Car maintenance costs never end. A tire rotation costs $72 on average; a blowout in the middle of the road can cost even more. Labor costs alone average over $100 per brake job for just one axle. Car owners need to stay on top of regular maintenance, which will save money in the long run. For example, rotating tires regularly increases their tread life, raises average gas mileage and can prevent blowouts. The good news is that costs are dramatically less when car owners maintain their own cars instead of paying a mechanic.

Of course, drivers incur tool costs to begin maintaining their own vehicles. In time, these costs are offset when compared to a mechanic’s labor rate. Tire rotation is a great example of how this works.

Do Your Own Tire Rotations

Most vehicles require a tire rotation, averaging $72, every 5,000 miles. The average American drives 13,476 miles per year. At this pace, Americans need to rotate their tires almost three times per year, costing them around $200 each year. This cost is only for tire rotation and doesn’t include the blowout from a pothole, brake jobs or other wheel maintenance or repair costs.

If the driver uses the car jacks that come with the vehicle, a jack stand and a Cheater Wrench to rotate tires themselves, they save enough money to pay for the equipment in about a year. For less than $200, a Cheater Wrench with all the needed accessories will loosen lug nuts safely without rocking the car from jumping on the lug wrench or stripping the lug nuts. This break-even point only accounts for tire rotations. Once other self-service wheel maintenance is included, drivers begin to save money. Add multiple-driver families with more than one vehicle, and the savings move from addition to multiplication.

Loosen Lug Nuts with a Cheater Wrench

This tool uses gears instead of a cheater bar or jumping on your lug wrench to loosen lug nuts. So instead of grunting and rocking the car off the jack stands, the internal gears do the work while the user simply turns the wrench more times to complete a lug nut rotation. Essentially, it is a torque multiplier.

Because of this design, a child could loosen a lug nut as easily as a superhero. The Cheater Wrench generates more than 2,500-foot lbs. of torque, and even semi-truck lugs only require 500-foot pounds of torque to loosen.

Another unique feature of the Cheater Wrench is that it doesn’t require electricity or a battery. An electric torque wrench has a similar cost but requires power, which is a major problem if you need to change a tire on the side of a freeway, and that stubborn lug nut is stuck.

Starting with the Basics

You might not be able to drop a transmission or replace a muffler, but wheel maintenance is a safe place to start. Invest in the tools and utilize your elbow grease, saving money in the process as you handle basic repairs and maintenance for your vehicle and home.