If you’re a bit of a spanner monkey, why not treat your car to a bit of tender love and care and service it yourself. Save yourself some money and get a little dirty in the process, what’s not to love?
Don’t doubt yourself
DIY servicing can help to save you money. It can sound like quite a challenge, performing a full service on your performance car but just a tighten or loosen a nut or a screw here and there and bob’s your uncle.
Have faith and who knows how well you could service your car if you really set your mind to. Your performance car probably has quite a lot of complex electronics that allow it to do its thing, especially under the bonnet. That’s where most of the hard work happens but you could still manage to do this yourself if you really wanted to.
There are a few things you might want to consider first before you go jumping the gun. For example, how old is your car? Is its service history in good nick? If your car is still only a baby, 10 years or less and has cracking service history, then who knows what impact you could have on your car if you service it yourself. It could impact its value if you’ve been at it with your spanners. We all know how much a potential buyer loves a full set of service stamps. On the flip side, if your car has seen better days and you don’t plan on getting rid of it anytime soon, then the value of it will be much less affected by service history, so you may as well get stuck in.
Then there’s the tools and location side of servicing. Your performance car could be straightforward, but it still requires a bit of common sense. Like do you have the space to be able to get down and dirty? Ideally, a garage would be best or a long driveway at least, if the heavens aren’t open. You don’t need a comprehensive tool kit to tackle your service, but a few extras in there could help make your life that little bit easier. We’re talking about some axle stands or ramps to help you lift your car. A jack could do the job, but it’s never a good idea to rely solely on that and get on your back to complete the job.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail
Part wise, there isn’t necessarily a set list of items that you’ll need to be able to complete your service, but there will probably be some that you’ll want to change. For example, your oil might want to change. Your oil is a key part of your engine’s health at the end of the day, so if you’ve got this filled up with the right stuff, you should be well away. A replacement air filter is quite cheap to get your hands on and could be a good one to have on you.
That’s your basics that you need to think about when servicing then you’ve also got other bits and bobs to think about too like:
- Spark plugs
- Leads
- Fuel filters
- Coolant
- Fluids, including your brake fluid, power steering and transmission.
All of these will wear and tear eventually, so the time will come when you’ll have to replace each one of these, hopefully not all at the same time. Imagine the cost of that!
Tool kits to the rescue
Before you get to work on your pride and joy, ask yourself whether you have the correct tools to be able to do a dab hand job.
Have you got:
- An oil catch tray, to capture that oil from your sump
- Oil filter wrench, to help save you hours of sweating trying to remove the old one
- Dedicated wrench in case those spark plugs need changing
If you’ve got the right tools, then no service job is impossible. Confidence is the key, and once you’ve done it once, you shouldn’t have to worry about servicing…for a few years at least anyway.
