5 Dollar Store Finds That'll Save You Money When Working On Your Car

Performing your own auto maintenance can save you a lot of money — especially if you know how to hunt for bargains when loading up on supplies. Savvy shoppers know that getting everything you need at AutoZone might be convenient, but it's certainly not the cheapest option out there.

Dollar Tree is one of the largest chains of discount retailers in America, and it's no secret that there are a lot of fantastic deals to be found within its doors. It still manages to undercut the competition on a wide variety of items, even after the price of its products went up 25% across the store a couple of years back. Many of the products sold at Dollar Tree even come from major name brands. That said, there are also a lot of products sold there that are presented as amazing deals, but not all of them are known for having the best build quality available. I've spent a lot of time hunting through the isles of my local Dollar Tree and I've found that the trick is to separate the discounted wheat from the less-desirable chaff.

This is doubly true when it comes to car maintenance products. Sure, there are some items that aren't as good a deal as they might initially appear, but there are also a handful of items that offer genuine alternatives at affordable prices. You just have to know where to look. Here are five of the best dollar store finds for working on your car.

There isn't much to a funnel. It's a plastic cylinder that tapers from a big opening to a small one. There's not really much to mess up here, so it's a pretty safe bet that a dollar store funnel is about as good as any other. Funnels are good to have around pretty much any time you're dealing with fluids in your car, whether it's engine oil or windshield washer fluid. You probably want to have a few of them as well so that you don't have to worry about cross-contamination when changing different kinds of fluid.

The Driver's Choice Auto Funnel sold at Dollar Tree has a long neck that's good for reaching deeper filling ports and a reasonably wide mouth. Compare this design to similar funnels from Wilco, Amazon, AutoZone, and even other discount stores like Harbor Freight. They aren't particularly expensive anywhere, but you would be hard-pressed to find a deal as good as the one available at Dollar Tree. These savings are even more apparent when you need to buy multiple funnels. Say you need five of them. Five Driver's Choice Auto Funnels will run you $6.25, while five funnels at another store will cost you somewhere closer to $20. That's definitely a worthwhile saving.

Now that you've got a few funnels, you're going to need something to put in them. One of the more affordable liquids you can add to your car is windshield washer fluid. It's a simple compound, but it's very important to keep your car's reservoir full. Windshield washer fluid is primarily made up of three ingredients: methanol, antifreeze, and water. This makes a cleaning agent that breaks down dirt quickly, evaporates streak-free, and won't freeze as easily as an entirely water-based compound. This is an important safety feature, as it helps you to maintain visibility in your car.

Dollar Tree sells a one-gallon jug of Driver's Choice Summer Blend Windshield Washer Fluid for just $1.25. This fluid is only rated for temperatures above 32 degrees Fahrenheit — the freezing point of water — so those who live in colder climates will probably want to invest in more cold-resistant washer fluid. But for those in more temperate locales, this is a hard bargain to beat. Some other brand formulas include extra compounds that may justify a higher price, but most windshield washer fluids are sold for between $3 and $4 without offering much variation in the formula — other than some which are specialized for things like ice and bug removal. This makes the washer fluid available at Dollar Tree a good option for those looking to save money.

Another fluid you can add to your car to help improve its performance is gas treatment. There are several different kinds of fuel additives, and each of them works a little bit differently. The main goal of most of them is to remove the buildup of carbon deposits that can occur in your car's fuel lines, and particularly in its fuel injector. This is a particularly valuable product for older cars that have had more time to build up unwanted gunk in their injectors.

There are three kinds of fuel additives that are currently being sold at Dollar Tree, all of which are made by SMB. First off, we have the SMB's Super Gas Treatment. This is the one that most people should probably take a look at, since it is the one that is designed to clean and break down deposits in your car's fuel system. AutoZone recommends adding fuel injector cleaner once every 3,000 miles.

Then there is the SMB Performance Octane Treatment which is supposed to improve your engine's combustion and prevent knock and ping, and finally the SMB Gas-Line Antifreeze and Water Remover,which is helpful in cold weather when water manages to get into your tank — either through an open gas cap or as condensation. All of these cleaners come highly rated and are significantly more affordable than the alternatives sold at other locations.

Not everything to do with car maintenance is under the hood. Sometimes, you just need to give your ride a good cleaning — inside and out. Regular cloths and towels should probably be avoided though, as some coarse fibers can leave tiny, almost imperceptible scratches in the finish of your car's paint job, its glass, and even on the polish over the wooden components in your interior. You're much better off using a microfiber cloth.

There are a few different kinds of microfiber cloths out there. They each have their own specific textures and are designed for different kinds of jobs. Dollar Tree sells a variety of microfiber clothes, three of which are made by Driver's Choice. It sells 24x16-inch extra soft microfiber cloths which are ideal for cleaning the wood, plastic, leather, and vinyl components in your car's interior. These towels are large, non-abrasive, and designed to easily clean up dust, dirt, oils, and minor stains without damaging your console or your upholstery.

It also sells slightly denser microfiber auto-cleaning towels and washmitts. The fibers in these are still soft enough to avoid scratching, but the added texture makes them better for scrubbing away sap stains, bird feces, and other, more stubborn residues that might adhere to your car's exterior.

Most of these come in packs of two for $1.25, making them some of the cheapest options available. The only options that come close to Dollar Tree's value-per-towel are bulk packs that require buying ten or more at a time.

While a lot of the auto maintenance products sold at Dollar Tree are made by smaller, lesser-known brands, there are often items that are made by some of the biggest and most well-regarded brands in the business as well. Armor All is one of the most recognised auto cleaning agent manufacturers on the market. The company makes several formulas that are each designed to target specific surfaces, and some of them can be purchased quite cheaply.

Dollar Tree sells Armor All's multi-purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, protectant, and disinfectant wipes. The store only sells 4-oz bottles of the sprays, but at $1.25 per bottle, this is still likely the cheapest way to get it. Other companies usually sell these bottles for more than twice that price, including Ace Hardware, which sells the 4-oz protectant for around $4 per bottle. But even if you buy the larger 16-oz bottle from Amazon for $6.29, you're still paying more per ounce than if you bought four of the smaller bottles at Dollar Tree. Some of you may prefer to spend an extra dollar or two if you prefer the larger spray bottle, but you can always use the Dollar Tree bottles to refill the larger one if you want to save some money. The smaller bottles are also nice because they're easy to store in a glove box or center console in case you need to do a little clean-up away from home, like during a road trip or a long commute.

I've personally spent a lot of time bargain-hunting at my local Dollar Tree and have used several of these products. To compose this list, I looked through Dollar Tree's online inventory of automotive products and selected five that I've either had personal experience using or that were highly rated among Dollar Tree customers. I also chose items that I believed would be genuinely useful for typical repairs and maintenance. I then searched for the prices of similar products from competing retailers in order to verify that getting these items at Dollar Tree would actually save home mechanics a bit of money.