Question for mechanically minded MSEr's.

Wig

Tao81 wrote: »

WOW! WIG YOU ROCK!

Thank you :cool:

BTW - Have you ever considered writing your own instruction manual? May I be so bold as to suggest a title - 'Basic Car maintainance for idiots'

That's an idea. :think:

What a thoroughly clean and tidy workman/woman you obviously are....

I try to be and I hate spilling oil.

You managed to cover absolutely everything!

Years of experience and making mistakes

What particularly tickled me was where you even went to the trouble of describing exactly how to leave the bowl to drain (into one of its corners) :rotfl: pricelesss!

I like recycling waste not want not.

Only question left to ask is, can I do all this without putting my car up on ramps?

Usually yes, no need for jacks or ramps, which is why I said check you can fit the bowl under the sump plug/car before you start. You might need long arms (I have long arms) to reach the plug with the spanner. On level ground without the car raised you can sometimes get better access by turning the wheel full lock. You can also raise one side a couple of inches using a carjack - not lifting the tyre off the ground - just a couple of inches.

If you do think you need to raise the car, one easy way to get a few inches is to drive forward onto two substantial bits of wood 4 inches thick (one under each wheel obviously) or heavy duty bricks, heavy duty patio slabs anything substantially strong (and wide enough for the tyres to sit on) - planks of wood etc. When you drive onto them you might find they get pushed forward by the tyres, one way to stop this I use, is to put 2 fence posts next to them sticking forward, get a helper to have one foot on each end of the fence posts to keep the bricks in place.
Obviously if you need to raise the car whatever method you use, safety is important, handbrake is important, and if you raise it more than 4 inches put bricks behind the rear wheels.

P.S. Apologies if this post sounds gushing, but am truely grateful and so there you have it!

Aww shucks