The luxury of owning your own car and the freedom that comes with it can often be marred by the expense of insuring, fuelling and maintaining it. Although it is now well established that it is relatively easy to find a competitive deal on your car insurance and various superstores offer incentives to reduce the cost of fuel, you may also be able to save money by forgoing trips to mechanics by carrying out basic maintenance and repairs at home. You can easily and cheaply change oil filters and even replace lights and alternators.
Changing Gas Struts: How to Complete a Professional Standard of Workmanship
A more uncommon home repair that you can carry out at home is changing your gas struts. These are comprised of metal cylinders that use gas which is compressed by a piston to exert force. They will be located on both your bonnet and boot and enable you to easily open them and have them stay up. They are therefore essential for either inspecting your engine or putting items into your boot, which serve as two critical and practical features of any car or vehicle.
In order to change them you first need to know the type of strut that you need. There are types with various fittings including pin ball sockets and those with plastic and metal band ball joints. Pin ball type sockets can be identified by their dome head and the pin that sits just underneath it whereas band ball joint sockets have a flatter head and a band across the centre of them. If it not clear which type of strut you have you may find it helpful to take a picture of the connection and compare them to images of the connections of gas struts that can be found online. This is relatively easy to do, and all that is required is a willingness to invest time into making sure that they job is done well.
The Last Word
While undertaking basic repair tasks such as changing your gas struts can help to save you considerable sums of money, however, it is important to understand your limitations when working on your car. Remember that there are some tasks that require professional knowledge and expertise, and failing to recognise this could end up costing you money and even endangering lives. One a final note, it is important to ensure that you purchase parts and equipment from a reputable supplier when working independently, so prioritise firms that have a reputation for excellence such as SGS Engineering.