Grrrr

[Gs172003]

The axle on my car broke. My husband was going to try to fix it to save money. He tried for a total of two hours over two days before he quit, determined he couldn't do it, and had it towed to the shop. That crap drives me nuts.

 

[user27357]

assuming it is a front axle, he made a good choice. Even when I do them myself I end up paying for an alignment anyway, and I dont get a warranty on my work. One way to make this better is to goahnead and do both sides and brakes if you can afford it vou are time, money and safety ahead.

 

[Panda Bear]

Two hours doesn't seem like very long to try and make a major repair. My husband has worked days on our van.....but he doesn't have much of a choice.

But often times, husbands and cars don't mix :( It's probably better that it was towed to the shop where it can be done right. Though, it's so expensive!!!

I'm sorry!

 

[Gs172003]

assuming it is a front axle, he made a good choice. Even when I do them myself I end up paying for an al...

We can't. It was the front passenger.

 

[Gs172003]

If he can't do it he can't do it but it pisses me off that he quits so damn quick. He doesn't even try. Ever.

 

[user27357]

car break downs suck. Being smart enough to know what you cant do is a good thing. There is truth in the sign that you see at a lot of repair shops:

Shop rates: 50 an hour, 100 if you tried to fix it and made it worse

If it isn't too late, tell him there might be a you tube video on your specific repair, maybe between watching the video and asking questions at the shop he can learn how to do it and be ready next time.

 

[Gs172003]

car break downs suck. Being smart enough to know what you cant do is a good thing. There is truth in the...

We did the YouTube thing and that's where we found out how to do it. That and modern mechanic.

 

[Gs172003]

I understand he felt like he needed to quit before he did any damage but I feel like he quits everything and it frustrates me to no end. I guess that's because I'm a never quit kind of person. Who knows

 

[Friday]

It would have been towed anyway, right? Like that was planA? So spending a couple hours to see if this was something that might be doable for a beginner at home (no) is one of those rational look-see-evaluate & come to the best decision. In this case, best decision was planA. That doesn't seem like quitting, to me. That seems like being smart.

 

[user27357]

I am convinced that anyone can learn to fix shit, I train apprentices to design and build shit and am in the lifelong process of training 3 kids and their spouses to fix shit. If I can learn it, anyone can.

but I started small. my first axle repair was on a Schwinn and when it failed no one got hurt (very much) and no one told me I was a failure so I went on to fix more and more axles, probably the most involved being an old VW bus with gear reduction boxes or a vintage tractor with a low speed split.

I would offer this small advice: Encourage and enable him, and try to learn alongside him (if I can, anyone can) and maybe the next grrrr will go better and cheaper.

 

[Gs172003]

On a plus note the car is fixed already :)

 

[user27357]

Big plus! some poor mechanic is working today. Thats a bummer, my garbage man and my mail man and my bank teller all have the day off, me too. We are living the good life, our cars work and we don't!