimes aftermarket are better but those are few and far in-between IE brake rotors/pads.

Buy the parts from an acura dealer such as one of the site sponsors. They give you an extra 5% off if you mention acurazine and as well have great prices. I usually google the part numbers and they are within a few cents of the lowest price I can find including shipping.

I do a lot of DIY work, but the timing belt/water pump service I'll leave up to the pro's. For that i'll buy the parts and have the mechanic/tech put them on. They make money on the labor!

 

70% of owners do 100% of their car maintenance huh. These polls are silly because so many ppl lie. In reality it is under 5%.

 

Let's see....For me, it is more about the cost savings of the parts vs the potential cost if the part fails and I have to pay labor again. So if I am buying engine mounts or something else that doesn't have a history of early failure, I will try to buy myself. But if doing something like a starter or another component that will be costly to pay labor and has a higher probability of having an early failure, I will let the dealer/shop buy it so the labor warranty is in place.

Examples:
- Timing Belt Service - I let my local Honda dealer get all parts since that would be stupid costly to have to do re-work if the tensioner or idler were bad
- Engine Mount - My local Honda dealer let me order and bring my own parts in for that mostly since they couldn't order it directly and would have had to just order from the local Acura dealer.

I do not do the bulk of my own maintenance anymore. I don't have time nor the desire these days. Most of my previous cars, I did 90% of my maintenance myself. I will still do my own brake work, but that is about it. Oil changes are at the dealer since they are free for the life of the car.

I have not had luck in finding a local shop that is convenient and priced any differently than the local Honda dealer. I shopped around my TB service and found that every local shop has the same labor rate as the Honda dealer and they were not using OEM parts.

 

Or there is this possibility that you're looking at poll results on a website that's heavily biased due to car enthusiasts who are generally more adept at doing their own maintenance; thus, making the poll a little skewed...






nah... AZ is pretty representative of the general population