DO YOUR OWN CAR MAINTENANCE: A HOW TO

[00:01] [Music]

[00:06] hello th here so I'm going to do a

[00:08] really quick overview of what it takes

[00:10] to start doing your own car maintenance

[00:12] I always encourage people to learn how

[00:13] to do this because you can save a

[00:14] massive amount of money and you have the

[00:17] option of getting yourself a car that

[00:18] you might not otherwise be able to

[00:20] afford so I'm going to go over a whole

[00:22] bunch of stuff uh that you need to get

[00:25] going and things that you need to learn

[00:26] to get going so before I start

[00:28] everything off the most most important

[00:30] thing that you need to know about

[00:31] working on a car is safety things in a

[00:33] car are hot acidic sharp and they just

[00:37] generally want to hurt you

[00:40] ouch ouch and you going to be under them

[00:43] and you're going to have your arm you're

[00:44] going to be elbow deep in your car and

[00:46] you want to make sure that you have the

[00:47] proper protection so gloves long sleeves

[00:50] eye protection if you're calling under

[00:51] the car the second most important part

[00:53] about safety is that you're almost

[00:54] guaranteed at some point going to be

[00:55] jacking up your car you need to learn

[00:57] how to do this I'm not going to show you

[00:58] how to do this cuz I'm not going to be

[01:00] liable for you dropping a car on your

[01:02] face so you have to learn how to jack up

[01:04] a car properly find someone that knows

[01:05] what they're doing get them to teach you

[01:07] how to do it there's a very specific way

[01:08] for every car to jack it up you need

[01:10] jack stands and I suggest a lowprofile

[01:12] jack spend the money and get a good Jack

[01:14] it just makes everything easier it goes

[01:15] up

[01:19] quicker now what I'm standing in front

[01:21] of here is basically a simple set of

[01:24] tools that will get you going doing your

[01:26] own car maintenance so things that I

[01:28] recommend that I can't live without are

[01:30] a proper socket set with extensions cuz

[01:33] you're going to need these no matter

[01:34] what you do you can just buy these uh

[01:36] extra these allow you to go uh you know

[01:38] way deep into the car and Ratchet things

[01:40] you not going to be able to reach

[01:42] otherwise now I got this socket set here

[01:45] don't do something ridiculous like buy

[01:47] this stuff full price because it goes on

[01:48] sale all the time this set here at

[01:51] regular price is

[01:53] $230 I got it for 60 okay so pay

[01:57] attention to the sales at your auto part

[01:59] store now I got a full set of wrenches

[02:01] here I've got two I got one of each size

[02:03] because chances are you're going to have

[02:05] a bolt that's in a small area and you're

[02:07] going to want to be able to counter hold

[02:09] it you're not going to be able to get a

[02:09] socket in there so you put one in here

[02:11] and you put one in there and it makes it

[02:13] a lot easier I got these things here

[02:15] these are a gear wrench these are worth

[02:17] their weight and gold they ratchet this

[02:19] makes everything so much easier you can

[02:22] ratchet a small bolt in a small area a

[02:25] hammer Clarkson would approve um if

[02:27] you're working on a European car you're

[02:29] going to have to get uh there's a

[02:31] regular socket set doesn't often come

[02:32] with this a set of

[02:34] Torx uh bolts like that and a breaker

[02:38] bar almost for sure because unless you

[02:41] have an impact gun which is kind of a

[02:42] luxury a breaker bar is going to make

[02:44] everything a lot easier UND doing wheel

[02:45] bolts and doing stuck nuts and lugs

[02:47] underneath the car this is a ratcheting

[02:49] breaker bar which is makes everything a

[02:51] lot

[02:53] easier next thing you're going to need

[02:54] is a torque wrench any single time you

[02:56] take something off a car a bolt or any

[02:58] kind you have to retorque it to spec if

[03:00] you don't know what torque specs are

[03:02] look it up uh either measured in pound

[03:04] feet or newton meters this one goes all

[03:06] the way to 250 pound feet that's about

[03:08] all you would ever need um there are

[03:10] smaller versions of this but uh this one

[03:12] is nice and strong and it's easy to

[03:14] torque bolts with other things that

[03:16] you're definitely going to need PB

[03:18] Blaster okay so this is a penetrating

[03:20] oil this is one of the things you cannot

[03:22] live without especially if you're

[03:23] working on an old BMW um watch my uh uh

[03:27] differential swap if you want to see

[03:29] what happens when you get a stuck

[03:31] bolt this makes a huge

[03:34] difference okay this is a Hanes manual

[03:37] for a Saab 93 the reason I have it for a

[03:39] Saab is because I have an old soab that

[03:41] I work on quite frequently and the

[03:43] online support quite isn't isn't as

[03:44] quite as good for uh SS is is for BMWs

[03:48] now for me BMWs is a huge community and

[03:51] I use the internet for pretty much

[03:52] everything that I do if I'm stuck it's

[03:53] got everything you need an oil drain pan

[03:55] that makes everything a lot easier when

[03:56] you're changing your oil changing fluids

[03:58] you kind of have to have one of those

[04:00] right so that's like a basic kit to get

[04:01] you going 100% guarantee the first time

[04:03] you do a job you're going to have to run

[04:04] out to the nearest store and buy

[04:06] something that you need so you start

[04:07] stacking up your tool slowly budget some

[04:09] money for

[04:13] that the way I see it is nowadays

[04:16] there's no excuse to not do your own car

[04:18] maintenance Because the Internet is such

[04:21] a valuable tool once you figure out how

[04:23] to use it I hope you've done that by now

[04:26] now everything you could ever need to

[04:28] know about your car is probably on the

[04:31] internet unless you have some weird

[04:32] obscure car that not very many people

[04:34] drive even then there's going to be a

[04:35] community for it somewhere and people

[04:37] who are willing to help you so the first

[04:39] thing that I would do though is if

[04:40] you're just fully getting started out on

[04:42] your own car maintenance you're probably

[04:43] not going to know what the parts of the

[04:45] car are called this was the biggest

[04:47] obstacle for me is when something

[04:48] started making noises you have to figure

[04:51] out what to search so that you can find

[04:53] what other people have done to fix it so

[04:56] get a diagram of your car find some like

[04:58] find a part break down find something

[05:00] like that so that you

[05:02] can understand what all the different

[05:04] parts of your car are called that makes

[05:06] a huge difference when you're trying to

[05:08] figure out what's broken almost

[05:11] guaranteed whatever car it is that you

[05:13] drive there's going to be an online

[05:15] forum for it join it now introduce

[05:17] yourself be nice be respectful because

[05:20] there's lots of people out there that

[05:21] know a lot about the car that you drive

[05:23] and they would be happy to help you as

[05:25] long as you know that you can they know

[05:26] that you can do your own research first

[05:29] there's a search function I've gone over

[05:31] this in another video there's a search

[05:32] function on every Forum learn how to use

[05:34] it learn to search up before you just

[05:36] walk onto the front of the Forum and say

[05:38] why won't my car start there's probably

[05:41] a whole thread on why your car won't

[05:42] start and all the possible causes so

[05:45] learn to use the function uh to research

[05:48] everything before you actually start

[05:49] asking real questions for real people

[05:52] but if you are truly stuck there's

[05:54] always someone in every community that

[05:55] I've been in anyway that's willing to

[05:57] help you figure it out

[06:02] another really handy thing that you

[06:03] should get is an OBD diagnostic scan

[06:06] tool now you can get one of those ones

[06:08] that plugs right in uh to the OBD2 port

[06:10] and has its own little screen but

[06:11] honestly the easier way is to just go to

[06:13] Amazon and get an OBD2 reader for your

[06:16] phone I've done a couple reviews on some

[06:18] of those apps you can check them out

[06:20] here um that's a really good way to be

[06:21] able to read the codes in your car so

[06:23] when you get a check engine light you

[06:24] don't have to pay somebody 50 bucks to

[06:27] tell you what the code is you can just

[06:28] figure it out yourself

[06:30] all you have to do is buy it once and

[06:32] then you don't ever have to go again to

[06:34] get your codes read unless it's a really

[06:35] obscure code which some of these readers

[06:36] can't read but you can do a lot of

[06:39] understanding what's going on in your

[06:40] engine using these readers and the more

[06:42] you learn the better you are able to

[06:44] diagnose

[06:48] problems one thing that I really

[06:50] recommend that you get is some patience

[06:53] working on an old car especially an old

[06:55] European car is an incredibly arduous

[06:58] thing to do

[07:00] things are rusted they're old they won't

[07:01] come undone it's hard like I mean it's

[07:04] physically hard to do my arms are

[07:06] currently sore from yesterday when I did

[07:08] my differential my body was stiff all

[07:10] night it's not an easy thing working on

[07:13] a car and wrenching on a car it's

[07:14] something that you have to have a lot of

[07:15] patience to do uh I can't count the

[07:18] number of times that someone has walked

[07:21] into the garage after I've been working

[07:22] on the car and they found me sitting

[07:24] there with my head in my hands but not

[07:26] crying I definitely don't cry

[07:30] so when you are working on your car I

[07:32] recommend you take breakes frequently

[07:34] make sure you're drinking a lot of water

[07:36] if it's hot out because you're going to

[07:37] get frustrated really quickly and it's

[07:39] not worth it because if somebody out

[07:42] there can reach it and do that and undo

[07:44] that bolt you can too it just takes time

[07:46] and focus and patience to be able to

[07:48] just go okay I can do this I know it's

[07:51] hard maybe get someone else to try often

[07:54] I have walked away gone and done

[07:56] something else had a rethink and come

[07:58] back and the bolt came on UND done right

[08:00] it's just a matter of being patient with

[08:02] yourself because it's not easy sometimes

[08:04] but it is worth it in the end it's

[08:05] rewarding and you save a lot of money

[08:07] I've easily saved thousands of dollars

[08:11] in car labor just doing my own

[08:12] maintenance on my car and if you have an

[08:13] older car like a

[08:14] BMW you're going to be doing a lot of

[08:17] Maintenance so it's worth learning how

[08:19] to do it yourself it's worth it really

[08:25] is if you're just getting into car

[08:27] maintenance and you just bought yourself

[08:28] your first set of tools I don't think

[08:30] that you should start by dropping the

[08:33] transmission and doing a clutch I think

[08:35] you should probably start small do

[08:37] things like oil changes change the air

[08:39] filter in your car simple stuff that you

[08:41] don't need to pay anybody to do change a

[08:43] windshield wiper something like that

[08:45] right and then slowly work your way up

[08:46] into the more complicated things uh

[08:48] start doing things like brake pads

[08:50] before you would consider doing anything

[08:51] that requires a brake bleed right I

[08:54] would do basic stuff before you

[08:56] considered starting to weld I still

[08:57] don't weld I don't have a welder I just

[08:59] let somebody else do that type of thing

[09:00] for me anything that's dangerous uh

[09:02] dealing with gasoline or dealing with

[09:04] like spring compression uh leave that to

[09:07] somebody else until you're really

[09:08] confident you really know what you're

[09:09] doing you don't want to make a mistake

[09:11] that could hurt you obviously right so I

[09:13] think start small do some simple things

[09:16] I'm going to do a DIY soon on how to

[09:17] change the oil in an E46 BMW if you're

[09:19] just getting into it that's a great

[09:21] place to start a little scary at first

[09:23] because you're like oh what happens when

[09:24] I what if I can't get the oil in it's

[09:26] really not that big of a deal you start

[09:27] to relax the more that you do more

[09:29] maintenance and it's worth it in the end

[09:30] leave yourself enough time to do the

[09:33] repairs because something always goes

[09:34] wrong I don't think I've ever actually

[09:35] done a big job where I didn't have to

[09:37] leave what I was doing in someone else's

[09:39] car and go buy a part from an auto part

[09:41] store halfway through if you think

[09:43] you're going to change all four break

[09:45] calipers at 900 p.m. the night before a

[09:48] big job interview you might need to

[09:50] re-evaluate your decision-making

[09:51] Paradigm if you leave yourself enough

[09:53] time like leave yourself a full day or a

[09:55] weekend or something you've never done

[09:56] before you should be fine and always

[09:58] 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

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