I want to wrench my own car, but I have essentially no tools (or experience) whatsoever, or a jack...

My friend is lucky as he has a sidewalk and curb that are separated by about 3 feet of space. So he puts some solid red bricks along the curb to make it wider for tire support and drives his car off the driveway and onto both the curb and sidewalk. He can then get into the space in between as he excavated some of the dirt and lined it with gravel. He then puts a piece of cardboard there to rest on.

It's a solid secure feeling. I wouldn't feel safe resting on chinese-made plastic ramps. And those ramps just don't have much height. I go to my friend's place now to change my oil. Changing oil is unhappy when under jackstands due to the unsafe as hell feeling. Sure, I set the parking brake and then chocked the rear wheels. I jacked up the front and put on jackstands that are adjusted twice each in order to get high enough. But the slope of the car keeps me feeling that it will slide backwards off the stands. Too scary.

opinion on Husky 3-ton jack stands?

They're jackstands dude. Do they hold the car up? Then they're fine

You are safer under the car than in it.

>They're jackstands dude. Do they hold the car up? Then they're fine

Too many stories of the affordable pyramid ones from Harbor Freight bending due to inconsistent quality.

Honestly, if they bend that's not a huge dangerous issue. Now if they break, that's the kind of thing that kills you. Even chinese jackstands can work fine. I got some 3 tom ones for my miata since even though the car is light I'd rather have an extra chinese ton of security.

The build quality of harbor freight jack stands are better than crapsman jackstands. I have both

Does the usa even manufacture anything that is affordable to non-rich people? Assembling something out of all-chinese parts doesn't really count although that still qualfies for a "made in usa" label. There's even food items that say "made in usa" but which are caught by chinese, processed by chinese, and then shipped to the usa only for packaging so that it gets the "made in usa" label.

nope, it was a slippery slope into a shitty career for me.

That's my experience though.

>2016
>teens
brows
Veeky Forums

>I want to wrench my own car, but I have essentially no tools (or experience) whatsoever, or a jack. Is it really worth the investment? I'm afraid I'll buy it all and it ends up sitting around unused when I discover I'm incompetent

If you are that nervous about getting started, then just drive your with two wheels up on a curb and the other wheels in the street. That will give you enough room to scoot under and look at the bottom of the car (let it cool a little). Use a piece of cardboard so you don't scratch up your shirt.

You should be able to see how the support for the front wheel hooks in with that joint to the macpherson strut with a spring around it. You see the transaxle go into the transmission housing if it's a front wheel drive. Is it leaking? That is your first ever critical observation.

Now look for the oil drain plug. Do you see where the oil cannister is located. If both are visible and accessible to you, then you can change your oil. Of course being on an angle means some oil won't drain out of the pan. But at least you can change with just a wrench on the drain plug and a oil filter wrench which are cheap. I've seen ones at the dollar store but those are probably too cheap. ha ha

A 5-quart jug of full synthetic oil is $24 at wal-mart and oil filters there are cheap too such as a Fram Ultra oil filter. Wal-mart also sells those sealable drain pans where the oil drains into a sloped depression on top of a flat bottle-like container. After draining, you seal that drain hole in the bottle and take the used oil to most any auto store for free recycling.

After you do your first oil change, you are on your way to overcoming fear of failure.

Idiot frogposter. Figure out what you need to DO to your car first (did something break? are you changing the oil? changing a tire?), and go get whatever tools you need then.

Or just save the money, because almost nothing you buy for your car will help you kill yourself, so you'll never be able to justify the expenditure.

This

Just see what tools you need to fix each problem as they arise. Watch a youtube vid. I changed my timing chain watching a youtube vid. Biggest job before that was small shit like oil changes. Ordered tools a few days before starting work. Just when doing it I realised all the small stuff that goes into it like cleaning the chain cover and block of old liquid sealant and oil before applying new one, something that a shop would never do as thoroughly/if at all. Theres oil splashing there all the time, unlike inside a timing belt housing. Job came out perfect and not one oil drip. Most expensive things in my toolbox are the breaker bars and torque wrench. Regular wrenches and sockets are 3 for $10 type of chinese shit but good enough for occasional diy.

Really? My harbor freight ones have been goat. The only better ones I've seen are my grandpa's ones from like the stone age.

Even then, leave the jack mostly up so If it slips or falls a bit the jack can catch it