Being a car owner goes hand-in-hand with a certain amount of responsibility. Knowing how to take care of your vehicle and when it needs to go to a shop for repairs is part of that responsibility. So what can you do yourself and what needs to be done at a shop?
One of the biggest reasons you’ll want to learn certain repairs for your car that you can do yourself is because it can save you money. The total average repair cost for a vehicle in the United States is $305.55, which means knowing how to change your own oil and tires or even fix your own breaks may be worthwhile. Here’s a brief breakdown of some car repairs you should be responsible for learning yourself.
Change the Oil
One of the most routine car repairs you can do yourself is to change the oil. Oil should be changed every few thousand miles. For conventional oil, you should change it every three thousand miles; for synthetic oil, you should change it every five thousand miles. To complete an oil change, you’ll need a bucket to let the oil drain into. Once the oil is drained, remove and change your filter. Then you can add the new oil back into your car. It’s that easy! You can refer to your owner’s manual for more specific details relating to your car.
Tire Maintenance
Another relatively easy and important car repair you can do yourself is tire maintenance. This includes checking air pressure, changing tires, and rotating your tires. You can check the tire pressure easily with a tire pressure gauge. Your owner’s manual can tell you what the appropriate pressure should be, however, typically it should be around 32 pounds per square inch (psi). For a truck, this would be higher, around 60 psi.
Let’s go through how to change a tire if you have a flat tire or want to switch from winter to summer tires. First, you’ll need to block one of the tires you are not changing to prevent the car from rolling when you jack it up. Before you jack the car, take off the hubcap and loosen the lug nuts. Once the car is jacked, pull the rim off and replace it with your new tire. Once the new tire is on, you can put the hubcap on and tighten the lug nuts. However, be sure to tighten them across from one another, not one after the other in line, to keep the wheel as flat against the hub as possible.
You can also rotate your own tires, though this process is a bit more involved. Rotating your tires is vital and most tire manufacturers recommend a rotation interval every 5,000 to 8,000 miles for cars. The process to rotate your tires starts off very similar to changing a tire. Follow the steps necessary to remove a tire first. Once you have removed the back tires, you can move the jack and take off the front tires. The back tires go directly to the front, while the front tires switch sides and move to the back. Rotating your tires is important because it helps them to wear more evenly, resulting in the most mileage from one set of tires.
Know When to See a Mechanic
You can also do car repairs like changing your windshield wipers, changing or charging your own battery, or even replacing brake or tail lights. While there are a lot of things you can do yourself for your car, things like windshield replacement, steering and alignment, auto body repair (in case your car was in an accident), suspension, and engine work are a bit more complex. For these things, seeing a mechanic is probably your best bet. In a recent survey, research found that an estimated 77% of cars were in need of maintenance or repairs, so be sure that you are performing routine maintenance and taking your car to an auto repair shop when the repairs become more difficult.
