DIY Van Cleaning and Repair Tips

As a tradesman, you’ll know that every penny counts and as repairs and maintenance can be a costly way to repair small problems with your van, you’ll want to know cost effective and easy quick fixes to get your van in working order without having to take it off the road, costing you time and money and maybe even work.

Here are an extra few simple tips and tricks to maintain your van that you can do yourself with the need for a professional. Most of these will still require a bit of spend, either for a new part or for a new tool. However, it’s far cheaper and more convenient to handle it yourself.

Changing Windshield Wipers

Cleaning and replacing your windscreen wipers is a necessary and important part of road safety and windshield maintenance. We generally recommend that you change them every 6-12 months but you’ll know if they need to be changed sooner and it’s better to just sort it rather than letting any minor fault cause a major problem.

Consult the owner’s manual to determine what replacement blades should be used. You can find pretty much any make and model online or at a parts store. To swap out the wiper blades, lift the wipers out and slide out the old blades. How the blades are attached varies with every van so be sure to check how they are connected. Next, attach the new blades and make sure that the new wiper blades are secure. Be careful not to bend the new blades during the process as this could cause damage to the windshield.

Battery maintenance

To keep your van running smoothly and to avoid van inefficiency, one of the simplest and quickest things to do is cleaning the posts on your battery. It’s easy, quick and can be done with common tools around your home or workspace. Step 1, remove your battery terminals, make sure you remove the negative cable first. Step 2, use water and baking soda to clean the posts. Coca-Cola also works and is a great tip if you’re in a pinch! Step 3, with some water, wash off the posts and then dry and grease them. Finish this off by replacing the terminals. This should ensure a fully cleaned battery with minimal effort and a lack of any major tools.

Changing diesel fuel filters

Diesel vans have two fuel filters. A primary one found between the engine and the fuel tank and the second one being found closer to the engine. These are both quite simple to change and can be found in a step-by-step guide often found in the vehicle manual. This manual should also tell you when each part should be replaced but between 10,000-25,000 miles is a standard rule of thumb. This will however vary depending on your typical driving conditions and how well maintained you keep your vehicle.

Before attempting this, make sure your engine is turned off because the engine has an incredibly powerful suction and you don’t want to risk being sucked through and damaging either yourself or the engine. It also pays to go this with a cold engine so don’t do this immediately after a drive to avoid burning yourself or damaging your engine.

There are 3 basic things you need to be aware of in order to keep your engine and vehicle in working order as well as saving yourself both time and money and making sure your van is off the road for the least amount of time possible. If you want to keep your vehicle safe, you can check out our previous piece on van security as well as this piece on how to avoid van theft.