Which Car Maintenance Can You Do Yourself?

What Car Shoppers Need to Know

• Some maintenance tasks are simple enough for the average consumer to tackle on their own, but more involved jobs are often best handled by a professional shop or dealership.
• Certain tasks are best accomplished using specialized equipment, like a vehicle lift.
• When choosing whether or not to do a maintenance task yourself, consider your skill level, convenience, safety and the value of your time.

With current mechanic labor rates in many areas exceeding $200 per hour, it’s certainly tempting to do as much of your own vehicle maintenance as you can. But what you can do, what you should do and what’s reasonable to do can vary a lot for each individual.

Related: Tools Every Car Owner Should Have

Even if you have the tools, skills and know-how to do a task, it’s always a balance between time, money, convenience and safety as to whether it’s worth doing it yourself or paying a repair shop or dealership. Furthermore, if your car is under any kind of warranty, you need to keep very good records of things, like oil changes, that might be challenged if your engine fails.

General Factors to Consider

1. Virtually any fluid you drain out should be disposed of responsibly. That usually means returning it to an auto parts store for recycling. Note that if you didn’t buy the replacement fluid there, the store may not take the old fluid.

2. Some formerly “underhood” procedures are now “undercar” procedures. That’s because everything is packed so tightly in the engine bay of modern cars that access from above can be severely restricted.

3. In that vein, anything “undercar” might mean removing a large underbody pan first — which can involve removing umpteen fasteners. This will often require raising the car, which can be both time-consuming and potentially dangerous; not only if the car falls, but if stuff drops into your eyes. There’s a reason real shops have lifts.

4. The complexity of modern cars means that some “simple” procedures aren’t all that simple anymore. As such, it’s a good idea to look for an internet video walking you through what’s involved — before even buying the parts. If midway through the job you run into the need for a part or tool you don’t have, can you go get it without using the car you’ve just taken apart?

5. Many procedures — such as changing fluids — don’t need to be done as often as they used to be. Oil-change intervals are often between 7,500 and 10,000 miles. Long-life coolant can sometimes last 10 years. Some automatic transmissions now have “lifetime” fluid. Balance the cost of any specialized tools needed against how often you might use them.

Some parts-store price perusing and a couple of calls to local shops or a dealership for an estimate might decide the case for you.

Common Maintenance Items

Although your car’s maintenance schedule is your best guide (if you don’t have one, you might be able to find it through an online search), let’s take a look at some common maintenance requirements — some of which may not be listed in your maintenance schedule — and consider the potential challenges involved. For this example, we’re looking at the maintenance schedule for a 2023 Hyundai Tucson with all-wheel drive.

The list includes 26 items, 19 of which are to “inspect” something — such as brake lines and hoses and brake-fluid level. Many of the inspections are better done with the vehicle on a lift, and you need to know what you’re looking for.

Following are the remaining seven “replace” or “add” items, with a few more added that aren’t listed but are commonly done.

Oil Change

An underbody pan greatly complicates changing a car’s oil, as does having to raise the car to drain the oil or replace the filter. But for the most part, this is still in the “can-do” category.

Add Fuel Additive

In the Tucson’s case, adding a fuel additive is only recommended if you don’t use Top Tier gasoline, which has more effective detergent additives. This is easy to do yourself using a bottle of store-bought fuel-injector cleaner; just follow the instructions.

Replace Engine Air Filter

Replacing your engine air filter is easy to do in most cars and a great way to save money.

Replace Cabin Air Filter

If your car has a cabin air filter, the degree of difficulty varies, but this is often done just by removing a few screws and the glove box they secure. Another great way to save money.

Replace Brake Fluid

Replacing brake fluid is a rather complicated task that you may want to leave to a professional — partly due to how much of a pain it is and partly because of the importance of getting it right. A typical interval is every three to five years.

Replace Coolant

Tight underhood clearances can make replacing coolant a problem in newer cars, and disposing of old coolant is a pain. (Note that coolant is poisonous, and its sweet smell attracts pets and animals.) The good news is that modern “long-life” coolant doesn’t need to be changed on some cars but every 10 years or so.

Replace Spark Plugs

The task of replacing your spark plugs can vary from fairly easy to exceedingly difficult; an internet video can give you an idea of whether you want to tackle it. The good news is that in modern cars, it’s typically only called for about every 100,000 miles.

Other Important Tasks

Check Tire Pressures

Correct tire pressure is important for both safety and tire life. Also, check for wear that indicates low tread, misalignment, and under- or overinflation.

Rotate Tires

With the proper tools (floor jack, jack stands, torque wrench, maybe an impact wrench), rotating your own tires is doable. But at whatever interval you decide to do it, that may be a time to splurge and have the oil changed and tires rotated at a shop.

Add/Replace Windshield Washer Fluid

Adding or replacing your windshield washer fluid is usually easy to do. If you live in a cold climate, use a fluid rated down to minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit, as fluid can lose some of its antifreeze capabilities over a hot summer.

Replace Wiper Blades

Wiper blades are replaced on an “as-needed” basis, and it’s easy to do for most cars — and a great way to save money.

Check the Lights

Checking all lights, including the brake lights, is a task best done by two people: One person depresses the brake pedal, and the other stands at the back of the vehicle to see that the brake lights are functioning properly. Auto parts stores stock replacement bulbs for most modern vehicles, though the remove-and-replace process can be tricky. Again, internet how-to videos can help.

Inspect the Battery

Your battery may not be under the hood; it might be beneath the rear seat or in the trunk, which makes accessing it a little more difficult. Battery acid (even the film on the outside of the battery) and corrosion around the terminals (looks like a whitish-colored foam) is very caustic stuff — even for your clothes — so make sure you wear gloves and eye protection any time you’re working with a battery. If the battery has caps, remove them to check the fluid level and add distilled water if it’s low. Corrosion can be cleaned off with a wire brush. Beyond that, the battery’s condition can be checked, but it requires a special piece of equipment that puts it under load.

More Maintenance and Repair Advice:

• What’s Included in a Tuneup?
• Is Oil for High-Mileage Engines Worth Buying?
• What Should a Used-Car Inspection Include?
• Add Cars.com as a Preferred Source on Google

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