Brighty123
Monday 23rd January 2012, 22:12
Hi guys
Need some advice on doing work on my '98 V70 T5 Auto i bought in July. Have a few MOT advisories to attend to and will need a good service as i don't know what's been done and when. I've never done any work on cars before so it is all new to me, but as a mechanical design engineer by trade i should be fairly mechanically minded, lol. Have a friendly neighbour who has more tools than you can shake a stick at, as he's always tinkering with his old sprite and has a trolly jack i can use. I have a haynes manual on the way. Usually send my cars to main dealers but begrudge paying those sort of prices for a car that cost me £900, so this seems the perfect little project to learn to do things myself on.
Firstly, where's best to get parts from? Rock up at the main dealer? Copy parts from euro car parts etc or are there online stores for genuine parts cheaper than main dealer? Can i get main dealer discount if i join the owners club? There's only 1 main dealer anywhere near me and that's Middlesbrough i think.
Next up, the following is a list of work that needs doing and i'd appreciate if some of you more savvy home mechanics could rate these for difficulty for a first timer, maybe a 1-5 rating, 1 being a piece of pee and 5 being don't even attempt it.
Advisories
1) "Nearside front headlight deteriorated but light output not affected" assume these means 2 new headlights, not an urgent one this, but must admit headlights are a bit 'candle in a jam jar'
2) "Offside track rod end ball joint has slight play" As the part is cheap, would i be best off changing both side?
3) "Power steering pipe(s) or hose(s) has slight seepage from a component" Obviously need to have a look to see where it's coming from and sort as necessary
4) "off side front tie rod has slight play" not sure what this is, but again do i change both sides?
5) " Cat has slight rattle" May look at a new cat depending how bad it is
Service Items, anything else i should look at doing or any that are not necessary if she's running ok? Looking through the receipts, the cam belt and water pump were done in July 2010 at 147K so only 22k ago, assume i've got a while before i need to worry about that?
1) Oil/Filter Change
2) Fuel Filter
3) Air Filter
4) Coolant change
5) Plugs
6) Power steering fluid change
7) Gear box flush/change (is this a good idea on a car with 170k when you don't know if it's been done before, read on here or somewhere that it could do more damage than good?)
8) Brake fluid change/bleed
Cheers guys
Brighty
Need some advice on doing work on my '98 V70 T5 Auto i bought in July. Have a few MOT advisories to attend to and will need a good service as i don't know what's been done and when. I've never done any work on cars before so it is all new to me, but as a mechanical design engineer by trade i should be fairly mechanically minded, lol. Have a friendly neighbour who has more tools than you can shake a stick at, as he's always tinkering with his old sprite and has a trolly jack i can use. I have a haynes manual on the way. Usually send my cars to main dealers but begrudge paying those sort of prices for a car that cost me £900, so this seems the perfect little project to learn to do things myself on.
Firstly, where's best to get parts from? Rock up at the main dealer? Copy parts from euro car parts etc or are there online stores for genuine parts cheaper than main dealer? Can i get main dealer discount if i join the owners club? There's only 1 main dealer anywhere near me and that's Middlesbrough i think.
Next up, the following is a list of work that needs doing and i'd appreciate if some of you more savvy home mechanics could rate these for difficulty for a first timer, maybe a 1-5 rating, 1 being a piece of pee and 5 being don't even attempt it.
Advisories
1) "Nearside front headlight deteriorated but light output not affected" assume these means 2 new headlights, not an urgent one this, but must admit headlights are a bit 'candle in a jam jar'
2) "Offside track rod end ball joint has slight play" As the part is cheap, would i be best off changing both side?
3) "Power steering pipe(s) or hose(s) has slight seepage from a component" Obviously need to have a look to see where it's coming from and sort as necessary
4) "off side front tie rod has slight play" not sure what this is, but again do i change both sides?
5) " Cat has slight rattle" May look at a new cat depending how bad it is
Service Items, anything else i should look at doing or any that are not necessary if she's running ok? Looking through the receipts, the cam belt and water pump were done in July 2010 at 147K so only 22k ago, assume i've got a while before i need to worry about that?
1) Oil/Filter Change
2) Fuel Filter
3) Air Filter
4) Coolant change
5) Plugs
6) Power steering fluid change
7) Gear box flush/change (is this a good idea on a car with 170k when you don't know if it's been done before, read on here or somewhere that it could do more damage than good?)
8) Brake fluid change/bleed
Cheers guys
Brighty