How to learn about vehicle maintenance?

All,

I've got a TD5 Discovery and am considering a 300tdi defender in the next few years (in addition to the disco) and would really like to know more about engines and car maintenance. I have done a few fairly minor jobs e.g. replaced damaged seal on fuel cooler, fitted cruise control etc. but I would like to be capable of diagnosing and tackling most issues which may arise. Planning to do some big overland trips in a couple of years which is another reason to get hot on the maintenance!

I know there are course available (night courses, once a week for 10 weeks) but they cost £200 - £350 and seem to be fairly basic.

I'm trying to learn by experience and will be doing my first oil change soon but very little is going wrong (touch wood) so im not getting much experience!

I work long hours and cant commit to getting a part time job in a garage to learn the ropes.

Any ideas? I had considered buying a very cheap car (£200ish), SORN it, and just fiddle/strip things down but i dont know how much help this would be?!

Thanks

Toby

Well, if you want a car to take to bits to see how they work, you might as well do so with this 300 TDi you're thinking of buying. At least then you can have the Land Rover of your dreams at the end of it, and familiarise yourself with all the bits and pieces that could go wrong so if you need to do repairs in the field you'll be fairly fluent with the task and the bits will actually unscrew!

Those sort of prices for courses aren't that unreasonable when you consider what any kind of professional instruction generally costs - driving lessons etc. A friend of mine is taking scuba diving lessons at approx £30 an hour. So that's pretty much what it consts to learn anything these days. However, the drawback is that they probably won't be teaching you on a Land Rover, so the skills will be rather generic. So it's probably better to buy one and tinker at your convenience.

Taking things to bits to see how they work is the age old method of learning, the problem comes with trying to put it all back together again.

How did I learn? I don't know really; by watching and helping my father when I was a kid? Or is there such a thing as an inate mechanical ability? Could be, my brother is like a cow with a gun when it comes to things mechanical.

The first thing you must learn is how to work in safety. For that your local college or adult education outfit might run generic "Car maintenance" evening classes, and while you probably won't learn much more than how to change a wheel or maybe a fanbelt, it should give you a bit of confidence to go a bit further on your own.

Check you local library too for any books on the subject, there are some which aren't vehicle specific. Then get yourself a Haynes manual for your vehicle of choice. It won't be quite as detailed as a full workshop manual but it will show you what goes where.

There was a time id pay my mate to change the brake pads on my car and one day he gave me the tools and told me to do it myself !

Im now rebuilding an engine less lightweight and when the bodys done im fitting a tdi to it and i recently did a full engine rebuild on my motox bike

Youve got to start somewhere and you will have cock ups in the early days but thats how you learn

If you havent got a decent tool kit then make a list of what you will need and start with the basic stuff and work your way up (to buy it all at once wont be cheap)

chrisstdt said:

There was a time id pay my mate to change the brake pads on my car and one day he gave me the tools and told me to do it myself !

Im now rebuilding an engine less lightweight and when the bodys done im fitting a tdi to it and i recently did a full engine rebuild on my motox bike

Youve got to start somewhere and you will have cock ups in the early days but thats how you learn

If you havent got a decent tool kit then make a list of what you will need and start with the basic stuff and work your way up (to buy it all at once wont be cheap)

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Go for decent stuff and you will only buy it once ,doesnt need to be snap on ,draper expert and halfords pro ranges are fine and all ive ever used

Like the others have said, practical experience is the way to go. Though, as brian47 intimated, I do think you can have an innate mechanical ability. Why not, if some people can have innate musical, art, sport ability etc.
No good buying a small car though! You will learn a lot of transferable mechanical skills, but with a specialism in that car. Do what Brown said, buy your ideal Defender and learn by experience on that when things go wrong. You will then become a specialist in the vehicle you want to own.

As said above a decent set of hand tools, plus a good quality torque wrench are a good place to start. Always give yourself more time than you need to complete a job so you don't put yourself in a position where you need to rush to finish it, and as your confidence and experience grows so will your understanding of how things work and your ability to diagnose problems and issues. Always, always put safety first, even if your just changing a wheel put an axle stand under it etc. The best mechanic I ever worked with always said there just 'its only a 3D jigsaw puzzle'!!

tacr2man said:

The best diy teaching course is to buy a series landrover , and then get the genuine
Landrover workshop manuals , they even tell you on each job what tools you need to do the job , so you dont start and find out you cant complete. ITs also set out so that by going thru it you will completely rebuild the vehicle. That will set you up for later vehicles, and you can then get into electronics and diagnosis. Which require the more expensive and specialised tools. Try and get together with like minded landrover owners in your area who might be willing to help you along when you need that extra bit of help.

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Good idea. Series, or 90/110, genuine or reprint landrover manuals, not Haynes. Take it easy, follow procedures with decent tools, you will learn a lot.
Never felt the urge to move on to the later vehicles myself.

Aside from everyday things like a socket set, and a few spanners and screwdrivers, I tend to buy tools I need as I come across jobs I want them for. For example, I wanted to do a load of suspension bushes a couple of years ago so that was the cue to buy a press. OK, that's a rather large example. Or the time I was rebuilding my brakes and it seemed like a good time to buy one of those compression brake bleeders so that I could do it single handed and there's no pedal pumping involved. And so on. That way you only buy the things you need and you spread the cost.

People sneer at the Haynes manual but I don't find it too bad as a kind of procedure guide. My most useful book however is the Land Rover parts catalogue. As well as being able to order what you need by part number (much better than saying 'its for a defender, about 1991-ish I think') the exploded diagrams depicting all the parts are very useful as it shows how things are supposed to go together, which is handy when there are a load of bushes and spacers and washers and it's not obvious which way round they're intended to go.

At 18 with no money for a mechanic I told myself that cars are built and maintained by people with no more hands than I have, so it should be possible for me to get it done.

Now it's still a hobby and I do engines and gearboxes.

Tools find the way to the shed much to easy and the better half intends to come with me to the hardware store.

She doesn't know that tools are like sheep and love to live in a huge flock.

I bought myself a 2003 TD5 D2 last year with the exact same intention - learning car maintenance. I've only really done the basic stuff so far such as wiring in spotlights, fixing the 'three amigos', replacing sensors, de-rusting the chassis and painting it, fixing leaking roof, stripping and cleaning interior. It has helped me a lot in gaining confidence to tackle more and more difficult problems. I see my D2 as a learning tool and also bloody good fun to off-road in.

I had some difficulties at first and had to rely on a mechanic to do some things, one of which was to fit rock sliders. After having a cluster of warning lights on for a year (intermittently) and being told by the 'expert auto electrician' they were because I switched springs instead of airbags that they were normal, I decided I felt confident to investigate the problem. Three of the lights were the 'three amigos', which I youtube and fixed and the last problem was the lateral acceleration ACE system sensor. Having a proper look underneath I discovered the so called expert had yanked it off the chassis whilst fitting the sliders and left it dangling in mid air. So as well as learning to fix the problem, I can also see that many 'experts' don't in fact have a clue. Plus you save bucket loads of money!