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Changing your own oil teaches you more about your car than reading the owner’s manual. It can also save you some serious cash.
Every driver starts somewhere. Which maintenance jobs do you think every car owner should know how to do?
From essentials like checking tyre pressure and replacing wiper blades to less obvious jobs like cleaning battery terminals.
Share your recommendations — and the tips you wish someone had told you before you started.
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I am probably not the average car owner, as I work on my cars fairly regularly. Most of what I know has accumulated over many years of repair attempts — usually motivated by trying to save money and avoid expensive visits to mechanics. Some attempts went better than others, but even the mistakes taught me something.
For me, the most useful DIY skills are not necessarily the biggest jobs. They are the small things that stop a minor problem from becoming an expensive one.
Every driver should know how to:
* Check tyre pressures, tread depth and uneven wear
* Change a wheel safely and identify the correct jacking points
* Check and top up oil, coolant, brake fluid and screenwash
* Replace wiper blades, bulbs, fuses and basic filters
* Clean battery terminals and safely connect jump leads
* Inspect belts, hoses and obvious fluid leaks
* Tighten wheel bolts properly with a torque wrench rather than simply “as tight as possible”One less obvious skill is learning what your own car normally sounds, smells and feels like. A new vibration, sweet coolant smell, burning-oil scent or unfamiliar whine can warn you about a problem long before a dashboard light appears.
I would also recommend keeping a basic €20 OBD scanner in the glovebox. Mine has paid for itself several times over. In the past, OBD scanners often needed to be connected to a laptop and could require potentially expensive diagnostic software. Nowadays, it can be as simple as connecting a small scanner wirelessly to your smartphone via Bluetooth, with plenty of free apps available.
It will not magically diagnose every fault, but it can tell you why the engine light appeared, help distinguish an urgent problem from a minor sensor issue and stop you arriving at a garage completely blind. Just remember to record the fault code before clearing anything.You do not need to become a mechanic. Knowing the basics makes you safer, saves money and makes it much harder for either the car — or a repair quote — to surprise you.
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