---
title: 'DO YOUR OWN CAR MAINTENANCE:  A HOW TO'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=buJjccK98FQ'
video_id: 'buJjccK98FQ'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 710
---

# DO YOUR OWN CAR MAINTENANCE:  A HOW TO

> Source: [DO YOUR OWN CAR MAINTENANCE:  A HOW TO](https://youtube.com/watch?v=buJjccK98FQ)

## Summary

This video provides a concise guide to starting DIY car maintenance, emphasizing significant cost savings and the ability to afford cars otherwise out of reach. The creator outlines essential tools, safety precautions, and learning strategies for beginners.

### Key Points

- **Safety First** [0:06] — Cars contain hot, acidic, sharp components; use gloves, long sleeves, and eye protection. Learn proper jacking techniques to avoid dropping the car.
- **Essential Tools** [0:21] — Necessary tools include a socket set with extensions, wrenches (including gear wrenches), a breaker bar, a torque wrench, and an oil drain pan. Buy tools on sale to save money.
- **Specialized Tools** [2:34] — For European cars, you may need Torx bits. A breaker bar, especially a ratcheting one, helps with stuck bolts. PB Blaster penetrating oil is crucial for rusted parts.
- **Resources for Learning** [3:34] — Use online forums, the Haynes manual, and OBD2 diagnostic tools. Learn proper part names to search effectively; start with simple jobs like oil changes.
- **Patience and Safety** [6:48] — Car work requires patience; take breaks, stay hydrated. Start small, avoid dangerous tasks like fuel system or spring work until experienced. Always have a backup plan.

### Conclusion

DIY car maintenance saves significant money and enables car ownership. The presenter emphasizes safety, starting small, and using online communities for guidance.

## Transcript

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