Car Repair – Stocking Your Garage For DIY Success

Car repair, there has been a huge trend of “do it yourself” in the last decade, and with good reason. When you do something for yourself you accomplish three goals. You earn the satisfaction of doing something on your own, you save money compared to using a professional, and you have more quality control over the job to ensure its done properly. Weather its home repair, simple legal work or car repair; doing it yourself usually makes sense. To determine if your DIY project is right for you, take the amount of money you plan to save and compare it to your normal hourly rate at your job. If it’s cheaper to have a pro do it, then it usually makes sense to go ahead and let them do it. But if you determine that do it yourself car repair is right for you, you’ll want to stock your garage with a few basic tools to aide you in your projects.

The first most basic tools needed for car repair can be found in a good mechanics tool set. These days, you can find a good tool set at a big box store for under $100. Or you can choose to go with a bit more expensive set and get a lifetime replacement guarantee. If any tool in the set ever breaks or rusts beyond use, simply bring it into the store for a no questions asked exchange. Most good mechanics tool sets will include a full range of metric and standard sockets and open-ended wrenches. Most also include an interchangeable screwdriver with several attachments for different uses. More advanced sets may include a spark plug socket as well as several socket extensions to get to hard to reach nuts or bolts. A good mechanics tools set is essential to perform the most basic car repair projects.

We all know cars need regular oil changes every three thousand mile or three months. So it only makes good sense to purchase a few oil change essentials to complete the task on your own. First off, a drain pan is essential to drain the oil under most cars. The height of some trucks will allow you to get away with a 5 gallon bucket, but the drip pan is still good because it has a spout to allow for proper disposal of the used oil. If you’ve ever changed your own oil, chances are you know how hard it can be to unscrew the oil filter from it mount. Some more expensive oil filter models have a nice rubber grip that allows for easy turning, but for how inexpensive they are, a cheap oil filter wrench is a great tool to have on hand. Last but not least, you’ll want to have a funnel on hand to ensure your oil goes where it’s supposed to. One 99-cent funnel can save you from having to buy a whole new quart of oil because you spilled half of it on the engine.

A few other good tools to have include a creeper, a multi meter, and a tension socket wrench. All are relatively inexpensive, but can assist you in saving big money over bringing your car to the shop.

By stocking your garage with just a few important and relatively inexpensive tools, you will be able to save lots of money by performing basic car repair on your own.