Let’s clear one important thing up before we get on with this, I am a total noob on the car maintenance front! This post is not meant as the final word on an introduction to car mechanics, it is simply what I have learned (mainly from mistakes) from attempting a few basic repairs myself, after our car went for it’s MOT in January. A more accurate description for the title would probably have been “Read about TFS’s mishaps in car repair while laughing and maybe learning a few basic tips along the way” but I don’t think many people would be googling those search terms, so I went with the rather more boring title you see above 🙂
If you are someone with car mechanics knowledge that is even only slightly above the basic then this post may not be of any use to you, barring any entertainment factor at my fundamental mistakes. Read, laugh, and possibly learn along with me!
The MOT
When the trusty old heap of crap we call the TFS Mobile went in for it’s first MOT in mid January, we guessed it would need a few repairs and we were right, but the bill seemed to add up to far more than I’d like to have paid for what was quoted.
We’ve been here before haven’t we?
Being a man of action rather than words [/sarcasm], and obviously liking to save a few pennies, I thought I better give the old DIY car mechanics thing a go myself this time round. So I booked a day off to attempt most of the repairs. Here is a list of what was wrong with it, with the estimates, what I thought I could save on, and so what my final costs should have been:
| Item | Garage Est. Labour (Hrs) | Garage Est. £ | My Est. £ | Notes |
| OS Anti Roll Bar links | £12.13 | £10.36 | ||
| Fitting for above | 0.5 | £30 | £0 | |
| NS Anti Roll Bar links | £12.13 | £10.36 | ||
| Fitting for above | 0.5 | £30 | £0 | |
| OS Track Rod End | £14.16 | £12.90 | ||
| Fitting for above | 0.5 | £30 | £0 | |
| OS CV Boot | £17.99 | £17.95 | ||
| Fitting for above | 1 | £60 | £0 | |
| Broken Horn | 0 (!!!!!) | ??? | ||
| Windscreen washer fluid | £1.50 | £0 | 1 | |
| Adjust 4 wheel alignment | £45 | £0 | 2 | |
| Tyre disposal charge | £2 | £0 | 3 | |
| New Tyre | £67 | £67 | ||
| Headlamp vertical alignment | 0.25 | £15 | £0 | |
| TOTALS | £337.53 | £118.79 | 4 |
- Already had some
- I found out that Kwik Fit do this for free!
- WTF!?!?! – Tell you what I’ll just take it to the dump when I next go up there?
- This turned out to be a little optimistic, as we’ll see later 🙂
How to read the garage report and estimate
- What does OS/NS mean? – OS means Offside. This will be the driver side if you are driving on left in the UK and have a normal UK right hand drive car. NS means Nearside i.e. passenger side. As you have probably worked out by now, Nearside means near the kerb or side of the road, that is the easy way to remember it for me.
- What are all these other random meaningless things on here!? – Yes I had no idea what an Anti Roll Bar Link or a Track Rod End is either but the only thing you can really do is google each part and read up on them.
- How do I know what can I do myself? – Unfortunately if you are totally inexperienced as I am, you don’t! 🙁 Again it’s just going to have to be your call after googling and researching each repair. Look for videos and watch them more than once if necessary. Don’t rush into anything if you aren’t sure of it.
General Car Maintenance Tips – Before You Start
Over-estimate the time you need by a factor of *Insert large number here*
As stated above don’t rush into anything. Make sure plenty of research has been done and book in far more time than you think will be needed. I know most people need their cars fixed right here right now, but that probably just means you haven’t looked seriously at the alternative methods of transport! Going without your car for a couple of weeks isn’t the end of the world and could end up showing you how little you actually need it. Dust off the old bicycle or give your legs an extra work out, it’s free exercise after all!
Anyway to illustrate the time estimation thing, by 1pm on my day off I had only just got the damn thing jacked up and the wheel off. Long story short: Locking wheel nuts + no Locking Wheel nut tool = Massive pain in the arse* getting the wheels off! I ended up taking it to a garage who kindly spent 20 minutes hammering the nut off with a pneumatic chisel, they charged me a tenner which seemed pretty reasonable!
*Bonus tip: when buying a car – check if alloys have locking wheel nuts and if so make sure they give you the tool to remove them!!!!
Google and YouTube are your Friends
Pretty obvious but still worth repeating.
Ask someone in the know
Even if you can just ring someone 1 up for their opinion on how hard a job will be, it could be worth it’s weight in gold, and they might be able to give you some extra tips that your other research has missed. If they offer to help then even better!
Make sure you have the right tools and materials
Some of the videos I watched seem to assume you have your own garage or are running a car repair micro-business, so you have to make a judgement call on some of the more “Use it once” specialised tools they talk about. Or at least borrow or hire those ones. But a basic set of tools is crucial:
- Socket Set with decent length leverage and/or breaker bar
- Hammer(s)
- Screw Drivers
- Gloves
- Lot’s of old rags
- WD40 or similar
- Wrenches – Various Spanners, Torque wrench, pipe wrench, etc…
- Impact driver with various heads (hexagons, like an alan key, came in handy for me)
- And obviously any other things that are recommended for the specific job at hand.
Safety First
In addition to the above you should get at a minimum a decent set of axel stands like this one (affiliate link 2). I think those are the exact ones I actually bought in fact! This is so your beautiful face does not get crushed after you’ve jacked your car up and it falls off your flimsy looking jack! Here is a link to a video on how to use them:
Please note I am not sure how safe it is have both sides lifted up at the same time, despite these things coming in pairs which suggests you might be able to. I started to jack up the other side and the car started lurching towards me, needless to say I quickly ditched that idea!
More General Car Maintenance Type Things You Should Know
Don’t be disheartened by the time it took you to do things the first time round
Going back to my examples, once I’d completed my first attempt of the NS (Near Side) anti roll bar links, the second OS (Off side) replacement was much quicker. I managed to jack the car up, replace the part, and then jack it back down in about 25 minutes. The first time it took me about 5 hours including taking the car to garage to get the locking wheel nut off. Even not counting that fiasco I am sure I did the second one at least twice as fast as the first one. The learning curve is seemingly steep at the start but shallows out very quickly (for basic repairs at least).
Don’t expect to save much money on your first go either
The first time you do something like this you will likely come across one or more of the following problems which may end up with you shelling out more than you’d originally budgeted for:
- Have to buy at least a few tools you don’t have
- You will end up doing something wrong/forget to do something
- You will realise you are unable to do something
Or all of the above like I did… yea I hit the trifecta baby!
Here are some more mistakes I made so you can laugh at them and make sure you don’t do the same:
- Tools needed (OK not a mistake but something you need to bear in mind) – Socket converter for my Dad’s socket set (~£3), axel stands (~£25), and some silicone spray (£~3)
- Forgot to put a new clip onto the CV boot, which the garage then kindly did for me and charged me £25 worth of labour for!
- Totally forgot to even look at the horn issue, which the garage sneakily didn’t quote for and then charged us £60 to fix when we took it back.
- Was unable to remove the track rod end. It was so caked up with rust and old After struggling for around 2 hours on my day off, giving up, coming back on Saturday and taking a blow torch to with my Dad, we conceded defeat and gave up. This meant we had to pay them to not only fit the part but for the wheel alignment which needs doing after fitting said part, so not being able to do this cost us £75
- Incorrectly fitted the first attempt at the NS anti roll bar link. After doing the second one much better, and then driving it off and realising there was a knocking sound coming from the car, so I had to refit it properly. Luckily this one only cost me some (more) of my time.
The Burning Question – Did it save me any money?
That’s enough tips for this time, I’ll do a “Part II” with a few more specific tips next week, but to finish off let’s see if it was actually worth all the effort?
Here is the final sheet of costs if the Garage did the whole lot vs my final costs:
| Item | Garage Final £ | My Final £ | Notes |
| OS Anti Roll Bar links | £12.13 | £10.36 | |
| Fitting for above | £30 | £0 | |
| NS Anti Roll Bar links | £12.13 | £10.36 | |
| Fitting for above | £30 | £0 | |
| OS Track Rod End | £14.16 | £12.90 | |
| Fitting for above | £30 | £30 | 1 |
| OS CV Boot | £17.99 | £8.00 | 2 |
| Fitting for above | £60 | £33 | 3 |
| Broken Horn | £60 | £60 | 4 |
| Windscreen washer fluid | £1.50 | £0 | |
| Adjust 4 wheel alignment | £45 | £45 | 5 |
| Tyre disposal charge | £2 | £2 | 6 |
| New Tyre | £67 | £67 | |
| Tools I needed | £39 | 7 | |
| Headlamp vertical alignment | £15 | £0 | |
| TOTALS | £397.53 | £317.51 |
- As mentioned above we couldn’t get the old one off, so had to let them replace it
- Sold it for £10 after fees on eBay, so an £8 loss 🙁
- As mentioned above they charged £30 + £3 for the part to put a bloody jubilee clip on!!! Super Massive Uber D’oh moment!
- As mentioned above they just threw this one in without quoting, which was a bit cheeky but I doubt I’d have been able to fix it anyway (will definitely at least try next time something like that comes up though rather than just forgetting about it).
- Due to note 1 above, it became unfeasible to ask for the car back after they’d fitted the track rod end, to get a free wheel alignment at Kwik Fit, so we just had to eat this one this time around.
- Totally forgot about this but at £2 I think I’ll get over this one, given enough time and support from loved ones.
- Includes the £10 for the other garage getting my locking wheel nut off
So there you have it! I saved us £80.02 compared to just letting the garage do it all!
Although this was nowhere near the original £218.74 I estimated I would save, and was only actually £20.02 worth of savings over the original garage estimate, let’s not forget the other major benefits I got out of this endeavour:
- A set of axel stands to use for the rest of eternity 3 and a few other little tools/bits.
- Knowledge and experience – For next time, I will know much more and be able to do things cheaper and faster, and make less mistakes. As I build up this experience time and time again, this will stay with me for the rest of my life.
- Estimation skills – I should be much better at estimating time and costs next time so will be able to work out whether the cost savings are worth it up front (I think that for almost anything the answer will be yes anyway though!)
- I’ve started the ball rolling – The hardest part when you come to learn anything new is normally right at the start. I’ve slain that particular beast on the car maintenance front so that’s a pretty big win in my book!
Do you think this was worth the effort? Have you got any car DIY howlers you’d like to share with me, if so I’d really like to hear them (it might make me feel a bit better!)? 🙂
Car Maintenance Resources
Over the course of my YouTube and Google searches, here are some of the more useful resources I found:
Honest John – Despite sounding rather dodgy, this is actually a great website and forum and you will find a mine of information here. You can obviously even ask specific questions if you join the forum!
Eric The Car Guy – Again a wealth of information, and has his own YouTube channel with loads of instructional videos
Forums Specific to your manufacturer – I found a couple of Peugeot forums which were great. Just search for a forum for your particular make and model of car!
Notes:
- Like your Dad maybe. It’s good to chat to the old man about bloke stuff sometimes isn’t it? 🙂 ↩
- This page contains affiliate links to amazon
, each one is brought to your attention with the cryptic denotation ‘(affiliate link)’. You know what one of those is right!? No…!?! OK well it’s fairly basic… If you click through and then subsequently buy anything (not just the originally linked product) on amazon I may receive a small fee, which will help to support theFIREstarter blog. The key thing is that it will not cost you anything extra to use these links, although don’t go clicking on them willy nilly just because it may help me! If you think you will find the product/service useful and do click through, then a sincere “thank you” for your support. ↩
- Well they’re pretty sturdy so they should at least outlast me! ↩
hehehe – you’re supposed to check the fluids, horn and lights before going to the MOT if only to save yoruself the round trip;) I confess to being an idle barsteward these days and getting my vehicle serviced and MOTd at the same time. In some cases this is asking for a fleecing but I’m okay with the annual costs and the preventative maintenance. OTOH I do like to see all the lights and fluids work first and would rectify as required
From my days of fiddling with cars –
you can often borrow the Haynes manual from the library
axle stand usage. Never, but absolutely never, have any part of your body under a jack alone… They’re OK for changing a wheel because you don’t put your hands under the wheel… Just always think of a jack as about to go.
Take watches and rings off. You can’t get a shock off 12V but the amount of current a car battery can chuck out is awesome. No metal on you at all!
I confess to using the kerb sometimes to get a bit of a lift, in days of yore when it was worth changing the oil and things like water pumps etc yourself
Buy decent tools. And try and avoid the siren song of the adjustable spanner
penetrating oil is sometimes more effective than WD40
Know when to quit… Cars used to be a lot more understandable and tractable DIY than they are now. OTOH I am amazed by the vastly improved reliability of modern engines given all the multiple feedback loops and sensors etc
I don’t think you can just take a tyre to the city dump, but it probably depends on who your council outsourced the job to. It’s not the classic definition of ‘household waste’
Hehe… you know what that was sheet laziness combined with the fact that I just knew it would fail on other stuff in the first place. Also we clearly we knew the horn was broken but it somehow got through the MOT last year with that (!??!) so was hoping it might have done the same. Another mistake to learn from in the future.
Thanks for the extra tips and in particular the link to the jack/axel stand safety. The jack that came with our car was sooo flimsy there is no way I’d get anywhere near going underneath the car with just that holding the thing up!
I’d never considered the ring thing… I haven’t taken my wedding ring off since we got married, this may sound romantic but I just can’t get the bugger off! I’ll have to have a serious go at getting it off with some washing up liquid next time I do some car repairs! 🙂
Knowing when to quit – yep this is key and is going to be quite a low level for me, and for most people I’d guess, but considering the labour costs quoted for what amounted to unscrewing something and then screwing a new something else back on, it is worth giving these sorts of things a go even with little prior knowledge.
Cheers again!
I worked in an industry that used low voltage batteries for standby. The safety video included a photo of the aftermath what happened when a fellow ignored that advice about rings. He was lucky, just lost the finger…
Some of our techs wrapped the ring on their finger in insulating tape if the safety office weren’t looking 😉
The dangers of 12V batteries are underestimated. There was another pic in that video of what happened when a fellow set a paint tin down on the LV busbars, which are ready to serve with a mahoosive amount of current in the hundreds of amps. On a similar vein if you drop a spanner across the battery + and chassis while working on your motor then beat it ASAP and *do*not*look*back* because the acid will boil and explode the case. Result, flying sulphuric acid. Do not look back in its direction…
You can get round the spanner slips while working hazard by lifting the negative terminal, but make sure you know the radio code first 🙂 And read the manual for the car on changing batteries, because some ECUs get shirty about losing power for long times.
I once heard the bang when a fellow jumpstarted a car in the company car park, but got the cables bass-ackwards. You Don’t. Want. To. Do. That. He was okay but his car wasn’t.
I don’t really have any diy howlers, but I have had some howlers for cars. The lesson I learnt is to never buy a French car ever, ever again. Stick to Ford, VW, or BMW.
I am starting to think the same with the amount we’ve spent on the Pug so far, but I think we’ve just got a little unlucky with it (i.e. we bought it without seeing a few blatant warning signs that it may have not been looked after quite as well as it should have). We had a 306 before that and it never needed anything doing for 3 years though, so it’s swings and roundabouts I guess.
I am 73 so I wouldn’t bother doing any of the above but what I will do is ask as many people as I can collar for advice and see where consensus takes me. I will however compensate by tackling DIY such as canning, baking and sewing even using these as trade offs for some help. Love your attitude. That can-do gets you far further every time.
Hi Georgina,
Thanks for the comment! I highly doubt I will be getting under a car at the age of 73 either so I don’t blame you. Canning, baking and sewing are all great skills to have and are eminently tradable. I need a few socks and jeans repaired so drop me a line next time you need your brakes checked? 🙂
Thanks! And I agree, most things aren’t as hard as they first seem with a bit of practice, so just give it a go and see what you can do.
Well done. The first attempt is always the hardest keep it up! You may even end up like me and consider working on cars an enjoyable hobby rather than an objectional task. It is a fantastic way to save money – not only can you fix things yourself but also the increased knowledge helps you when you are buying cars and knowing when garages are being less than helpful. I second Ermine, do not use poor quality tools they only damage things and don’t last good secondhand tools can be found at auto jumbles very cheaply. Buy them as you need them, each additional job becomes cheaper as you get everything you need.
Hi again T123!
I’ll reserve judgement on the enjoyable part of it, but the satisfaction of learning something new and saving a few £££ is good enough for me for now 🙂
Never say never though!
Yes I think we made a rush purchase with this car as I was desperate to upgrade to a diesel motor, should have waited till we found a motor in better shape. Hopefully with a bit more knowledge we’ll get a better deal next time round. It’s still saved us loads of money on petrol though so it hasn’t been a complete waste of time/money.
I’ll be on the look out for some decent second hand tools, in the meantime my Dad has pretty much everything I need so luckily I didn’t have to buy much apart from the axel stands this time around.
Cheers!
Great job spreading the word that you CAN do your own car repairs! And remember that with practice, you’ll become more efficient and save more money 🙂
We saved a bit more than you, but already had access to the tools that we needed (included a jack and jack stands):
http://creatingmykaleidoscope.com/2015/03/12/how-we-save-hundreds-of-dollars-on-car-repairs/
Hi Harmony,
Thanks for the link to your post, it’s a good read so would recommend anyone to take a quick look!
Cheers
Hi TFS,
I’ve had similar problems. Get some time ready to become a DIY hero only to find you need to buy some pricey tools and give up there.
Once you have the tool, it’s yours to use again and again. And the basic maintenance isn’t that hard. Having someone to show you would save mounds of time. We should start a knowledge share. A couple of hours with a mechanic learning the basics, then a couple of hours sorting out finances 🙂
Hmmmm perhaps it’s about time to get the old motorbike out my shed and do a complete strip and rebuild like I’ve been meaning to do for the last two summers….
Mr Z
Hi Mr Z!
Haha, there are many many points in the process where there is an option to give up. I very nearly took some of them and in reality I did give up on some of the items (and forgot about others) anyway.
Knowledge sharing sounds like a fantastic idea! It would work well on a local facebook group or something like that, it’s just about getting the word out to connect like minded people.
Hmm I dunno… that sounds like the sort of task best saved for when you are the master of all of your spare time 😉
Cheers!
Welcome to the world of auto DIY! It sounds like your first venture was a bit frustrating to say the least, but I promise you it only gets better. It’s easier if you have a garage and the right tools but you can save money and time (vs. running to a mechanic each time) on simple projects even if you’re working in a parking lot with a toolbox. When I started I used to go to my friend’s house who had a house with a garage and now I’ve got my own and well-equipped at that. My latest addition is an impact gun and boy, how I wish I got it 10 years ago!
Thanks ISL!
It was a bit, but I still saved a bit of cash and feel more confident for next time I need to do some basic repairs, so I am glad I gave it a crack.
Yes I don’t have a garage which is the most annoying thing as repairs become somewhat weather dependant. I don’t mind getting greasy and dirty and laying on the floor but throw in freezing cold and soaking wet as well and I think I’ll draw the line!
The impact gun sounds pretty bad boy! Maybe a few years down the line I’ll treat myself to one 🙂
Thanks for the tips. It can be really frustrating when my car needs repairs. Because of that, I really like your suggestion to do preventative maintenance. That way, your car is less likely to break down.
Your tip about being sure to “ask someone in the know” is vital when doing any auto repairs or maintenance. Cars a difficult and complicated, so attempting to fix them yourself with little knowledge can not only not fix the initial problem, but it can create new ones as well. Doing your own car repairs are feasible, but inadvisable if you don’t have knowledge of cars or someone who can help you that does.
When it comes to doing an auto repair, it’s usually me who acts like a rookie. Mainly because I barely know anything about cars or how they even function. It’s great to know that there are articles where I can read from to learn about fixing up cars. You know, the only thing that my father taught me is just how to change a tire and that’s all.
Thanks Correy, although I have to say a strange comment to make considering your URL you left in your comment (which I deleted) was linking to a garage website. I would have thought you were a bit more in the know than just changing a tire… 😉
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I especially appreciate that you included the chart showing the difference in costs. For me, I think I would rather save my time and energy and just have someone else to those things for me because that amount isn’t a big enough savings. It’s good to have the information about how much the cost difference would be, though!
Getting a second opinion that won’t be biased is a great idea. You don’t want to risk getting swindled. Thanks so much for sharing.
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