After watching several of my videos and reading my articles on the blog, you finally decided to do your first maintenance operation on your car! So to maximize your chances of success without major worries, here are the tips we give to you.
Preparation is the key to success
The more time you take to prepare your operation, the greater the chance that it will go well. There are so many unexpected factors that can happen that you can never be too prepared. A baker who hires at 4 a.m. only has to put on his outfit to start preparing the pasta because he has already taken care of all the ingredients available and the order book the day before. On the day of the event, you must be ready to put on your gloves and work with all the information, parts/tools and support you need.
- Find out more about the operation you want to carry out by looking at your technical review, the RTA, tutorial videos, articles on the net… It is rare not to find information specific to your vehicle these days and that's good.
- Once you know how to do the operation, you can order parts and products. In this article I have listed the places where you can buy yourself: Where to buy your products and car parts? It is wise to compare prices carefully, especially on the Internet, and to watch for promotions that may be interesting. We tend to focus on price but there are often specificities on parts and the error happened quickly. Also remember to take the delivery time into account because some sites do not make partial deliveries and therefore wait until all parts are in stock to deliver.
- Concerning the tools, you have several possibilities. Either you don't have one and you will maintain your car in a self-garage that rents its equipment or you have your multi-purpose toolbox. For some more complex operations, you will need specific tools that are often specific to your car's brand, but this is not the objective of this first time.
- Whether you decide to do some DIY at home or in a self-garage, try as much as possible to do it on a Saturday so that you can go to a store and make a supplement if necessary. I have heard several times anecdotes from professional garage owners and convenience stores that intervened on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. to finish repairing the car so that they could go to work on Monday morning...
- Do not hesitate to be accompanied whether you are a woman or a man. If you have never done this type of operation before, you will need the advice of knowledgeable people to guide you. The concept of self-carriages is precisely to support customers in the maintenance of their cars. So of course, you are lucky to have people around you who know about it, that's the best!
- Once your hands are in the sludge, be organized: do not hesitate to take pictures after the different steps, to read the instructions for use, to put the screws back on their supports after having undone them, etc. For the screws, remember to take plastic boxes to group them together and avoid losing them. Put the tools back in place regularly to find them more quickly.
- Finally, we would advise you to take some leeway; do not think too big for the first time at the risk of being disgusted afterwards. Do they tell you that we can change the oil in 30 minutes? Plan 1h-1h30. The goal is to have an informative and stress-free time that you can be proud of.
If you go alone to a self-garage, you will surely have remarks about your presence but this should not intimidate you. You can simply answer them that yes, you are an independent woman who takes care of herself and wants to do the maintenance of her car.