DIY car maintenance

[555-04Q2]

Anyone else on here do any work on their own car?

I change the front discs and pads on the 500 today Quite satisfying and the ~£80 extra the dealer wanted to charge for the job was more than made up for the hour and a bit that it took me to do it

and yes it does actually stop

As soon as one of my cars comes out of warranty, I do all my own work.

Problem though is newer cars are getting harder and harder to work on without the right tools and computer software. My Scoobies are the only ones I can't work on unless its a simple oil and filters change etc. The days of the mechanic are numbered as "technicians" take over.

[Eki]

I just changed spark plugs on my car. Recently I have also fixed a vacuum tube and changed a lambda sensor, light bulb and the air filter. I only do things that are easily accessible and don't require expensive special tools.

[schmenke]

Same here, I'll do what I can with the tools that I have, including brakes. Sometimes I'll solicit the help of a buddy of mine who's somewhat of a hobby mechanic (he's recently done an entire engine swap on his '05 Mustang).

Recently my POS has been idling poorlly upon startup and I've had a bugger of a time trying to diagnose the root problem. I've spend several hundred $'s in sensors alone .

[Retro Formula 1]

Cars and Bikes. Fix them,modify them,build them from scratch and make custom parts for people.

Got a cheap Super 7 on the drive at the moment if anyone's interested

[Daniel]

Same here, I'll do what I can with the tools that I have, including brakes. Sometimes I'll solicit the help of a buddy of mine who's somewhat of a hobby mechanic (he's recently done an entire engine swap on his '05 Mustang).

Recently my POS has been idling poorlly upon startup and I've had a bugger of a time trying to diagnose the root problem. I've spend several hundred $'s in sensors alone .

Not so fun. You got an OBD2 reader yet? Caroline's car's speedo isn't working.

Could be a few things.
Speedo cluster (tried a 2nd hand one which didn't sort it)
Wiring (auto electrician has checked that and he says it's fine)
ECU unlikely to be the problem tbh
VSS (vehicle speed sensor) we've tried a second hand one with a cordless driver turning it which hasn't sorted it but we don't know if it's actually working.
Speedo drive in the gearbox. Sadly the sensor has rusted itself in nicely so you'd have to break the sensor (~£150 new!!!!) to see if the speedo drive is turning

It's a really annoying fault! It could be something as simple as wiring or it could be something as difficult to sort as the speedo drive which is a gearbox out job. Might have to PM a guy around the corner who has the same car and see if we can try the sensor in his car.

[Kneeslider]

I seem to do rather less these days in terms of maintenance. Im lucky, in that I have my daily driver, play car, and two motorcycles to choose from, all in working order, or can be with no more than a little fettling.

The daily driver is serviced by a local marque specialist, the main dealer charges are eye watering, and the car has way too much to lose in depreciation if I start to try any DIY. There isn't a Haynes manual available for it, and even a dearth of info on the internet.

The Boxster I had until recently was such a PITA to work on, that I got fed up with battling with it to do even simple things. When I was selling it on Ebay, the hood mechanism broke, and while there are no real access issues to fix it, you first have to understand the thing, and you can't just pop round the corner for parts, so there's the inevitable delay while they arrive.

The TR6 play car had a comprehensive rebuild not too long ago, and it doesn't do enough miles to wear out the consumables very fast, but irritation tends to arise from poor reproduction parts, which aren't up to the job, or don't fit, so you end up modifying them to make them better, and it takes a whole lot of time.

My Laverda is just out of a 2.5 year rebuild process, so no maintenance issues there either, but because the manufacturer has been defunct for nearly 30 years, spares are hard to come by. Recently the electronic rev counter failed, and there are no new ones available. Its in an instrument pod for an early '80s Autobianchi, so I had to improvise! I bought a cheap electronic rev counter from ebay, degutted it, then transplanted the guts into the Laverda binacle. Then, because the Laverda is a 3 cylinder, with the ignition pick ups on the crankshaft, it needed calibrating. I used a 12v AC source to provice 50Hz, and fed it into the rev counter, and rotated the calibration screw till the needle read 3,000 rpm. Its stuff like that which is strangely satisfying, because you are involved in a problem solving process and a test of your skill, rather than merely wrench twiddling to replace worn out parts.

The Ducati probably gets the most attention in the garage, even though I have probably ridden it the least miles of all my vehicles this year. This is probably because its such a joy to work on, I can have the engine out in about 30 minutes, or the cambelts changed in 20minutes, everything is easily accessable, and beautifully made, though paradoxically swapping carburettor jets is the most taxing job, due to the carbs being hidden under the fuel tank and airbox.

[Retro Formula 1]

That old Duke still going Knee? 888 isn't it?

When did you get the TR6. Was it your dad or Fizz's that had the TR7?

Friend of mine is a tart with a 911 and he said changing the rear brake pipes was a nightmare. Told him to make up some aeroquip and thread it through but apparently still wasn't possible he said. Mind you, this was the same person that called me out on my bike one winter when his Lambretta wouldn't start. After fighting through the snow and ice for an hour, I discovered he had forgotten to turn the fuel on

[Daniel]

That old Duke still going Knee? 888 isn't it?

When did you get the TR6. Was it your dad or Fizz's that had the TR7?

Friend of mine is a tart with a 911 and he said changing the rear brake pipes was a nightmare.

That's the thing I like about the Subaru. Other than access to the plugs and the heads, it really is no harder to work on than any other car around

[555-04Q2]

That's the thing I like about the Subaru. Other than access to the plugs and the heads, it really is no harder to work on than any other car around

Yes and no. The plugs and heads are impossible to get too but the filters etc are pretty straight forward. But servicing things like the turbo, intercooler, software diagnostics et al gets tricky. About 3 years ago I tried to do a major service on my prized 02 Prodrive Scooby without doing the diagnostics check, turbo etc and the car ran kind of iffy afterwards and not pulling properly...took it to a specialist who found she was now only delivering 231 HP on the wheels. After some fine tuning she was back up to 287 HP. I leave my Scoobies to the specialist these days.

[Retro Formula 1]

That's the thing. Why worry about modern diagnostics?

Lob a mega-jolt or squirt on and set the diagnostics upon the computer or down a rolling road.

Ford Zetec with Ford Electronics and Injectors. 130BHP if you're lucky.

Ford Zetec with Jolt and ZX9 carbs. 160+ or with injectors 5 - 10 more.

You can even make a Megajolt for a few quid if you're too tight to buy one from someone like Trigger Wheels.