Need your car fixed but have no money? You’re in the right place. We’ve compiled a list of 50 easy DIY car repairs you can do at home to save money on labour costs and keep your car running smoothly.
This list includes some of the most common car repairs that shops perform. By following our step-by-step how-to guides, you can easily save hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars a year on car repairs by doing them yourself.
But before we discuss how to fix your car problems cheaply, you might ask: “Can I really DIY my car repairs? Don’t you need to be a professional? Do I even have the right tools for this?”
Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered in the next section.
Table of Contents
What Car Repairs Can I Do Myself?
More than you might think. The most common car repairs people DIY are oil changes and topping off fluids. Checking and changing engine oil is crucial for ensuring your engine runs efficiently and preventing damage. But if you’re comfortable turning a wrench and getting your hands dirty, many car repair jobs are more manageable and affordable than you may think.
While few car repairs are free, some are. For example, did you know that the most common fix for a check engine light is simply tightening your gas cap? It’s easy, costs nothing, and is always a good first thing to try.
Many costly repairs can be far less expensive if you tackle them yourself. You’ll always need to pay for the parts, but you can save the high labour costs of a professional mechanic by diagnosing problems and making easy repairs yourself. Even if you can’t fix it yourself, you’ll at least know what’s wrong. You’ll also be able to ask the shop if they will give you a much more expensive repair estimate than expected.
What Basic Car Repair Tools Should I Keep in My Garage?
You’ll need a few tools to work on your car. Don’t worry – unlike a professional mechanic, you don’t need to buy every tool. These will help you get started:
Ratchet wrench and socket set
Basic screwdrivers (Phillips and flathead)
Vice grips
Breaker bar
Torque wrench
WD-40
Rags
Specific jobs may require you to buy specific tools to complete them. In many cases, it’s still cheaper to buy the tool than to take your car to the shop – plus, the next time you need to do that job, you’ll already own the tool. But if it’s genuinely a one-off job, you’ll probably never do it again. Many auto parts stores will rent you the particular tool you need. Often, it’s not even so much a rental, as you buy the tool with the understanding that you will be returning it for a full refund when you’re done.
Keeping a few essential tools in your car for roadside repairs can also be helpful. Here are ten tools you should consider taking with you.
List of 50 Easy DIY Car Repairs
The following list contains the “beginner” and “intermediate” difficulty car repairs we’ve documented on the FIXD blog. We’ve also thrown in a few other common fixes that should be within your capabilities. The list is broken up by topic, so if you have a problem with your brakes, feel free to skip to the Brakes section.
Basics
Here are a few basic car repair tasks you can tackle without experience.
#1: Diagnose the Check Engine Light
If your check engine light is on, you can find out why using an OBD2 scanner, such as FIXD—these work by plugging either a wireless sensor or the scanner into your car’s OBD2 port. Turn your ignition to the “on” position, then turn on the scanner or open the appropriate app on your phone. The scanner will communicate with your car’s computer and read the recorded diagnostic trouble codes. If the description is unclear, look up the code, such as P0300, on the FIXD blog for more information.
#2: Find Your OBD2 Port
Every modern car has an identical OBD2 port, regardless of the manufacturer. It’s usually located near the steering wheel, under the dashboard, or behind a trim panel.
Still, the precise location of the OBD2 port varies from one vehicle to another. Use our free guide and port locator to learn precisely where this port is on your car.
#3: Use Car Jack Stands
It would help if you never crawled underneath a car supported by a floor jack alone. While it’s okay to change a flat tyre without them, you should support your car with jack stands for any other job that requires lifting your car off the ground. While a jack is made to raise and lower your vehicle, jack stands are designed specifically to hold up your car. They can’t fail and drop the vehicle unexpectedly in the ways that jacks can. Check out our complete guide to using jack stands.
Additionally, knowing how to replace a flat tyre with a spare tyre is crucial. Remember, the spare tyre is for temporary use, so replace it with a new standard one as soon as possible.
Fluids
Fluids are the lifeblood of your car, and most of them provide lubrication for significant components. Check out our Ultimate Guide to Car Fluids for a general overview of what fluids are in your car and what they do. Keep reading to learn more about fluid maintenance and changes you can do yourself.
#4: Replace Windshield Washer Fluid
This one’s a no-brainer that you’ve probably already done yourself. When you run out of washer fluid, you can pop the hood, pour more in, and you’re done. But there’s more to washer fluid than just pouring in the blue goo. See how to replace your windshield washer fluid here.
#5: Check Your Oil
Your engine requires a certain amount of engine oil to run correctly. If it runs out of oil, bad things will happen, up to and including catastrophic failure of the engine. Fortunately, it’s easy to check your oil, top it off if needed, and prevent this from happening to you.
#6: Change Your Oil and Oil Filter
Engine oil is essential for your vehicle’s performance, and regular oil changes are crucial. Despite having a filter in the system, oil gets old and dirty over time. Both should be replaced every 3,000 to 10,000 miles, depending on your manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule. Changing your oil yourself is an easy job and can save you some money. It’s also an excellent opportunity to look closely at everything under the hood and spot any potential issues before they become big problems.
#7: Change Your Rear Differential Fluid
If your vehicle has rear or all-wheel drive, its rear differential requires periodic fluid changes. (Front and all-wheel drive have front differentials but share the same fluid as the transmission.) Depending on the manufacturer’s recommendation, drain the differential and add fresh fluid every 30,000 to 60,000 miles. This is typically an easy job that you can do yourself.
#8: Change Your Coolant
Engines generate a great deal of heat, and your cooling system keeps that under control. This is another system that must be reliable and very simple. Coolant degrades over time and must be replaced occasionally. Our article about changing your coolant will tell you what you need to know.
#9: Change Your Manual Transmission Fluid
Although they should be on the endangered species list, manual transmissions are still the favourite of driving enthusiasts who enjoy changing their gears. Transmission fluid lubricates the gears and gear change mechanisms inside the transmission. This, too, should be changed regularly to ensure peak performance.
This is an easy job to do yourself on a manual transmission. Automatic transmissions are far more complicated than manuals. While you can change automatic transmission fluid, it’s a more complex process. We recommend that you leave this job to the professionals instead.
#10: Change Your Power Steering Fluid
Although more and more new cars are switching to electric power steering systems, most cars on the road today still have hydraulic power steering. These systems have special fluids that must be changed from time to time. This is another simple DIY job if you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty.
#11: Check Your Brake Fluid
If the red BRAKE warning light on your dashboard turns on and you have not engaged your parking brake, chances are your brake fluid level is low. There are many reasons why this could be the case, but what’s essential is to top off the fluid and make sure it’s complete. Otherwise, air could enter your brake lines, severely affecting your braking ability.
Locate the brake fluid reservoir under your hood. Your owner’s manual will tell you exactly where it is and what it looks like. There should be a line on the side with the word FULL next to it. The brake fluid inside the reservoir should come up to this line. If it’s below it, buy a bottle of the correct fluid type (your manual will tell you what that is), open the reservoir cap, and pour in enough liquid to bring the level up to the FULL line. Put the cap back on, and you’re done.
#12: Change Your Transfer Case Fluid
Four-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles have a transfer case, which splits power between the front and rear wheels. On some vehicles, such as pickup trucks, Jeeps, and other off-road oriented cars, this enables you to manually switch from two-wheel drive to four-wheel drive and, in many cases, into four-wheel drive low-range. Like transmissions and differentials, transfer cases contain a lubricant to keep their gears meshing smoothly, and changing it is a simple DIY job.
#13: Replace Your Diesel Exhaust Fluid
While not common in passenger vehicles, modern ones equipped with diesel engines require an additional fluid known as diesel exhaust fluid or DEF. This fluid gets sprayed into your exhaust system to ensure cleaner burning of any residual particles to reduce emissions. Like washer fluid, it simply needs to be refilled occasionally, which any diesel driver can do themselves.
Filters
Both you and the engine need to breathe clean air, and the fluids flowing through your car must remain clean to do their jobs properly. We’ve already covered your oil filter, so here are a few other filters that are easy to change.
#14: Change Your Cabin Air Filter
Your cabin air filter ensures you’re breathing clean air inside your car. This can be particularly helpful if you suffer from allergies, as it will keep pollen and spores from entering your vehicle. This filter is easy to change, requiring four simple steps.
#15: Change Your Engine Air Filter
Your engine needs clean air just as much as you do. This ensures a clean combustion process to provide maximum power and efficiency. Engine air filters are just as easy, or sometimes more accessible, to replace than cabin air filters. Check out our complete guide to engine air filters.
A clean engine air filter can also improve fuel consumption.
#16: Replace Your Fuel Filter
Like the air entering your engine, the fuel must also be clean and contaminant-free to ensure maximum power and efficiency. Some fuel filters are easy to replace, while others can be more challenging. Here’s what you need to know to make that decision yourself.
Wheels and Tires
This is literally where the rubber meets the road. Tires and the wheels that wear them are critical to your car’s safety, handling, and performance. Here are some simple yet essential DIY jobs involving your wheels and tyres.
#17: Change a Flat Tire
Most of us have been there, on the side of the road, with a flat tyre. You can call roadside assistance to change it, but you can save time using the tools most cars already have on board. The process
#18: Repair a Car Tire Puncture or Leak
Tire leaks can have many possible causes. Most often, it’s because you ran over a piece of debris that embedded itself in your tyre’s tread. Not all punctures of this type can be repaired, but sometimes you can use a patch kit to remove a nail or screw from your tyre, patch the hole, and head on down the road. If the puncture is through your sidewall or close to the edge of your tread, the tyre must be replaced entirely.
Sometimes, the leak isn’t the result of a puncture. Tyre valve stems, where you put air into the tyre, can sometimes leak. Sometimes, replacing the valve inside the stem can fix the problem, but most often, the rubber stem itself is damaged and must be replaced. If your wheels are old and a bit beat up, air can escape between the tyre and a deformed wheel. In this case, the wheel itself must be repaired or replaced.
#19: Fix Low Tire Pressure
After repairing a leaky tyre, you’ll need to inflate it to the manufacturer’s recommended pressure. Tyres can also slowly lose air over time, so you should check your tyre pressure regularly to see whether you have a puncture. Our guide on fixing low tyre pressure will tell you what may indicate low pressure, how to check your pressure using a tyre gauge, and how to inflate your tyres properly.
#20: Install a TPMS Sensor
TPMS stands for “tyre pressure monitoring system.” Most modern cars monitor tyre pressure automatically and light up a warning on the dashboard if low pressure is detected. You can add an aftermarket system to any vehicle, which utilizes valve caps with built-in sensors to report your pressures to the central unit inside your car. These are easy to install yourself. Sensors for systems already built into modern cars are generally inside the tyre and wheel and are not a DIY job.
#21: Rotate Your Tires
Your front and rear tyres wear differently because they do different jobs. Your manufacturer-recommended maintenance schedule will tell you when to rotate your tyres, which involves putting your front tyres on the back and your back tyres on the front. This extends the life of your tyres by slowly wearing them out in different ways as you drive.
This procedure isn’t much different than changing a flat tyre. You remove and install all four of them. See our tyre rotation guide for details.
#22: Replace a Broken Wheel Stud
Wheel studs are the lug nuts that hold your wheel and attach it to it. Sometimes, if they get corrupted or a lug nut is installed improperly when you try to remove it, the stud may break instead. This may seem like a complete disaster, but it’s not as bad as it looks. You can buy a cheap replacement stud and do the work yourself, saving you significant money in shop labour costs. If you’re not comfortable doing this job yourself, that’s fine! While it will cost more, it won’t break the bank.
Brakes
Your car’s brake system is one of your vehicle’s most critical safety components. The fewer parts there are to a system, the less that can go wrong, so brakes are a relatively simple system. There are a couple of jobs that you can easily do yourself if you’re comfortable with turning a wrench.
#23: Replace Your Brake Pads and Rotors
To remove the wheel, you have to remove more nuts and bolts than you do to replace your brake pads. Remove a couple more bolts, and your rotors are accessible, too. While not a job to be taken lightly, this is a beginner-level repair for DIYers.
Some cars still use drum brakes on the back wheels. The procedure for replacing these is much more complicated and is usually best left to a professional.
#24: Bleed Your Brakes
If you check your manufacturer-recommended maintenance schedule, you will see that your brake fluid should be replaced occasionally. While a complete brake fluid flush requires only a mechanic’s tools, you can replace nearly all the fluid by bleeding the system yourself. While regular flushes are still recommended, bleeding will provide most of the benefit for a fraction of the price.
Electrical
Electrical issues can be intimidating. It’s not like you can point at a part busted in half and say, “Well there’s your problem right there.” But there are still some simple electrical jobs that are easy to tackle yourself.
#25: Jump Start Your Car
You turn the key, but nothing happens. The most likely culprit is a dead battery. The alternator will recharge it once the engine runs, but you must get it running.
You need a jump start. This connects another battery, either a booster pack or another car, to your battery. This provides enough power to start your engine, which will run independently and recharge your battery while driving. Check out our procedure for doing this.
#26: Replace a Dead Car Battery
In most cases, a jump start will get you going again, but sometimes, you may need a jump every time you try to start your car. In this case, your battery is not holding the charge the alternator provides while the engine is running. It’s time for a new battery. Replacing it yourself is a simple process.
Car battery with corroded terminals
#27: Clean Off Battery Corrosion
Your battery terminals should be clean and bare metal. Sometimes, the battery’s chemical reactions cause corrosion on these terminals. You can easily clean this off yourself with baking soda, water, or vinegar.
#28: Find and Replace a Blown Fuse
When something electrical stops working in your car, your first step should always be to check for a blown fuse. Each fuse protects a specific electrical system from damage caused by a short circuit or too much voltage or current. The fuse will blow before the systems connected to it are damaged, shutting off power to protect them.
Every car has one or more fuse panels, usually located under the dashboard and in the engine compartment. Check your owner’s manual for the exact locations in your car. The manual, and often the lid of the fuse panel, tells you which fuse corresponds to what circuit or component. For example, if your infotainment system stops working, you’ll want to check the fuse for the infotainment system. Remove the fuse from the fuse box. If the metal filament inside is blown, that’s the problem. Replace it with a new fuse. It’s essential to replace it with the same amperage fuse that was there before (that’s the number on the fuse – 5, 10, 20, etc.)
Start your car, and check the system that stopped working before. Chances are this was a one-time problem, and everything will typically work again. If it doesn’t, recheck the fuse. If the replacement is blown, there’s a problem with the electrical system itself. Unless you know a thing or two about electronics, you’ll likely need a shop to diagnose and repair the root cause of the problem.
#29: Replace the Blower Motor Resistor
Your climate control fan can run at several speeds, from a gentle breeze to a powerful blast. Sometimes, a problem can occur where the blower runs at full speed but not in any of the lower settings. The fact that it runs at full speed tells us that the blower itself works, so the problem is likely the blower motor resistor.
Power goes to the blower through a resistor pack to enable it to run at intermediate speeds. Resistors reduce the power going to the blower, causing it to run more slowly. The highest setting allows power to bypass all resistors, which is why the blower still works on this setting. If none of the other fan speeds work, the resistor pack has likely failed, allowing no power to flow to the blower except for the high-speed bypass circuit.
This may sound complicated, but the solution is simple: replace the blower motor resistor pack. This is usually in a relatively accessible location that is easily serviced. We have an entire article about how to do this.
Lighting
Your car’s lights are an essential safety feature. They allow you to see and be seen in poor lighting conditions, both at night and in bad weather. It’s critical to keep your lights working well at all times. Here are some ways you can do this yourself.
#30: Clean Your Headlights
Modern headlights are made of plastic rather than glass, like in the old days. While this is safer when they break, plastic can degrade in the sun, causing formerly clear lenses to fog up, blocking much of the light that should be coming out. Fortunately, this fog is on the outside of the lens. You can clean this off yourself with some polish and elbow grease.
#31: Change Your Headlight Bulb
Winking is nice, but it’s not so good when your car winks at you with only one headlight. Replacing a headlight bulb is accessible in some cars and more demanding in others. It does require a professional on rare occasions, but you can swap the parts out in most cases. The difficulty of this job mostly depends on how many other pieces you need to remove under the hood to reach the back of the headlight assembly.
#32: How To Fix a Taillight
Taillights may not show you where you’re going, but they show other drivers where you are, where you’re going, and when you’re slowing down. A broken taillight is a significant safety concern, but it’s also generally easy to fix. We have an article all about it.
Exterior
Your vehicle’s body and windows are what other people see, so you probably want your car to look good. It’s also essential for you to see out the windows well when you’re driving. Here are a few tips and tricks to help with that.
#33: Make Your Ride Shine
This is our complete guide to making your ride look great. It covers washing, polishing, fixing clear coat, protecting your paint, and what products you should use. Follow these tips to take your car to the next level of sparkle.
#34: Fix Scratches, Paint Chips, Dents, and Rust
Maybe your car doesn’t look so good right now. Fear not—if the professionals can turn a rusted-out piece of junk into a work of art that could’ve just rolled out of the factory, you can address some simple body issues yourself.
Scratched paint is annoying, but there are ways to deal with it. Touch-up paint can hide the scratches and protect the metal underneath. There are also scratch repair kits that can also help. Paint chips follow a similar procedure to repair. Fixing minor dents using various tools and techniques, from a suction cup to pull out the dent to replacing dented body panels such as fenders and doors, is possible. Rust is a bit more challenging, but you can repair small rust areas before they turn into big ones, saving time, money, and possibly your entire vehicle.
#35: Replace Your Windshield Wipers
You need to be able to see where you’re going, and windshield wipers help. However, there comes a time in every wiper’s life when it wears out, smearing water across your windshield instead of clearing it and doing more harm than good. You can always have the person at the auto parts store install them for you, but it’s pretty simple to install new wipers yourself.
#36: Clean Your Wiper Blades
Believe it or not, cleaning your windshield wiper blades will make them work more effectively and extend their life so you don’t have to replace them as often.
Interior
The outside of your car is what the world sees, but the inside is what you always look at. Here are some ways to make this an excellent place to spend your drive time.
#37: Clean Your Car Interior
You could pay a detailer hundreds of dollars to make your interior look as clean as the day you bought your car, but there are many simple ways to clean it yourself. Our guide details cleaning your roof, windows, fabric, hard surfaces (like the dashboard), and cargo area.
#38: Fix Your Rear View Mirror
Sometimes, you need to look at where you’ve been instead of where you’re going or check the traffic behind you. Conveniently located at the top centre of your windshield, this mirror can sometimes break off, leaving you a blind spot to the rear. Fortunately, putting the old mirror back on or installing a new one is a simple process that you can do yourself.
#39: Fix Your Stuck Window
At best, a window that won’t open is inconvenient at the drive-thru. At worst, a window stuck closed can make your car too hot (especially if you haven’t fixed your AC), and a window stuck open can let the rain, snow, and cold into your car. Fortunately, window problems are typically easy to fix. Often, the problem is simply an electrical part, like a motor switch switch. Removing and replacing the entire mechanism from your door is still not too difficult if it is something mechanical.
#40: Replace Your Hatch Struts
Your SUV or hatchback has a large door on the back to provide easy access to the cargo area. This hatch is pretty heavy, yet you can easily lift it thanks to struts that help you open it. When these struts wear out, you’ll feel the total weight of the hatch, making it difficult to open and impossible to leave open without some prop rod. These struts are easy to replace, which can save you some headaches.
#41: Repair Your Car Seats
Car upholstery repairs may seem complicated, but once you know how, they’re pretty simple. You can sew tears back together, patch small holes yourself, and buff out scratched leather. While significant repairs may take an upholstery professional, you can handle these small jobs yourself. Alternatively, you could install seat covers and call it done.
Under the Hood
Probably the most intimidating part of any car is what lies under the hood. But once you know what things under there are, what they do, and why, the mystery is gone, revealing many simple maintenance and repair jobs you can do yourself.
#42: Replace Your Serpentine Belt
The serpentine belt is a rubber belt that runs along all the pulleys on your engine’s front. It transfers the rotation of your crankshaft to other components and accessories that run other systems, such as the alternator, water pump, power steering, air conditioning, and more. These belts wear out over time and should be replaced regularly. If you don’t, the belt will break, and you must replace it immediately. This generally isn’t too difficult in most vehicles and is a job you can do yourself.
#43: Recharge Your AC
Summer is here, and staying calm can be challenging if your air conditioner isn’t working. The first step to any AC repair is to use a recharge kit to try breathing some new life—or, more accurately, refrigerant—into the system. In many cases, this, by itself, will get your AC working again. If it doesn’t, you’ll likely need to call in the professionals, but it’s an excellent first step you can do yourself before then.
#44: Fix Your Radiator
Your engine also needs to stay cool, and that’s the job of your radiator. The radiator radiates the heat your engine generates out into the open air. Problems can occur when the radiator springs a leak, requiring a patch or complete replacement. This isn’t as hard as it may seem. It’s a job you can do yourself.
#45: Replace Your Starter
If you turn the key, nothing happens, and you know you have a good battery, the problem is most likely a failed starter. This is one of the more complex jobs on this list, and you may need to crawl under the car to reach the starter itself. Once under there, though, there are just a couple of bolts holding the starter to the side of the engine or transmission, a nut that holds the positive battery cable on, and sometimes a wiring harness to unplug. In most cars, this job is easy enough to tackle yourself.
#46: Clean Your Fuel Injectors
Fuel injectors spray the correct amount of fuel into your engine’s cylinders to mix with air, ignite, and make the engine run. Sometimes, injectors can get clogged with debris that makes it past the fuel filter, causing poor performance. If this happens, you can get a kit that will do all the work for you once you connect it to your engine, which is easy to do yourself.
#47: Replace Your Spark Plugs
Spark plugs ignite the fuel/air mixture inside the cylinder, which enables the engine to run. Like dirty fuel injectors, spark plugs can get dirty or fouled over time, requiring inspection and replacement. Although they can be challenging to reach on specific engines in certain cars, you can typically replace your spark plugs yourself. You can usually buy socket extensions and other tools to get them even in hard-to-reach places.
#48: Clean Your Mass Air Flow Sensor
The final piece of the puzzle, air, enters the engine through your intake system. The mass air flow sensor measures how much air comes in, allowing the engine computer to adjust the fuel flow for the best possible mixture. This, too, can get dirty and clogged at times, which will send false readings to the computer and harm engine performance. An excellent first step in diagnosing the problem is to clean the sensor yourself. Even if this doesn’t fix the problem, you now know where the sensor is located, making it easy to take the next step and replace it.
#49: Clean Your EGR Valve and EGR Ports
EGR stands for “exhaust gas recirculation.” To improve emissions, your engine sometimes sends a little bit of your exhaust back into the intake side of your engine, burning it a second time. Sometimes, the valve can get stuck open or closed, or the ports leading to and from the valve can get clogged with debris, resulting in poor running conditions. Once again, you can clean the EGR valve and ports to make your engine run smoothly.
#50: Replace Your Oxygen Sensor
Once the combustion process is complete, the oxygen sensors tell the engine computer how well it’s doing. By measuring how much oxygen remains in the exhaust before and after the catalytic converter, the engine computer can adjust the fuel/air mixture to optimize power and efficiency.
Sometimes, an oxygen sensor fails, giving false readings to the engine computer. When this happens, the sensor needs to be replaced. This is typically done either under the hood or underneath the car, but either way, with the help of a special oxygen sensor socket, you can do this yourself.
FAQs
What Are 10 Basic Car Repairs You Should Know?
We have an article about the Top 10 Easiest DIY Auto Repair Jobs. These are the ten most accessible jobs on our list, including oil changes, wiper replacement, and rotating tyres. If you’re starting to work on cars for the first time, any of these jobs are a great place to start.
What Car Repairs Should You Not Do Yourself?
You won’t find these jobs on our list above. The Top 10 Car Repair Jobs to Outsource Instead of DIY are all on the brutal end of the spectrum. All of these are pretty complicated to tackle yourself. Some of them require specialized equipment that only a shop will have. In other cases, not getting it right the first time can have disastrous consequences, including catastrophic engine or transmission failure. Save your money by doing the easy jobs yourself, and let the shop change your timing belt so you know it’ll get done right.
Why Do Car Repairs Cost So Much?
Some diehard DIYers will tell you that shops are ripoffs interested in padding their pockets with your hard-earned cash. While rotten eggs like this exist, they are few and far between. Yes, taking your car to a shop will cost more than fixing it yourself, but there are good reasons for that.
Professional mechanics have gone to school or otherwise been trained in the art of car repairs. They know what they’re doing and have more resources than we do to figure out what’s wrong with your car and how to make it right. Tools are expensive, and each technician usually buys and provides their own. They need to have more tools than the average home hobbyist. While you might only use a crank pulley removal tool once, they must use it regularly. Since professionals use their tools all the time, they also need higher quality tools than the ones at your local discount hardware store, which will last while being used daily.
The shop itself costs money to run, too. Costs range from overhead expenses like rent and taxes to specialized equipment like car lifts, tyre mounting and balancing equipment, and professional OBD2 scan tools that are far more capable than the ones we use. The shop needs to stay in business, and the technician working on your car deserves to be paid fairly for their skill and knowledge.
What Are the Easiest Things To Fix On a Car?
Check out our 10 Car Maintenance Tips for Beginners. To summarize:
Read your owner’s manual
Clean the windshield
Check tyre pressure and tread
Check fluid levels and top off as needed
Check your battery
Change your oil at the right time
Replace your air filter
Replace your windshield wipers
Replace your headlight bulbs
Clean EGR valve and ports
When Is It Not Worth Repairing a Car?
Sometimes, your vehicle may break down so badly that it will cost more to repair than it’s worth. That money would be better spent on a replacement vehicle in better condition. But how do you know when the time has come? There are some red flags that you should look for when it’s time to replace your car. If one or more of these is true, it’s probably best to think twice before spending more money on your current vehicle.