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Car DIY, who’s brave enough?

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sevenlayermuddle:
Anybody still do their own car maintenance?

My ten year old Volvo needed new rear disks, noted at last service.   I subsequently discovered that Volvo might be having some kind of a warehouse clear out, as disks are being sold around 50% off at a lot of dealers’ parts desks.   Given an assumtption that the service dept would not pass on that discount, plus their big hourly rates, I reckoned I could save region of £300-£400 or mire by doing it diy, even with OEM parts.

After investment in new discs, pads and handbrake shoes, a few “once only use” bolts , some shiny new axle stands and a trendy looking boiler suit from Screwfix I set about the job this week and have to say, thoroughly enjoyed it.  And no signs so far, that I have broken anything. :)

First real diy car maintenance since I was a teenager, taking cyclinder head of my first old banger Mk1 cortina just to see what the insides looked like.   But I’ll resist the temptation to repeat, the Volvo looks just a teeny bit more complicated. :D

Ronski:
I do the majority of our car maintenance, mind you I have been a mechanic for over 30 years and now manage a commercial workshop  ;D

Yes they are certainly getting very complicated, even main dealers struggle with some things.

Chunkers:
Cars are so reliable nowadays its almost like they are designed not to be maintained, like the way they cover all the engine parts with plastic shielding and there is almost no space under the bonnet of most cars making a difficult place to work.  Have a look under the bonnet of a Morris Minor .... its 80% air, lol

I wonder if there is a market for cars which are specifically designed easier to be easy maintain, weren't old Soviet block cars designed this way (although sadly they were mostly shite)?

A lot of people would probably say an old Land Rover Defender is a good choice, the parts are cheap but they are horrible to drive.  Maybe a half-way house is to buy a car from the mid 90's i.e. its got electronic ignition and disk brakes but hasn't yet gone mental with all the gizmos or become a "classic" yet.  Maybe a nice Mk1 Mazda MX-5 ..... plus they are going up in value now.

You probably only need to know how to do brakes anyway, surely everything else will be electric soon?  So much simpler.

C

sevenlayermuddle:

--- Quote from: Chunkers on January 01, 2019, 04:56:14 AM ---I wonder if there is a market for cars which are specifically designed easier to be easy maintain, weren't old Soviet block cars designed this way (although sadly they were mostly shite)?

--- End quote ---

Don’t pin your hopes on that, the environmental overlords would never allow it.   I had to repair my garden strimmer last year, which involved rebuilding the carburettor.   After which of course the jets need adjusting, but it was fitted with “tamper proof” screws specifically to stop consumers from adjusting them, in case they destroy the atmosphere.   Fortunately, suitable adjustment tools are easily available on ebay.  :)

Back to cars, it’s also not at all clear how I can legally dispose of my old brake disks.   They are hefty chunks of metal, and probably of scrap value.  There is a “scrap metal” skip at my local council recycling yard but owing to a strict environmental policy, they have a blanket ban on all car parts.

Ronski:
I'm sure they're made harder to maintain to drive people back to main dealers and their extortionate prices, although they do have high costs and expensive commitments. I recently had a local truck main dealer tell me that they struggle with certain faults, so if they struggle how is an independent expected to cope let alone a diyer.

Emissions and higher mpg are the major driving forces for making things complicated engine wise. As chunkers mentions space is lacking in the engine bay making it very difficult to work on, specialist tools are often needed. Even for brakes you may need specialist tools to wind back the calipers on some vehicles. Even changing headlight bulbs is ridiculously hard on a lot of vehicles now, although with HID lamps and leds we're moving away from that.

Fortunately I don't get to involved with cars, but trucks/vans are going the same way. I do wonder what the future holds with regards to owning vehicles. We had a 2010 Skoda a couple of years back which had gearbox problems, we spent a couple of grand fixing it and that doesn't take into account our labour. Also an 09 BMW which was a nightmare, it would run fine then not run at all. Our diagnostic system didn't really show anything, our local diagnostic guy didn't have a glue either, so it went to BMW. They seemed pretty clueless but thought the engine was now damaged, so I found an independent BMW specialist, he confirmed the engine was shot - completely flooded with diesel in the sump and exhaust system. We sourced a second hand engine and he fitted that. Trouble was no one could tell why the injectors had dumped so much fuel in the engine, was it the high pressure pump or something else such as the ECU over fuelling - would the same happen to the replacement engine? IIRC even the ECU was changed from the doner vehicle . Fortunately the car was OK after that, but the overall bill came to 4 or 5k, possibly more. Point being your average punter who runs an old car can't afford these sizes of bills (both these were our own company cars) and I can only see this sort of occurance becoming more common as vehicles get more technical. Both those cars were around the 100,000 mile mark,  our company cars are now leased.

Electric cars are even more complicated, I'd hate to think how much a set of batteries will cost, they'll probably last just long enough for the car to get into the second hand market at 3 to 5 years old and then give up  :no:

On a positive note when things go well I think they are generally more reliable and lasting longer.

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