8 Things You Can Find In The Auto Parts Section Of Home Depot

It turns out that in addition to Home Depot being someplace that'll let you park your RV overnight in a pinch, it can also help you out with a surprisingly robust selection of automotive products. Sure, tucked away in the electrical aisle it offers a 42-piece set of fuses that might include exactly what you need to get your headlights shining again, but Home Depot also has a proper automotive section containing everything from car batteries to jumper cables. So whether you're a responsible homeowner who wants to shop for deck screws and oil filters at the same place or a degenerate master of deferred maintenance unable to limp the rest of the way to AutoZone for a tire plug kit, the HD brand that isn't a motorcycle company is there for you.

For the record, though, this article isn't a particular endorsement of one hardware chain. Both Home Depot and Lowe's are scanning your license plate, and both Home Depot and Lowe's will sell you stuff for your car. We just decided that, for today's purposes, we'll focus on the big orange Halloween decoration store that also sells hammers. So let's head past the lawn equipment out front, hang a right by the energy drink cooler, and check out the auto parts section of Home Depot.

What Home Depot doesn't have that your local parts store probably does is a grizzled ex-mechanic behind a parts counter who will come outside to declare time of death on your car battery. What it does have is batteries. So whether you happened to squeeze the last start out of your battery in the soft orange glow of a Home Depot sign or you just appreciate the poetry of 40 pounds of lead and acid from the same place you buy that twisty bit of pipe under the sink, it's got you covered.

The selection is centered largely around Exide, with Home Depot listing a dozen automotive batteries across several common BCI group sizes, including multiple Sprinter and Sprinter Max models. One example is the 750-CCA H6/Group 48 Sprinter Max, while Home Depot's broader Exide listings show batteries with different case sizes and starting-power ratings for different applications. The useful part here is that Home Depot has enough of a selection that there's a reasonable chance it has the battery you need.

There are few maintenance jobs more perfectly calibrated to make you feel stupid about forgetting one stupid thing than an oil change. The car is already up in the air, the old oil is draining into a pan, and only then do you remember that the new filter you were sure was sitting on the workbench has been gone for 4,500 miles. That's when you briefly consider rolling the dice on reusing your old oil filter before coming to your senses and heading to Home Depot, eternal sanctuary for people making one more damn trip to the store before the project is done.

Home Depot currently lists more than a dozen engine oil filters, with different filters intended for different vehicle applications. The selection includes familiar spin-on filters like the WIX 51348, along with a broader assortment that varies by store and availability. So no, Home Depot probably isn't replacing the parts counter as your first stop for some obscure filter on a 30-year-old Saab. But for plenty of routine oil changes, there's a decent chance the filter you need is sitting in the same building as the shop towels and the Torx bit you need for the other project you were hoping to get through on a Sunday.

Replacing wiper blades is a time-honored ritual where you push it as long as you possibly can and then stand under fluorescent lighting flipping through a phone book of car models to figure out what you need before debating internally about whether you're willing to let the store clerk make good on the "free installation with purchase" promise or do it yourself in the parking lot. In any case, most drivers are pushing wiper blades way too far, and if picking up a set while you're browsing paint swatches gets the job done, that's probably a good thing.

Home Depot's selection is centered on Rain-X windshield wiper blades, with more than a dozen listings covering a range of common blade lengths. That includes Rain-X's Latitude 2-in-1 Water Repellency line, with different sizes available depending on what your vehicle requires. Home Depot even lets you filter its windshield-wiper selection for same-day store pickup, which is pretty much the practical opposite of flipping through that giant wiper book.

Few automotive problems deliver quite as much immediate dread as walking back to your car and noticing that one corner is sitting noticeably closer to the pavement than the other three. The good news is that not every puncture means calling a tow truck or putting on the spare in a parking lot while strangers drive past pretending not to watch. If the damage is appropriate for a plug repair and you know what you're doing, Home Depot has enough tire-repair gear to potentially turn a bad afternoon into a merely annoying one.

The selection includes tire plug kits, replacement plugs, tire sealant, and valve-core tools with replacement cores. Home Depot also lists a broader range of Slime tire-repair products, including kits and sealants with store pickup available at some locations. And while this probably isn't where you're going for a complete tire-service education, it is apparently where you can go when the tiny piece of metal currently ruining your day has convinced you that tire plugs suddenly qualify as home-improvement supplies. So if you've been doing the math on how long you can drive on a donut spare but also have a lunch date to wander through those fake kitchens looking at countertop samples and wanting to die, Home Depot can maybe save you a stop.

As new SUVs keep showing up with surprisingly impressive towing capacity, you might be looking at that hitch receiver and thinking about the possibilities. Well, just as Home Depot is the international headquarters for getting people in over their heads with home DIY projects, the auto aisle goes considerably deeper into towing hardware than you might expect. So if your trailer has decided that displaying your intentions to surrounding traffic is optional, you may not have to make a dedicated pilgrimage to the trailer-supply store before you can haul the lawn tractor, boat, or that Craigslist hot tub home.

Home Depot carries a surprisingly broad assortment of TowSmart towing pieces, including replacement 7-way trailer connectors that handle tail lights, brake lights, turn signals, and reverse lights. There are also 7-way-to-4-way adapters, 4-way wiring connectors, bonded trailer wire, and basic hitch hardware like a 5/8-inch hitch pin and clip. In other words, this isn't just "Home Depot sells trailer stuff." It sells enough individual pieces that you can conceivably repair the annoying little part of the towing setup that actually failed.

Yes, jumper cables can wear out and yes, your new ones could be waiting for you at Home Depot. This is good. Because keeping jumper cables in your trunk is one of those responsible-adult things everyone knows they're supposed to do, somewhere between checking the smoke-detector batteries and knowing where the water shutoff is. But buying (or certainly replacing) a set isn't exactly an emergency. It's more of a precaution. And a boring one. So it's understandable if it isn't something you're going to make an appearance at the auto-parts store to remedy.

Anyway, Home Depot has an entire jumper-cable category, with options in different lengths and wire gauges from Husky and other brands. Its 20-foot, 4-gauge Husky set, for example, is intended for compact and midsize cars and works with both top- and side-terminal batteries. Probably get the long ones. SUVs are huge, battery terminals are hidden in labyrinthine engine bays, and you never know how close you'll be able to get two cars to one another when one doesn't work.

Buying motor oil at Home Depot somehow feels both completely logical and faintly wrong, like ordering a cheeseburger at a seafood restaurant. Home Depot sells engines, lawn equipment, generators, shop towels, funnels, drain pans, and approximately six million things capable of leaking petroleum products onto your garage floor, so of course it sells oil. It's just easy to forget when your mental map of the store has a fog-of-war blank space between the lumber and the closet organizers.

The actual selection goes well beyond one dusty quart on a shelf. Once you've deciphered the different grades of motor oil, Home Depot carries motor oil in multiple viscosities and formulations, including conventional, synthetic-blend, full-synthetic, and high-mileage options, with both quart and multi-quart containers represented. The broader car fluids and chemicals section also reaches into other routine automotive needs. This includes windshield wiper fluid, which is way more complicated than you might think. Who knew?

You're not going to find Home Depot inventory in the background of your favorite Ammo NYC car detailing videos, but that doesn't mean they don't have the goods to help you get the job done at home. Not every wash needs to involve a shelf of mysterious color-coded liquids, five kinds of microfiber towels, and a level of paint correction that requires viewing your clear coat under lighting normally reserved for forensic laboratories. 

Home Depot carries basics like Rain-X High Foaming Car Wash, which is intended to remove dirt, grime, and residue while being safe for waxed finishes, along with glass cleaners and treatments and other car-cleaning supplies. And if you decide to take things more seriously, elsewhere in the store you can also find pressure washers, wet/dry vacs, and even a RIDGID car-detailing attachment kit. So maybe Home Depot isn't secretly an auto-parts store after all. It's something arguably more dangerous: a hardware store where you can arrive for a light bulb and leave several hundred dollars poorer with enough stuff to change your oil, repair a tire, wire a trailer, and spend the rest of Sunday detailing the car.