[0:01] [Music]
[0:06] hello th here so I'm going to do a
[0:08] really quick overview of what it takes
[0:10] to start doing your own car maintenance
[0:12] I always encourage people to learn how
[0:13] to do this because you can save a
[0:14] massive amount of money and you have the
[0:17] option of getting yourself a car that
[0:18] you might not otherwise be able to
[0:20] afford so I'm going to go over a whole
[0:22] bunch of stuff uh that you need to get
[0:25] going and things that you need to learn
[0:26] to get going so before I start
[0:28] everything off the most most important
[0:30] thing that you need to know about
[0:31] working on a car is safety things in a
[0:33] car are hot acidic sharp and they just
[0:37] generally want to hurt you
[0:40] ouch ouch and you going to be under them
[0:43] and you're going to have your arm you're
[0:44] going to be elbow deep in your car and
[0:46] you want to make sure that you have the
[0:47] proper protection so gloves long sleeves
[0:50] eye protection if you're calling under
[0:51] the car the second most important part
[0:53] about safety is that you're almost
[0:54] guaranteed at some point going to be
[0:55] jacking up your car you need to learn
[0:57] how to do this I'm not going to show you
[0:58] how to do this cuz I'm not going to be
[1:00] liable for you dropping a car on your
[1:02] face so you have to learn how to jack up
[1:04] a car properly find someone that knows
[1:05] what they're doing get them to teach you
[1:07] how to do it there's a very specific way
[1:08] for every car to jack it up you need
[1:10] jack stands and I suggest a lowprofile
[1:12] jack spend the money and get a good Jack
[1:14] it just makes everything easier it goes
[1:15] up
[1:19] quicker now what I'm standing in front
[1:21] of here is basically a simple set of
[1:24] tools that will get you going doing your
[1:26] own car maintenance so things that I
[1:28] recommend that I can't live without are
[1:30] a proper socket set with extensions cuz
[1:33] you're going to need these no matter
[1:34] what you do you can just buy these uh
[1:36] extra these allow you to go uh you know
[1:38] way deep into the car and Ratchet things
[1:40] you not going to be able to reach
[1:42] otherwise now I got this socket set here
[1:45] don't do something ridiculous like buy
[1:47] this stuff full price because it goes on
[1:48] sale all the time this set here at
[1:51] regular price is
[1:53] $230 I got it for 60 okay so pay
[1:57] attention to the sales at your auto part
[1:59] store now I got a full set of wrenches
[2:01] here I've got two I got one of each size
[2:03] because chances are you're going to have
[2:05] a bolt that's in a small area and you're
[2:07] going to want to be able to counter hold
[2:09] it you're not going to be able to get a
[2:09] socket in there so you put one in here
[2:11] and you put one in there and it makes it
[2:13] a lot easier I got these things here
[2:15] these are a gear wrench these are worth
[2:17] their weight and gold they ratchet this
[2:19] makes everything so much easier you can
[2:22] ratchet a small bolt in a small area a
[2:25] hammer Clarkson would approve um if
[2:27] you're working on a European car you're
[2:29] going to have to get uh there's a
[2:31] regular socket set doesn't often come
[2:32] with this a set of
[2:34] Torx uh bolts like that and a breaker
[2:38] bar almost for sure because unless you
[2:41] have an impact gun which is kind of a
[2:42] luxury a breaker bar is going to make
[2:44] everything a lot easier UND doing wheel
[2:45] bolts and doing stuck nuts and lugs
[2:47] underneath the car this is a ratcheting
[2:49] breaker bar which is makes everything a
[2:51] lot
[2:53] easier next thing you're going to need
[2:54] is a torque wrench any single time you
[2:56] take something off a car a bolt or any
[2:58] kind you have to retorque it to spec if
[3:00] you don't know what torque specs are
[3:02] look it up uh either measured in pound
[3:04] feet or newton meters this one goes all
[3:06] the way to 250 pound feet that's about
[3:08] all you would ever need um there are
[3:10] smaller versions of this but uh this one
[3:12] is nice and strong and it's easy to
[3:14] torque bolts with other things that
[3:16] you're definitely going to need PB
[3:18] Blaster okay so this is a penetrating
[3:20] oil this is one of the things you cannot
[3:22] live without especially if you're
[3:23] working on an old BMW um watch my uh uh
[3:27] differential swap if you want to see
[3:29] what happens when you get a stuck
[3:31] bolt this makes a huge
[3:34] difference okay this is a Hanes manual
[3:37] for a Saab 93 the reason I have it for a
[3:39] Saab is because I have an old soab that
[3:41] I work on quite frequently and the
[3:43] online support quite isn't isn't as
[3:44] quite as good for uh SS is is for BMWs
[3:48] now for me BMWs is a huge community and
[3:51] I use the internet for pretty much
[3:52] everything that I do if I'm stuck it's
[3:53] got everything you need an oil drain pan
[3:55] that makes everything a lot easier when
[3:56] you're changing your oil changing fluids
[3:58] you kind of have to have one of those
[4:00] right so that's like a basic kit to get
[4:01] you going 100% guarantee the first time
[4:03] you do a job you're going to have to run
[4:04] out to the nearest store and buy
[4:06] something that you need so you start
[4:07] stacking up your tool slowly budget some
[4:09] money for
[4:13] that the way I see it is nowadays
[4:16] there's no excuse to not do your own car
[4:18] maintenance Because the Internet is such
[4:21] a valuable tool once you figure out how
[4:23] to use it I hope you've done that by now
[4:26] now everything you could ever need to
[4:28] know about your car is probably on the
[4:31] internet unless you have some weird
[4:32] obscure car that not very many people
[4:34] drive even then there's going to be a
[4:35] community for it somewhere and people
[4:37] who are willing to help you so the first
[4:39] thing that I would do though is if
[4:40] you're just fully getting started out on
[4:42] your own car maintenance you're probably
[4:43] not going to know what the parts of the
[4:45] car are called this was the biggest
[4:47] obstacle for me is when something
[4:48] started making noises you have to figure
[4:51] out what to search so that you can find
[4:53] what other people have done to fix it so
[4:56] get a diagram of your car find some like
[4:58] find a part break down find something
[5:00] like that so that you
[5:02] can understand what all the different
[5:04] parts of your car are called that makes
[5:06] a huge difference when you're trying to
[5:08] figure out what's broken almost
[5:11] guaranteed whatever car it is that you
[5:13] drive there's going to be an online
[5:15] forum for it join it now introduce
[5:17] yourself be nice be respectful because
[5:20] there's lots of people out there that
[5:21] know a lot about the car that you drive
[5:23] and they would be happy to help you as
[5:25] long as you know that you can they know
[5:26] that you can do your own research first
[5:29] there's a search function I've gone over
[5:31] this in another video there's a search
[5:32] function on every Forum learn how to use
[5:34] it learn to search up before you just
[5:36] walk onto the front of the Forum and say
[5:38] why won't my car start there's probably
[5:41] a whole thread on why your car won't
[5:42] start and all the possible causes so
[5:45] learn to use the function uh to research
[5:48] everything before you actually start
[5:49] asking real questions for real people
[5:52] but if you are truly stuck there's
[5:54] always someone in every community that
[5:55] I've been in anyway that's willing to
[5:57] help you figure it out
[6:02] another really handy thing that you
[6:03] should get is an OBD diagnostic scan
[6:06] tool now you can get one of those ones
[6:08] that plugs right in uh to the OBD2 port
[6:10] and has its own little screen but
[6:11] honestly the easier way is to just go to
[6:13] Amazon and get an OBD2 reader for your
[6:16] phone I've done a couple reviews on some
[6:18] of those apps you can check them out
[6:20] here um that's a really good way to be
[6:21] able to read the codes in your car so
[6:23] when you get a check engine light you
[6:24] don't have to pay somebody 50 bucks to
[6:27] tell you what the code is you can just
[6:28] figure it out yourself
[6:30] all you have to do is buy it once and
[6:32] then you don't ever have to go again to
[6:34] get your codes read unless it's a really
[6:35] obscure code which some of these readers
[6:36] can't read but you can do a lot of
[6:39] understanding what's going on in your
[6:40] engine using these readers and the more
[6:42] you learn the better you are able to
[6:44] diagnose
[6:48] problems one thing that I really
[6:50] recommend that you get is some patience
[6:53] working on an old car especially an old
[6:55] European car is an incredibly arduous
[6:58] thing to do
[7:00] things are rusted they're old they won't
[7:01] come undone it's hard like I mean it's
[7:04] physically hard to do my arms are
[7:06] currently sore from yesterday when I did
[7:08] my differential my body was stiff all
[7:10] night it's not an easy thing working on
[7:13] a car and wrenching on a car it's
[7:14] something that you have to have a lot of
[7:15] patience to do uh I can't count the
[7:18] number of times that someone has walked
[7:21] into the garage after I've been working
[7:22] on the car and they found me sitting
[7:24] there with my head in my hands but not
[7:26] crying I definitely don't cry
[7:30] so when you are working on your car I
[7:32] recommend you take breakes frequently
[7:34] make sure you're drinking a lot of water
[7:36] if it's hot out because you're going to
[7:37] get frustrated really quickly and it's
[7:39] not worth it because if somebody out
[7:42] there can reach it and do that and undo
[7:44] that bolt you can too it just takes time
[7:46] and focus and patience to be able to
[7:48] just go okay I can do this I know it's
[7:51] hard maybe get someone else to try often
[7:54] I have walked away gone and done
[7:56] something else had a rethink and come
[7:58] back and the bolt came on UND done right
[8:00] it's just a matter of being patient with
[8:02] yourself because it's not easy sometimes
[8:04] but it is worth it in the end it's
[8:05] rewarding and you save a lot of money
[8:07] I've easily saved thousands of dollars
[8:11] in car labor just doing my own
[8:12] maintenance on my car and if you have an
[8:13] older car like a
[8:14] BMW you're going to be doing a lot of
[8:17] Maintenance so it's worth learning how
[8:19] to do it yourself it's worth it really
[8:25] is if you're just getting into car
[8:27] maintenance and you just bought yourself
[8:28] your first set of tools I don't think
[8:30] that you should start by dropping the
[8:33] transmission and doing a clutch I think
[8:35] you should probably start small do
[8:37] things like oil changes change the air
[8:39] filter in your car simple stuff that you
[8:41] don't need to pay anybody to do change a
[8:43] windshield wiper something like that
[8:45] right and then slowly work your way up
[8:46] into the more complicated things uh
[8:48] start doing things like brake pads
[8:50] before you would consider doing anything
[8:51] that requires a brake bleed right I
[8:54] would do basic stuff before you
[8:56] considered starting to weld I still
[8:57] don't weld I don't have a welder I just
[8:59] let somebody else do that type of thing
[9:00] for me anything that's dangerous uh
[9:02] dealing with gasoline or dealing with
[9:04] like spring compression uh leave that to
[9:07] somebody else until you're really
[9:08] confident you really know what you're
[9:09] doing you don't want to make a mistake
[9:11] that could hurt you obviously right so I
[9:13] think start small do some simple things
[9:16] I'm going to do a DIY soon on how to
[9:17] change the oil in an E46 BMW if you're
[9:19] just getting into it that's a great
[9:21] place to start a little scary at first
[9:23] because you're like oh what happens when
[9:24] I what if I can't get the oil in it's
[9:26] really not that big of a deal you start
[9:27] to relax the more that you do more
[9:29] maintenance and it's worth it in the end
[9:30] leave yourself enough time to do the
[9:33] repairs because something always goes
[9:34] wrong I don't think I've ever actually
[9:35] done a big job where I didn't have to
[9:37] leave what I was doing in someone else's
[9:39] car and go buy a part from an auto part
[9:41] store halfway through if you think
[9:43] you're going to change all four break
[9:45] calipers at 900 p.m. the night before a
[9:48] big job interview you might need to
[9:50] re-evaluate your decision-making
[9:51] Paradigm if you leave yourself enough
[9:53] time like leave yourself a full day or a
[9:55] weekend or something you've never done
[9:56] before you should be fine and always
[9:58] come up with a back up for getting to
[10:00] work on Monday if you are going to
[10:02] tackle a big job and you've never done
[10:03] it before you really don't want to get
[10:05] stuck without your car and it's worse if
[10:07] you get your car into a position where
[10:09] it can't be towed to a shop to have
[10:11] somebody fix it for you I've done that
[10:14] don't do that so that's just a really
[10:16] quick overview of what it takes to get
[10:18] intoing your own car maintenance there
[10:20] is a little bit of upfront cost
[10:21] obviously buying your first set of tools
[10:23] but you can slowly build your toolkit
[10:25] over time uh if you don't have a space
[10:28] to work on your car it makes it very
[10:30] difficult and I understand that a lot of
[10:31] people are in that position um maybe
[10:33] find a friend that You' be willing to
[10:34] learn with and you guys can split the
[10:36] cost of tools and he might have a garage
[10:37] or something you could work in but it is
[10:40] very rewarding to work on your own car
[10:42] yes you're going to bash your knuckles
[10:44] yes you're going to burn yourself yes it
[10:45] hurts but it's worth it I would
[10:47] personally with my job never be able to
[10:50] afford an old BMW if I didn't do my own
[10:52] maintenance I would have by now easily
[10:55] put half of the total cost of the
[10:56] vehicle into paying someone to fix it
[10:59] that's how much maintenance I've done on
[11:00] it right so that's the thing you have to
[11:02] consider if you learn how to do this it
[11:04] pays off easily pays off the cost of the
[11:06] tools everything is paid off because
[11:08] you're going to be able to own a car
[11:10] that you would never otherwise be able
[11:11] to afford and that's very valuable
[11:13] especially if you're a car Enthusiast so
[11:15] stay tuned for more reviews in DIYs I've
[11:18] got a review of uh hopefully an f80 M3
[11:21] coming up that I hope you tune into um
[11:23] check out my channel for other reviews
[11:25] especially on the obdt scan tool apps
[11:27] lots of good stuff on there until then
[11:29] talk to you next time
[11:31] [Music]
[11:38] [Applause]
[11:42] [Music]
[11:43] [Applause]
[11:45] [Music]
[11:46] [Applause]