Let's face it we all know that going to a garage to get a car serviced or fixed requires chopping off several arms and a few legs.

So here's a thread designed to help those that need advice on doing mechanics at home. There are already a few people that frequent the site that have some knowledge and skills that could be of help to those who are just starting out on the path. Rumour has it that someone who lurks about here could even help those unfortunate enough to roll in a VW Beetle

This thread could be used for people to just post general info/advice, it could be used for people to ask mechanics related questions, it could be used to put out requests for physical assistance. You lot decide how you want it to go. Although please, pretty please, could we try to stay at least vaguely on topic

/rubs hands and grins

Well having just finished a head gasket/timing belt /water pump fix on both a 02 laguna, and more recently 02 seicento, and new exhaust valves , I,d say my cv needs updating

You are right of course, garage charges are astronomical. Local Renault dealer quoted me 1200 euro plus vat. Also suggested scrapping it

Its the same across the spectrum of all things we own. We have generated a throw away society, so thats why we need to be able to do our own servicing repairs ect.

Absolutely Gris
You mentioned Seicento's!!! I'll let it slide as you missed the thread I did about my step daughter's one
Suffice to say I am of the impression that modern cars are designed in such a way as to discourage home mechanics and keep you going back to the dealer. That said, as you know they are perfectly workable on, it's just they aren't quite as straightforward as um older cars. Down to lack of space in the engine bays as much as anything.

Still I won't go off on a rant about it again, wouldn't want to put anyone off on page 1

dubmeup wrote:
Heh, I've actually helped my bro pick out a new car recently and lo and behold he got an 01 seicento for 500 euro.

First job I had to do on it was fix the blasted gearchange mechanism that was rubbing on the bloody brakepipes
Aside from that though its actually a good car for the money, unfortunately in Ireland the only cheap motors are fiats.

I've got an 06 panda with the dreaded electrical power steering problem, can't be fixed short of a new sensor mechanism on the column though and thats a bitch of a job. Left it for the mo as I have a Toyota Estima Lucida thats a workhorse at the mo. Its an old 96 jap grey import but its damn good.

Aye andy, Seicentos are actually nice little cars. The step daughter loves hers and has put a fair few miles on it. She now works providing home care so relies on the thing heavily and it still serves her well. Especially now it's burning the fuel efficiently
Like most Fiats though, they do have their ummmmmm foibles

Nice thread.

I just did some work on a 351 ford cleveland engine for someone. So many people make a common error with ford clevelands and they overheat, cracking exhaust seats and worse sometimes. Was happening to this one, and i couldnt figure out why at first... a bit of research and figured it out...

they need a special thermostat to block the bypass passage once the engine warms up. Many people put a regular thermostat in, and it doesnt have the special piece underneath that moves to block the hole once reached operating temp.

if the bypass hole isnt blocked, the hot water circulates thru the block instead of the radiator, causing the engine to overheat.

it was indeed what was happenning with the engine i looked at.

these guys made a part to convert to a regular thermostat...

webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=...r&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

(site is down atm so i put up the cache link)

more...

351cleveland.wetpaint.com/page/proper+351c+thermostat

anyway thats my 2c for now... hope google does its thing too and brings a few peeps in perhaps who are looking for info over time.

novum wrote:
Should we do some of that bold type italic stuff?

I've got a nice little job to do on the Audi I was forced to buy when I get back down to the van and have a few pennies. Front suspension bushes need doing and on them B3 Audi's, there's a fair few of them Should transform the car, which currently goes....understeer, understeer, massive oversteer if you're having a bit of fun on the dirt tracks I wonder if having a bit of fun on the dirt tracks might have contributed to the need for new bushes

dubmeup wrote:
No!

BEST thing to do to get search engines to like the joint is...act normal! They are sly beasts.

just be sure to spell out any makes/models/engines properly and do what you do normally as though they aint watching.

It's of course worth mentioning early in this thread that the internet has plenty of forums that are dedicated to home mechanics and pretty much every car you can think of has dedicated owners sites. There is a plethora of information out there and plenty of very knowledgeable/experienced people. Some of these sites can be a tad um elitist shall I say in that noobs can often get comments like "use the search function". This can be rather off putting. That sort of thing won't happen here I'm sure and I'm equally sure that the SZ vehicle massive will be prepared to do some web trawling to help people out should the collective knowledge base need a bit of bolstering.

Over the years I have worked for several leading car marques and one much maligned category was electrics. Then and as always as cars advanced so did the pressure on the wiring system, with new added extras etc.
Then I went to work for the RAC, here I soon found out where the most faults were to languish on most makes of vehilcles that frequented our highways.
Then an older hand working alongside our team and auto electrician by trade intriduced me to this device.



Fairs to say it never leaves my tool box, if you ever get the chance, snap on up it will save you hours of anguish.

I have actually designed an electrical perimeter system that incorporates a 45 volt main frame for all the heavy amperage systems on a vehicle, which I will get around to finalising some day.

The Apprentice wrote:
Cant say enough how many times my multimeter leads have been too short for the job.

Looks like that tool solves that problem.