Are you ready to start working on your own car? It is an appealing idea considering the cost and time involved in taking your vehicle to a repair shop. But following the instructions in a repair manual can be more complicated than you may think. This article will answer some of the common questions about working from a repair manual and hopefully allow you to be better prepared for your repair job.

One issue is whether you are physically equipped to perform the procedures in your repair manual. For light jobs there shouldn’t be a problem but some repairs involve heavy lifting, applying torque, and other actions requiring physical strength. Be realistic about whether you can complete the repair, do your research, and you should be fine. (more…)

For most drivers, getting their vehicle repaired can often be a stressful time. When many people think of auto repair shops, they often think of scoundrels who will try to milk them for as much money as they can. Fortunately, good and honest auto body repair shops are easy to find. You just have to know what to look for and what questions to ask when researching auto shops.

The following are a number of tips on what to look for in an auto body repair shop:

1. One place to search for information about an auto repair shop is to check online. The internet is a great source of finding the history of an auto repair shop. You can go to such sites as the Better Business Bureau, a consumer report site, and Angie’s list, to see if there is a history of complaints. As well, you can also find reviews of auto repair shops written by customers. (more…)

If you need to have your car’s transmission overhauled, it’s a bad idea to do it yourself. The same is true with replacing the engine, master cylinder, or head gasket. There are some repairs that are best left in the capable hands of an experienced auto technician. If you make a mistake while trying to perform them, you can injure yourself or cause damage to your vehicle.

Having said that, there are plenty of small automotive problems you can fix in the privacy of your garage. For example, you should be able to swap out the battery, spark plugs, and headlight bulbs. With a little practice and confidence, you might be able to replace the timing belt and fuel filter. In this article, I’ll provide a quick-start guide for getting your hands dirty with your own auto repairs. (more…)

So you have decided that you are going to tackle that nagging repair job this weekend. You did the same job on your previous vehicle, and you are thinking that maybe you will just “wing it” this time without a repair manual. You should think about this carefully, because this decision can have serious implications both for your likelihood of success and for your physical safety.

Even if you know the gist of what you need to do, you can’t take for granted the information that you are not going to have available to you if you wing it. Even small repairs often require exact torque specifications or special tool numbers. If you wing it, you are going to have a sloppy repair job at best, and an unsafe one at worst. Some of the most common areas for DIY repair are also critical to safe driving, such as your brakes, steering, and suspension. If you mess up working without a manual, you can put yourself or your family at risk. (more…)

When it comes to choosing a toolkit for doing your own auto repairs the choice is virtually endless. Do you go with something cheap and hope it lasts the distance or do you go with something middle of the range in the hope that it will be up to the task or go all the way to the expensive top of the range stuff?

The majority of do-it-yourselfers would probably go with the first option and get what they can for the least money as possible and rightly so, after all who has the money to spend on tools that might not get used all that often? The problem with this choice is that by using the cheapest possible tools you may end up having to shell out more than the toolkit cost you in the first place! (more…)