Top Tools You’ll Need for Car Maintenance

It’s easy to transform your garage from simply the place you keep your car into a veritable amateur auto shop. A relatively small investment of time and money can gain you the tools and knowledge to DIY simple repairs and maintenance. This can develop quickly into a worthwhile hobby.

Maintaining your own vehicle is a rewarding and money-saving endeavor. With the hourly rates of auto mechanics where they are, it can cost an arm and a leg to have someone else perform even the most basic car maintenance tasks. Luckily, only a few tools and a little know-how are required to handle things like oil changes, fluid changes, and other simple jobs.

We are not advocating that you attempt an engine overhaul in your garage (unless you’ve got the experience). But if you want to improve your relationship with your vehicle and understand what makes it work, there are a number of jobs you can do at home.

In order to do the work, it’s important to have the right car tools for the job. Here are a few things you’ll need to get started.

Impact Wrench

That spinning, squealing sound you hear in professional garages? That’s the sound of an impact wrench, one of the most important tools in the arsenal of anyone who works on cars. Impact wrenches go by many names: air wrench, rattle gun, torque gun, impactor, etc. Some might run on electricity, but the more common variety works with compressed air. Cordless electric impact wrenches are becoming more and more popular, though.

An impact wrench delivers high torque output without requiring much force from the user. It looks like a thick handheld drill and can be fitted with a socket to extract or install nuts and bolts. An impact wrench is not a replacement for your standard socket wrench, however, as there is not enough room to reach some of the bolts. For those, you’ll need a socket wrench, and you’ll have to torque it with your own strength.

If you choose an impact wrench that runs on compressed air, you’re also going to need an air compressor. Make sure it puts out at least 4 cubic feet per minute of air at 90 psi.

Floor Jack

Almost every job you perform on your car requires it to be lifted off the ground. But you don’t want to use that flimsy scissor jack in your tire change kit. Performing even routine maintenance calls for a floor jack, which is sturdier and stronger.

That scissor jack in your emergency roadside kit is not designed for heavy, repeated use. It’s intended only to lift and hold the car for brief emergency roadside maintenance.

Bottle jacks and high lift jacks are not suitable, either. What you need is a floor jack. A floor jack rated heavy enough for the vehicle allows for easy lifting. The wheels on the jack allow for adjustment as the lift point moves since only part of the car is off the ground.

In selecting a floor jack to keep among the car tools in your garage, you’ll want to pay attention to the following:

• Lift capacity: This is the single most important factor. Make sure the jack is more than strong enough to lift your vehicle.
• Quick or standard lift: Quick lift jacks lift quicker. They’re also usually a little more expensive.
• Lift range: If your vehicle has very low ground clearance, some floor jacks may not be low enough to get under the jack points. If your vehicle has high ground clearance, some floor jacks won’t rise high enough to get it comfortably off the ground.

A note of caution here: Don’t rely on your floor jack to hold the vehicle once it’s off the ground. Rather, once it’s at height, secure it with jack stands. Never, never count on the jack alone to hold a vehicle. Even the best jacks can fail, with dangerous or disastrous results. Use jack stands.

Automotive Parts Washer

Parts washers are designed to clean metal parts and car tools, so they work as well as possible. They’re a must-have in any quality home garage. Anyone who has much experience working on motor vehicles can tell stories about how dirty or contaminated parts can damage a vehicle.

That might mean not only that your work on that particular job has been wasted but also that you now have more work to do thanks to the consequences of installing dirty parts. A quality automotive parts washer will remove dirt, grease, grime, oil, grit, and other contaminants so that the part can be confidently installed.

Parts washers use either solvents or water to do the cleaning. With a solvent-based automotive parts washer, chemical solvents are employed. These are more common in commercial garages where lots of parts need to be cleaned every day or cleaned at lower temperatures. Solvent-based parts washers are rare in home auto shops.

Water-based parts washers, also called aqueous washers, make use of pressure, higher temperatures, soap, and agitation to clean off contaminants. They require less maintenance, and you won’t have to worry about disposing of harsh chemicals.

Another consideration surrounding automotive parts washers is whether to choose a portable or stationary model. Each of these comes with advantages and disadvantages. The one you select basically comes down to preference and the types of jobs you’re doing, but most home garages go with stationary, water-based automotive parts washers.

Oil Catch Pan

If you’re going to be performing maintenance on your vehicle at home, that likely means changing fluids. When you drain the oil from your engine or transmission or the coolant from your coolant system, you’ll want to drain it into a catch pan, also known as a drip pan. Without one, you’re going to make a big mess.

A drip pan is essentially a low-profile bucket designed to fit under the vehicle. They have a lip or spout so they can easily be emptied into a receptacle so that you can dispose of the fluids later.

Sockets, Wrenches, and Socket Wrenches

Of course, the most common and best-known car tool is the tried-and-true wrench. Most vehicles produced by American manufacturers use imperial measurements, while most foreign-produced vehicles use metric ones. It’s a good idea to have wrenches of both measurement types available in your garage. Of course, you’ll use socket wrenches or impact wrenches most of the time, but you need standard wrenches for tight spots.

Generally speaking, you’ll want sockets and wrenches from 1/4 inch up to 1 1/14 inch and 7 mm up to 30 mm. Choose six-point sockets for most standard jobs. These are thought to be stronger due to the inner walls setting tightly against the six sides of a bolt.

Socket wrenches come in three standard drive sizes. These are 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch, and 1/2 inch. For your home garage, you’ll want at least one 1/4-inch socket wrench for small bolts and tight spots and one 1/2-inch socket wrench for larger bolts. And you’re going to use the 3/8 drive the most, so get one of those, too.

Lights and Headlamps

Don’t forget the lights! It’s dark under that car, and it’s dark in that engine bay. Granted, you’re not likely to need any special lighting for a basic oil change, but the need to be able to see what you’re doing cannot be overestimated. You’re going to want at least one of each of these:

• Clip-on light: to clip to the hood and shine down on the engine.

• Tripod light: to set on the ground and shine up at the engine.

• Head lamp: to wear on your head so you can see what’s in front of you.

Approachable DIY Auto Maintenance

Once you’ve acquired the right equipment, it’s time to move on to the jobs. Typically, an amateur grease monkey will start with the basics, like oil changes, brake jobs, and emergency preparedness.

Changing Your Oil

Let’s start with a simple one: Performing an oil change. At its most basic, changing your vehicle’s oil is a straightforward process:

• Lift the car, and place an oil drip pan beneath the engine.
• Remove the oil drain plug, and let the oil drain into the drip pan.
• Remove the oil cap to let the oil drain faster.
• Replace the oil drain plug.
• Refill the oil.
• Lower the car.
• Put away the car tools, and drive away.

Of course, it’s true that different vehicles take oils of different weights and viscosities (and in different amounts), and the drain plugs might have different torque settings. The relevant information for your car is in your owner’s manual.

It’s that simple for almost every motor vehicle in the world, yet most people take their cars to Jiffy Lube. It’s too bad because changing your own oil, the most basic of maintenance tasks will save you a bit of money. You might even be surprised to find that you like your car more if you change your own oil. It’s a curious thing about human nature that we tend to like and care more about the things we put work into.

Note that you’ll also want to change your oil filter most, if not all, of the times you change the oil. You don’t have to do it every time, as most filters are rated for 10,000 miles at least, but it only costs a few dollars more and doesn’t require much extra work. To remove the filter for replacement, you’ll probably want to add a filter wrench to your collection of car tools.

Replacing Your Brakes

Brake pads are most commonly made of semi-metallic compounds that are up to 65% metal. The remainder might consist of wire, copper, or steel wool. Most brake pads are designed to make a high pitch whining or squealing sound when it’s getting close to time to replace them. If you hear a squeal when you hit the brakes, it’s probably time for a brake job.

Have no fear — this is a job you can do at home:

• Raise the vehicle with your floor jack.
• Secure it with jack stands.
• Remove the tire.
• With the tire removed, you’ll see the brake actuator, which holds the brake pads.
• Remove the bolts that hold the brake actuator in place.
• Remove the actuator and set it on something so the brake line is not stressed.
• Remove the current brake pads by slipping the clips off the actuator.
• Install the new brake pads.
• Lightly spray the brake rotors with brake cleaner.
• Reverse the process, and the brake squealing will be gone.

If you’ve waited too long to change the pads, you might need new rotors as well. This is a slightly bigger job, but you won’t need any extra tools to do it.

Emergencies Away From the Garage

You won’t always be able to do the job in the comfort of your garage. Sometimes issues will arise on the road that must be addressed before you can drive on.

Flat Tire

Most cars come with an emergency tire change kit that includes a tire iron, a jack, and a spare tire of some kind. Usually, on newer vehicles, the spare tire comes in the form of a “donut” spare tire, also called a “space-saver,” or compact spare. These tires are good for only a short distance and only lower speeds.

The idea is that you can drive the car to a tire shop on the donut and get your full-size tire repaired or replaced before continuing on. These kits are a lifesaver in a pinch, but drivers who plan ahead will replace the jack with something stronger and replace the donut with a full-size spare, assuming there is room in the trunk for it.

Dead Battery

Let’s say you’re staying at a hotel while on the road for a few days. Before you go in, you turn on the overhead light so you can find your wallet and sort out which bags to take with you. When you leave your car — whoops! — you forget to turn the overhead light off again. You return to your vehicle in the morning and turn the key in the ignition. Nothing. The battery is dead.

This situation can be a disaster for the unprepared, but if you’ve thought ahead, you should have a portable jump starter in your vehicle. Portable jump starters consist of a strong but small battery connected to jumper cables in a case. Hook it up to your battery, turn it on, and it’ll give enough of a jolt to start the car so that you can get back on the road.

Final Thoughts

There is little more rewarding than working on your own car. With the right tools and some patience and learning, you can do the basic maintenance tasks yourself. It’ll save you some money and give you a reason to hang out in the garage. After some practice, you’ll even know what you’re looking at under the hood!