This can be tricky when you’re trying to help someone else. That is, if you’re worried about insulting them or hurting their feelings. But it’s often the answer.
Eons ago, my dad bought a stopwatch and it worked fine for a while, then it didn’t. I didn’t ask the obvious question because it was so obvious and I didn’t want Dad to think I was being a smartass. But the guy at the store went right for it.
“Did you wind it?”
Yep, that was the problem. It never occurred to my dad. Lesson learned for both of us.
Often, this can be more knowledge than strength. I had a friend that’s considerably stronger than I am call me to help him change a tire when he couldn’t get any of the lug nuts to budge. As someone else said, a cheater bar makes a world of difference, but that’s not usually something you have in the car with you.
IME, a lot of people put the lug nut wrench on and push down on it. I usually try to explain that you can only push down with as much force as you weigh, you can likely pull up a lot harder. Either put the wrench on the other side and pull UP (which will make your back really sore the next day) or have it on the left (the ‘push down’) side and step on it while grabbing the car body by the wheel well and pulling up. Again, that lets you push down with more force than how much you weigh. But, be careful, I’ve done this a hundred times and my foot as slipped off 50 of those times. If you’re not somewhat prepared for that very real risk, your going to get hurt. Twist an ankle, lug nut wrench hits your other foot, something.
Also, don’t jack the car up until you’ve broken all the lug nuts free. It’s a lot easier to do it when the wheel isn’t spinning (I know, set the brake, chock the wheels, it’s still easier on the ground). Besides, then you don’t have to worry about rocking it off the jack when you’re standing on the wrench.
You have to plan ahead for this, but a cross wrench in the trunk helps with this. You can get a lot of leverage cranking on the cross arms, to the point of standing on them and jouncing up and down a bit if need be, which I did once.
One of the biggest margin add-ons you’ll get pitched to to when you get your oil changed is the cabin air filter. Places want to charge you $40-$50 for the filter and another $30-$40 to swap it out.
The filters you can find for about $10 on Amazon by putting in your vehicle make and model and the filter usually sits behind the glove box door. You just pop the door off it’s hinge, reach behind, pull out dirty filter, put in new filter, re-attach door.
Agree on the cabin air filter. That also goes for the engine air filter and wiper blades - both of those are also easily replaced on your own but there is a huge markup with a mechanic.
I’m no mechanic, but one of the handiest tools that I own for fixing my car is my cell phone. I can take pictures as I go in case I forget how something goes back together or get a shot of the part number for Autozone or to order off amazon etc. It saves drama.
I “fixed” our Ryobi inflator. It wouldn’t zero. Where’s the manual? No idea. Oh yeah, on line in pdf form. Ta-da! Even if you tossed it or lost it there’s a good chance the manufacturer has it posted.
Another thing I really like: if that thing stops working where’s the receipt for the warranty? Oh yeah, we had it emailed to us from Home Depot. Phew!
Fixing anything really. Take a picture of what the ‘state’ is before you take it apart. Did this recently when replacing the battery in my plow truck. It has extra cables from the plow, and from the winch on the back. And oddly, two ground wires. Yeah, I can puzzle it out, but was nice to be sure.
I also do this when shopping for my mom. When this list isn’t real clear to me, I take a picture of what she has that she wants to get more of. I have some very, very odd pictures on my phone.
Phone photos can also be handy when you can’t quite see what’s going on. Recently replaced an igniter on a hot water heater. I couldn’t really see it through the little trap door, but I could get my hand and phone in there and snap a few pics.
Many years ago, shortly after my wife and I had been married, our furnace quit working one weekend. We thought about calling someone to come out and take a look, but being not only a Sunday but Super Bowl Sunday, we knew we’d be paying through the nose for an emergency service call. So we sent her kids off to stay with the grandparents, and we figured we’d just wait it out in a cold house until Monday. Every once in a while we’d go poke around at the furnace or thermostat, but no luck. At one point my wife removed the panel that you had to slide up to get to where the air filter sat. She looked around for a bit with a flashlight, then put the panel back. And when she slid it back into place, suddenly the fan kicked on. Apparently there was a cutoff switch that was open because the panel was not all the way down. So that saved us a service call.
One thing about YouTube videos - not only can they show you how to fix it yourself, it can also show you that you will be way in over your head! When the belt on our dryer broke, I googled how to replace it, and quickly decided “Yep, I’m not doing that” and called a guy.
In my estimation, self-help videos are one of the best things to come out of YouTube. I’ve never been much of a grease monkey, having always been the bookish computer-type, but after my never-having-driven-in-her-life ex-wife left with the car, I bought a… “gently” used (ha!) 15-year-old Chevy Trailblazer. I’ve used YouTube to change out the ball joints on the front end, replace the transfer case actuator motor, swap out the hub bearings and do a complete brake job, and replace the actuator motor on the passenger-side AC temp control, all relatively painlessly. After all that, and including what I paid for it… I’m about $2000 in to this vehicle that runs like a champ!
Oh yeah - I successfully used this trick recently to retrieve a box of cereal that had fallen down a void behind a fitted kitchen unit. It was stuck on a pipe and I couldn’t work it loose with a broom handle by feel alone. But with the help of a picture of the situation, I worked out which way I needed to manipulate it. Bonus - I managed to avoid dropping either the phone or the broom handle into the same difficult to reach spot.
Apparently so. You’ve certainly done a lot of car stuff that I never would have attempted. I think the most elaborate repair I’ve ever done on a car is replace a headlight bulb.
But personally, I hate YouTube as an instructional medium. Give me written instructions with diagrams as necessary, that I can print out. I find those far, far more useful, and I can have them in front of me as I do the work. YouTube how-to videos seem to be highly populated by people who, although they might know what they’re doing and have useful things to teach us, are secretly aspiring movie stars who like seeing themselves on TV.
Anyway, my helpful hint is: if you get new wheels for your car (or even if you don’t) make sure you have all the tools you need to change tires in case of an emergency. Don’t assume anything – check and confirm!
I got a flat at some point after getting new aftermarket wheels for the car. The lug nuts were the same size as the originals, so what could go wrong? Plenty. The lug nuts were recessed and the car’s original tire wrench had an outer diameter that was too big to fit into the recessed space around the nut. I ended up having to call a tow truck.
The fault was mainly in the stupid original-equipment tire wrench. The tow truck guy had a simple cross wrench that had no problem accessing the lug nuts, and neither has any auto shop ever had a problem using their air wrenches on them. I ended up getting a different tire wrench from an auto parts store and keep it safely with the tire now. It’s not a cross wrench, it’s more like an iron bar bent into roughly an L shape with snap-on sockets for different lug nut sizes. It also has an inner bar that can extend to give more leverage in the case of stubborn nuts that won’t loosen. Flats are very rare in modern tires but it’s still a good idea to be prepared, and also carry flares and a flashlight, because when you get a flat, Murphy’s Law places the odds highest at it taking place in total darkness on a deserted country road in the middle of a huge rainstorm.
About four years ago I got a piece of farm equipment, shipped partially knocked down. Not a big deal in itself, the work that needed doing wasn’t particularly difficult and didn’t require any tools I didn’t already have; but the assembly and use directions were provided as an online video – and I had, at the time, no internet access out in the field or barns; only in or right next to the house, which wasn’t where I wanted to put the thing together. A great deal of running back and forth between the house and the equipment ensued; along with a certain amount of swearing.
Give me a video if you want, sometimes it does show me something hard to figure out any other way short of an in-person demo – but also give me a print version, damn it!
Funny, the freezer is the first thing I thought of when I saw the title. Check the rubber door seal to see that it is seated in the runner slots alll around. Then, keeping it clean will prevent it from pulling loose again. When tight, it should grip paper all around.
