Use YouTube to Save Money on Car Maintenance

The following Everyday Savings Tip comes from, Maureen:

Not long after I purchased my Honda Civic in 2008, my car repair shop wanted to charge me nearly $60 to change the cabin filter. My previous car didn't have such a thing, so I wasn't sure what a cabin filter was. I told them not to replace it just yet, perhaps I would budget for it the next time I brought my car in. That bought me a little time to research the cabin filter.

Fortunately, I found a video on YouTube that in less than one minute described how to replace the cabin filter in my car. The video demonstrated and described the process, and I learned that the filter was hidden behind the glove compartment. So, it was as simple as opening the glove compartment, squeezing in the sides and pulling it completely open, removing a simple sliding tray that held the cabin filter (that apparently filters the air in the cabin of the car), taking out the old filter and sliding in the new filter. I couldn't believe that they wanted to charge that much for such a simple job!

I went to my local auto parts store and bought a new filter for about $20 including tax and replaced it myself in less than a minute. So, I saved about $40 by doing it myself. They recommend that you replace this filter every 15,000 miles, so this is a potential savings of $80 a year for someone who drives more than me and would need to replace the filter twice in a year. that didn't require any mechanical skills.

Do you have other ways you save on auto repair costs?
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