I’m lucky in that Sam is normally up for trying to fix most things that go wrong with our cars, and unlucky in that we can only afford to buy second hand cars so he actually has to try and fix things every so often! He has built up quite a range of tools and manuals over the past few years and will generally try and give feasible a go, and it’s definitely saved us money over the years with garages! I will never forget the first car I owned back in my early twenties, it was due an MOT so off I trotted to a popular high street mechanic and they told me it needed over a thousand pounds worth of work. Now back then I didn’t know the first thing about cars so I just let them get on with it and put it on my credit card! The next year off I went again, couldnt afford all the things they told me needed doing so took it to an independent mechanic who fixed the few things that actually needed doing for far less. Now thankfully Sam is able to do a lot of the smaller jobs that make the difference between a pass and a fail, which saves us money for getting the big things fixed.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
- The first thing to do is to buy a manual for your make and model of car, they’re always handy to have even if you don’t plan on doing anything other than changing the wiper blades! Sam then watches a few videos on youtube.com to find one that he understands and that makes it clear in step by step directions what he needs to do. Watch it through completely so you can be sure you’ve got everything you need and know what you’re up against.
- It’s always cheaper to buy car accessories direct rather than through a named garage, and they will still come with a warranty plus they’ve get delivered to your door (which could be handy if your car can’t be driven!) www.autodoc.co.uk is a great resource for car parts at much cheaper prices than named dealers.
- The last thing you need is space off road, either on a drive way in a garage so that you’ve got plenty of space to move around the car and not worry about being in the way of other vehicles on the road.
Good Luck!