The magic of youtube...for home repairs..

[Don Morris]

My wife and I have an agreement: I try to fix it if I think I can or might be able to. If I can't we'll call in a pro. So far it's really rare I call in the pros. I don't mess with 220v wiring, or the insides of a high end electronic device for instance, but most other electrical things, wall repair including framing, are mine. The only thing a plumber is called in for is the main inlet valve or a water heater. I'd worry I wouldn't do that those well enough. But I think I could probably do them in a pinch.

[Jim Matthews]

I think the symmetry of knowledge is close to balanced, with video explanations readily available.
(The repair guys can't hide behind a curtain, press one button and charge $150 for the service anymore.)

On the flip side, it also shows when there's a solution that will require specialized tools or a fire extinguisher - at which point I call the plumber.

I think YouTube and self-publishing has released creativity on some scale.
In my opinion, it mainly shortens the span of time between "I wonder if..." and "I can do that."

[David Weaver]

It clears up for me things like the following:

VW car needs a timing belt, and has an interference engine (if timing gets off, the engine parts meet and greet in a catastrophic way). Hoping that there'd be a 15 minute video of the process (hey, the cover is just right there in front of you when you look at the motor, why can't I take it off, take tension off of an idler make a timing mark on all of the parts, replace the idler and just slip another belt on?) but knew that's unlikely. The conclusion after watching someone do the job is that I'd gladly pay the dealership to do it. But I don't have to guess whether or not it's worth it, I've seen enough about it to know.

re: the comment above about the HVAC guy coming and replacing $700 of parts. Some of the places around here pay the plumbers a % of their billing, maybe that's a traditional thing. I think if they come out to you and they have a service "show-up" charge of $100-$200, they feel like they're obligated to generate some business and they're not just going to tell you that something doesn't need any parts and just offer to check over your stuff for the rest of the hour. That is exactly the reason I like to go to youtube first. At least if you don't solve the problem, you have a pretty good idea of the workings. I am lucky enough to work with the spouse of an HVAC guy. It's about $200 for them to come out, but they give you the hour that you're paying for and they don't charge you for anything else nor come up with any "i recommend you replace that right away" stuff. Stories of the flashy truck lots-of-advertisement commission plumber services leaving a $900 bill for an old lady to replace the internals of a $200 toilet are not that rare here.

[Jim Koepke]

Drives fine, but light has been on for two years now.

You will be surprised at how easy it is to fix this and it is less than a dollar.

Black tape, courtesy of Click & Clack the Tappet brothers.

jtk

[Stephen Cherry]

BMW car forum and I own a 2001 530i with 115k on the odometer. Any time something goes wrong, I can usually find a thread or 10 about it on the forum and fix it myself most of the time. I also have a buddy who works for a large car part importer on the west coast and I get parts at the same cost as the mechanics.

I've got a 2003 540 six speed, and I don't see how anyone could afford these cars if you did not fix it yourself. It really has not been that bad, but the stupid normal things have broken.

[Kevin Bourque]

I just finished installing a new fuel pump, fuel filter, and fuel lines in my John Deere 6410 thanks to the miracle of the Internet. I was working all day Monday clearing downed trees in the deep woods a mile from the barn. I made it all the way back to my parking space when the pump failed.

I found a number of tractor forums where the repair procedure was described in such clear detail the job took less than 3 hours from start to finish. Total cost for parts was under $200. The JD dealer would have easily charged me $1000 or more to send a mechanic out to the farm and make the same repairs. I was in such a good mood I changed the oil too!

I also fixed my clothes dryer a few years back thanks to Youtube. It needed an $18 belt that took about 30 minutes to install.

[Matt Day]

I actually kind of feel bad - my wife is always talking about how handy I am to her friends and coworkers. "Matt fixed the washing machine, installed my car stereo, fixed my car door, replaced a gasket in his car...." Yeah I did those things and I'm good with my hands, but I just know how to search the Internet and YouTube for what I need!

[Chris Padilla]

I've got a 2003 540 six speed, and I don't see how anyone could afford these cars if you did not fix it yourself. It really has not been that bad, but the stupid normal things have broken.

Well, mine is a 5-speed and my wife (clutch rider extraordinaire and the one who drives it the most) toasted the clutch right about 100k miles. I had it towed to my mechanic and just forked over 1.8k for him to replace it. Like I said, I can handle MOST stuff...clutch...no thanks. You do have to pick your battles.

[Myk Rian]

Our clothes washer crapped it's lower tub bearing, again. First time cost us $285 to have someone fix it, 2 years ago.
It went out again so I searched the web for a how to. Turns out I would have had to buy 2 special wrenches and a bearing, for $125.
We bought a new washer.

[Scott Shepherd]

It's a great resource for sure. I've learned too many things to list from watching videos. I have found car/truck fixing advice to be all over the place online. You can say "My 2010 Blah Blah Blah does XY or Z", and you'll get advice from "reset the code" to "mine did that and I pulled the engine apart, replaced the heads, put a new camshaft in it, new fuel injectors, new fuel pump, new transmission and it solved the problem". I helped a family member with posting their issues about a F-350. The general consensus was it needed about $8000-12,000 worth of work, despite the fact it ran fine when turned off and next time it started it acted up. Of all the people, one person said "there's no way- something has gotten into the wiring harness and chewed through some wires to make all that happen at once". Found a local mechanic, he took it, found the wiring harness chewed up. Repaired it for less than $500, when everyone else had him spending no less than $8K for new injectors, new fuel pump, etc.

You really have to weed through some bad advice on car related things, in my opinion.

[Jim Rimmer]

I use Google and YouTube for a lot of help on repairs. Two reasons for me: 1.) Most of the folks that show up to do house repairs won't do as good a job as I would. Example: tried to get a handyman to remove old caulk and recaulk my windows; got a price and then a no-show. Started it myself and soon realized that he would not have worked as hard as I did to get ALL the old caulk out- probably would have chipped off the loose and then caulked over it. 2.) I would rather do it myself than go through the hassle of scheduling someone who will show up between 1o:00 AM Tueday and the end of the year.

[Don Orr]

This is a fun thread! Great to hear everyones experiences. I started taking stuff apart at a very early age-didn't always get it back together but usually learned something. I like fixing thngs when I can but I have also learned that I can't fix everything myself. Gotta know when to hold em and know when to fold em if you know what I mean. Google/Youtube is a phenomenal resource for sure. The saying around our house is "Google knows EVERYTHING!" My wife just fixed a major embroidery software problem via Google since the company was useless. Youtube showed my how to put on a drysuit yesterday. It has also shown me how to read rapids, throw a rescue rope, do an eddy turn, peel out of said eddy, etc., etc., etc. It gets addictive though-I search for one thing and end up spending a bunch of time watching a bunch of other videos. Fun stuff!

[David Weaver]

You bring up a good point. Once you know that you can usually find out how to fix something, you have no patience for getting it done and the issue of not having enough time to do all of it yourself becomes very apparent.

My wife says that to me all the time now.."that's fine that you can fix it, but why don't you pay someone else to instead".

I just don't trust people for small stuff, because they're not going to come out for something like the dryer bearing, for instance, and be satisfied with a $50 service charge and $26 worth of parts.

I always took everything apart as a kid, too, sometimes it didn't go back together, and sometimes it went back together and I still had some parts left after everything was reassembled and working. I managed to take the entire dryer apart before looking at youtube this time, which took about a half hour and was difficult. Watching someone do it on youtube and doing it the right way would've still taken a fraction of the time if I'd have been in less of a rush and thought about looking it up first (did get a good look at everything in the entire assembly, though).

There's other stuff that goes into fixing things, I guess, like paying attention when you buy stuff. One, to buy things that will have parts availability and two, to listen if an experienced salesman tells you something that will help you. My dryer is just a GE dryer with Fisher paykel controls and program/pcb stuff, but I'm not sure it says GE anywhere. Once you look up the parts, you'll probably figure it out because they cross to GE parts, but the salesman told me back when I bought it that it was just a rebranded GE dryer. That was motivation to get it because I knew there would be parts and support. Widely available parts, which also means that they'll be cheaper. The dryer bearing and slides that I put in went from $26.30 shipped (which I paid) to "rebuild kits" sold by scummy websites claiming that they were $50 off, but still $130. It's nice to have a range of options.

[Rick Potter]

I just picked up one of those metal signs for my shop that says "IF I CAN'T FIX IT, IT AINT BROKE". Feeling a bit guilty about it, I am adding to the bottom........."Electronics Excepted".

Rick Potter

[Gary Hodgin]

I do some home repairs but don't touch electrical and serious plumbing stuff, but I nearly always check you tube on about everything even if it's something I'm certain I won't do myself. It gives me an idea of what the fix involves. I've done some auto and quite a bit of lawn equipment repair that I wouldn't have otherwise done. I don't always find what I'm looking for but it's become a great resource.