DIY servicing - where do we start

Notmyrealname

HHMMMMMM...

The entrepreneur in me is smelling a bit of a business opportunity......

Evening courses on basic car maintenance. 2hrs per session, 10 sessions for the course, 10 students per session, £10 per student per session......

Joe_Horner

benham3160 wrote: »

I started doing oil changes on my first car, now people pay me to build engines, carry out extensive diagnostics, weld up cars and build bespoke looms. I've picked it all up from reading a lot, practising, and just making myself "do" things.
[...]

Remember, every job you do is experience, and will make the next one easier. What car(s) is it out of interest you are planning on working on?

Regards,
Andy

Excellent advice, although the good old days were better, when you could set valve clearances without removing and shimming the camshaft, tweak the ignition to suit the fuel (ok, I know the ECU does that for you now but it ain't the same) and generally repair rather than replace

On a more serious note, the two things that cars in the good old days did have going for them was access (usually plenty of it compared to now) and a hell of a lot less wiring, with fewer connectors to cause problems.

Plus, even if connectors did corrode things usually worked, just not as well (dim lights, feeble horns etc), rather than sending a bad signal to a computer that decides to 0put you in limp-home mode in case you (or the car) explodes.

Of course, the down side of that was that the bad connection in some random circuit created heat, which eventually destroyed the insulation and caused a fire because the manufacturer had only fitted 2 fuses and that circuit wasn't on either. But at least the circuit kept working up to that point

Notmyrealname

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Excellent advice, although the good old days were better, when you could set valve clearances without removing and shimming the camshaft,

How far back was that then? Camshafts had to be shimmed in the Rover P6....

mikey72

Notmyrealname wrote: »

How far back was that then? Camshafts had to be shimmed in the Rover P6....

I've still got two cars you don't.

s_b

my old escort engine had two dipsticks the normal one at the back that i fitted by removing the bung and the one at the front that it had used when it was sat in an old cortina
had to tin bash the sump out with the ball end of the hammer before fitting it though as the conrods were hitting it as they rotated

you dont get to read that in the haynes:D

only tools needed a 7/16ths spanner 1/2 inch spanner 11/16ths spanner and some old rope a mate and some scaffold pipe

Joe_Horner

Notmyrealname wrote: »

How far back was that then? Camshafts had to be shimmed in the Rover P6....

Oh, about this far :cool:



As for hammering out a sump, sb, that's quality re-engineering - which was always far too advanced for Haynes to include! The amateur approach would have been to leave the rods to do it themselves

red_eye

puddy wrote: »

We need to get car savvy as we are paying a lot for things that are fairly cheap except for the labour costs, ie oil changes, changing discs and pads etc etc

Are there courses that the general public can access to be more car aware, I mean I dont even know how to change a wheel, are there manuals, advice etc.


Do you do your own servicing and if so how did you know what to do?

I dont expect to know how to do EVERYTHING but if we could do the majority and then just go to a garage for the odd bit and bob then that would save us money

college (google imi c&g) do courses but after level 1 (basic maintenance) they get technical at level 2 and even more at level 3 were you have to diagnose.

for basic maintenance just the level 1 will be ok as it covers servicing. but even after doing the level 3 trying to perform that level of work on your own car the cost of equipment makes going to the garage alot cheaper

red_eye

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

agree id rather rebuild an i-VTEC than rebuild a kent crossflow.

there is not much diffrence apart from the extra bolt ons, taking apart and putting together is not rebuilding. a rebuild includes mesurments of the oil pump bore, piston rings, bearings, crank etc basically working with tolerances being able to accurately take and read measurements is the key to rebuilding a reliable engine that wont grenade on first start up

Gurj247

With regard to a tools to purchase I have used the Halfords Professional Set - it can be expensive, but every not and then they do it at Half Price in sales (circa £100) but i have never really needed to get any other tools since (apart from some specific tools for my car). Also the fact that it has a lifetime garuntee is great. When a peice did break, went to Halfords to show them, they instantly took the broken piece and issued me with a replacement and off i went

hartcjhart

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Orange Swarfega at that as the green jelly is crap. You can get orange swarfega in most motor factors or a smaller bottle in some branches of sainsburys.

jif or own label cream cleaners do the job just as well

if you are still lucky enough to have a local library look in there for the workshop manual as well as online,
some Halfords have a 'workshop' area complete with tools to do your own servicing,and with a trade card their parts can be very cheap