How much money/hassle can someone save by knowing more about their car than the maintenance schedule?

I've heard that maintaining today's cars is the most important thing, and that it's pretty simple. What if someone was to delve deeper, maybe learn to do a few things themselves, like coolant flushing or spark plug changing,....and generally knew the inner workings of cars well, without actually being able to do many repairs themselves? Basically, what should a person keep in mind when trying to save money on car maintenance/repair? Being in the tech support field, I'd suspect knowing ones limits is important.

Public Comments

1. I find myself wondering if you really can save money on do it yourself maintenance these days. Perhaps so in changing air filters, pretty easy, get the right one, put it in, throw away the old one. But get into coolant flushing to use your example, and now you have a pan full of used coolant. What do you do with it? You can't dump it in a storm drain, and it's toxic to animals. Same thing with oil When I was a kid, the old oil was dumped on the weeds behind the garage, or poured in the sand pit where you kept your shovels clean and oiled. But now you have to find a recycling plant. Battery? Same deal. And old tires? Put them in the trash and you get a fine. When you factor all that in, sometimes it's easier and cheaper to let the mechanic worry about it.
2. With anything, having a little knowledge is dangerous. There are many things on a car the average person can do, if they have the correct tools. The first thing a car owner should get is a proper repair manual for that car. If you cannot understand it, don't attempt any of the repairs. Diagnosis is the most important part of any repair. Most repair manuals will list step by step directions and what tools are required. Once a problem has been isolated, 3/4 of the repair is complete. As for internal engine or transmission problems, listening as well as what is happening is important. Some engine components can be changed using only the repair manual, others require a lot of skill. This is something you will have to judge for yourself. If in doubt, don't touch it.
3. Maintaining a car is not simple. It is getting more and more difficult. Knowing about cars will help you little because mechanics will not try to bs you when you talk to them in technical terms. But they are pretty expensive to operate, most of mechanics in my area charge $95/hr. You are not going to save much by doing $30 oil change yourself for $15. You will save when you do $500 timing belt job yourself for $50.
4. YES! When you go to the dealer it helps that you know what their talking about. When you go to a shop on the outside they (Most of the Time) can't take advantage of you. "Lastly and best" You will be able to do some of the minor maintenance jobs yourself. There are lost of schools that teach people things they need to know to keep their cars going, know enough to give the shop a good idea of what to look for when something is wrong, enough to know, that when a light comes on while driving or you hear a strange sound you'll know if something is wrong and what it might be. "More confident when you take your car in for checks and repairs".
5. Look into Amsoil synthetic lubricants, the higher initial cost is offset by higher fuel mileage, longer life of the vehicle, and longer intervals between oil changes. I change mine annually. Check out this article on the 3,000 mile oil change: http://www.amsoil.com/redirect.cgi?zo=1463115&page=news/oil_drain_intervals_2_06