Every Tool You Need To Work On Cars! (And What NOT To Buy)

You can't be a DIY mechanic without tools, but which one should you buy? Because you can spend thousands on specialty tools or super expensive brands that you don't actually use. So today I'm going over all the tools that you actually need to maintain and work on your car at home. All right, let's get into it. Now, the first one might seem obvious, but there's a billion options. So you have to make a good choice and that is socket set. Now don't judge me. I've been working on cars since I was 16. So there's a method to my madness, but we're going to talk about that later. All right, I got a couple options to show you. Now this is a little Husky set, Andrew's old set, 250 pieces for about 99 bucks. It's a pretty good deal. Got wrenches and stuff on top. And then it's got two drawers full of sockets, right? Everything you can need. But I prefer something like this. Now this is a kit by Craftsman. Now this set is 159 pieces and costs a little more, $150. But here's why I prefer this set. Even though it has less pieces, it has all of the pieces that I generally need to work on cars. Here's what I'm talking about. Notice that all the wrenches go from 10 to 15 millimeters on the metric side. Whereas over here, this Husky came with eight through 15, but missing the 14 millimeter, which I use all the time. So I had to go out and buy a 14 millimeter and toss it in the top. So that was really weird. It's almost like this kit wasn't designed for mechanics. It was just sort of a general kit. Also look at this here, down here at the sockets for these 3-8 drive long sockets, it goes 12, 14, missing the 13. Whereas this Craftsman kit, the 13 is right there. And I use a 13 all the time. The other thing that I prefer about this kit is the form factor. This one is kind of a briefcase style and everything, everything folds up and you can grab and go the handle. Most of my sockets are actually from a Craftsman kit, similar to this, that I got 15 years ago and still going strong. Whereas this kit, the form factor is drawers, which I really hate. They're stiff. And then they generally, when you go to the back, they pop out and all your sockets go flying and get scrambled. And then I just don't like this sort of boxy thing with the flimsy handle on top. Just personal preference. Now, something that both of these kits have that I think is essential is they have lifetime warranties. That means if anything breaks on these kits, you can take them in and get them replaced for no charge. Now, if you go online to Amazon and get some cheap set or go to the hardware store to the bargain bin, you're probably not going to get a lifetime warranty. Now I've actually used the warranty on a couple of Craftsman hand tools, so it can come in really handy. So when it comes to buying a socket set, just be aware that even if it has hundreds and hundreds of pieces, it may not have the pieces that you actually need to work on a car. Still fine, but you might need to buy some additional sockets or wrenches. That's why I would probably choose something like this. It costs a little bit more, but I know that it has all the pieces that I need. Now, while these socket sets are a great starting point, there's some socket accessories that I think are essential for your automotive kit. First off, we have adapters and swivels. Now, adapters essentially let you use smaller or larger sockets on the different size wrenches. Now, most kits will come with this one. It's like the three-eighths to a quarter-inch adapter. This one doesn't come with any, but I also have the half-inch to three-eighths drive adapter. And then I have an upsize one, so I can put the larger sockets, the half-inch sockets on the smaller wrench, which is really handy sometimes when you're working within like a really limited space in the car and you need one that's just the right length. Often you can mix and match like Legos, the larger half-inch drive sockets with the smaller wrench and you can get the right size. The next thing that is a lifesaver is going to be socket swivels. These allow you to put the socket on the wrench, but be able to operate kind of around the corner, so in those hard-to-reach places. It's really useful. Now, most kits don't come with these. However, this Craftsman came with the three-eighths one. Husky didn't come with any, so it's usually something that you have to buy separately. I generally only ever use the quarter-inch and three-eighths drive swivels. I never use a half-inch. The next thing that you absolutely want to have with your socket sets is larger sockets. So this kit, the Craftsman actually goes up to 22 millimeter, which is pretty rare. A lot of them don't go that high. The highest one on this is an 18 millimeter or seven-eighths. So depending on which kit you get, you're going to want to get a set of larger sockets. These are going to be for your lug nuts, for your suspension bolts, stuff like that. Then I generally have a bunch of loose, really big sockets. You can get a set, but I've just kind of collected them over the years as I need them. You know, like suckers of 36 probably for some sort of axle nut. So whether you get the large sockets in the set or you buy them separately, you generally want to make sure that your metrics go up to like 22 millimeters at least and your standards up to an inch. Now one quick note on socket sets. There are some high-end brands like Snap-on that would cost three, four times as much as these hardware store brands. But unless you're working on cars for a living, you just need a kit that has a lifetime warranty and all the pieces that you need. Otherwise, it's a waste of money. All right, the next add-on accessory that you got to have is socket-driven Allen and torques. Now, most kits come with Allen keys, like both of these kits have them, but they're usually like this. And if you've ever tried to get any torque out of a little tool like this, you know it's almost impossible without hurting your fingers. So that's why you want to have these where you can stick a socket in them, get some real leverage. This Husky set actually does come with a few of them, socket-driven Allen keys, but it's six of them, right? And it's always the one that the kit doesn't have that you need. So that's why I just buy a full set of these. I'm mostly using metric. I got the metric kit and it works for almost everything. Same goes for the torques, right? These guys, this one goes all the way up to a massive, covers everything you'll ever need. All right, the next section is mechanics hand tools. Now I'm going to assume that you have all the normal tools around your house, like hammer and needle nose pliers and knife, flashlight, things like that. And you will need those in your kit. What I'm talking about right now is one specifically for mechanics. I'm going to move through these pretty fast, but they are important. So make sure you don't fast forward. Now the first one is ratcheting wrenches. Now these were borderline luxury items, but they are so doggone handy that I had to put them on the list. So this is like a normal wrench, but on this side, it actually has a ratcheting mechanism. Having this ratcheting feature allows you to not only save time, you don't have to take the wrench off each time you want to do another pass, but also it allows you to get into tighter spaces. And essentially it's a really slim socket. Now, obviously you'd need a set of metric and standard for these, or if you really want to go budget just by the ones that you use all the time. Next channel locks or some kind of adjustable flyer system like this, this allows you to grab all kinds of different stuff really quickly. Vice grips. Now, hopefully you're like me and you've got your dad or grandpa's old set. These things have been around forever, but they essentially grab onto stuff super tight. So really I use this as a last resort. It gets me out a lot of jams when I have stripped nuts or bolts. Breaker bar. This thing's half inch drive. That's the one you want to get. And this is going to give you way more leverage than just a half inch ratchet. Now I use this thing all the time for super stuck bolts, lug nuts, suspension elements, where things are like seized or just take a ton of force to get off. Large adjustable wrench. A lot of people call these crescent wrenches. Now you probably have a small one in your basic home toolkit, but you want to get a bigger one that can go like this one's a inch and a half wide open or two inches. These are great if you have say two nuts at the same time that you need to do, and you only have one large 22 millimeter socket to hold the other end. Pry bar. Now they obviously come in a lot of different sizes and it's good to have a variety, but I would say I use this 14 inch long one the most. It's got a little kick at the end, which is really helpful for getting down in the engine compartment and prying stuff. I use it for putting on serpentine belts, getting alternators unstuck, and lifting the tire back onto the rim to save my back. Right angle needle nose pliers. Now these are just like normal needle nose pliers, but they got a bend at the end. It's hard to say what I use these for most, but I find that almost every job I do I'm reaching for these guys. You can grab stuff around corners, and because the handles on these are a lot longer, you get more leverage. I often find that they're useful for like those really tight spring clamps on hoses. Trim clip remover. Seems kind of simple, but I can't believe how many years I went before buying one of these. All those little plastic button tabs that hold together all the shrouds and different trim parts of the car. You end up trying to like get them off with needle nose pliers or screwdrivers and you end up cutting yourself. Whereas this flips right under there and unlocks. This specific one actually comes with two different profile sizes and works for almost every button fastener. Picks. These come in really handy when you're doing tiny little o-rings or trying to clean out a little orifice somewhere. Usually you can get a set with handles like this. The hook or the 90 degree. What I really like, my dad used to teach me, is you find a dental pick. These things are super small and sharp and really strong. Magnet. Now this is a big lifesaver for me. Magnet on a stick. Extendable. You know you're going to drop something down inside. It's not going to fall to the ground. You're going to have to retrieve it. Dead blow hammer. Now you can see this has been with me a long time and seen some serious abuse. It's different than a normal metal hammer in several ways. One, it's got plastic surfaces so it's not going to dent or crack things. Two, it's filled with sand. I don't know if you can hear that. So it's kind of, it's got the weight of metal without being hard. I use this thing all the time for really stuck bolts when I can just get a wrench on it. I can't get like a long breaker bar. If I can just get a wrench, I can smack the wrench and get nuts and bolts loose. Torque wrench. Now there are a lot of nuts and bolts on your car that require a specific torque setting so that you don't break them. So essentially you have an adjuster here at the bottom and then when you're tightening the bolt it'll click when it's reached the right torque. Now they make all different sizes of these. I find the most useful one actually has the lower range of torques. So this one goes from 5 to 80 which I find a lot more useful than the ones that start at like 30 or 50. Now you probably already have a jack in your car. That jack is only for emergencies. For putting on the spare tire, right? You don't want to use that for working on your car. You want to get a designated jack. Another thing you don't want to use is one of these. A super cheap two-ton jack. You can get these at the auto parts store for 40-50 bucks but you absolutely don't want to because they fall apart often. Ask me how I know. They've been known to just like fail and drop cars on people and they're just really cheaply made and not safe. So what you want to do is to get a decent two and a half ton minimum jack. This is a little bit more of a lower profile. They make ones that are even lower than this but I got this thing at Costco like 10-15 years ago and it's still going strong. Because it's a well-made jack I've actually replaced the seals on it so you can actually fix them. Now this is two and a half tons. Great for pretty much every car unless you're going to be working on really heavy stuff trucks, oversized SUVs. Then you might want to get three, four, five ton jacks. I think this one was about 200 bucks. Now when it comes to jacking up your car another thing you have to have is a set of jack stands. Now often these come in a kit when you buy the jack. Now these are really important because they're a mechanical safety. If the jack suddenly fails the car will drop on this and not kill you or break your car. Next section, power tools. Now I've narrowed it down to three essential power tools. If you only have money for one power tool I do have a recommendation. We'll get into it. Half inch impact. Now this is my workhorse. This is what I use for all the big stuff that I would have to be using a breaker bar to get off. Primarily lug nuts for removal, not installation. And then also big stuff like suspension work or framework. This can actually get stuff off a lot easier than I can especially in tight spots. Now what makes it so essential is it's literally using impact to shock nuts and bolts loose. So sometimes where a really tight bolt will snap if you're using a breaker bar, the shocking mechanism in here will actually break it loose instead. Quarter inch impact. Now this is my little sidekick. I use this thing for everything. Obviously mostly small stuff but this is a huge time saver. So man I put a 10 millimeter socket on this and I go to town. I can get a valve cover off in no time flat. This thing is not even the brushless version but I've had this thing for 10 years, abused the heck out of it, dropped it all over the place and it's only the 12 volt right. I find that the bigger 18 volt versions they're more powerful but they're harder to get in tight spots. This thing is just so handy for the tight spots and nowadays you can get a brushless one that's even more powerful in the same form factor. Three-eighths impact ratchet. Now this guy I might not use as often as the other two but when I do it's like a really sweet in between the half inch and quarter. This impact is the ultimate in getting into narrow situations because I can drop this down between the radiator and the engine and I can get impacting power in a space. Another thing that I use it for which maybe I'm not supposed to but if I have a really tight bolt I'll actually use this as a wrench. So without holding down the trigger I'll crack the bolt loose and then I can fire the trigger to get the bolt all the way out. This is also part of the Milwaukee M12 lineup so the battery is really small and totally out of the way. Now as I mentioned before if you only have the budget to buy one I'd recommend this guy. Now the other two three-eighths and the quarter inch they're really handy and they save a lot of time but this guy is actually going to get nuts and bolts off that are impossible otherwise. So start your tool kit with this one. Milwaukee is a little bit more of an expensive brand but very good but if you go with something like a hardware store brand they're going to work just fine. It kind of just depends on your budget and often you can get stuff on sale anyway. Now I will say whatever brand you go with you want to make sure that it has a good warranty just like the socket sets. I actually just had this replaced that's why it looks so new. Had it for a year or two and the battery went bad I just took it in and they handed me a new one. I just wanted to take a quick second and thank the 10 percent of you viewers that are actually subscribers to the channel. You are the best. For the rest of you please take a moment subscribe to the channel because it really does help us make this all happen. We love making videos for you and want to keep them. Now fixing your car's problems is one thing but figuring out what's wrong with it in the first place that can get expensive. So this next section is diagnostic tools. One of my favorites is super low tech but really effective. Multimeter. Now this is what you're going to use to diagnose 90 percent of electrical problems in your car. That doesn't have to be an expensive one. I got this one at a hardware store for 30 bucks. Main thing we use this for is checking voltages at the battery or the alternator or for checking continuity. So whether something's allowing electricity to pass through whether it's a fuse or a wire. Then also you can do a little switcheroo of the wires and you can actually measure current that's passing through. I use this to figure out if something's drawing current from the battery even when the car is off. So all around super helpful tool. Code reader. This should go without saying anytime the check engine light goes off in your car you're going to need a code reader to tell you what the trouble code is. Again doesn't have to be expensive. A lot of these cheaper ones not only read codes they erase codes they read the live data. They can read systems like airbags and ABS. Just make sure if you're getting one that it does have live data at minimum. And then if you're interested you can also go super streamlined and get a bluetooth one that connects to your phone. So all you need is the dongle and then you read the data on your phone. We made an entire video comparing different bluetooth scanners. If you're interested you can check that out. Stethoscope. Now like I said this one of my favorites. I got this during the civil war. Basically it's a stethoscope but instead of listening for heartbeats it's got a probe on it. You basically touch the tip of this to different parts of the engine and then all that you're hearing in your ear is whatever's happening right at that point. It's really handy for getting really specific diagnosis on noises that you're hearing. It can pinpoint them. So this thing is super low tech. It's just a little amplifier and rubber tube but it costs 10 bucks so why wouldn't you have it in your kit. Power probe. This thing is a little bit of a luxury item. It almost didn't make the list but it is so doggone handy I had to put it on. Now essentially what this is is it's kind of like a voltmeter or a multimeter but it has the ability to actually send power to the tip of this thing. It's incredibly useful for an electrical element of your car that's not working. You can bypass all the relays and wiring by applying power directly to the item. For example if your AC compressor isn't firing, isn't turning on, that could be wiring, it could be fuses, relays. You can go right up to the compressor with this thing, unplug the little trigger wire and fire 12 volts straight into the compressor and see if it clicks that clutch out. That way you can immediately know if you're having a compressor problem or an electrical problem somewhere else. Now a new power probe brand one of these is going to be pretty expensive but you can get used uh older versions of these which work perfectly fine like I got this one on eBay for 60 bucks. There's also off-brand ones that work and they're a lot cheaper. Alright having all these essential tools is amazing but keeping them organized and not losing any that's half the battle. So for that you need storage. Now most of you are probably familiar with that classic old toolbox that you probably have or if you don't your grandpa probably does that opens up the top has a tray that has the smaller stuff and then you take that tray off and underneath is a black hole of random miscellaneous tools underneath and those toolbox work great um until the tool you need is at the bottom of the box or you have too many tools to fit in one now you got two of them. A new and improved alternative version to that toolbox is one of these stackable systems. So what's great about these is it's based on drawers so you can open the drawers and find what you need without having to dig through stuff. I really like how this one is a big giant drawer but you can actually get to it even with the upper drawer set stacked on top you don't have to take this off in order to open the top. Now this system is essential for me because it's really mobile it has wheels it's stackable the drawers lock and for the mobile mechanics that I do mostly this is really good because I can throw it into a truck and go and fix 90% of my jobs with everything that's in these two bins and a jack. Now I know a lot of you are making fun of me for the mess that it looks like in here but because I'm doing mobile mechanics I don't want to carry around a bunch of tool cases I just want to take the sockets that I need and over the years I've developed a pretty good set of the ones that I need and you can see they're color-coded I can quickly grab exactly the sizes that I want. Now obviously this isn't all the tools that I own but it's all the ones that I use a lot the rest of them that are specialty or that I use less often are in a tool chest back in my garage and that leads me to our other option which is more of a standard larger stationary toolbox that you have in your garage. So this works great if you're always working on your car in one place at your house but it can get pretty pricey whereas this stackable toolbox cost me 250 bucks those standalone units usually start around four or five hundred dollars and go up from there. Now these next tools weren't originally in my tool kit but over the years I slowly added them they're not really essential but man they relieve some huge pain points. So I call this section Lifesaver Tools Battery Load Tester. Now you can spend hours and hours chasing your tail with electronic problems in your car when often it's caused by a dead battery because the battery can light up your lights or your dashboard or run the radio but it can still be faulty and you're only going to find that out if you apply load to it which simulates like the starter motor firing. Using a load tester I can actually monitor the health of the battery while it's under load which is really the only accurate way to see if the battery is good. If you don't have one of these the only way to get a battery truly tested is to take it out of the car and take it into an auto parts store or to a mechanic that has one of these. Now I have got this really old analog one that I got for twenty dollars on Amazon a gazillion years ago and I really like it because it's got no batteries no circuits to go wrong it just has a big old button and a real easy to read graph. You can get fancier ones that are electronic they work just fine but they're going to be more expensive. If a vice grip and adjustable wrench had a baby this is what you'd get. Now this little Frankenstein has been in my kit for many years now and I really love it because one of the weaknesses of the adjustable wrench has always been that you can adjust it yes but it's it's got that adjustability looseness so you can't use it on really tight stuff it'll usually slip off and round off your nut versus this you can adjust it get it really close and clamp it which adds another layer of tightness so this clamps on super tight and once you clamp this down it makes it very similar to having the right size wrench for that nut so tight. Comes in really handy when I'm laying under a car and I'm working on like two ends of something a nut and a bolt they're both spinning I can literally put this on the nut and clamp it and let go and leave it hanging then I have two hands to work on the other wrench and this can spin it'll bump into the frame of the car and lock everything in. I love this thing. Inspection camera a lot of you old-timers might know this as a borescope and it's just a camera on a stick but pretty darn useful when you want to see something and you can't get your eyeballs So I use this especially if I've got say a coolant leak I know it's leaking coolant somewhere I can smell it I can see the steam I can't figure out where it is because it's backing behind the engine I just take the camera end of this stick it in the back there and now on the screen I can see exactly what I'm looking at. It usually comes with a light so you can just stick it in your cylinders or whatever you don't have to light anything up and then often they come with attachments that have like little magnets or mirrors or hooks so you can actually do small operations via camera. I hate wasting time unnecessarily and this thing is a huge time saver when it comes to diagnostics instead of having to take a whole lot of things apart I can get a camera in there and pinpoint what's going on. This Anova one's $150 but you can get off-brand ones for $30 to $50. Caliper spreader now this is with me on every break job if you've watched my channel you know that there's a screwdriver trick that I like to use to spread those calipers back open for the new pads but sometimes that doesn't work for whatever reason and you need to spread that piston back out this is the perfect tool for me it doesn't require a ton of strength which some of them do and it's one piece it's one tool whereas some of the kits are just like a whole bunch of pieces that you got to use but you just screw this thing back down to thin mode set it in there crank it open take it out because if you've ever worked on brakes before you know that sometimes spreading that caliper can be the most annoying part like you can be flying along and all of a sudden what should take 15 seconds takes an hour to do and you're cutting yourself or you're tearing the boot of the piston and it's just a nightmare $15 tool solves that guys now that you're set up with tools you're going to want to watch this video we made on the top DIY mechanic jobs that you can do yourself to save the most money