If you like working on your car as a hobby or to save money on repairs, having the right tools makes an enormous difference. Certain essential items allow you to perform basic maintenance and repairs yourself in the garage with no need to visit a professional mechanic.
Sockets and Ratchets
Ratchets provide a leveraged force to turn stuck fasteners without skinning your knuckles. Various sized sockets fit different bolt heads and allow the ratchet handle to grip and turn them with ease. As you take on more complex repairs, you may need to purchase specialty sockets in different shapes to reach tight spaces other sockets cannot. But a standard metric and SAE socket set meets most basic needs.
Wrenches
While ratchets and sockets make quick work of jobs involving many identical fasteners, wrenches provide more finessed control over individual bolts when space is tight. Combination wrench sets include various sizes of both standard and metric units, with one end open and the other a fixed box. The open end grips bolt heads through tension when you cannot fit a socket or box end over the fastener.
Pliers
Standard slip joint pliers substitute for a wrench in tighter quarters when properly grabbing bolt heads. Heavy-duty linesman pliers cut thicker gauge wire when splicing new circuits and locking pliers “lock” onto objects with adjustable tension, substituting for a vise grip. Covering this range of plier types ensures you can complete most basic mechanical and electrical tasks in the garage during repairs.
Screwdrivers
A quality screwdriver set should cover different tip sizes for standard and specialty screw heads. Choose ergonomic screwdrivers fitting comfortably in your hand even when applying ample downward pressure. The last thing you want is continuous hand cramping during intensive dash disassembly. Also, magnetized driver tips preventing dropped screws and advanced steel alloys resisting wear over years of use separate the quality sets from the junk.
Battery Tester for Car
One enormously frustrating issue plaguing all motorists is discovering your car battery dead the morning you need to urgently leave early. Since lead-acid batteries gradually lose their charge over weeks and months of sitting, checking their voltage periodically prevents getting stranded with no prior warning. The experts at Clore Automotive say that an affordable digital battery tester for cars allows at-home voltage testing to measure the remaining charge with no need for a professional shop’s diagnostic equipment. Simply clip the tester leads onto the battery terminals and its display reports current voltage levels signaling whether charging or replacement is necessary based on readings. This allows proactive swapping dying batteries ahead of total failures for only the small tester investment.
Jack Stands
Lifting a vehicle securely to work underneath requires sturdy jack stands supporting it once lifted. With just the hydraulic floor jack holding all the weight, a single jack failure could lead to catastrophic lowering and crushing injuries. But ratcheting jack stands lock at their lifted height as a failsafe backup. Quality stands with reinforced bases prevent tipping while you work beneath the car. Most standard stands lift to around twenty-one inches, allowing sufficient undercarriage access for oil changes, exhaust work, transmission repairs and other common maintenance needs of tinkerers.
Conclusion
Amassing a well-rounded toolkit for the most common car repair procedures empowers you to handle more maintenance yourself rather than paying costly shop labor rates every time minor issues arise. Start with vital socket and wrench sets, pliers, basic screwdrivers, and specialty access tools like jacks. Then augment further for specialized jobs with battery testers as needed. Select quality tools from reputable brands once rather than fighting cheap versions needing continual replacement. Your wallet will thank you over years of turfs in the home garage.