Best and cheapest places to buy car maintenance supplies

Here in Tohoku/ Iwate I’m not sure what brands to get or where to shop.

Back in the US, my shopping list would be:

Walmart: $20-25 5-qt high mileage full synthetic oil, $2 oil tray, $3 wiper fluid, $3 shop paper towels, $25 mechanics tool set

Harbor Freight: $10-15 torque wrench, $0-5 multimeter

Dealership: $6 oil filter and crush washer

AutoZone: free tool borrowing for odd projects (belt replacement, vacuum testing, etc)

Junkyards/Car-Part.com and RockAuto.com: car parts

Dollar Tree: car wash supplies, gloves, etc.

Right now I’m only thinking of my first oil change for my used high “mileage” Honda N-Box kei car.

I avoided chain oil change shops back in the US because of countless family/friend horror stories of those places doing it wrong (most common grievances: oil leaking or they paid for synthetic premium and got conventional + a low quality filter). And that fact that I could just do it right myself and for slightly cheaper.

My Japanese is baby level right now, but based on a recent post here, it looks like I could go to a car shop or gas station for an oil change or to recycle oil. Don’t know what the price differences to doing it myself are here yet though.

1 comment
Leave a Reply
You May Also Like