Websites, shops any suggestions? I am planning to start to service my own car and do other jobs, basic - dump valve, quickshift, oil changes and not so basic - dog bone engine mount bushes, RARB, brake pads and discs etc. Is it worth my while as I will have to do the work on my road and have very basic knowledge of cars (have done the first year of an NVQ in motor vehicle mechanics a few years ago).

Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated.

When the car offers at Lidl/Aldi come in, it is usually pretty good stuff at a decent price. This is where my 4 axle stands came from - Were circa £5 for a pair from memory.

Local motor factors.

or

Could go to halfords but be prepared to pay more, if your not too confident a haynes manual would be good aswell.

Euro car parts http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/Car-Parts

Websites, shops any suggestions? I am planning to start to service my own car and do other jobs, basic - dump valve, quickshift, oil changes and not so basic - dog bone engine mount bushes, RARB, brake pads and discs etc. Is it worth my while as I will have to do the work on my road and have very basic knowledge of cars (have done the first year of an NVQ in motor vehicle mechanics a few years ago).

Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated.

Please dont take this the wrong way but if you have a very basic knowledge of cars & have only done the 1st year or of a NVQ should you really be working on a saftey item like your cars brakes? Im all for people having a go & saving thier money but as a mechanic of 20 years it scares me when i see what some people have done to thier cars when they dont really know what thier doing.If your confident to do the oil change etc then great,maybe get a mechanic friend to help you with the brakes?

Please dont take this the wrong way but if you have a very basic knowledge of cars & have only done the 1st year or of a NVQ should you really be working on a saftey item like your cars brakes? Im all for people having a go & saving thier money but as a mechanic of 20 years it scares me when i see what some people have done to thier cars when they dont really know what thier doing.If your confident to do the oil change etc then great,maybe get a mechanic friend to help you with the brakes?

Agreed, dont waste money on a cheap trolley jack, they are useless. Be prepared to spend up to a £100 for a decent one. buy one with a large saddle, at least one with a 3 - 4 inch diameter saddle.

I have seen a cheap jack collapse while the poor fellow had his legs under the car, this has lived with me all my life.

Got a complete kit from halfords think it was about £30. Get some hockey pucks aswell and cut a groove in them, then you won't bend the sill

I have used a Halford's trolley jack and axle stands for the last 7 years...

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_217059_langId_-1_categoryId_165727

Its been excellent and never let me down. Just bare in mind if your going to lower the vehicle at some point you might be better of getting a lower sitting jack. To protect the sills I fitted the audi tt jacking point kit from awesome (which requires a jack to fit) so I don't even go near them.

As for the tools buy the best you can afford, check out ebay for second hand snap on items or similar to get a good deal. It also handy to have a decent top box to store them in.

Best set of stands I've seen was a pair a local member to me had from Woolworths, they had thick rubber inserts in the V-shaped bit on the top so you could put them under the sills without doing any damage. They also adjusted from quite a low height to quite a tall height which is the major gripe I have with my current stands (hand me downs) which are too high so have to jack the car up with a big block of wood between the jack and car to get it high enough to get the stand under even on it's lowest setting.

My torque wrench (£15) and trolley jack (£20) both came from Lidl a couple of years ago. The trolley jack doesn't inspire me with confidence, it looks cheap and weak compared to a proper garage jack but I just jack the car up and get the stands under it asap.

Thank you for all the replies and appreciate the advice...I will not be doing any major stuff I am just sick and tired of being ripped off by so called decent mechanics and VAG tuners. I know if I do it myself and know how to do it...It will be done well without cutting corners.

Just trying to persuade the wife she reckons its a phase I'm going through!!! She could be right...

I do want good and safe stuff even if it costs a bit. Have been on the AUTO EXPRESS website and just got make and models of the best rated stuff is that the way to go?

I'm currently looking at torque wrenches and the 'Halfrauds' ones look good but the lower torque setting I will need will be 10Nm the higher 120Nm (wheel bolts) so does that mean getting two wrenches or does anyone know one that will cover full range...seem to not be any around?

You wont get that one to cover such a range.

I have three at work.

4-20nm

20-50nm

50-250nm

Then we have a few workshop ones for 250+ as they are not expected for us to buy our own as they dont get used so much and are high single unit cost.

You can just about do it with two sizes.

A 5-25Nm torque wrench (many of the 25Nm wrenches such as Teng will go to 27Nm)

and a 28-210Nm such as http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cht141-1-2in-drive-torque-wrench (the larger 1/2" drive wrench can be used as a breaker bar)

Its not a good idea to use a torque wrench as a breaker bar from my experiance.

Ive used them in high torque applications to do degree turns after torqing and its throws the calibration out but over stressing the components, leave it for a breaker bar. Plus also got less chance of the ratchet being damaged.

I bought the halfords kit (either £30 or £40 I think) which includes a half-decent trolley jack, some pretty good axle stands (not ratchets, but they feel a lot safer than the lidl ones IMHO), some wheel chocks (that are a bit pants - big blocks of wood are better I think) and a wheeled tray thing to slide under the car. Pretty good I think, although the jack won't fit under my car now it's been dropped a bit. :(

I have a Halfords set too (all in yellow) and they seem to do the job for me. My father has a 2 sets of some red Lidl (or Aldi) ones which are ratchet based and seem to be ok.

I keep thinking I need to make some shallow ramps which I can attach to my garage floor for safe driving up onto. If I made it right, I could get all whole car up in the air on ramps, although generally I only need the front up.

At the moment heres my list:

Draper 3001A (40-210NM) TORQUE WRENCH - £19.17 [TOOLBOX.CO.UK]

Draper 3004A (10-80NM) TORQUE WRENCH - £16.93 [TOOLBOX.CO.UK]

Clarke CTJ2QM TROLLEY JACK (2 TONNE) - £37.59 [MACHINE MART]

Clarke CAX3TBC AXLE STANDS (3 TONNE) - 21.14 [MACHINE MART]

Most of which were recommended by AUTO EXPRESS.

One question the Torque wrenches do not need to be the 'precision type' for the simple stuff I am doing?

If u are ever close to solihull u can happily borrow mine. If not from time to time aldi do some great deals. Generally tho I can heartily recommend the halfords pro tools

Have a look at screwfix as well, they do the same clarke things as Machinemart but can be slightly cheaper.

Thanks for that I have a Screwfix card I used ages ago. I will check it out... Stewie I appreciate your offer my dad lives in Erdington I have the Pro socket set the big one! Will probably never use half the bit...I never do miscalculations by halves.

Got the torque wrenches from Toolbox. Delivered really quick, in a massive box with loads of bubble wrap and packing to protect the product very professional indeed! The wrench for higher settings is massive. Getting the trolley jack and axle stands this weekend hopefully.

Got all the stuff ready to go! Next week dog mount bushes and wheel/wheel arch clean ahead off winter.