New guy here!

In message , rob1 writes

Hi Rob,

As I sure you'll appreciate that it will take time to gain experience but everyone is capable of basic tasks like changing your oil and filter, spark plugs and air filter which are the basic servicing items.

After a little while, task like changing brake pads and discs will be within your capability. You need to get a Haynes manual for the car you own and you can then use the book to identify various parts of your car which will give you a better understanding of how things work.

You will learn about greasing nuts and bolts to make them easier to come off next time. You will learn about the things that you shouldn't grease. You will learn about using penetrating oil to help loosen off seized nuts and bolts. You will learn about the need to torque load various bolts to avoid over tightening them and snapping them/

You will need some tools too. This *can* be expensive but if you buy carefully they will last for many years. If you buy really cheap tools you may end up buying them again next year. A set of metric combination spanners and a metric socket set should be your first purchase. Many people here reckon that the "Halfords Professional" range of tools are good tools. You will need trolley jacks, axle stands and ramps if you need to work underneath the car but you may be able to borrow these until you can afford to buy your own.

Nope....... exactly the right group. I'm sure others will be along with good advice.

Rob, Way to go!

Here are some suggestions - they cost some money but not as much as paying for service, . Get a set of basic tools - nothing fancy, spanners, sockets, screwdrivers, pliers, cutters, cheap multimeter etc. other suggestions may come from this ng

New is best but also go to local auto jumbles or tool auctions for s/h tools etc or possibly ebay.

obtain two workshop manuals for your car from EBAY or auto jumbles 1 haynes 2 manufacturers w/s manual

Read them both - TWICE. (bedtime reading)

likewise the owners manual, that came with the car - also available on ebay etc

things will become clear on the SECOND reading.

Skip the non-basic parts that dont really matter and stick to the sections on engine/transmission/brakes/suspension etc, also basic servicing such as plugs, filters, etc

look in your local adult educational unit for a evening course on basic car maintenance. - enrol.

Surf the net for any cars subject under the sun. use google for say "battery care" and you get multiple hits. print off the best on every subject you can think of. ignition, 4 stroke cycle, fuel injection, carburation, etc etc and build up a file of reading material. and then READ THEM..

Using the basic tool kit, take things off your car, inspect them a put them back. use the manuals to find out how.

eg - wiper blades, light bulbs, door trim, boot trim, wiper motors, light lens, door lock.

then more adventurously, engine parts/covers, drain and replace oil and filter, same with coolant, same with washer fluid. learn to check battery function using a basic voltmeter.

this exercise can also double as rolling restoration.

all of this is a 1 year learning exercise to familiarise yourself with the car, how things are put together and come apart. (thinks! get a part time job in a car breaking yard - my son did his first 3 years at a breakers yard and he was building drag racers at the age of 19).

then the first time something needs replacing -say stop light bulb or praps a broken door lock - you will already know how to do it.

you are 20 now! by the time you are 21 you will be amazed at what you have learned.

for payback - you can do minor jobs on friends and families cars for cash.

If you have trouble finding the time for all the above - praps its time to give up some other leisure time activity , because cars can dominate your life if you let them.

Rgds Ramon

I had a feeling that you'd say the haynes manual! I'll run off to halfords tomorrow. It might be under the "vintage" section of Ebay. ;-)

Actually on looking, £3 for the haynes. Guess what I've just bid on!

The first bit is easy enough "surf the net and find...", its the "read them" part thats hard. Still, what else can I do at night?!

Door lock! At the moment I'm trying to install central locking and electric windows into my car. Pretty stupid without a manual to refer to (ok, its probably an easy job for all of you, but its hard for me!) working out which wires to suck on is always fun.

And then, when the garage try to tell me "we had to replace the battery, it was reading really low", I can explain my take on it, hehehe

Thats a good idea, cheers

I hope so. I might see if the local scrappy will let me pull a random old car apart in their yard. There's something about pouring oil everywhere on a main road that just doesnt appeal to me - the car sits on the road outside my flat.

Now *that* would be cool. Hopefully as good as (if not better - more attention to detail) than the garage. Then again, I suppose the techs at the garage have the advantage of years of experience, and with it being their job.

Oh no! Guitars, beer, or women?!

Yeah, thats the thing that worries me a bit. I darent pull the thing apart without experience because I dont know what I might inadvertantly break. Then again, the "simple" jobs are a good place to start, and hopefully quite cheap to fix if (when?) I go wrong.

I just bid on a haynes manual on ebay

Now thats something I really need to find out about. My nuts keep siezing. Does that sounds bad?

Cool. I dont have any of the tools at the moment, but I do have a trolley jack. Quite a good one apparently that my grandparents gave me. They were going to give me their ramps too, but apparently they can topple or slide out easily so they're out of my way (thanks to the parents). I think they might have been sold. Grrrr

Brilliant! Thanks for your help!

Just thought I'd mention that when I got my first car at 17 I didn't have a clue about the things! A mate of mine helped me with loads of stuff and I learned a lot from him, and just generally from taking an interest and reading haynes manuals etc. It's worth mentioning, though, that initially I didn't even know what a wheel nut was, and my mate suggested checking the antifreeze in my car (and if there was none in there, putting some in as it could freeze up and crack the block in cold winters) and I said "what do you do, splash it over the engine?".

I bet I'm not the only one with previous stories of muppetry like that!

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

I found that dropping a bolt down the camchain tunnel on my bike was a real good way of learning how the engine works real quick. I had to pull the entire thing apart, gearclusters as well to get that baaaaastard bolt out!

Hehehe!

Almost as bad as one of my old mates. We were 15 and his mum asked him to check her water/oil/coolant level and then get his dad to help us top up.

He has an interest in cars, and was pretty good when he was around other people, so she assumed that he would know where a water/oil/coolant tank was, and his dad would help us top up, what could go wrong?

He looked into the hole where you pour the oil (I'm sure that has some kind of name), and could see right to the bottom! "Oh no, its empty!" He said, "I'll have to fix this, no need to bother dad, its an easy job".

So after he filled the oil tank (to the top) with water....

She was not impressed.

The message from "AstraVanMan" contains these words:

My old workshop bordered a public carpark, and one day a woman wandered over and asked if I could help her. She'd decided to top up her engine oil - and had put in a gallon, but it still wasn't "full". She was trying - literally - to fill the engine and was expecting the oil level to eventually reach the top of the filler hole. Which I suppose eventually it would have done.

If you've got the space, buy an old small engine from a scrappie. Take it apart, and put it back together. That's the easiest way to learn.

thats not the best idea, anyone can do that.

He ought to buy a scrapper, but with a decent engine, THEN take it to peices, put it back together and she if it starts up! anyone can take a engine to peices, put it back together, but hey would it fire up? you would never know..........

You might have the space and don't care about having a wreck lying around. Others might. A small engine could go in the garden shed or cellar etc.

Ummm. Might have come out the dipstick hole first I suppose.

Would have been terribly impressive when cranking it when full though......

The message from Chris Street contains these words:

Luckily she never got that far - I drained it out for her and gave her a short course in how to RTFM.

Or to kill two birds with one stone, get an engine the same as in your car, do the abovementioned and then install it in your car and see if it goes. That way, for a few hundred quid if you decide to do it right, you can have a fully rebuilt engine in your car that'll be as good as new. If you screw it up, well it's gotta be worth the money for all that you learn. Even if you go the cheap way and just use new rings, valve stem seals gaskets etc. you'll end up with a very cheap recon engine.

If you need a budget socket set, the one they sell at argos (yes that's right) for £20, advertised as 'heavy duty socket set' is excellent value for money. I used one for 4 years, doing just about everything on my van (gearbox removal, clutch change, full engine rebuild....) and it was still in perfect order when the van got stolen.

Could be, although changing an engine isn't that easy without the correct lifting gear etc.

I was thinking more of a small basic engine just to learn on. So there was no pressure about breaking something - or indeed spending money when putting it back together as there wasn't an intention it should run.

Something like an A series or Kent/Vallencia would be my choice and can be got for near nothing.

Wouldnt be around for long, plus theres other bits on the car to learn about.

The guy who was my best man had it inflicted on him by his passengers.

He runs an MG as a bit of a hobby, he's been doing it up for years and I'm not sure whether he or the rust is winning. It had a bit of a coolant issue. Enough that he tanded to have a gallon of water in the boot and a bucket just in case. He was out in the lake district and noted the temperature guage climbing so he pulled over, put the last half litre from his spare in the radiator and sent a couple of the passengers off with the bucket to a stream he'd noticed as they passed it a few hundred yards back.

They duly arrive back at the car with a full bucket and being the type of people who barely recognise an engine and knowing they'd been sent to get water to cool the engine... Steve says he saw a large cloud of steam and heard three loud bangs as the engine block cracked fatally.

Warwick