If you have a garage or a spacious yard, tools and motivation, you could carry out a number of repair and maintenance tasks at home yourself. Any DIY project around your car can be fun while also broadening the understanding of how a vehicle’s components work. Spending time fixing up your car yourself can be rewarding and fun.
The question becomes, when should you seek professional help. Your level of experience and skills would determine when you should stand back and let others, trained staff, handle the work.
One of the tasks that is not very difficult technically, just as one example, is an oil change. While this requires few tools, the issue is that of oil being hazardous for the environment. One drop of oil seeping into the ground will contaminate around 1,000 litres of water. A properly set-up professional workshop will have jigs to capture all the oil and have a water separator to prevent any oil to leak into the ground or sewage system.
However, simple tasks, like changing the light bulbs of your car, rotating tyres, or changing the wiper blades are regular tasks that don’t require a lot of training or tools. While you work on your car, caution is still advised as there might be specific procedures to be followed, depending on your car’s brand and model.
Replacing spark plugs may require a special socket, however, this is a task that can be carried out at home, and without any jigs and rigs. The same applies to your car’s battery and some of the filters, such as the air filter. One needs to consider though that the sourcing of parts will also take time. A professional workshop, such as German Motors, will have the correct parts available through their supplier network. When assigning German Motors to handle the service and repair of your vehicle, staff will also be able to consult on the best choice of spare parts.
Several tasks are best not done at home: anything that could void the warranty for instance. While there is a temptation to save money, costly repairs not being covered later on could potentially more than offset the savings. With the rise in popularity, battery electric or hybrid cars are another good example of how vehicles are best serviced in a professional workshop. Dealing with electricity, at high voltage, requires not only training, but also a set of very specialised tools.
Of course, if working on your car is a hobby, you may find yourself fitting out a mini-workshop at home. Restoring a classic can become a hobby, whereby the garage or car port can be fitted out with an array of tools and jigs. There may still be tasks that you cannot or don’t want to perform at home, which is where German Motors can be of assistance. For example, modern paints are not just simply sprayed onto the chassis. Being a significant investment, building a paint booth, may not be feasible.
Lastly, a word of caution should be said for any repair that concerns safety related components. Again, the temptation to safe a few RM is there, but it may not be worth it as the lives of driver and passengers depend on the perfect working condition of these parts. You could drive with a faulty radio if you did not manage to connect it properly, but there should be no compromise when it comes to safety.
