Regular maintenance you can DIY: car or home

[niccig]

The last week or two I've come across a couple of things that are pretty easy for you to DIY rather than pay for someone to do it. And I was kind of surprised that it was so easy. So I'm sure there are other things that I don't know about and want to learn about it.

My eg.

1. Cabin air filter - in DH's Prius you can easily change this yourself, for $20 or so and some mechanics charge $50 + labor. I read about it on a Prius forum.

Any other DIY suggestions for car or home?

[maestramommy]

Dh changes the oil on both cars, in fact he recently taught me how to do it for my car:) I think he's also rotated the tires. His Pathfinder had some chronic problem with the cylinders, and he recently replaced them himself. This is normally a repair you take to the mechanic, but he joined some Nissan forum, and found out how to DIY. Dh has this thing (justified I think) about being sure things are done correctly when you do it yourself. Mechanics are the "experts" but sometimes they foul up on the stupidest things, just carelessness, and it can cost you. Not saying that he might not make the same mistake. But he's anal retentive about these things, and triples checks all the steps, so I think it's less likely than someone who is doing at least 10 repairs a day on different cars, and just trying to get them in and out asap. He also maintains you really get to know YOUR car very well when you do your own maintanence.

We live in an apt right now, so the manager takes care of everything, but once we're in our own place I think he's going to do as much as possible on his own again.