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

[David Weaver]

When I was a kid, money was tight in our house. My parents retired in their early 50s 15 years ago, and they're still net savers. But one thing my dad never really did was work on cars or fix anything that had a plug beyond replacing a power cord.

Fast forward to now, I'm not as tight as they were, but I will repair anything I can get to on the car that doesn't require additonal tools or a lift. Courtesy of youtube.

And two weeks ago, the dryer started to squeak, at 7 years old. I took it apart (the hard way) the day it started to sqeak, and didn't get anywhere. I came back up, typed squeaking GE dryer (the dryer is a fisher paykel that is just a rebranded GE), and it took about 10 minutes to figure out the problem, and see someone taking the dryer apart in a way that took about 1/10th the time. My wife is hard core with laundry, a true earth killer. 8 loads a week for 3 people, and the front bearing on the dryer was shot. Thanks to youtube, i found it quickly, went out to the internet and found a replacement front bearing and four slides to go on it for $26 shipped. $26...total time involved for me after wising up was less than half an hour. Far less time than it would take to arrange someone to fix the thing.

Bathroom redone. parts of it courtesy of youtube. $1,200 instead of $4,000.

Method to keep an eye on the aging furnace to watch the flames when the blower comes on to identify a cracked heat exchange...courtesy of youtube.

Has anyone else found themselves suddenly fixing all kinds of things you never would've looked at before, courtesy of a 10 minute stint on youtube, maybe with some parts list hunting off of google.

[Jim Koepke]

Has anyone else found themselves suddenly fixing all kinds of things you never would've looked at before, courtesy of a 10 minute stint on youtube, maybe with some parts list hunting off of google.

To me it is just another information resource.

My father started out fixing worked in appliance repair before I was born. He also fixed radios back then. When televisions came on the market, he saw another opportunity. During the second World War he taught Navy seamen how to keep the ship's wireless in working order. After the war he started his own business.

My repairing of things started out when I was about 6 or 7. Much of my employment involved fixing things.

The biggest fear of mine now is buying an expensive part that is not needed and not returnable for a refund.

jtk

[David Weaver]

There's probably more value for those of us who never did fix anything. On one side, I had a relative who fixed things, but it always involved a stick welder and a lot of hammering.

The other side of the family is professionally qualified to have lots of broken and non-working things and watch gadgets go downhill until they are worthless. Professionals at letting things rot.

I just want to buy less stuff, and it does feel nice to make something designed to fail (this front dryer bearing was not designed to last that long, it has fairly thin wear strips where a different design could've easily made for indefinite use) keep working.

[Lee Schierer]

I repair all kinds of stuff for our home and for friends. 90% of the time the problem is just dirt. I figure if something doesn't work I can't make it any worse so I take it apart and see if I can fix it.

[Ole Anderson]

Not necessarily YouTube, but I Google all sorts of things that help me fix things. Especially torque values when working on brakes for my friends. Finding a speed controller for my Hitachi router. Finding a 12 degree dovetail router bit. There is just no end.

[Doug W Swanson]

Here are two of the many things I've learned from the internet/YouTube:

A few years ago, a CD became jammed in the CD changer on our Mercury Milan. This caused a malfunction code with the stereo system. The dealer wanted $500 to fix it and they would have to remove the stereo and send it off for repairs. I did some research on the internet, found a video explaining the procedure, took my laptop out to the garage and fixed the jammed CD in about 3 minutes.

Then the odometer/PRNDL section of the instrument cluster wasn't lighting up on our 2001 GMC Yukon. At first it was an intermittent problem. Then it occurred more often until finally that section just would not light up. Again, I did some research on the internet, found a couple of videos and fixed the problem myself. The problem wasn't a connection in the wiring harness but a bad solder connection on the back of that little section of the instrument cluster. There are people that charge $100 or more to fix it and I did it myself in about 30 minutes....

[Peter J Lee]

I know a lot about furnaces now, where before I knew almost nothing. We had the problem where the flame would go out after a few seconds and then the cycle would repeat. Used the advice of getting recommendations of people we know. Guy came out and after about 45 minutes of not doing much but trying it with and without the thermostat, he spent about 10 minutes on the phone with a Trane technician. He recommended changing the board and the starter fan with those parts costing about $700.

Look around on youtube, see that its usually the flame sensor. Clean it - ABOUT A 3 MINUTE JOB - and then it worked. Took the burners out and brushed those off thinking that is likely a factor. The techs on youtube do that, but in a half dozen visits from 2 different companies, nobody has ever done it despite it being mickey mouse simple.

Now there is heat, but I'd like to get it tuned up, hopefully with the AC, but have to choose a company.

So yeah, I check youtube when I'm not sure and it often helps. Then there are the crazy cat videos. How long would that cat keep flushing the toilet if he wasn't stopped?

[Jerome Stanek]

I fixed a copy machine at the place that the repairman wanted $150 just to come out. It just needed to reset an error code.

[Jim Tabor]

Needed to install new arbor bearings in a couple of Unisaw's. Watched it on youtube for a few minutes, piece of cake.

[Chris Padilla]

In concert with another similar thread: Google It!! :D

I'm a Moderator with a 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. :D

[Jason Roehl]

I've been replacing our dryer one $5 part at a time for years now. Who knows, I might be on my third dryer! The trouble is, it's a stacked unit (one piece with the washer), which was a necessity in our previous domicile. I keep telling my wife we should get a stackable set to put next to it, and she could get the laundry done in half the time. For some reason she's not on board with that plan. I think, though, I've managed to avoid YouTube for fixing the dryer.

However, over the years, I had somehow managed to not ever have to solder copper pipes. A few years back, my folks got us a water softener for Christmas (to replace a unit that was 30 years old, sounded like a tornado siren when it cycled at 3 AM, and used about 5-6 bags of salt per month at the lowest setting that would still keep the water soft). So, after a couple ruined fittings and a couple leaks while plumbing in the new softener, I went back in the house and pulled up YouTube....the rest is history.

But, now, I have taken a definite liking to those push-on fittings, despite their price tag. So quick, so simple, and I have a few that are visibly leak-free after 5.5 years.

And, I'm like Lee--if it's broken, I can't help but start to take it apart...

[Larry Whitlow]

Within the past year I've avoided two trips to the auto shop and saved $950 in parts and labor because of information I was able to google. To be completely accurate, I would have attempted the repairs anyway, but having the info made things go a lot smoother and faster than they likely would have otherwise. In the old days I invested in the Chilton's manual. Now do the same thing for free on-line.

[Rick Potter]

The good....Fixed a frozen shower valve with internet help, and it was a really tough one.

The bad.....Everybody had an opinion on why my Mustang would not start. No fuel, figuring that out was the easy part. They had me looking for bad relays for the fuel pump that were supposedly locacted in one of three or four locations, to fuel filters, to bad ignition relay, fuel injector, fuel shutoff switch, or in tank fuel pump. It was the fuel pump. A $400 fuel pump, I got the good one.

Now I am getting advice on my F250 diesel. Blows off turbo hoses under heavy load, check engine light won't stay off. Cleaned the EGR, double clamped the hose, reset the light and it's back on in 100 miles. Turbo gage showed lazy going up and down so I got on the freeway and punched it on and off till it cleaned off the vanes enough that it works fine again, except for that darn light. Check codes and it always says it is something in the smog control stuff. Drives fine, but light has been on for two years now. Dealer not sure. Took it to a specialist shop, spent over $1000 on it, and they weren't sure why it does it but they turned the light off again. Back on again in 100 miles. GAAH.

Rick Potter

[Rich Riddle]

David,

When I want to see something new, youtube presents fresh ideas and offers great insights into the unknown. The information can prove invaluable and save hours of work and frustration. More often than not, many of the youtube videos provide information concerning what NOT to do rather than what to do. A few weeks ago a friend was looking at youtube videos about home-made sawmills. Some of those videos looked as though the authors were chasing Darwin awards or auditioning for the next edition of "Faces of Death."

[Bryan Cowing]

My 2000 Ford Ranger, with 45,000 miles, antifreeze leaking into oil, replaced the intake gasket at a cost of $300. Not U-Tube but someone had made up 13 pages of pics & how to do it. Printed that off , saved a lot of $$$.

[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. :D

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. :D

[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.

[Mike McCann]

I have done the same thing. My wife was getting ready to turn in a leased Prius. The tail light was cracked. the Dealer ssiad they would fix if for 300 buck for the light assembly plus labor. While she was talking to the salesman I checked on their computer on you tube how to replace the light. 10 minute step by step video. Then went to Ebay picked up a brand new light assembly for 100 bucks and replaced it it 15 minutes once it arrived.