DO YOUR OWN CAR MAINTENANCE A HOW TO
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00:00Hello, TH here.
00:07So I'm going to do a really quick overview of what it takes to start doing your own car
00:11maintenance.
00:12I always encourage people to learn how to do this because you can save a massive amount
00:15of money and you have the option of getting yourself a car that you might not otherwise
00:19be able to afford.
00:21So I'm going to go over a whole bunch of stuff that you need to get going and things that
00:26you need to learn to get going.
00:28So before I start everything off, the most important thing that you need to know about
00:31working on a car is safety.
00:33Things in a car are hot, acidic, sharp, and they just generally want to hurt you.
00:40Ouch!
00:41Ouch!
00:42And you are going to be under them and you're going to have your arm, you're going to be
00:45elbow deep in your car and you want to make sure that you have the proper protection.
00:48So gloves, long sleeves, eye protection if you're crawling under the car.
00:52The second most important part about safety is that you're almost guaranteed at some point
00:55going to be jacking up your car.
00:57You need to learn how to do this.
00:58I'm not going to show you how to do this because I'm not going to be liable for you dropping
01:01a car on your face.
01:02So you have to learn how to jack up a car properly.
01:05Find someone that knows what they're doing, get them to teach you how to do it.
01:07There's a very specific way for every car to jack it up.
01:10You need jack stands and I suggest a low profile jack.
01:13Spend the money and get a good jack.
01:14It just makes everything easier.
01:15It goes up quicker.
01:20Now what I'm standing in front of here is basically a simple set of tools that will
01:25get you going doing your own car maintenance.
01:27So things that I recommend that I can't live without are a proper socket set with extensions
01:33because you're going to need these no matter what you do.
01:35You can just buy these extra.
01:37These allow you to go way deep into the car and ratchet things that you're not going to
01:41be able to reach otherwise.
01:43Now I got this socket set here.
01:45Don't do something ridiculous like buy this stuff full price because it goes on sale all
01:49the time.
01:50This set here at regular price is $230.
01:54I got it for $60.
01:56So pay attention to the sales at your auto parts store.
01:59Now I got a full set of wrenches here.
02:01I've got two.
02:02I got one of each size because chances are you're going to have a bolt that's in a small
02:07area and you're going to want to be able to counter hold it.
02:09You're not going to get a socket in there.
02:10So you put one in here and you put one in there and it makes it a lot easier.
02:14I got these things here.
02:15These are a gear wrench.
02:17These are worth their weight in gold.
02:18They ratchet.
02:19This makes everything so much easier.
02:22You can ratchet a small bolt in a small area, a hammer Clarkson would approve.
02:28If you're working on a European car, you're going to have to get a, there's a regular
02:31socket set doesn't often come with this, a set of Torx bolts like that and a breaker
02:38bar almost for sure.
02:40Because unless you have an impact gun, which is kind of a luxury, a breaker bar is going
02:44to make everything a lot easier on doing wheel bolts and doing stuck nuts and lugs underneath
02:48the car.
02:49This is a ratcheting breaker bar, which makes everything a lot easier.
02:54Next thing you're going to need is a torque wrench.
02:55Any single time you take something off a car, a bolt or any kind, you have to retorque it
03:00to spec.
03:01If you don't know what torque specs are, look it up, uh, they're measured in pound feet
03:04or Newton meters.
03:05This one goes all the way to 250 pound feet.
03:08That's about all you would ever need.
03:10There are smaller versions of this, but this one is nice and strong and it's easy to torque
03:14bolts with.
03:16One of the things that you're definitely going to need, PB Blaster.
03:19Okay, so this is a penetrating oil.
03:21This is one of the things you cannot live without, especially if you're working on an
03:24old BMW.
03:26Watch my differential swap if you want to see what happens when you get a stuck bolt.
03:32This makes a huge difference.
03:36This is a Haynes manual for a Saab 9-3.
03:38The reason I have it for a Saab is because I have an old Saab that I work on quite frequently
03:43and the online support isn't quite as good for Saabs as it is for BMWs.
03:48Now for me, BMWs is a huge community and I use the internet for pretty much everything
03:52that I do.
03:53If I'm stuck, it's got everything you need.
03:55An oil drain pan, that makes everything a lot easier when you're changing your oil,
03:58changing fluids.
03:59You kind of have to have one of those.
04:00All right, so that's like a basic kit to get you going.
04:02100% guaranteed the first time you do a job, you're going to have to run out to the nearest
04:05store and buy something that you need.
04:07So you start stacking up your tools slowly.
04:09Budget some money for that.
04:13The way I see it is nowadays there's no excuse to not do your own car maintenance because
04:20the internet is such a valuable tool once you figure out how to use it.
04:24I hope you've done that by now.
04:26Now everything you could ever need to know about your car is probably on the internet
04:31unless you have some weird obscure car that not very many people drive.
04:34Even then there's going to be a community for it somewhere and people who are willing
04:37to help you.
04:39So the first thing that I would do though is if you're just fully getting started out
04:42on your own car maintenance, you're probably not going to know what the parts of the car
04:45are called.
04:46This was the biggest obstacle for me, is when something started making noises, you have
04:50to figure out what to search so that you can find what other people have done to fix it.
04:55So get a diagram of your car, find a part breakdown, find something like that so that
05:01you can understand what all the different parts of your car are called.
05:06It makes a huge difference when you're trying to figure out what's broken.
05:11Just guarantee whatever car it is that you drive, there's going to be an online forum
05:15for it.
05:16Join it now.
05:17Introduce yourself, be nice, be respectful because there's lots of people out there that
05:21know a lot about the car that you drive and they would be happy to help you as long as
05:25you know that you can, they know that you can do your own research first.
05:29There's a search function.
05:30I've gone over this in another video.
05:31There's a search function on every forum.
05:34Learn how to use it.
05:35Learn to search up before you just walk onto the front of the forum and say, why won't
05:39my car start?
05:41There's probably a whole thread on why your car won't start and all the possible causes.
05:44So learn to use the function to research everything before you actually start asking real questions
05:51for real people.
05:52But if you are truly stuck, there's always someone in every community that I've been
05:55in anyway that's willing to help you figure it out.
06:02Another really handy thing that you should get is an OBD diagnostic scan tool.
06:07Now you can get one of those ones that plugs right in to the OBD2 port and has its own
06:10little screen, but honestly the easier way is to just go to Amazon and get an OBD2 reader
06:15for your phone.
06:16I've done a couple of reviews on some of those apps.
06:19You can check them out here.
06:20That's a really good way to be able to read the codes in your car so when you get a check
06:24engine light, you don't have to pay somebody 50 bucks to tell you what the code is.
06:28You can just figure it out yourself.
06:30All you have to do is buy it once and then you don't ever have to go again to get your
06:34codes read.
06:35And this is a really obscure code which some of these readers can't read, but you can do
06:38a lot of understanding what's going on in your engine using these readers and the more
06:42you learn, the better you are able to diagnose problems.
06:50One thing that I really recommend that you get is some patience.
06:53Working on an old car, especially an old European car, is an incredibly arduous thing to do.
07:00Things are rusted.
07:01They're old.
07:02They won't come undone.
07:03Like I mean it's physically hard to do.
07:06My arms are currently sore from yesterday when I did my differential.
07:09My body was stiff all night.
07:11It's not an easy thing working on a car and wrenching on a car.
07:15It's something that you have to have a lot of patience to do.
07:18I can't count the number of times that someone has walked into the garage after I've been
07:22working on the car and they found me sitting there with my head in my hands, but not crying.
07:27I definitely don't cry.
07:31So when you are working on your car, I recommend you take breaks frequently.
07:35Make sure you're drinking a lot of water if it's hot out because you're going to get frustrated
07:38really quickly and it's not worth it because if somebody out there can reach it and do
07:44that and undo that bolt, you can too.
07:46It just takes time and focus and patience to be able to just go, okay, I can do this.
07:51I know it's hard.
07:52Maybe get someone else to try.
07:54Often I have walked away, gone and done something else, had a rethink and come back and the
07:59bolt came undone, right?
08:00It's just a matter of being patient with yourself because it's not easy sometimes, but it is
08:04worth it in the end.
08:05It's rewarding.
08:06You save a lot of money.
08:07I've easily saved thousands of dollars in car labor just doing my own maintenance on
08:13my car.
08:14And if you have an older car like a BMW, you're going to be doing a lot of maintenance.
08:18So it's worth learning how to do it yourself.
08:20It's worth it.
08:21It really is.
08:26If you're just getting into car maintenance and you just bought yourself your first set
08:29of tools, I don't think that you should start by dropping the transmission and doing a clutch.
08:35I think you should probably start small.
08:37Do things like oil changes, change the air filter in your car, simple stuff that you
08:42don't need to pay anybody to do.
08:43Change a windshield wiper or something like that, right?
08:45And then slowly work your way up into the more complicated things.
08:49Start doing things like brake pads before you would consider doing anything that requires
08:52a brake bleed, right?
08:54I would do basic stuff before you consider starting to weld.
08:57I still don't weld.
08:58I don't have a welder.
08:59I just let somebody else do that type of thing for me.
09:01Anything that's dangerous, dealing with gasoline or dealing with like spring compression, leave
09:07that to somebody else until you're really confident and you really know what you're
09:09doing.
09:10You don't want to make a mistake that could hurt you, obviously, right?
09:13So I think start small.
09:15Do some simple things.
09:16I'm going to do a DIY soon on how to change the oil in an E46 BMW if you're just getting
09:20into it.
09:21That's a great place to start.
09:22A little bit scary at first because you're like, oh, what happens when I, what if I can't
09:25get the oil in?
09:26It's really not that big of a deal.
09:27You start to relax the more that you do more maintenance and it's worth it in the end.
09:31Leave yourself enough time to do the repairs because something always goes wrong.
09:35I don't think I've ever actually done a big job where I didn't have to leave what I was
09:38doing in someone else's car and go buy a part from an auto parts store halfway through.
09:43If you think you're going to change all four brake calipers at 9pm the night before a big
09:48job interview, you might need to reevaluate your decision making paradigm.
09:52If you leave yourself enough time, like leave yourself a full day or a weekend or something
09:55you've never done before, you should be fine and always come up with a backup for getting
10:00to work on Monday.
10:01If you are going to tackle a big job, you've never done it before.
10:04You really don't want to get stuck without your car and it's worse if you get your car
10:07into a position where it can't be towed to a shop to have somebody fix it for you.
10:13I've done that.
10:14Don't do that.
10:15So that's just a really quick overview of what it takes to get into your own car maintenance.
10:20There's a little bit of upfront cost, obviously buying your first set of tools, but you can
10:24slowly build your tool kit over time.
10:27If you don't have a space to work on your car, it makes it very difficult and I understand
10:30that a lot of people are in that position.
10:33Maybe find a friend that you're willing to learn with and you guys can split the cost
10:36of tools and he might have a garage or something you could work in.
10:39But it is very rewarding to work on your own car.
10:42Yes, you're going to bash your knuckles, yes, you're going to burn yourself, yes, it hurts,
10:46but it's worth it.
10:47I would personally, with my job, never be able to afford an old BMW if I didn't do my
10:52own maintenance.
10:54I would have by now easily put half of the total cost of the vehicle into paying someone
10:58to fix it.
10:59That's how much maintenance I've done on it, right?
11:01So that's the thing you have to consider.
11:03If you learn how to do this, it pays off, easily pays off.
11:06The cost of the tools, everything is paid off because you're going to be able to own
11:09a car that you would never otherwise be able to afford.
11:12And that's very valuable, especially if you're a car enthusiast.
11:15So stay tuned for more reviews and DIYs.
11:17I've got a review of, hopefully, an F80 M3 coming up that I hope you tune into.
11:24Check out my channel for other reviews, especially on the OBD scan tool apps.
11:27There's lots of good stuff on there.
11:29Until then, talk to you next time.