With a little knowledge and just a little bit of time, people can save lots of money in all sorts of things concerning their car. Here is a small list of actions that someone that isn’t a mechanic, but is willing to work with their car, can do to save plenty of money in the long run.
You have to pay for everything you do in some way. If you have your oil changed, you are paying for all the work to be done, but you are still stuck there while it’s worked on. If you do it yourself, you are paying yourself in time and not paying any extra for all the materials. You just need to spend some time working out which things are cheaper to have done elsewhere and which to do yourself.
If you are not a mechanic don`t risk doing things that are that are very difficult, as if you cause damage to your car this will actually be more costly than the savings you make. We are assuming that you are going to have a basic set of tools available, basic knowledge and some time, which we will put an estimate down for.
Change an air filter.These are normally recommended when they are dirty, but it’s a good idea to do this along the lines of every few oil changes. This is a piece of cake to do and it should take about 5 minutes or less and there are normally no tools required. So its a win win, no specialist tools are normally needed and you can save £20-25 every time.
Change the fuel filter. This is pretty easy to do. You have to buy a special tool that costs about £10 and that’s all you need, plus a bit of effort of course. You save £30 every time you do this yourself and it should be done at least every other oil change. It takes about 20 min and it will be a little messy so get a couple towels.
Change the fan belt on your vehicle. This one takes about an hour and a half the first time but the second time is often much easier. You’ll need a big wrench to deal with the spring tensioner and you might have to move a bolt or spacer first, so check your vehicle user manual. You save £75 doing this yourself and you shouldn’t have to do this very often.
Put fluids in your car. This one is really easy, but you can pay big bucks if you don’t check and make sure that all the fluids in your car are topped up. This is cheap and very fast, less than 5 minutes. You spend £6 on engine coolant and save potentially hundreds to thousands of pounds due to what would happen if you ran out of coolant.
Add a fuel cleaner. This helps clean out junk in the fuel injectors. It’s about £8 a bottle and you just pour it in the fuel tank. It’s recommended every oil change, but many normally go every other. No mess and only as long as it takes to add petrol to your vehicle. Potential savings are high, especially for higher mileage vehicles.
Roadside assistance. You can often get this via your bank account, but if not it is worth joining one of the roadside assistance companies. You often get towed for free and help in the event of car breakdown. Getting towed without cover can cost a significant amount, hundreds of pounds, so this insurance can quickly save money for you if you do have a breakdown.
Roadside emergency kit. Either buy one or put one together yourself. For example, this could help you either fix your tyre or to get somewhere safe to get it fixed. This will give you peace of mind and they run around £20 - £30. Hopefully you don’t need one, but if you do, it’s much nicer knowing you have it with you.
Fix scratches. Your car is going to get scratches on it. You can get a small bottle of your exact car color for about 15 pounds and using normal car cleaning items, you can cover over and fix most scratches pretty easily.
Have a friend that’s good with cars. This will save you hundreds of pounds and potentially more. Not only can you get help figuring out problems, but you can get things done faster.
Change your oil. This one isn’t too bad. You can save about 30 pounds or more each time you do this yourself. It should take about 30 minutes and you need to make sure that you change your oil filter at the same time as well.
We know that we are going to have to spend money on maintenance of our vehicles. So if you`re in a tight position for money, then start paying small amounts now to maintain your car instead of waiting for something to happen and scrambling like crazy for the money to take care of it. Take just a little bit of money and put it away for car maintenance . You can put away 25 pounds a month and if the tyre blows out, or you have to get some major work done then that`s ok....because you will have been saving up - so you will have the money you need instead of being caught and end up needing a big loan.
