diy maintainable car by design

Ummm, but I've just upgraded mine to a pci-express mobo. I expect that in a couple of years time I'll have another faster video card than the new one I have now, then three or four years down the line it'll be another motherboard, CPU and whatnot.

Meanwhile the exiting P3 board has just upgraded my server from it's P2 board that's going to go into the webserver before too long, and then another board will pop out the far end destined for scrap after moving through about four machines.

I've never bought a new system save the first time that I get a complete additional system.

Well, that makes two of us. The former is part of my job, the second is a reaction to not getting my hands dirty enough in my job. ;-)

Careful

I don't really mean that people should service the car themselves etc. I mean they should be responsible for ensuring that it gets serviced, and of course they should check tyres etc regularly. So they could service/maintain it themselves, or they could pay a mechanic to do it. Either way the car should be safe*.

worthwhile.

Hmm, I have upgraded my machine quite a bit, and I think I'm happy with it at the moment. I've upgraded the CPU, memory, graphics card, sound card, hard disk, and CD-RW in less than 3 years. When I first got it I had a cheap CPU, which I upgraded 1 year later. The new CPU had a core that wasn't even available when I originally got the computer, and I hadn't lost much money (got a fiver for the old CPU too :) ).

I like the idea of getting cheap stuff. Dual PIII's seem to go quite cheap, and they seem pretty good. My dads 700MHz PIII feels much faster than my Athlon XP1700+, which is rather embarassing, I'll have to see if it improves with a fresh Windows install.

The Mac Mini's look great. I was very close to getting one, but thought it would be best to get a job, and finish my exams first.

So what did you mean when you said you sort of checked the tyres of your Siecento? :) But seriously now, in the absence of pre-drive checklists that drivers have to fill in then attach to the dashboard, so that if they crash they can prove that they checked each tyre, each lamp, brake fluid, so on and so forth.

Well now hold on. There may well be a difference between anybody servicing the vehicle and somebody qualified to service it. That's kinda the point. In any event we should define what we mena by a service. When I write "service," I don't mean "repair something that's dropped off, replace the oil and filter, kick the tyres," I mean having everything checked and adjusted as necessary.

This isn't a dig, heh, but too many people think that "MOT" is the same as "service" is the same as "oil change and bulb check."

The message from "Stuffed" contains these words:

Talking of which - the Montego's head gasket has gone again. That's another evening well spent!

The message from "Stuffed" contains these words:

Ah - I was generalising for the rest of the population. Honestly.

They haven't done it with home electrics yet. All theyv'e done is make it so that you cannot sell the house without the relevant certification being issued.

Me 3....

You have oil prints on your keyboard don't you? Googling for parts.

Agreed. Deliberatly screwing up a Montego is time well spent.

(had a nasty experience with one of those - scarred me for life)

They've been trying for years. Other countries do actually have laws for this. You have to have a licence to legally wrk on a car at all - Germany is one I believe.

That's about the equivalent of bunging a Zetec engine into a Mk2 escort.

It also sounds like Dad's old spade, had it for 20 years, and it's only had three handles and two new heads!

Yes, it's rather like buying second hand cars. Buy and old banger, stick a new engine into it, ad an induction kit. All the parts obtained from Max Power ads!

I guess so.

Me too ;-)

Exactly. As I work in a dealership I have to convince people that we're not just bunging fresh oil in, and kicking the tyres. Despite what people think about dealerships, all the places I've worked have high standards, and fair prices.

We also spend a lot of time putting right the f*ck ups of the Sunday mechanic who wants to save a few bob. Wrong fluid in the power steering, crap brake pads, badly adjusted brake shoes, and of course the attempted modifications.

For every time I hear of a dealer ripping someone off, I can think of a DIY'er that's moaning because their car is going to cost them to get it put right.

Don't get me wrong, I have no objection to someone modifying, or maintaining, their own car. But only when they are competent to do so.

It's not just a matter of personal liberties either. You have, firstly, probably the second biggest expense you have (your house being the first), surely it makes sense to invest in the maintenance as you would your house. Not only to maintain its residue value, but its safety.

Which leads to the second matter, safety. You have a very large projectile under your control (just go and work out the maths of a car hitting something at any reasonable speed). It is your legal, and moral, duty to make sure the car is maintained in a safe condition.

The insurers can invalidate your policy if the car is not maintained to a standard that is advised by the manufacturer. Quite rightly so IMHO.

If you talk about buying new, then yes that is true. However, I would guess that more people buy a new computer than buy a new car (relatively speaking).

Given the availability of factory workshop manuals (Honda publish some on their web site, others are available for free from web sites and most can be had for about £5 of E-bay) you will have access to all factory diagnostic routines and find most cars are serviceable. You will find that most cars have means to check engine management / emissions by use of simple tools like a paper clip or at worst a voltmeter. It some cases just operating a sequence of switches or turning the ignition on/off a set number of times will yield the codes and perform diagnostic modes. Best to buy Japanese, they design cars to be serviced in the outback of Australia and paddy fields of Asia. Ford and GM are designed to be dealer only service to the extent that they got the US law that was supposed to harmonize all OBD systems to allow them to use different patented standards, thus totally subverting the original intent of the law.

Front and rear screen are structural parts of the car, it would have to be much heavier if they could be removed.

New golf is supposed to have all external panels replaceable. But you can bet the cost still sky high and paint will be extortionate. Bumpers are supposed to be cheap expendable bits that can take a knock. These days they are considered good if they don't damage from impacts at up to 5 mph and cost hundreds to replace and paint.

why should anything leak? Or have you had some Ford/GM/Euro trash?

My CV boots are now 14.5 years and 133.5K miles old, no sign of any problem with 170bhp and regular application of heavy left foot. Never heard of any problem on cars with 200K+ miles even on cars using same set up with 250bhp+. It is RWD, FWD cars can have CV boots fail at

why? They are stuffed full of multi-plate clutches and band brakes so they cost a fortune when they fail.

I much prefer a paper clip, flashing led on side of ECU to show correct operation of closed loop and a timing light - about 1/25 the price of a computer.

Last car I had that you could do that on was a 1976 Datsun 100A FII Cherry 3 door Estate (they have given this type of car the title hatchback these days) with A series engine (Austin A series - I don't think I ever got a wheel to spin so drive shaft joints had no problem). Take wheel off, take a small 3 inch dia plate off inside wing, remove operating arm and push rod, use slide hammer to pull transfer shaft out through wing, take pressed tin top half of clutch housing off, undo the pressure plate and the clutch fell off into bottom of bell housing, lift out, reassemble with new plate. Total time for an 18 year old clutch change virgin 1.5 hours, 30 min of which was spent drilling 3/8" hole though 3" long piece of 2" bar to make the slide hammer. I don't have any idea why it hasn't been copied or why Nissan don't make them like that anymore. Before anyone claims that the PSA 1.1/1.4 could be done the same you had to take loads of crap off including the whole bell housing to get to it and remove a motor mount.

Being able to see the rust don't help.

Why? Nasty hot running oil cooking noisy things. All the pushrod aircooled car engines are total and utter crap, about the only one that was halfway decent was the OHC NSU or Jap bike engines. Separate water / oil feed and return to head and block, closed top deck on block and lower surface of head, so head gasket joint is dry would be a nice to have. Then a failed gasket wouldn't wreck the coolant system by excess pressure and fill the lubrication system with water. You could go forever on 3 or even 2, just pull the injector plug off to stop fuel flow and take the plug out.

Need a magneto or self generating CDI system too as a fully flat battery means no go even with a handle.

Ah the good old days of sidevalve Fords when engines could be had and fitted for £12 (a weeks wages). You needed one every year cos that's how long the valves lasted. They used a silly mushroom head valve that required the split valve guide to be removed to get the valve out so it was cheaper to get a whole new engine than try to recon the old one.

I would really like the meet the idiots that put the oil filter on the arse side of the 95 Honda Civic and FWD Ford 1.3 Escort MKIV. The Civic alternator isn't so clever either.

It would be better if the whole car lasted it's full design life maintenance free and they made it very clear from the outset what that design life was. For all I know many cars have a 3 or 5 year design life - just till the warranty runs out. I'ld like them tell me if it has 2.5 years life left or is 0.5 years past it's use by date before I bought a secondhand one at 5.5 years old.

Hardly. If I still had the old ST506 hard drive and 32Mb of ram in an Athlon 3400 then it would be more like it.

Which is precisely how most of my systems change. I don't think, bar the mains lead there is any original part of my original computer left, and has been that way for about 5 years now.