Suzuki 1.3 Ignis automatic

Please tell us more about your disability.

Working on the mechanics of a car requires strength and mobility, so full use of both hands is probably essential. Often you have to lie on the ground under or alongside it - unless you make use of the ramp at a nearby garage.

For the problem with your brakes it's likely that you will have to jack the car up and remove the wheels, then inspact the drums. You will therefore need a suitable spanner for the wheelnuts - the one that came with the car won't be long enough to give sufficient leverage - and without experience you should really use calibrated torque wrench to tighten up those nuts to the specified torque as you finish. Then you will need a decent set of axle stands to support the vehicle while you work under it.

There's no substitute for practical experience - asking here is all very well, but you really need a friend who does much of his own maintenance that you can watch and work with on his car, and who will then help and guide you with yours. Might be worth investigating a car maintenance course at a local educational facility - at least that might teach you what not to work on yourself.

Cars are expensive to run and maintain, so you should budget accordingly. For you, with your disability and in your location, is it in fact cheaper to use public transport and make friends with a trustworthy taxi company?

Likely faults would include leaking rear wheel cylinders, seized hand brake mechanism or cable, incorrectly adjusted cable. These are not areas that it sounds like you should be working on.

Congratulations on posting the "most patronising reply of the year".

Well meaning no doubt but you couldn't have been more patronising.

Tim

A bit .. but not that much...

It sometimes is difficult not to sound patronising especially when tying to explain some things and concepts..to lay people..

Hi Graham, Thanks for your reply and here's a bit more information about my disability.

I have a very severe case of nerve tendon/bone damage in most of my joints and this causes me problems like co-ordination and strength in my arms hence reason I have automatics.

I also have a new Skoda Yeti automatic but its too new/complex for me to practice on so i got the basic cheap Ignis to experiment on, Having done a bit of research I have decided that the brakes may be a bit too fiddly for my first bit of maintenance so will book it in at a garage to sort.

I will still have a go at more basic stuff and leave the heavy stuff to the experts.

I have had 40+ motorcycles in the past and used to work on them so know quite a bit about them but cars are something new to me.

I do have a large torque wrench and sockets etc but will get a longer wheel brace for more leverage (good idea)

I had to laugh when you mentioned Taxi's and buses lol we don't have such luxuries here just tractors and combines so we need our own transport.

Although I am disabled I do try and keep active and i don't give in easily so if it means adapting to get a job done then I do.

Also you mention friends to help/watch...... like the buses and taxi's I have none local (sounds sad lol) and I rely on books and internet to learn how to do jobs instead of relying on the few tradesmen here.

Thanks again for your help and its given me a start and I will hopefully soon be able to do the basics.

Cheers Brian

ps Thanks Mr Cheerful!

Good luck.

Daughter lived in Scotland (Castle Douglas) for about a year with her bf at the time and his parents.

To go into Dumfries to buy a headlight lamp for my Rover was a 50 mile round trip!

I *nearly* talked them though changing a front wishbone on his (now her) Corsa but luckily the realism of the consequences of doing so and failing 'up there' came to me before I started so they had it done by the local garage instead.

It's very easy for someone who knows how to do something (and forgetting what range of tools you often end up needing) to fail to consider how 'difficult' such things can be to someone without such experience (and tools).

I talked a mate (over the phone) though changing an alternator because I suggested it was easy. He changed the alternator ok but then sheared the steady bracket bolt off by over tightening it. ;-(

I guided another mate (again, over the phone) though rebuilding a VW camper engine who sheared a cylinder stud off by setting the torque wrench incorrectly (and not 'feeling' that it was taking too much torque for something of that size).

However, it sounds like most of those issues would be covered by your motorcycle 'wrenching' experience (especially because you are often working into soft ally casings) so this may be more of an issue because of the strength / torque needed in some cases to do 'car' ... as opposed to motorcycle sized stuff. That and the often poor access you have when working on car stuff.

That said, long levers and the right approach / attitude can often overcome such things so it's just down to having the right tools for car work, like a 1/2 rather than 1/4-3/8" socket set and some larger sized spanners. ;-)

So, start with the things that should be easy (I don't know if they are on an Ignis) ... like changing the air / pollen filter, then maybe the oil / oil filter and plugs etc and then taking it from there.

Cheers, T i m

Oil filter on a Mazda 323F BJ isn't easy, some idiot put it up the back of the engine under the alternator and inlet tract. Sump plug is on back of sump. I assume many FWD cars are just as bad. Designed to be serviced at a dealer with car hoist / pit. OK for amateur it needs ramps and if you can't roll around easily on floor to get over 1m under a car, a car crawler board is needed - Aldi had some recently.

Oil filter on FWD Nissan 200SX is easy. Open bonnet, put a chute of newspaper in to direct oil to catch pan, reach in, unscrew the filter. Designed to be serviced at roadside with one wheel up on a brick - to get to the sump plug.

Sounds like daughters Transit Connect then. Whilst you can sort of get to the oil filter that is up the back of the block, you can't easily get it out from that space (I think mainly because of the steering rack), and especially when it's still half full of oil and re-orientating the filter empties the remaining oil down your sleeve (not mine or hers I'm pleased to say).

But they are really only any use on solid surfaces, not a gravel drive etc. ;-(

I think daughters Corsa is equally easy with the oil filter on the top right and the sump plug easily accessible. As you say, one wheel on the kerb to give better access to the plug and room for the drain can. ;-)

I guess even if you design an engine with a specific role in mind and provide reasonable access to the service parts (like oil filters), you can never predict how someone might use the engine in something in the future where access now becomes nearly impossible (or like when they add air-con or power steering and those bits then get in the way).

I don't mind having to remove say an air box or even an engine mount to get to something you change infrequently, like a cam-belt, but when you have to remove (what seems like) half the engine (or the engine from the car in some cases I understand) just to get to something like an oil filter or the plugs ...

That's why I generally like working on motorbikes as 1) the bits are generally more accessible (apart from fully fairing'd bikes that might as well be a car ... and I'm not talking about scooters ...) 2) the bits are generally smaller / lighter and 3) you can often do them sitting beside them (like a Triumph Herald ), not bent over or laying under them. ;-)

That said, the (dry) clutch on my old BMW (R100RT) is a right PITA to get to as like RWD car it's 'in-line' and (again like a car), you have to remove the transmission (drive shaft / rear bevel drive) and gearbox to get to it. I think it's much easier to change the clutch on my Mk2 Escort based kitcar than on the BM.

Now, for most traditional transverse engined bikes you can access the clutch (wet and dry) by removing just the side casing and sometimes it's just a cover.

I actually prefer working on most mechanical things than say painting or gluing because it's all instant and can often be simply un-done / re-done as / when required. Once you tighten that last bolt, that's it, you are finished, you don't have to go back and give it another coat or rub it down or wonder when it's going to set. ;-) [1]

Cheers, T i m

In the case of daughters / ex's Berlingo van it was all three *plus* a partially blocked hose (it became a one way valve) on the osr *and* a lining delaminated from the shoe!

That was a job that certainly needed doing (and we did). ;-)

The other time we could have been caught out is when replacing the disks on his old Hi-lux. Once you have the hub off it says 'Push the studs out through the hub and disk using a suitable press'. 'Luckily' I had such a thing (in the form of a 10 tonne hydraulic floor standing press) and so that bit was (in our case) 'very easy'. Apparently, you can also knock them out and back in with a hammer but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been as nice or easy? ;-(

Then there is the time you say .. 'do you have a brake spanner' ... or 'spring compressors' ... or '1/2" sq drive knuckle joint' ... or nut - splitter / stud remover and of course they say 'no'. That's why I hate helping others do such away from my place and don't really want them coming round here either (as you then end up looking like a street mechanic and you are always left with the mess). 'Ok if I leave that old exhaust with you as I know you go down the scrap yard ..?'

Cheers, T i m

The FWD cars I've done it on are easy enough on the engine side. The Xantia has a panel under the engine for soundproofing though which needs to be removed, which is a few screws while lying on the floor with it on ramps.

Drum brakes are not a good start for you then. Even once the car is jacked up and the wheels off, which needs a certain amount of strength itself, drum brakes can fiddly and need a reasonable amount of strength and coordination to refit springs/cable etc, and of course fixings will be seized on a car of that age.

Many small car rear drum brakes are integral with the hub and bearing. Expect torque setting for the rear wheel nut that holds the hub on in excess of 150Nm that most 1/2" drive torque wenches are capable of. Really needs 3/4 drive tools and breaker bar in excess of 4ft to remove. Having got the nut off it then needs a big puller that can span the 8" drum.

Cars are crap, get a trike.

but most trikes use a car rear axle, with the associated usually) drum brakes. Scotland is not the place to have only an open vehicle.

Proper trikes have 2 wheels at the front and a body. They weren't all AERo sports, some had 4 seats and a hood. BSA did some too. Next door neighbour had one when I was 8-9.

But yes they too have car type big f*ck off nuts on the front stub axles. I suppose single sided swing arms on bikes do too. Bet you have to clamp the centre stand to the garage floor to undo them.

I have a unique three wheeler based on mini parts, two at the front, one trailing arm at the back. If I ever start to use it again it will be appalling to drive over all the speed humps.

When bikes started to have only side stands it was a real nuisance to mechanics. Obviously we got universal stands to lift them by the frame, but even they were problemmatic, and trying to put one on, with the bike on the lift was often very tricky and impossible on your own, plus all the bloody fairings. Single sided swing arms came in after I left the trade.

Yep, like my Messerschmitt KR200. ;-)

According the logbook for my Schmitt the seating capacity was 2 & 1/2 persons. ;-)

My R100RT doesn't as the rear wheel (held on with 4 wheel studs, just like a car) also has an integral drum so that comes off with the wheel.

I think the rear bevel drive may be held on with a big central nut but by the time you are touching that you are way past just doing the brakes.

Cheers, T i m