If you own a vehicle, you might not feel like getting into any kind of maintenance as you might consider it an additional expense. But servicing your vehicle regularly is important as that can help you avoid breakdowns and repairs that may burn a hole in your pocket later on. Aligning wheels or changing the brake pads will help you avoid accidents in the future.
In case you didn’t know about it, there are some repairs and maintenance jobs that you can do all by yourself. If you have the correct tools, you can easily learn how to perform these jobs. You wouldn’t have to hire a mechanic and thus, save money. Below are a few repair and maintenance work that falls in the DIY category, provided you have the right set of tools to do so. Check them out.
Brake Pads
While you need something in the range of $35 to $150 for brake pads, you would have to pay $300 or more if you take your vehicle to a garage to replace them. Replacing your brake pads on time is important if you notice they are wearing up to ⅛ of an inch. Worn-out brake pads can prove to be damaging for the rotors. If the rotors get damaged, repairing them would be more complicated as well as costly. Replacing the brake pads is a simple procedure.
You just need a jack and a lug wrench to remove the tires of your vehicle. Aside from that, you also need standard wrenches. Once you get down to work, all you need to do is slide the worn-out brake pad and then clip a new brake pad in place of the old one with the help of fasteners you will get in the package itself. Also available in the brake pad box is a packet of grease. You need to apply the grease on the brakes to lubricate them properly.
Battery
Replacing the battery is a simple process as well. No one would want to stay stranded in the middle of the road or keep their car in the garage at a time when they are getting late for work or any event. The average price of a car battery falls between $75 and $125.
But if you hire a mechanic to do the job, you will have to pay them up to $100 extra. There is nothing much to do while you are replacing the battery. You just have to remove the cables, get the new battery, and reattach the cables properly.
Oil Change
To change your oil, you need a racket, funnel, and wrench. While changing your oil, you should take precautionary measures, like changing the oil in case you have driven your vehicle two hours back or making sure that your car doesn’t move while you are changing the oil.
If you are using conventional oil, you need to change your oil every 3000 to 5000 miles. In the case of synthetic oils, you can travel from 7500 to 10,000 miles without an oil change. Synthetic oils of good quality will cost you something between $20 and $30. If you take your vehicle to a garage they will charge you almost double that amount for lube change. One thing you need to remember is the oil filter during an oil change.
Spark Plugs
You don’t need to replace the spark plugs of your vehicle for up to 100,000 miles. However, you need to clean them from time to time. To remove spark plugs, you can take the help of a specialized spark plug wrench. If you have an inspection camera in your car, you can look into the space that has the spark plugs.
Spark Plugs won’t cost you much. You need to shell out something in the ballpark of $16 to buy spark plugs. Now, when you call a mechanic, you have to pay $40 or even more for the job. Replacing spark plugs easily fall into the DIY category as it is simple and can help you save money.
Other tasks that can qualify as a DIY are tire maintenance, changing the air filters, replacing headlight or tail light bulbs, flushing out your radiator, etc. By doing these repairs and maintenance works yourself, you can save a lot of money every year. Why send your car to a repair clinic when you can do it on your own?