Owning a vehicle is an expensive venture. Sure, it means you have a great sense of independence, and you don’t have to fork out for public transport, but you have to pay for your fuel, your insurance, and any repairs as and when they’re needed. And the last point alone can get very pricey, and often enough we like to think we could take care of our cars on our own.

But there’s some moments where you do need a professional, and you should know about them. There’s a lot of parts to your vehicle, and anyone of these parts can go bust on you at any time, but some breakdowns are more serious than others. And there’s both some subtle and obvious signs that something has gone seriously wrong within your car’s systems – so here’s a few you should take as a sign you need to head out to a mechanic pretty sharpish.

Sometimes it’s better to leave your vehicle to a professional, to be sure you’re not making the damage worse. (Image)

First, Know the Simple Jobs

A.k.a., the ones you can complete yourself, if you have the confidence. These can include things such as oil changes and filling up your car’s fluids, as well as replacing parts such as the stereo in your car, or changing a tire or a cracked headlight. There’s quite a few repairs you could manage yourself, and there’s plenty of tutorials online to help you out with them.

As long as you know what you’re capable of doing, as someone who isn’t an expert, you’ve got plenty of opportunity to keep your car out of the shop and away from extortionate prices. And you can even shop online to find the replacement parts you need, such as vauxhall breakers, for the smaller items you don’t have to cut off your arm and leg to get repaired.

Running Short of Fuel More Often?

This is a sign your fuel pump isn’t working properly, meaning there’s a whole fault in your engine, and you should probably head out to a mechanic to at least get the problem looked at. You don’t want to have your engine cut out on you at any point, especially when stuck in traffic.

If you’re someone who tends to drive with lower amounts of fuel in your system, you can also be contributing to the problem at hand, as this helps to wear out the pump much faster than normal.

Are Your Brakes Grinding?

It’s often not safe to drive a car that is making some very weird and particular noises when you start it up, but it’s definitely not safe to drive when the brakes are grinding away. Sure, there’s plenty of reasons something like this could be happening, but a mechanic will be able to troubleshoot immediately, and you won’t be unnecessarily replacing brake pads when the problem was something else entirely.

Heading to a mechanic is inevitable, just make sure you know when it’s serious.