Car repairs not to do yourself

Have you ever woken up ready to face the day only for your car to fail to match your enthusiasm? What is even more irritating is after spending money on a mechanic, you realise all they did was pop the bonnet, touch a wire for the car to roar to life. Not every mechanical problem requires a trip to the garage; some can be handled by motorists provided they have some knowledge of what needs to be done.

Changing brake pads
According to Alex Kadoli, a mechanic at Dalas Auto Limited, car repairs such as replacing old wiper blades and topping up engine oil are easy to do yourself without visiting a garage. Some complicated ones however, such as replacing worn out brake pads need to be done with a lot of caution since there is a danger that the amateur repairer might end up tightening the brakes excessively or even leaving them loose.

“When tightened excessively, brake pads or the brake drum experience overheating and this strain can spark a fire in the brake system if you do not notice or feel the strain through the brake pedal. And if the brakes are kept loose, it means you will not be able to brake effectively and may end up ramming into other motorist’s cars or any other objects,” Kadoli explains.
Striking a balance Kadoli advises, is something that can best be carried out by a mechanic.

Body paint
Car paint fades due to a number of reasons. If you do not accidentally scratch your car against an object, your car could lose its paint due to environmental factors such as hot temperatures that cause paint fading on the car roof. Also, too much heat from the engine may fade the top outer layer of your bonnet if there is no heat insulator between the engine and the metallic bonnet.
According to Kadoli, filling or repainting a patched area on your car involves many considerations and processes you may not beware of before you walk to a spare parts shop and buy car paint.

“In most cases, before you spray a faded part with new paint, you need to carry out paint tests away from the car body and find out if the new paint is compatible with that on the car. If you just carry out the painting directly without carrying out feasibility tests because you are avoiding painting costs, the car will appear as if it has two or more colours and this will cost much more in the long run than the costs you were running away from,” Kadoli observes.

Deep dents
According to Sam Mugisha, a mechanic at Wandegeya, repairing car dents is almost similar to having a faded part on your car body repainted. This is because it (dent repairing) involves ironing or flattening the affected part and repainting it thereafter.
“Most dents are hard to reach internally. It takes time and effort because it requires unscrewing some parts of the car body to reach the curved in area that’s to be reworked. Even if it is a dented bumper that can be easily plucked off , repaired and put back, it can only be done by a specialised mechanic if you are to achieve a flat and smoothened car body,” Mugisha explains.

Electrical repairs
Joseph Kiyemba, a car electrician observes that like home electricals, the car electric system is one of the most complicated things to repair yourself. This is because of the many interlocking wires that do not only criss-cross but may also be of the same colours that play different roles.
For instance, internal wires that lower and raise all car windows and lock and unlock all doors all originate from the main driver’s switch and spread to different sides.

“Unless you are sure which wire goes towhich door and the role it plays, you cannot repair an immovable car window by playing guesswork with the switch board. You could end up connecting the window lowering socket to the one that raises the window because the sockets are of the same sizes and end up damaging one of both sockets,” Kiyemba explains.

Broken windscreen
Kiyemba and Mugisha agree that getting the right size of your broken or cracked windscreen is one thing and another to have it replaced right. To have a broken windscreen fixed well is something Kiyemba advises requires technical knowhow of a mechanic. This is because after fitting a new windscreen in your car, the edges have to be carefully buried into the rubber handlers to hold the windscreen tighter so that you do not experience water leakages when it rains. This can only be done by a specialised mechanic and it also takes time to have it done well.

Radiator
According to Goliath, an online portal, the radiator in your car falls into the category of essential components. Without the radiator, the portal says your car will overheat and this can lead to major engine malfunction and expensive repair bills.
“There are a lot of videos and blogs online that explain how motorists can replace the radiator in their car like professionals in anywhere from 11 to 16 easy steps. Be careful. Replacing a car radiator is not as easy as the online community would like you to believe,” the portal cautions.