Even a novice DIYer can save some money by completing some of these car repair and maintenance tasks themselves.
Don’t Pay a Mechanic For These 14 Car Repairs You Can DIY
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Check and Change Your Fluids
There are plenty of fluids in your car that need to be monitored and changed regularly. You can take your vehicle in to the dealership or your mechanic to get this handled, but doing these car repair and maintenance tasks yourself is relatively easy. With a little practice you’ll be able to get the checks done in no time and you’ll save yourself money in the process.
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. Ideally, you should check fluids in your vehicles weekly.
Change Engine Oil and Filter
This is one of the most common car repair and maintenance tasks. You should change the oil and filter as often as your vehicle manufacturer specifies. 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.
Change Power Steering Fluid
There aren’t any test strips for power steering fluid, so you’ll have to rely on the manufacturer’s service recommendations or general rule-of-thumb: two years or 24,000 miles. Use the turkey baster method to remove the old power steering fluid. Suck out all the fluid with the engine off. Then refill the reservoir with fresh fluid. Start the engine and let it run for about 15 seconds. Repeat the fluid swap procedure until you’ve used up the full quart.
Note: Never substitute a “universal” power steering fluid for the recommended type, and never add “miracle” additives or stop-leak products. They can clog the fine mesh filter screens in your steering system and cause expensive failures.
Swap Out Brake Fluid
Some carmakers recommend replacing brake fluid every two years or 24,000 miles. Others don’t mention it at all. But it’s easy to test your brake fluid. Just dip a test strip into the fluid and compare the color to the chart on the packaging.
You can’t do a complete brake fluid flush yourself, but you can do the next best thing—a fluid swap. This procedure won’t replace all the old fluid with fresh, but you’ll introduce enough new fluid to make a difference.
Use a baster to suck out the dark brown brake fluid. Brake and power steering fluids are incompatible, so use a different baster for each. Squirt it into a recycling bottle. Refill the reservoir with fresh brake fluid as shown. Then drive the vehicle for a week to mix the new fluid with the old. Repeat the procedure several times over the next few weeks until the fluid in the reservoir retains its light honey color.
Note: The brake fluid may damage the baster’s rubber bulb, so don’t suck the fluid all the way into the bulb.
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. 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.
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Repair Minor Marks
Nicks, scratches, dents and dings all make your car look older than it actually is. While you’ll need professional help for serious damage, you can repair minor marks yourself.
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.
Fix Small Dents and Door Dings
If you can patch a wall, you can patch a dent in your car. You’ll need various sandpaper grits, a small can of autobody filler and cream paste and plastic applicators. Start by sanding the dent down to bare metal with coarse grit sandpaper. Then feather the edges. Clean the dents with wax and grease remover. Next, mix the body filler and apply a very light skim coat to fill in the sandpaper scratches.
Allow the filler to set up and then build up the repair with additional layers no more than 1/4-in. thick per application. Feather the final coat so it levels with the painted areas. After it cures, sand until smooth. Then apply a cream filler to the entire area to fill in any pinholes. Let it cure and do a final sand. Then you can paint the area with touch up paint.
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Check Your Wheels
There are several wheel-related car repair tasks you can handle yourself. They may seem intimidating, but if you just take things slow you can handle any of these car repair and maintenance tasks with ease.
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.
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 car repair 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.
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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.
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Battery Maintenance
A dead battery is an annoyance, but you can handle it yourself. You can even prepare for that eventuality if you check your battery regularly. Make testing your car battery a priority on your repair and maintenance checklist so that you know when to start setting aside money for a new one.
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.
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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. Purchase a new set and 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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Manage Filters
There are a couple of different filters in your car, and replacing them regularly is part of a good repair and maintenance practice.
Replace Engine Air Filter
Inspect and replace your engine air filter. Just unscrew or unclip the air filter box retainers and remove the old filter. Then check the filter to see how much light passes through by holding a shop light behind it. If the filter blocks 50 percent of more of the light, replace the filter. If not, put it back in, secure the air filter box cover and keep driving. It’s one of the easier things you can do to fix up cars.
Replace Your Cabin Air Filter
A clogged cabin air filter can damage your car’s blower motor and cause your AC to run longer and harder in the summer. Fortunately, cabin air filters are easy to access and replace. Buy a replacement cabin air filter at any auto parts store and ask the clerk to print out the installation instructions.
Cabin air filters are usually located in the air ducts behind the glove box in late model vehicles. However, some car makers locate them in the cowling or console area. Just remove the access covers and slide out the old filter. Note the direction of the airflow arrows so you can install the new filter in the proper orientation. Then reinstall the covers and you’re done.
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Replace That Broken Antenna
Replacing a fender mount antenna mast is easy. Just unscrew the remaining portion of the mast and buy a replacement mast at any auto parts store. Replacing a pillar mount antenna is a bit more involved but is still a DIY fix.
Disconnect the antenna cable from your radio and connect heavy string to the end. Then unscrew the antenna mount from the pillar and pull the old antenna and the string straight out. Attach the new antenna cable to the string, pull the cable back into the vehicle and connect it to your radio. Then secure the new antenna to the pillar using the screws provided.
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Fix That Leaky Sunroof
If raindrops keep falling on your head, it’s probably because your sunroof drains are clogged. Open the sunroof and look for drain holes in the front and rear corners of your sunroof. Once you locate the drains, duct tape a small rubber or plastic tube to the end of your shop vacuum and suck out any debris stuck in the drains. Then dribble water into each drain and check under the car to see if it’s draining onto your driveway or garage floor.
If the drain is still plugged, buy a speedometer cable from an auto parts store. Insert the cable into the drain and gently push it down the drain as you spin the cable with your fingers. Don’t push too hard because you can puncture the drain tubes and they’ll dump water into your dash area. Flush the drain after snaking it with the speedometer cable. If it now runs free, you’re done and shouldn’t have any more water coming inside your vehicle.
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Keep Your Seats Looking Nice
Your seats see a lot of wear and tear, and if they’re a lighter color that use is going to show really quickly. Fortunately you don’t need to shell out money to get your seats reupholstered. You can handle your car seat repair and maintenance yourself.
Fix Tears in Leather and Vinyl
Upholstery shops charge quite a bit to fix tears in your seats. You can do it yourself in a few hours with a vinyl and leather repair kit from any auto parts store. You’ll have to practice a bit to get the right color mix and it might not be a perfect match when you’re done, but it’s a lot better than driving around with torn seats.
Start by gluing reinforcing fabric onto the underside of the torn vinyl or leather. Then mix the heat-set filler to match your fabric color and apply it to the tear. Next, find a textured mat that most closely resembles the texture of your vinyl or leather and place it onto the liquid filler. Heat the patching tool with a clothes iron and press it onto the textured mat. Remove the patching tool, but leave the textured mat in place until the patch cools. Then peel it off.
Clean and Condition the Seats
After a few years, you’ll notice that the color of the leather or vinyl seats no longer matches that of the rest of the interior. It’s not enough just to condition the leather. First spray on leather cleaner and rub vigorously with a clean terry cloth towel. To avoid rubbing the grime back into the seats, keep flipping the cloth to expose a fresh surface. Let the seats dry for an hour and then rub in a leather conditioner to keep the leather supple. It’s available at discount stores and auto stores.
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Clean the Carpet
Use a carpet cleaning machine to get the dirt that settles deep into the fibers of the carpet. It sprays the carpet with a solution of water and cleaner and then sucks the dirt and grime into a reservoir. A machine like this pays for itself after just a few uses. You can also rent one from a rental center or use a spray-on cleaner and a scrub brush instead.
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Remember the Recesses
Detailing means just that— cleaning all the trim lines and recesses. Wrap a cloth around a worn screwdriver so that there are no sharp edges and spray it with an all-purpose cleaner. Move it gently along the trim lines to pick up dirt, using fresh sections of cloth as you go. Then clean around the buttons and controls, and follow up with a rejuvenator.
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Wash the Windows
Don’t forget the top edges. Ever notice that line of grime on the tops of windows when they’re partially rolled down? Most people overlook this detail when giving their vehicle a quick wash. A few minutes with Windex and a clean rag is all it takes.
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Keep Locks and Latches Functioning Smoothly
Sometimes your locks and latches will start to show their age. But when they start to get stuck or catch on things, you can repair them quite easily. This is one of the fastest car repair and maintenance tasks on our list.
Add Graphite to Door Locks
Graphite powder keeps your lock mechanism working. We don’t think much about our door locks until the key breaks off in the cylinder. Keep these delicate mechanisms moving freely with a blast of dry graphite powder. You may need to push the dust protector flap back slightly with a small metal nail file to get at the lock. A quick pump of the tube will dispense enough graphite. Move the lock cylinder with your key several times to work the graphite into the mechanism. Do this to your trunk lock as well.
Free Up a Sticking Hood Latch
If your hood doesn’t latch and unlatch easily, chances are it’s just rusty and dry. You can fix the problem in about 10 minutes with spray rust penetrant and spray lithium grease. Pop the hood and saturate the entire latch mechanism with rust penetrant. Latch and unlatch the hood several times until the mechanism works smoothly. The rust penetrant won’t last long, so you’ll have to apply a better lube. Open the hood and spray all the moving parts with white lithium grease. Latch and unlatch the hood several more times and you’re good to go.
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Car Light Repair and Maintenance
Your lights should be high up on your car repair and maintenance checklist. They’re an important safety feature, letting you see the road and other drivers see you.
Fix Dim Headlights
Simply clean the ground connection to restore the brightness of dim headlights. Apply a little dielectric grease or replace the bulb if you see a gray/brown film on the inside of the glass.
Replace Headlights
The hardest part of the job is choosing a new bulb. You can spend more time shopping for the bulbs than it takes to install them. The choices are mind-boggling. Every bulb manufacturer has its own confusing names for each style, making comparisons difficult. But it boils down to four upgrade categories—brightness level, life span, light color and energy consumption. Decide what matters most to you and narrow down from there.
Replace Non-Headlight Bulbs
To access burned out license plate, side marker and fog light bulbs, just remove the retaining screws and pry off the lens. Pull the bulb straight out of the socket. Handle the new bulb with gloved hands or hold it with a paper towel to prevent skin oils from depositing on the thin glass — that can cause premature bulb failure. Then push the bulb into the socket until it clicks. Reinstall the lens and you’re done.
