Essential Tools Every DIY Auto Repair Enthusiast Should Own

Maintaining a car can be both time consuming and hard work. Nevertheless, the job will be easier (and quicker!) if you have the correct tools to hand at the outset. Some items will be everyday workhorse tools such as socket sets, pair of pliers and a torch. However, some of the ‘necessary’ items may he more specialist in their nature, think of car code readers, multimeters and jumper cables.

Torque wrenches are helpful to enable tightening of bolts and nuts to specifications, thus avoiding over-tightening which can cause damage to engine components.

Socket Set

No automotive project is truly complete without some use of the socket sets. If you are dealing with some general tools, the socket sets will assure you comfortable loosening or tightening of many fasteners. For instance, when you have socket sets with both standard and metric attachment sizings, you will be able to finish different projects successfully.

DIY car nuts also require other tools, of course: a number of different sized screwdrivers, pliers of different weights for gripping and bending wires, various factory service manuals, and the basic safety gear (work gloves and safety glasses).

Pliers

A socket set and allen wrenches and basic pliers are worth their weight in gold in this regard, but so are emergency supplies such as a tire pressure gauge and duct tape.

A breaker bar is designed to add extra leverage – it is mainly used to pry apart components that are too tight to be driven apart with a regular pair of shafts. Groove pliers are another size tool that allows holding items of many different sizes. Brake spring pliers allow mechanical support at the cylinder.

Oil Filter Wrench

An oil filter wrench provides a much easier way to perform oil changes, allowing you to hold onto an oil filter so that you can twist it off without deforming or crushing it, making this kind of task much easier and less time-consuming. You can use a strap wrench to accommodate different sizes of the filter or the claw-style wrenches for standard filters.

A hydraulic floor jack will help you get your car up safely for maintenance, and pair it with jack stands to ensure your stability. A multimeter is also valuable for your troubleshooting arsenal, helping you to measure the voltages and currents that connect every part of your car and get from one place to another.

Pick Set

With a pick set, keeners can see the parts they otherwise can’t. This set has half-diamond picks, for picking by pins or raking (for wafer and disk locks) and a short hook for finesse work.

Want to delve into DIY car maintenance? Having these tools at hand makes it a whole lot easier — a great combination of sockets and a comprehensive toolkit of pliers make an excellent basis for your own.

Torque Wrench

A torque wrench might look like a regular ratchet but it allows for tightening of fasteners to specifications. Improper torque on a bolt may cause catastrophic damage: an overtightened cylinder-head fastener could bust a manifold, or cause leaking of coolant.

There are several different drive sizes with size 1 inch, ½? inch, and 3/8? inch, being the most frequent to work with cars and light equipments. We usually recommend the 3/8? inch.

Car Code Reader

A car code reader – also called a scan tool – plugs into your car’s onboard diagnostics system to access any trouble codes that are triggering check engine lights. A basic OBD2 scanner will run you less than $40 and easily cover the cost of trips to the auto shop.

Better models might download manufacturer-specific current codes, put those codes into a searchable database, and deliver the live data – right there on your dashboard – to help you figure out what the problem is. The CEL definitions might be included in full.

Electrical Tape

Electrical tape is a great choice to keep wires protected, especially if you want to hide them. Strong rubber-based adhesive keeps electrical tape attached to your wires, and the vinyl and PVC backing allows easy stretching around the wires. Electrical tape comes in many different colours, which is useful for colour coding as well.

Besides, having these tools handy will improve your chances of being able to successfully do your own auto repair work. An inexpensive digital multimeter will help you troubleshoot electrical gremlins, while a set of jumper cables do a fine job of bringing an unresponsive battery back to life. Having all of these tools onboard will make do-it-yourself auto repairs easier.

Factory Service Manual

For any car enthusiast keen to perform repairs on his motor, there is nothing more useful than an official factory service manual. Such guide books, often quite detailed and meticulous, outline each step and task required to work with a certain make and model, thus saving time, hassle and expense by avoiding unnecessary errors and misunderstandings.

Safety kit is an integral of DIY automobile mechanics. A sturdy boot must protect your feet from falling objects and a facemaskly be worn to avoid inhaling toxic fumes. An automotive stethoscope and multimetercan easely figure out what engine and cabin sounds are saying.

Zip Ties

There is literally no lengthy cable that I allow to be obstructed on my laptops and workstations or to dangle into the air that does not have a zip tie (known interchangeably as a cable tie) binding a group of cables together and tying the array to the back of the computer. And every tight knot for every desktop fixture is secured using zip ties. They are also a fastening solution of choice for DIYers. Zip ties are classic examples of fastening and bonding solutions, and those are distinct fastening operations – temporarily holding stuff together and irreversibly holding stuff together.

Zip ties are brilliant when used creatively in the kitchen and for camping, and serve as an excellent makeshift non-slip coating, or a DIY ice-spike for slippery shoes ­– and you pull outward on the pin or fingernail in the ratchet latch, and then downward to loosen.

Tire Pressure Gauge

Keeping your tire pressure at the proper level maximises both vehicle handling and fuel mileage, so you might decide on an ongoing action to keep up with this maintenance task. You could get a tire pressure gauge and check tire pressures once a month.

Then, remove the valve cap of your tire and put a gauge on its stem, giving it a good tighten then reading the exterior of the gauge for tire pressure.