Look, everyone I know, myself included feels a certain amount of fear or resistance to fixing their own car. Here, I'm going to persuade you that you can and should perform routine maintenance and simple repairs on your own car.
Why are we scared to work on them? Let's face it, cars are big expensive machines, they are critical for most of us to get to work or other necessary tasks, they're potentially dangerous, and we don't understand a lot of the stuff that's going on inside them.
Why you shouldn't be scared:
- Cars are designed to be repaired by people with a wide range of skills and abilities, including people who have limited education and intelligence. I'm not saying "mechanics are stupid". Some of them are the brightest and funniest people I know. I'm just saying the vehicles, parts, diagnostic systems, documentation, and ordering systems are all designed to work for people with a wide range of skills and abilities.
- Learning to perform a task is only hard the first time. After that, doing it again is a lot easier. This means that once you've changed your own oil or replaced your disc brake rotors and pads the first time, doing it from then on goes a lot faster and feels fun!
- It makes you safer. You will understand your car better than you did before you fixed it. This means you are more likely to notice and fix emerging problems before they get serious.
- It saves you a lot of money. You can buy the same parts online for nearly the same price your repair garage pays (sometimes even less) before it marks up the price to retail and passes that higher cost along to you. The garage charges for labor, which means you're paying a profit to the owner, an hourly wage/taxes/benefits for the repair person, for several types of insurance, capital equipment, mortgage interest, etc. etc. LOTS of overhead. My first-hand experiences have led me to distrust auto repair shops - they have occasionally fixed an issue and returned the vehicle with a new problem.
- The internet is your friend. There's a lot of information about your car's specific make model year and part number online. You may have to sift though information of varying quality, but you will find what you want after 30 minutes of sleuthing.
Your first steps
- Go buy the repair manual for your car for around $20. I recommend the Haynes repair manuals over other brands.
- Buy a mechanics auto repair tool set for around $50.
- Create an online account with several auto parts shops, such as AutoZone, O'Reilly, NAPA and so on. Use their online tools to help identify the correct parts for your car.
- If you haven't already, create both eBay and PayPal accounts to buy parts.
- When you get the Haynes Repair Guide, flip through the list of symptoms section up front. This will describe common problems (e.g., "My brakes squeak and pull to one side when I'm braking") and point you to the pages you should go look at to verify and fix the problem. Being familiar with this section is your key to spotting emerging problems.
- When you jump to the section that describes how to fix a problem, don't be put off by some of the terms they use. Just make note of them and move on. Look at the photographs/illustrations. Then, go to YouTube and watch a few videos that feature the same terms as the section in your book. For example, if you're going to replace your brake pads/rotors, search YouTube for the same terms you see in the book PLUS the make model and year of your car. For example: "replace fuel pump Volvo V90 1999"
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