I saved $115!

Yes, I did! Recently, I found out that our cars, both Hondas, have cabin air filters. Who knew??? I have been driving for many years and have had many cars, as has Hubby. I also grew up with both a dad and a brother that are excellent backyard mechanics. And I never knew that there was a cabin air filter in our cars. Maybe they are in all cars. I don't know. LOL!

Anyway, once I found this out, I decided that ours certainly needed to be changed as we had never changed them. I have had my car 2 years, but we have had Hubby's car for 6 1/2 years. So even if they were both changed by Honda before we bought them, it had been a while for both. So, I went on an internet search about how to get this done. When I read that it can cost $100-$150 to have it done by Honda, I of course, decided to figure out if we could do it ourselves.

Then last week, I got a flyer from the dealer where we bought my car and they had a coupon for a cabin air filter change for $64.95. How weird is that that I got this right after I found out these existed?

I went to some DIY car repair forums. Yes, I am either that cheap, or that talented. You decide. LOL! I found instructions and even found that there are how to videos on Youtube. I have no problem following instructions, but a video was just awesome! He and I both figured that I could do this easily. Notice I said I. LOL! He will assist on car maintenance, but he is not as comfortable with tearing apart something in a car as I am. (Please note, I do not do much work on cars. But occasionally, I am happy to jump in and get dirty.)

Last week, Hubby stopped by the auto parts store and got the filters for my car ($16.23), but they did not have his. I told him we would just order on-line instead of him checking stores all over town. Then we jumped on to ebay and there they were for only $9.50 shipped. So he ordered them.

After reviewing the instructions for my car, a CRV, I changed mine on Friday. It was pretty easy and only took about 25 minutes. I was totally impressed with myself. Of course, it only involved pulling out 2 stops on the glove box and the filters are right behind there. Still, I did it and saved. $54.

Hubby's car was another story. We went out Saturday evening after it had cooled off a bit, though it was still in the upper 80s, I think, and really humid. Hubby has a 2000 Accord and it took a little...no a lot more dimantling than mine did. I started unscrewing things. Hubby was my assistant. We worked at it for a good 45 minutes and though I had removed all the screws according to the instructions, I could not get the glove box out. I was hot. I was sweating. Sweat was stinging my eyes. I was getting cranky.

So, I said, maybe I needed to go rewatch the video on this, since I had not seen it in a week and a half. (I was working off paper instructions that I had found.) Hubby thought that was a good idea. (I think I was getting REALLY cranky.)

So in I went and watched the video and cooled off, both physically and mentally. LOL! It showed more screws to be removed than my paper did, so I was ready to proceed. However, by this time, it was really dark, so Hubby said we could wait until the next day.

Yesterday evening, I went out, took out the rest of the screws and it was easy breezy. I finished up in about 30 minutes and saved $61.

I am so macho!