Cars: Fixing/servicing

My car is so old and shitty now that I find it painful to pay a professional to service it to keep my service history intact. This time round I'm having a go myself - spanners at the ready.
I was wondering if anyone had any experiences of ordering car parts (service parts, filters, brake pads etc...) online? Anyone specific given you good service?

I service my old Merc myself, i just order the parts from Mercedes, they have a big warehouse in Kew. Because of the age of teh car, i get 40% of all parts - quite a few other car companies do this as old cars on the road are a good advert for reliability, so worth checking with them directly

It's pretty simple stuff to be honest. What car is it and how old is it?

Shop around the motor factors near you until you find the largest one. When you ask a motor factor for something and they say 'it'll be here this afternoon', they aren't ringing Ford, they're ringing the motor factor round the corner...

Halfords are surprisingly cheap if you can get trade discount (some staff will give you a card, some won't). Halfords Pro tools are also very very good. Excellent quality and have a lifetime guarantee, and very reasonably priced too.

As for tips on actual servicing - just buy a Haynes manual for your car and apply some common sense. Plugs, oil filters etc are piss-easy to do. Brakes are a little harder and you might need some specific tools (caliper windback tool for example) depending on model, and drums are fiddly. Just take your time and think about it. Ignition and fuel systems are simple enough if you work methodically, but on newer cars with fully electronic ignition and fuel injection, although they are much more reliable, they do need some very specific and expensive tools to fix. Suspension components are a little more difficult as stuff is usually rusted on solid, but a long breaker bar and having all your sockets in 1/2" drive helps, and it's much less fiddly than brakes or engine work. Stuff like wheel bearings or bushes is best left to professional mechanics who have the right presses and tools to do the job - but you can still take the component down to the garage and have them work on it for a significant saving on labour costs.

Source - I used to be a professional mechanic, briefly. Now I design the fucking things.

What car do you have? If you are thinking of selling the car in the future then keep all the receipts.

If you do need tools then Halfords have good offers coming up every so often and the Pro range is good as I believe the tools are guaranteed for X amount of years.

^ they've got a lifetime guarantee.

Cheers I was too lazy to check ;p

fixing old cars is relatively easy, if the stuff that needs fixing is straight forward.
If it's a cam belt, or changing the pistons it's obviously too much for a person to do without investing heavily in specific tools for the job.

Just find your local motorist discount center for part.

Also Euro car parts and good

What bits you after? Can even d it with you to show you how its done if you're worried.

Just find your local motorist discount center for part.

Also Euro car parts and good

or GSF if you drives something German Swedish or French

I got an oil and filter change done on my old Honda for £30 at National in January (bit snowy to get under the car myself). According to the invoice, Magnatec oil. Couldn't have done it much cheaper myself.
Got my old chavalier to 199k with tractor oil and a new filter every 4500 miles. Left everything else to the 'experts'.
NB. remember to note down the miles and date when you change things.... (and be careful UNDER the car).

Car parts direct have been good for parts- old Nissan's fiats and of course, da beloved Capri. There is at least one very friendly helpful bloke on the phones with them in the old car parts dept.

Depending on the age of the car and the availability you could buy a wrecked one with a decent history, store it and cannibalize parts from it over the course of time. Alternatively you could check parts from the 'bay and youtube the "how to" videos (learnt to carve a turkey in about 4 minutes - v. handy!!).

Just do it methodically and you'll be fine - you're on a bicycle forum so you must be relatively mechanically-minded?!

Cheers for the replies guys.
Yeah, I'm pretty mechanically minded so the work doesn't daunt me too much at all. I need to get a haynes manual for the car and I'll be good to go I think. I have just found out my car has integrated disc/hubs on the rear, which is going to make the job of changing the discs a little more difficult. And can you guess which job needs doing first?

Best thing to do is to join a forum dedicated to your car, or make of car.

As an example I was quoted £1,100 to change my clutch by a main (Volvo) dealer as it is a job which requires dropping the engine.

I had it done by a brilliant Self employed mechanic for £450 who I found through an owners forum, he also sorted out lots of other small problems at the same time.

My car is about to hit 150,000 miles and now corners and stops faster than it did when new, and produces significantly more power.

If you want to DIY then a forum is a great place to find cheap parts, guides and advice.

What car is it?

Anyone know anything about replacing fuel pump on 2002 Focus?

AA guy said you have to take whole fuel tank out?!?!!

Replacing a Ford Focus Fuel Pump - The Easy Way: http://youtu.be/97pJpRu-E4A

Jfgi!

Grinding above fuel tank. Out. #darwin

http://forums.focaljet.com/mk-i-tech/549036-2003-fuel-pump-2003-fuel-tank-install-write-up.html

No tools, no space, no chance. Arse. Anyone want a car?

Do shops typically require the reg before giving a quote?

not if you have the model and year

I provided the year, make, model, spec, engine type. They say..

"You have asked us for a quotation for repairs to your vehicle where there are various options with regards the parts , the registration gives us all the details on the vehicle including the chassis number which helps us to correctly identify the correct parts.
If you would still like me to quote you I will need the registration of the vehicle."

take your money elsewhere?

I might do. Just wanted to find out if this is normal in the UK? I know you have magical number plates that tell you wonderful things about cars but didn't know if it's normal to hand them over to get a quote on a service.

well all the model details are held on the centralised database, so i guess it mitigates for mistakes by the punter. do you have the rego and are very protective about it?