35 Automotive Maintenance Tasks You Can DIY
Change Engine Oil and Filter
One of the most common engine maintenance tasks, change the oil and filter as often as your vehicle manufacturer specifies is important.
Although you won’t save a ton of money doing this work yourself, there are good reasons why it makes sense. First, it’s the only way you can be sure of the quality of oil that actually goes into your engine. And second, it lets you get underneath the vehicle to look at other things while you’re loosening and tightening the drain plug. I’ve often spotted small mechanical issues while changing my oil.
WD-40, which is still great at scaring away spiders, believe it or not.
Buff Out a Paint Scratch
Complete this job correctly and you’ll think you’ve done magic. When scratches don’t go through the paint, some very fine abrasion can make them go away. You can even use a 6-in. random orbit woodworking sander for this, but with a buffing pad installed instead of the abrasive disc pad, of course. Use a mild auto body buffing compound with the moistened buffing pad, then rinse off when you’re done. Do you know what cars are made of other than steel?
Fix a Flat Tire
Automotive tires became tubeless more than 40 years ago, making it possible to fix a flat tire while it’s still on the vehicle. First, locate the leak. Pump up your flat tire and spray it with a mixture of 80 percent water and 20 percent dishwashing liquid — it will bubble where the air is leaking. When you’ve found the spot, mark it with a piece of chalk or white paint marker.
If you have a screw, nail, staple or empty hole in the tread of the tire, that’s a DIY car maintenance job. Jack up the vehicle and put a safety block under the frame, pull out the screw or nail, then use a plug kit to fix the leak. You’ll also need a tube of tire repair cement to use with the kit.
If air is leaking where the rubber meets the metal rim, that’s a job for a mechanic who can take the tire off the rim and remount it with sealing compound.
Check and Top Off Fluids
This is a simple yet vitally important thing. Many older cars break down unnecessarily for want of nothing more than the addition of some fluid that’s low. You should check fluids in your vehicles weekly.
Standard fluids to check include the engine oil — check that with the engine off and the vehicle sitting on a level spot. Brake fluid and power steering fluid also need to be checked with the engine off. Automatic transmission fluid needs to be checked with the engine running, ideally after at least 10 or 15 minutes of driving.
Add Trailer Wiring
This job used to be difficult, but not so much anymore. Ready-made trailer wiring harnesses are available for many different vehicles. Some install more easily than others, but it’s not a difficult task under any circumstances.
Re-Torque Your Wheels
After a spate of tragedies involving wheels falling off vehicles in the late 1990s, auto mechanics everywhere started advising that nuts on a reinstalled wheel be checked for tightness after the first 50 miles of driving. This DIY car maintenance can be done with a torque wrench, which measures the amount of force applied to a nut. Seventy foot-pounds of torque is a common amount for wheel nuts, but check online for the right amount for your particular vehicle.
Test Your Battery
All automotive batteries eventually die, but how close is yours to leaving you stranded and unable to start? It’s hard to tell, and that’s why they invented battery testers.
Battery testers measure the capacity of the battery compared to what it was designed to deliver, plus critical details such as voltage during start-up. Great battery-testing gauges aren’t expensive, and they provide insights that will help you keep your vehicle working reliably.
Replace a Car Battery
If you’ve tested your battery and found that it’s just not keeping a charge, that means it’s time to replace it. As a reminder, most car batteries only last about five years, if they’re taken care of. The good news is that you don’t need to take it to a mechanic. Replacing your battery is an easy fix, and most stores where you can buy a new battery will recycle your old one free of charge.
Change Transmission Fluid
Most people seem to understand that engine oil needs to be changed regularly. What’s more often missed is the importance of changing transmission fluid as well. A mechanic friend of mine tells me that most transmissions that stop working do so because the fluid wasn’t changed as often as it should have been — if ever.
Some transmission oil pans have a drain plug in them while others require you to remove the pan to get rid of the oil. Removing the pan is a pain, so only do it once before installing a retrofit drain plug to make future fluid changes much easier. You can use this same kind of retrofit drain plug if the plug in your engine oil pan gets stripped from use.
Replace Your Wiper Blades
It’s easy to tell when your blades need replacing. Simply press the washer button and see if your blades wipe clean. If they streak, they’re toast. The auto parts store will have lots of economy blades, but go with a name brand instead (ANCO, Trico or Bosch). They cost more than economy blades, but their higher-quality rubber wipes better, has better UV protection and lasts longer.
Follow the installation instructions on the package. Be sure you have a firm grip on the wiper arm once you remove the old blade. If it gets away from you, it can hit the windshield with enough force to crack it.
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