I’m a mechanic who’s fixed thousands of cars – here’s how an easy change costing just a few pounds will save you money
AN experienced mechanic has revealed an easy fix which costs just a few pounds but will save you some serious money.
Scotty Kilmer has built up a huge online following of 5.9million people over the years thanks to him sharing his hacks and top tips to save motorists some big money on repair bills and car maintenance.
In a recent clip posted to his YouTube page, he showed a simple hack of what to do if you find your car has an oil leak.
Scotty said: “I’m going to show you how to figure out what’s wrong and fix it and I’m going to talk about the car itself.
Standing in front of a white car, Scotty added: “This guy’s just bought this Nissan Sentra for $1,800, now everybody knows I’m not a Nissan fan but it still runs pretty good.”
“It’s a 1994 and back in the day Nissan made some juicy vehicles, right… and this is a pretty good vehicle.”
The clip then cuts to Scotty taking a look under the hood, saying: “This is an old-style four-cylinder engine and actually, they’re really good engines.
“It is not a bad car, even though it’s got 160,300 miles on the clock. We’re talking about a 30 year old car.
“The problem is, it’s leaking engine oil.”
Scotty explained the owner had changed the oil but it was leaking all over the place.
He added: “So we’re going to find exactly where it’s leaking from.”
The mechanic’s top tip to save time and money was to use a bottle leak-detecting dye.
He said it was a one-shot thing and poured the contents of the small bottle in with the engine oil.
Scotty advised to keep the engine running and drive around the block for 10 to 15 minutes.
He explained he used UV leak dye because: “It’s the easiest, simplest, quickest thing to do.”
“If you’re going to try to go by sight alone, you’re going to have to clean everything off, then see what parts get greasy.
“I don’t have to do any of that, you put the leak dye in, it glows when you put a UV light on it, so it will show where the leak is coming from and you don’t have to clean anything up.”
Scotty then jacks the car up so he can take a look at the car from underneath and hopefully find out where the leak is coming from.
Once underneath the car, he starts using a pocket UV light to try to find where the leak is.
He then takes off the front wheel on the passenger side and then removes the fan belt.
After that he starts looking at the alternator where he discovers a problem with a sealant.
Having put the car back together, he wanted to make sure that was the cause of the problem and so got the car running again and the problem was fixed.
“So what did we learn? Well, an old ’94 Nissan Sentra can still be an excellent work car. He only paid $1,800. It runs good – and now it’s not leaking oil.”
The clip has been viewed around 106,000 times in less than a week.
One commentator wrote: “Scotty makes it look so easy, but I tell you what he worked on is a giant pain in the butt!”
Another said: “Had no idea you could swap that without tearing the engine down. Very cool!”
While a third added: “These type videos, where Scotty shows how to do the work, are my favourites.
“The info vids are great, but I like to do the work myself and these vids are excellent as teaching tools!!”
Elsewhere, another mechanic has revealed why your car warning lights could be acting crazy for no obvious reason.
An MOT mechanic has explained why getting a dodgy test can be so dangerous.
Another car mechanic has shown the signs you need to be aware of that could mean your vehicle urgently needs repairing.