Doing your own DIY Car Maintenance

[Slab]

Prompted by the post in RI thread

After a trip to Halfords or a motor factors, Sundays were often taken up doing unwanted, but fairly straightforward, jobs on the car such as changing brake pads, oil, bulbs, new battery and other jobs like that but it seems now that even these basic things are minefields or just un-achievable by the car owner

Even popping down to local scrapyard to get things like a starter motor or even a new bumper, door panel or power window solenoid off another wrecked vehicle to fit to our own was not uncommon

It seems now that changing a bulb has changed from a £5 DIY job into something costing three figures by appointment with the car off the road for several hours at a dealership

Why aren’t we saying sod off to cars that need this kind of attention for mundane tasks that typically won’t be covered by a warranty

It used to be that the day after buying a second hand car the first purchase would be a Haynes manual which was worth its weight in repair charges, do folks still do this?

What DIY would you have previously done that you’d no longer attempt?
What jobs in your view are by design, just veiled ‘scams’ to prevent home maintenance
Do you think enough ‘press’ coverage or information is available to highlight these kind of negatives before you buy

Any related stories to share?

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I have usually tried to sort anything electrical on the car, or paint/bodywork minor issues, but anything else I give to someone who knows all about the car.
Sadly I think the days of home DIY on your car are gone, looking at how many cars needs the front bumper removed just to change a headlamp bulb (if it has a bulb that is), or the multitude of sensors and PCBs’s let alone canbus wiring. Technology has done this, along with the modern car design. Even changing brake pads can sometimes need telling the car computer they’ve been done.
So for me tinkering or fettling with the car only goes so far as keeping the insides and outsides clean, regular wax for the body and checking and maintaining fluid levels.

 

[Deleted member 18121]

I cant help thinking that the manufacturers have deliberately designed cars so they cannot be easily worked on.

In my old megane (2004) you needed to jack the car up and take off the wheels if you wanted to change the bulbs in the headlights - unless you could find someone with the slimmest arms ever.

 

[Slab]

I cant help thinking that the manufacturers have deliberately designed cars so they cannot be easily worked on.

In my old megane (2004) you needed to jack the car up and take off the wheels if you wanted to change the bulbs in the headlights - unless you could find someone with the slimmest arms ever.

Its mad when you think about it. Isn't this really the kind of thing a government should be doing. Legislation that no car is permitted for sale in the UK unless the primary bulbs can be changed at the roadside with no more than the in-car toolkit/owner handbook

Just on safety grounds this would make sense

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Its mad when you think about it. Isn't this really the kind of thing a government should be doing. Legislation that no car is permitted for sale in the UK unless the primary bulbs can be changed at the roadside with no more than the in-car toolkit/owner handbook

Just on safety grounds this would make sense

How many new cars leave the factory with bulbs in now though? With the move towards LED lights you’re talking changing the whole lamp unit.
I don’t see how the Government can legislate on car design like that, but we the consumer could stop buying those cars that don’t allow easy owner jobs to be done.
That might carry more weight, but then I think we have moved on from the time when dad spent Sunday morning under the car fixing that oil leak or whatever it had.

 

[Slab]

How many new cars leave the factory with bulbs in now though? With the move towards LED lights you’re talking changing the whole lamp unit.
I don’t see how the Government can legislate on car design like that, but we the consumer could stop buying those cars that don’t allow easy owner jobs to be done.
That might carry more weight, but then I think we have moved on from the time when dad spent Sunday morning under the car fixing that oil leak or whatever it had.

Yeah point taken, 'this is the kind of thing a government should have been doing'

I don't see it as regulating or legislating on design, just setting a required safety standard not unlike numerous other safety standards that already exist. How a manufacture achieves it is up to them

 

[USER1999]

In my time I have rebuilt engines, gear boxes, prop shafts, brake calipers, all sorts. I ran a Rover P5B as my main car for about 6 years, and worked on pretty much all of it. I would not bother now though. Spending all weekend getting oily doesn't do it for me anymore.

Last time I got under a car was to change a starter motor. It cost me £80, and £400 in physio bills.

I can also now afford to pay someone else to do it, as my time is now more valuable to me. Joys of getting old.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Thinking more about this, I feel there’s a lot to do with how we buy cars now, with many being on lease or PCP. If you have a car like that, you’re hardly going to risk mucking it up by tinkering with it more than fluids checking. I seem to remember reading an article that said about 90/95% of all new Mercs were sold on pcp, which I know are an expensive car but even so...that’s a lot that don’t own their new car.
As a result of the way we now buy our cars, I feel it’s given the manufacturers the ability to build them in a way that suits them and their businesses. If you also factor in crash ratings and all the regulations regarding emissions and the like it’s no wonder we have cars. We can’t do anything with other than lift the bonnet and suck in our teeth.

 

[Rooter]

I grew up in a financial meltdown, so our family cars were being fixed every weekend, so i was chief helper and learned pretty much everything off the old man. I can strip and rebuild and engine, gearbox, clutch etc no problem. I rebuilt my first entire motorbike age about 11. So I could do pretty much any job, however if diagnosing the fault is required, i would have to go borrow my mates IBD2 code reader first, gone are the days of mechanics being 'experts' they just do what the computer says these days.

Simple stuff like discs and pads, oil change i will do, it all depends how flush my wallet is or how busy i am, some jobs i will do, others i will pay some spotty oik to do.

Proper mechanics are few and far between these days IMHO.

 

[trevor]

Simple stuff like discs and pads, oil change i will do, it all depends how flush my wallet is or how busy i am, some jobs i will do, others i will pay some spotty oik to do.

Even these jobs aren’t simple any more on certain makes, I recently had to do rear brake pads on a Land Rover, it won’t let you wind the calipers back in without first being put on a computer to tell it to go into maintenance mode and again when you’ve finished to tell it to go back to driving mode.

Proper mechanics are few and far between these days IMHO.[/QUOTE]

 

[Wilson]

I cant help thinking that the manufacturers have deliberately designed cars so they cannot be easily worked on.

In my old megane (2004) you needed to jack the car up and take off the wheels if you wanted to change the bulbs in the headlights - unless you could find someone with the slimmest arms ever.

My old man and I spent a whole day trying the same, mine was a company car and I didn’t want to be the person to put it in the garage to replace the bulbs, (both of which went at the same time, and I couldn’t drive it home the night they went!), after a day of ripped arms and frustration, I had to put it in the garage. It turned out no-one could replace them, and the deal was amended to include these being replaced at Renult’s cost.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Many, many moons ago my dad had a minor brainstorm and after years of Ford Cortinas bought a Citroen ID19 (or was it a DS19 - can't recall). No matter - whichever variant - what an astonishing and beautiful car Until it went wrong and he decided to try and fix it him self. He took the engine out before deciding that he couldn't fix it - but couldn't work out how to get the engine back in again...problem was solved when a friend of his (a Citroen buff) bought the car and put it back together before driving it off. He then bought a Wolseley 18/85 (sublime to ridiculous styling-wise)

 

[jim8flog]

In my lifetime I have stripped cars back to a chassis and several boxes of bits and rebuilt them.

The other day I was looking at my front lights and realised it was a complete assembly, changing a single bulb looks to be nigh on impossible.

I changed a bulb for my daughter at the weekend and had to take out the whole lighting unit to do it. No wonder she has been taking it in to a well known parts place when they have gone in the past.

 

[Hobbit]

Dolomite Sprint clutch; involved taking both front seats out and then the panel on the tunnel.

Regrind in new valves.

Motorbikes; everything. I used to buy old 70's/80's Jap bikes in the autumn, then rebuild them over the winter. Come spring time, when people were looking to buy their next bike, I'd be selling. First 1 was an Yam RD200, then it was a Suzuki GT380, BSA B40, Kawasaki Z650, Kawasaki 900, Honda CB400. All stripped right back to nuts and bolts then totally rebuilt. Best bargain was the GT380. It in pretty much pristine condition but wouldn't start. Took me about 15 mins to realise they had crossed the HT leads.

 

[MegaSteve]

Have always found it quite therapeutic maintaining/fixing my own vehicles... Did just about everything aside from welding... A 'dark art' I never managed to master...

Used to do a bit of racing and I always felt a bit of a sense of achievement when I got the tuning just right... Getting twin 40's balanced, in particular, was quite satisfying...

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Can never be bothered with car DIY. Given me some wood, a saw, a plane, sandpaper, a screwdriver and some screws - that's just fine for me.

 

[williamalex1]

I use to do the majority of my own car repairs, brakes , clutches, oil changes etc, but things are a bit too technical for me nowadays.

 

[clubchamp98]

Was going to change brake pads on my golf but you need the software to tell the car to release the handbrake while the cars stationary.

Modern cars are designed to be accessed from underneath , so you need a ramp or pit.

Tried to change the daytime running light bulb on my girls fiat 500 Jesus you need the arms of a five year old to get in the bulb holder.

 

[Crazyface]

A few years ago I decided to do a basic mechanic course as my local college. After the third week of being told that "this is a job that you can do but these parts never go wrong" or "this is not really a job that you can realistically tackle it's a garage job" I left the course. :thup:

 

[OnTour]

I'd love to do the hybrid check on my wife's Yaris at £45 :-( they don't have shiny showrooms for nothing.

brakes, oil and filter etc.