What are your opinions on maintaining your car yourself?

We have two cars - my modified 2004 Octavia vRS and the wife's standard 2002 Mazda 626.

I like to do pretty much all of the work on the Skoda myself but if the Mazda needs anything I usually just drop it off at a local independent and let them sort it out. Though I did do the brake pads myself.

I find it really satisfying to do jobs myself. I had lots of DIY skills that my dad taught me but he's not interested in cars.
I learnt almost everything about fixing cars by reading online guides and giving it a go. Sometimes I stop and wonder if I know what I'm doing 

I considered stripping the gearbox and fitting the LSD myself but after talking to Wellington Gearbox Specialists who did it, I'm glad I didn't try. I don't have the tools to do what they did 

One advantage I have is that the wife hasn't passed her test yet so I can take my time doing things on my car and still get around or pick up parts when needed.

I'm quite protective of the Skoda and always nervous dropping it off anywhere. Several places have given it back with small scratches, damaged wheels etc and I have that feeling that they they just wouldn't look after it like I do.

I have done almost every change to my car, I know it well and I know that care has been taken on every part.
That's why I do it myself. I guess to some extent there is a money saving in doing it yourself but that's offset by the time it takes, tools you have to buy to do it right, etc.

For me it depends on the car itself.

 

For example in my two years of driving I have owned:

 

2000 Mk1 Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V Elegance (Sold on)

2001 Mk1 Skoda Fabia 1.4 8V Comfort (Sold on) - Replaced the Timing chain and did a lot of work to it, I was very proud of my acheivements, i practically brought a car back from the edge of being scrapped.

2012 Skoda Citigo

2000 Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 (Sold on)

2001 Mk1 Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V Comfort (Selling) - Again i brought a car back from almost being scrapped, see my thread if your interested (

 

 

Now most of those cars were W/Y reg cars, so built in the year 2000/2001 (except the Citigo). Most of them, except the citigo and my First Fabia, I serviced and worked on myself. Mainly due to the cost.

 

My point of view is, if its 10 years old, provided i use patent parts or similar, it doesnt matter too much as the car has already been serviced many times before, possibly by less reputable garages. Whereas the Citigo being a 2012 car, I had serviced at the dealer, and if i were to do the service myself, I would always use OEM parts.

 

And sometimes the garage doesnt know any more than you! For example my First Fabia had an EGR fault, little did they know that the blockage wasnt at the EGR valve itself, but at the other end of the EGR pipe, i.e. at the throttle body. I ended up doing the fix myself during my lunch break, after 4 wasted trips to the garage who sold me the car.

 

And it sometimes depends on the job too, The 2nd Fabia's Timing chain wasnt too difficult, make sure there were 12 chain links (the pivot point) inbetween the two timing marks and that was it, as it was an OHV engine, it was nice n simple. But if I were to be doing a cambelt on something like a 1.8T, I would be very nervous about doing it and almost bite the bullet and get a garage to do it, after all, if they balls it up, they are paying for it.

I trained as a mechanic at college but never took it up as a full time thing. Most work i do myself like servicing. If a job needs doing and i dont have the tools or the time i used to send it to a local guy who had a fairly professional setup in his garden altho hes now in jail.

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I would like to do most of the work on my car myself, but just don't have the knowledge, therefore confidence, to do it. I did manage to service my Fabia vRS myself once, including oil & filter change, fuel filter, air filter and pollen filter, and will probably do the same on my Octavia vRS, but beyond that I'm stumped! I did try and find some sort of night class in car mechanics a while back but couldn't find any in my area.

Honestly I'd like to do it but by the time I factor in buying the tools and the hassle of not having a ramp (or skills) etc it's just not worth the bother most of the time.

Edited 4 September, 201312 yr by Aspman

Like BrownBarge, I did two and a half years as an HGV fitter apprentice back in the days of YTS (£28.50/wk :( ) so got my parts 1 & 2 in motor vehicle maintenence but due to a disruptive family (divorce) I had to give it up

 

Try to do as much as I can myself and find it very rewarding and (sometimes) relaxing, especially if SWMBO's close to rant mode.

 

I changed the whole suspension a few weeks ago with a lot of help from a fellow Briskoda member , but what helped most was me observing and doing the minor stuff. I reckon I could do it myself in future. Things like oil changes etc are a doddle IMO and you know the correct oil and parts have been used.

I'm lucky, working in a garage, there's a ramp and all sorts of tools that I can have the use of.  Also on the plus side I can phone up the local parts places and get parts delivered.  There's also nothing stopping me from MOT testing my own car, which I have done and it did fail.

I'm lucky, working in a garage, there's a ramp and all sorts of tools that I can have the use of.  Also on the plus side I can phone up the local parts places and get parts delivered.  There's also nothing stopping me from MOT testing my own car, which I have done and it did fail.

Is this your advisory from the Sierra, mate :think:

 

Is this your advisory from the Sierra, mate :think:

 

motadvisory_zpsb9ff009f.jpg

 

 

Bloody cheek, I painted my wheels myself.  On the other hand, presented with an orange, tractor engined Fabia (if it survived the smoke test, I've already blown up an Octavia) with dodgy Octavia wheels, my advisories wouldn't be as eloquent or subtle:)

LOL,,,,,,,,,,,,cheers

I'll tackle anything my self, even though I'm a hgv trained tech, I'll have a crack at jobs that need 'specialist' tooling, as with my trade there no such thing as can't be done, which has rubbed off on me, as they say, there's more than one way to skin a rabbit!

I always do my own servicing and general maintenance (brakes, cambelts etc).

 

But there are some jobs that I have done in the past and will now not do due to being too messy (cv boots or joints), or too fiddly......some suspension jobs are a lot harder than they look when you don't have a ramp!

 

My DSG is due an oil and filter change soon and I was debating doing it myself......I have VCDS (which is needed to monitor the DSG oil temp during the change), but I would need to buy some sort of pipe and valve kit to fill the transmission. I know a good mobile guy who does DSG oil changes all the time, and he could probably do it in an hour and charge £50 for his labour.....in this situation I'll probably pay him to do it.   

I bought all the bits to do the oil and filter change on my Cee'd but then bottled it as I am worried about what happens if I balls it up...

It seems pointless for me. I can do a lot of work myself BUT I'd take me a while. Fitting coilovers will take me the best part of a day, by the time I've got tools out, sworn, done it, taken it for alignment check afterwards etc etc it'll have cost me £50-£70 for the alignment and a days work. I might as well drop the car at Unit 18, go to work and earn the money to pay for it to be done. I'll still be doing a days work but I know how to drive a bus, I know I wont have to worry the wheel might fall off the car for the next month or so. Much easier and I'd better off money wise, I'll earn the cost of fitting so be no worse. 

Even simple things like servicing. The parts to do it cost me £30 odd quid when I checked. It's not worth me trying to do it for the sake of saving less than £30. 

The only thing i dont do to mine is mot as i have a friend who does that but ive worked at same dealer since leaving school and worked my way up.

Even as an apprentise i would do all my own stuff, the only thing ive ever had to pay for at a garage was to get new keys coded in on my vrs when we got broken into as it was dealer only thing but i stripped all cowls off ready so it was ready for barrels to be swopped over.

I do quiet alot at home but most tends to be my own projects nowerdays rather than other peoples cars

I carry out a basic service to all my cars and have tackled the shock/spring replacement on a couple (not the skoda though) of my cars. Cambelt changes/gearbox/clutch replacement i dont have the knowledge/ramp/tools to do those bigger jobs. 

 

It also saves you money and you know the work you have carried out is to a good standard! 

I do all my own cars & family's cars,i do my project cars at home & my vrs & family cars at work after hours,only thing i havent done on my vrs was the timing belt as i pulled my back when it was due & skoda still owed me £50 off my next job after messing up the service (when it was under warranty) so i got the local dealer to replace it,hopefully when i move house i can get a ramp in the garage,then i can do everything at home. 

I do pretty much everything that needs doing on my cars. I've self taught myself how to do most stuff, mainly to save money as I don't like paying someone else to something I can do myself. Also it helps to know every inch of the car so that when something goes wrong I can usually tell what's happened just by the noise or feel.

It's also helpful for when I compete in motorsport events if I know how to fix things quickly and I'm quite pleased that in 3 years and probably getting on for 75 events, my £250 Brisk Rover has only failed to finish 1 event due to the cambelt picking up and slipping 3 teeth when a piece of metal got stuck in it. Had it fixed the next day though

If your car is under warranty you can't diy service.

Some finance agreements forbid it too.

I always do my own stuff, many because I'm too tight to pay some spotty oik to work on my car, I did an apprenticeship too and I've got all the tools. I think nothing of doing the odd engine transplant or three.