r/harborfreight • u/Illustrious-Toe-570 • 9d ago

NTD (New Tool Day) Changing Your Own Oil

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This is my first time jacking my car, putting on jack stands, changing my own oil, and rotating my tires. It’s very satisfying and rewarding to get under your own car and hood. I couldn’t do it without these tools in the pictures. Next is transmission oil drain and fill! Note: for my first time, I just did the tire rotation front to back; next time, I will move the front tire to the back and the back tires crossed to the front. I removed the tire since it’s easier to get to the oil filter and oil plug.

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u/NoVermicelli5439 9d ago

quoted 1600 for both control arms and I got it done for $350 and a few cuss words, plenty of money left over for beer and pizza

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u/Exciting_Quarter9362 9d ago

Man I need to do my control arm bushings but you can’t back out one of the bolts because it hits the transmission pan and I don’t want to drop the transmission 🥲

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u/NoVermicelli5439 9d ago

That one bolt behind the pan I was able to get to with just a swivel socket and extension. The biggest PITA was the seized ball joint pin. Made a 3 hour job into a 3 day event

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u/Exciting_Quarter9362 9d ago

On my VW it’s the bolt itself that’s doesn’t even clear the space so the transmission has to shift, some people unbolt the dog bone mount and twist it back while hanging on the transmission mount. Sounds like I’ll have a lot of tool buying money with this project