on your own vehicle is fun and can save you loads of money. You also get a little more familiar with the car you love. However, fixing things yourself also means running into repairs that may take some special skills, hacks or just monumental patience to get through.

Over the summer I traded a Mercedes-Benz 240D with a dead differential for a Ford Ranger. The seller described the Ranger as having a power steering leak, but it really had a power steering geyser from the metal high-pressure line. Ideally, this is fixed by taking a line wrench to the ends of the line and loosening the nuts. In practice, everything was rusty because I’m in the Midwest and the existing line was in my way. So I didn’t have enough room to break the rusty nut.

That’s when my significant other had the brilliant idea to cut the line off the nuts using a steak knife. I thought she was crazy, but that knife sawed through that metal power steering line with ease. I was then able to replace the power steering line with a fresh one.

This makes me think, what other car wrenching hacks are out there? What neat tricks do you have to get the job done? Bonus points for using unconventional tools!