I did fewer posts this weekend, I was battling a cold that wiped out most of Saturday, attending a little league baseball game that ate up a good part of Sunday, and finally, I was making some repairs to my car.  I discovered a free service at Autozone, changed my spark plugs and probably saved more than $100.

If your Check Engine light is on, Autozone will use their handheld computer and get the error codes from your vehicles on board computer at no charge.  The codes are cross referenced and the diagnostics tell you what the problem is with the system.  Autozone does this because they rightly assume you will spend money at their store.

My check engine light has been going on and off for the last 2-3 months-- I recently passed my emissions test on an "off" period, but I knew I had to fix the underlying problem-- the spark plugs.  I had concluded it was the plugs for two reasons: 1) they had never been changed in close to 118,000 miles and 2) my car sputtered starting off at traffic lights once in a great while (I rightly assumed a misfire and that's what Autozone confirmed).

Unfortunately for Autozone, I had already picked up four brand new platinum plugs (supposedly good for 100,000 miles) at Wal-Mart for the low price of $8.50.  However, I needed some tools and some other materials for a future repair so I bought them at Autozone-- they got about $20 for the tools needed for this job.

I had done some research on the internet, and found the procedure fully illustrated with photos-- my vehicle is apparently big with enthusiasts (I had bought it for the high MPG-- who knew?).  It was a very simple procedure that could be done within 30 minutes.  My research has turned up that I would have spent close to $150 for this procedure and the ridiculous markups on parts in my neck of the woods (I live in the outskirts of a very expensive county).  My car responded beautifully and is running great. 

This experience just reconfirmed to me that many (not all) auto mechanics take advantage of unwitting customers due to some mysterious nature of the repairs-- many are much easier than you think!

I have another repair planned for this coming weekend-- more on that later.