DIY Car Maintenance vs Auto Body Shop Maintenance

When your car, truck, or SUV starts to show signs of trouble, you may wonder if DIY car maintenance is a worthwhile endeavor to save yourself time and money. While it isn’t difficult to find an auto body shop in Kansas City or the surrounding areas of Sedalia, Lee’s Summit, or Olathe, finding a quick, reputable, and reliable auto body shop may be a different conversation, making DIY car maintenance seem more appealing. At McCarthy Collision, we believe in transparency, full disclosure, and working with you every step of the way to keep your vehicle on the road.

Is a DIY oil change better than bringing your vehicle in? Should you change your own brakes? Let’s look at the easy DIY car maintenance tasks you could learn and the auto repair jobs better left to professionals at your local service center.

DIY Oil Change

Your vehicle (as long as it’s not electric) requires regular oil changes for optimal maintenance and to avoid overheating or bigger issues down the line. Changing your oil at home is fairly simple, as far as home auto repairs go. However, it’s best to make sure you absolutely know how to do it, because you could damage your engine and need to go into a service center if you make a mistake.

Battery Cleaning

While you can’t stop your battery from dying, you can prolong its life as much as possible with regular cleaning. Scraping off any rust that accumulates will help keep your battery running smoothly. If the battery dies, replacing it at home isn’t too difficult a task if you want to spare your budget, though it’s also not an expensive repair if you choose to go to an auto body shop.

DIY Tire Replacement

It is possible to replace your tires at home. You’ve likely seen someone change a tire in the rain on the highway before, so performing DIY tire replacement at home will be a much more straightforward task. However, you’ll need to make sure you properly jack your vehicle, install the tire, and tighten the lugs the correct amount to avoid uneven wear, or worse yet, blowouts.

DIY Air Filter Replacement

Air filters are pretty quick and easy to change at home, so if you’d like to save yourself a trip to an auto body shop near Overland Park, it’s a low-stakes DIY auto repair project. If you have bad allergies, installing the air filter wrong could let dirt into the cabin, causing a flare-up. Make sure you have the right size filter and install it properly!
Now that we’ve gone over the easy DIY car maintenance tasks, let’s look at the ones that are ill-advised to tackle at home.

DIY Engine Repair

 Your engine is a complicated piece of machinery with plenty of moving parts. One small mistake could snowball into a massive issue (and repair bill) if you aren’t careful. You need specialized tools and a lot of know-how to tackle engine issues, and with all of those previously mentioned moving parts, the chances of a misdiagnosis are fairly high. It’s advised to leave engine repair to professionals.

DIY Transmission Repair

Transmission issues are usually very bad signs for your vehicle. Because they’re incredibly complex, like your engine, they require specialized tools, knowledge, and skillsets to properly repair or replace. One wrong move, and your car could be junked.

DIY Electrical Repair

When your car, truck, or SUV experiences electrical issues, it could be for any number of reasons. When it comes to your alternator or starter, you may cause more problems by trying to fix wires and electrical parts. Unless you understand electronics, all of the wiring, and how they connect to each other to solve the issue, it’s best to bring your vehicle in.

DIY Suspension Repair

Once again, you’ll be trying to solve mechanical problems that affect plenty of other parts of your vehicle’s operating experience. They also require special tools and lifts to ensure you can access the parts needed for repair. While it’s possible you could fix your suspension at home, the investment to be able to do so will greatly outweigh the simple, affordable cost of going to an auto repair shop.

Final Thoughts on DIY Car Maintenance

For easier fixes, there’s no real harm in learning how to perform DIY car maintenance if you genuinely enjoy working on your vehicle or want to keep a few extra dollars in your wallet. However, when it comes to serious issues, it’s often best to consult professionals to inspect, diagnose, and repair your vehicle at your local auto body shop.
When you don’t feel like learning DIY car maintenance, or if you have more intensive repairs needed, bring your vehicle to one of our many McCarthy collision centers for repair. We work with you and provide up-front information regarding quotes, inspections, and more, and provide free estimates for the work to be done. Find your local McCarthy auto body shop and contact us to schedule service to get your car back in tip-top shape.