Novice car maintenance

[TRW]

As in the wife, husband, partner, or fella. How many of them do any kind of servicing or repairs to propelled vehicles?

 

Mrs TRW has little idea of how a car works, even with me explaining things it goes over her head and she would much rather her interest in History or Calligraphy. The latter being something I know nothing about. Perhaps I could be taught. Who knows?   All she does it to put fuel in it and drive. Everything else is left to me.

 

For what seems a lifetime she has wanted to learn about doing basic car maintenance and servicing. So, this weekend a Citroen C1 needed new front pads. I gave a breakdown of how changing a set of pads goes and left her too it (whilst supervising on the safety front, obvs).

 

This is how it went 

 

 

 

 

 

And completed job

 

 

For someone who has never touched a spanner, Lady TRW did a fantastic job. I'm quite proud of her for getting stuck in and getting her hands dirty.

 

Any of your OH who know nothing about motors done the same?

 

 

 

[strangeangel]

Go Mrs TRW!

 

Definitely 1000% squared NO CHANCE of Our Lass doing that, even though destroying pads/discs is one of her favourite pastimes.

[doobietoo]

A ha ha ha.... I even have to scrape the ice of the windscreen in the morning....

[fordperv]

Great job mrs trw, mrs fp knows how to spanner, I've left her servicing my Capri while I've worked on something else and had her fixing various things, she often assists me with brake bleeding, I can't wait to get her trying welding on her sierra project

[Tamworthbay]

My wife wouldn't do jobs on her own but is a brilliant gopher and excellent at 'hold/ hit this'. My daughter is hassling me to get onto the 'big' jobs on the dolomite so she can get stuck in as she sees mere bodywork and servicing as below her (she is 9).

[crapcarcollector]

I had Mrs CCC not three weeks ago hold the alternator of an Alfa GTV in position and hold the nut whilst I tighten it. For those of you who know n alternator change on a GTV. Is a 6 hr job....

 

 

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[Stanky]

See Doobie's comment above. I'd like to think my hours of work to keep our two cars running in perfect order are appreciated but TBH its probably just taken for granted that I'll fix whatever is wrong with the cars for zero cost and she is grateful for me being out of the way for a bit.

[LabRat]

Mrs LabRat is pretty handy with a spanner, I've had her replacing the rear brakes and gear linkage on her old corsa and she likes to give me a hand with the various heaps we've owned. She likes how straightforward most maintenance is, compared with trying to teach 9 year olds to read and write!

 

Both of us are thinking about learning to weld and paint properly, but the day job is getting in the way at the moment.

 

 

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[New POD]

The women in my household consider that anything that was formally the job of a man should stay the job of a man, and yet they demand that then men take on their fair share of domestic tasks. I had to force* my daughter to look under the bonnet to fill up the wash bottle.

 

* by force, I mean I refused to give her the keys until she had filled it up.

[Pillock]

Mrs_P can deadlift a VAG TDI engine, knows where the oil goes etc.

[SiC]

I did an evening college course with my friend who wanted to learn more about cars.

 

It was £90 for 8 weeks, 2 hours a go. Not at all bad value and it gave you a great understanding of lots of simple home mechanic jobs - and a few intermediate home mechanic jobs. It covered disk brakes, drum brakes, pre-MOT check, safely raising/lowering a car, safety gear, basic servicing, removal and fitting of full exhaust, drive shaft replacement, spring and shock replacement and probably some other stuff I've forgotten.

 

I thought it was going to be a bore fest but I learnt a fair bit too (I am new to car maintenance myself too really). I'd recommend something like that to anyone who wanted to get involved as it was a great way to get stuck in and learn without fear of knackering your own car (they were all scrap yard cars, but decent enough).

Was that Newbury college? (Iirc you live around those parts of West Berks). The mechanic students used to get a steady supply of stuff from Thatcham research centre. At least that's what they used to tell me.

 

Actually tempted to do a similar one at a local college here. My opinion is that if you learn only a handful of things its worth it.

[JonnyHS]

Mrs HS has no interest whatsoever, and raises an eyebrow if I even mention tinkering, seeing as I am a total beginner myself.

 

I wouldn't dream of giving her access to the the spanners because she would no doubt ignore the manual and STILL be much better at it than me.

[dollywobbler]

Mrs DW became an expert at adjusting the points gap on the Mini, but mostly because I refused to go near it after a while. Not perfect mind you. She drove my Metro over 10 miles with a dropped valve because I couldn't advise what the problem was over the phone. She'll have a go at pretty much anything though. Including plumbing, electronics and even roofing.

[JonnyHS]

Just remembered. She did help once. I was trying to get a hub nut to move on the Favorit, and after using my whole bodyweight on the end of a 4ft breaker bar hadn't worked, I gave her a hammer and she shocked the shit out of it while I jumped up and down.

 

That got the bugger, although I did smack my chin on the roof of the car when it finally turned.

[Pillock]

Even better, my mum helped me put a gearbox in my Mk3 Golf. I suspect that was partly because it was on her driveway and clearly going nowhere without a gearbox, but still.....

[Dave_Q]

My wife is OK on the theory but probably wouldn't attempt much more than a wheel change or jump start herself.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

A good tip for this lark is, get mrs TRW some of those mechanics gloves so her hands dont get mauled too much and ingrained with muck, thats very off-putting

[Jifflemon]

Knowledge is empowerment

 

I often tell the tale of when, as a 17 year old Yoof, looking at his first car, my Dad lifted the bonnet.

 

"whats that?" I asked, pointing at the engine.

 

He went on to explain how an engine, clutch and, to be honest, car, in general worked, This was, I hasten to add, Pre-internet days,

 

I was gripped. This was some sort of voodoo magic!

 

Before long, I was at college, learning the dark automotive arts; I couldn't, quite frankly, get enough

 

Once people start to understand the systems that potentially hold their life in the balance, do they gain a better respect for them

[Richard]

A good tip for this lark is, get mrs TRW some of those mechanics gloves so her hands dont get mauled too much and ingrained with muck, thats very off-putting

There are mechanic's gloves? I'd like a pair of those, the nitrile ones are ok but they aren't very robust.

[rainagain]

My OH had a student job years ago selling tickets for one of the bus tour companies that use vintage buses. One of the driver's was boasting to my OH and the other female ticket sellers about how good a driver he is as he has to double de-clutch the gear change. "Of course you girls won't know what that is" he went on to say, I think he got quite a surprise when my OH explained not only how to double de-clutch but also that she used to do it, thanks to one of my cars having dodgy synchromesh. She also helped me fit the engine to her Megane, which she admitted she enjoyed.

[srad34]

My wifey will only help by pressing the brake pedal when bleeding......is it up or down godammit!!

[bub2006]

My oh won't do anything car related. A pain on the arse when the xantia needs an oil change and I can't get to do it!

[billyboy406v6]

My ex even insisted that I had to put the petrol in her car, now happily divorced !

[chatsharris]

I had my Mrs help me out on jobs, namely helping me bleed her coolant system (Insert joke about squeezing pipes...) and I was taking my EGR off to clean it so while I tinkered with other jobs, I gave her a tin of carb cleaner and a toothbrush.  She did a good job to be fair!  She keeps the fluids topped up well enough too.

 

Overall though, I think she'd like to get a bit more involved in it, it'll help her understand more about her car.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

There are mechanic's gloves? I'd like a pair of those, the nitrile ones are ok but they aren't very robust.

Yep - these are what you need, I never do any spannering without em nowadays

 

http://ebay.us/MpTeHS

[Slappy]

I'm a fair novice too, and would love to know how to do a load of simple things. Would have saved me £40 just last week when I got my front pads changed. Annoyingly I live on a busy, narrow, terraced street in the densest populated city in the country, so finding space to do anything involving going under the car is a nightmare.

 

Miss Slappy is being taught what little I know though and is a good student, though she does at least know to check the levels regularly for instance. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty either.

[Tickman]

Yep - these are what you need, I never do any spannering without em nowadays

 

http://ebay.us/MpTeHS

That's a good price, ordered.

[Stanky]

I'm a fair novice too, and would love to know how to do a load of simple things. Would have saved me £40 just last week when I got my front pads changed. Annoyingly I live on a busy, narrow, terraced street in the densest populated city in the country, so finding space to do anything involving going under the car is a nightmare.

 

Miss Slappy is being taught what little I know though and is a good student, though she does at least know to check the levels regularly for instance. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty either.

 

*insider hint alert*

 

St Simon's church car park at the bottom of Waverley Road is GR11 for car maintenance in Southsea. Quiet, empty 6 days a week and very flat. Perfect for oil changes and stuff which can't be easily done on-street. The vicar is/was also a top bloke and didn't mind at all when he sauntered by when my brother and I were carrying out remedial maintenance on my old Golf there one day, he chatted to us for a bit about how people don't fix their own cars these days and if we wanted to park it there to give him a shout and he'd give us a permit in exchange for a donation to the church which seemed entirely reasonable.

 

It would have made the head gasket change on my brothers Volvo 340 a load easier had we known too - doing that on the road wasn't much fun, though we did get some odd looks from passing people.

[xtriple]

 

 

 

 

 

Her only concession to girlyness was getting changed into scruffy clothes. She used to do all the maintenance on various cars after I broke my back while I sat in my chair and supervised.

[xtriple]

Oh, and that was her XT250 she was servicing and doing the front brakes on!