Preforming your own vehicle repairs and maintenance

Good topic.

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very few people talk about the topic i am posting on.

Perhaps because so many people do it as its own hobby they don't think of it as prepper thing specifically?

Personally, its a mixed bag.

I do all my own vehicle repair, can't afford to have them otherwise.
The internet has been a great help.

However, I do have repair manuals for all my vehicles....unfortunately just Haynes and not real shop guides as those are simply too expensive.

And over time, I have learned a lot of things to the point where I usually don't need the manual or the internet for many repairs.

For instance, as a owner of a small fleet of subarus I can pretty much replace a subaru headgasket in my sleep.

I have some parts on hand....I don't have everything. I really really like the ability to get on ebay or amazon and order exactly what I need, and usually pretty affordably.

Luckily, I haven't had to do many repairs while on the road. I usually get to those before I get far from home.

However, I don't have a shop, yet (its under construction) so these have all been driveway repairs, including multiple engine and tranny pulls so its stuff I could have done in the wild, if I had or could get the parts.

The parts are the real killer. I often spend hours...sometimes days online finding the parts I need. Take that away and I'm not sure what I would do without a cheap easy source of parts.

I do have a couple parts cars but that only takes you so far.

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Especially NO YouTube

I can't stand youtube car repair vids. Usually someone who can't speak english doing something a way that I can see is obviously wrong. Youtube is the least used online resource of mine. I find brand specific forums usually have the best info.

But I actually think I have probably gotten more bad advice than good. There are a lot of car problems that everybody think they know the answer to but which really can have a lot of causes.

Examples of how I was led astray online:

Hight pitched noise from drivers side rear on a subaru during acceleration. Everyone said wheel bearing.....turned out to be the muffler.

Overheating on hills....AFTER HG replacement, with no coolant loss, everyone said the HG was done wrong and had failed again....actual cause, mud plugging the radiator fins.

Vibration on braking....everyone said brake rotors....actual cause, CV joints.

E-Brake light flicker on and off. Everyone said bad E brake sensor or wire...actual cause, failing alternator.

Engine idle speed cycling high and low....everyone said intake leak...actual cause, mud clogging throttle dampener drain hole.

Others I can't remember at the moment.

But man, those online parts stores are really nice.

As for multitools....my leartherman is one of my most used car repair tools. I think I could just about pull a subaru engine if I had two of them. Just about anything else is better, but somehow its always whats in my hand. There are some things I only know how to do with a leatherman.

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Preforming your own vehicle repairs and maintenance