Welcome to She Changes Oil, a place to read about vehicle maintenance from a DIY female perspective. I started my DIY vehicle maintenance journey 15 years ago after buying my first Jeep, a 2000 Wrangler TJ.

After spending thousands of dollars at the dealership for maintenance and repairs, I decided to learn how to do it myself. I grew up without having any exposure to working on cars so I read Jeep forums and write-ups on the internet. With a degree in engineering, I was convinced I could do my own maintenance but was still incredibly nervous about taking the first steps.

Once I had that first oil change done, I felt confident that I could take on more and I’ve since learned how to change transmission fluid, differential fluid, brake pads and rotors, plus rotating tires among other things. I’ll be sharing some of my experiences here to hopefully inspire you to start your own DIY maintenance journey.

Before we get started, if you’ve never worked on a vehicle before you should be aware that what I’ll be covering is based on my own experience and every vehicle is different. I’ll do my best to provide general information but all examples will be based on my vehicles, a 2017 Jeep Wrangler JK and a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 V10. I recommend that you find internet discussion forums or social media groups dedicated to your vehicle and obtain a repair manual to get more specific information.

You should also know that, like most activities in life, working on a vehicle comes with risk. Serious injury or death can occur and you need to plan for safety above all else. In my next post, I’ll cover basic safety items and ways to reduce risk when working on (and under) your vehicle. Stay tuned!