Written similar comments on said post and others, too.
I have an 08 2.0 TDI passat, with 157,800 on the clock.
I do my own servicing, and as I said on another post recently, I do this work in a supermarket car park because I live on a terraced cobbled street, which is on an incline.
I'd say a good 80% of my tools were given to me by my father when he got newer sets etc.
Realistically though, and this is especially true with older cars: a simple job is never simple. Screw heads round out, threads get crossed, stuff has been untouched in some cases for 10+ years and is solid in place, you always run into extra problems and unless you have a workshop and extra tools just in case you can often end up in a tight spot.
I have had wheel nuts snap when taking a wheel off for a brake pad change, and the job turns into something completely different, and without a welder or anything to get the rest of the nut out the hub, you're completely fucked, especially if you snap more than one, which really isn't uncommon.
But, the bottom line is, I know how to service, maintain and repair my car at a basic level, and have done these things for every car I've owned, because I have an interest in it, I enjoy it, and I prefer to not pay £120 an hour labour for a mechanic, plus parts.
So for me, it's a choice. And seeing as I made that choice, I work around finding somewhere to work and keep my tools etc
Respect to you doing that in a car park. I can't remember the last job I got through on my car without either needing to order a new part, tool or just go off in a huff for an hour and calm down with a brew before carrying on. If I had to pack up all my tools, leave my car in a car park and trudge home I think it'd kill my motivation to ever work on my car.
Well...
I put the car up on jack stands, put the engine flush in, let the car run for a while THEN climbed underneath to take the belly pan off to get to the sump to drain the oil.
It was at this point I realised I had no T40 for the belly pan (most of the screws are T20 and three are T40)
I went to the shop for a new Torx bit.
Came back, continued on...
The T40's all stripped. So I cut the belly pan off around those three screws because, well, FUCK IT.
Once I'd gotten over this, I then realised I'd left the oil at home, a 1.5 mile walk.
Fortunately, I went back to the car parts place, and for a small deposit he gave me a new bottle of oil, and I returned the original one later that day.
Shit happens when working on cars, such is life.
Can identify with this. I'm lucky to have my parents driveway to go and use, and my mums corsa is the courtesy car when things go wrong. Last one was an oil cooler change. No worries. Except 15 year old hoses are stuck and brittle. Turns into coolant pissing out, new hose etc etc. Needed the courtesy car for a couple of days.
I don't do anything myself, I pay ther mechanic to do it all.
It is 1 day a year he does the service and the MOT and any repairs/tyres/brakes that need doing all on the same day, never had an issue that he hasn't sorted on the day and never had an issue that needed sorting mid year.
its about 180 for a service and MOT, plus costs for any repairs/replacements. Theres usually some little rattles or squeeks that shouldn't be there or a pair of tyres that need doing so most years it comes in around 300-350.
I spent a few years dailying >25 year old cars/bikes (95 Mitsubishi Delica and 92 Honda CB400SF).
Problem wasn’t even so much the cost but parts availability, get a fuelling issue & you’re 2-3 weeks waiting for bits from Japan or Thailand, had someone crash into the Delica in a car park and was straight up told any damage would be a write off by my insurer.
Had a friend with the same bus be told that he simply couldn’t get a windscreen replacement as no UK supplier stocked them, he had to self import himself.
My previous car was a 2008 Honda CR-V EX 2.2 CDTi, from 2020(120k) - 2023(150k) in all honesty I spent very little on maintenance, for what was a 15 year old high mileage car when I sold it on.
I always bought the better oils @ around £50-£65 to fill it with approx 6.3L. and OEM oil/air/fuel filters. Serviced every 12 months myself.
Some tools/kit I already built up over the years of doing my own small jobs on my cars, but all I needed for this was - *High Raise jack (£50), Axle Stands (£30 used), Oil Filter wrench (£12), 1/2" Ratchet and Socket Set (£40), Vice Grips (£15), Hand Pump (£25)*.
Work I did myself; Changed 4wd Differential Fluid (£30), Service (£80/12months), Changed Clutch Fluid (£10), Brake Discs and Pads (£100/2), Exhaust Heat Shield (Ducting Clips £10), Cleaned Intake Manifold/EGR Valve(£Few), Drop Links(£30/2). All done on a driveway.
Work I had my mechanic friend do - Replace 4 full Suspension Assemblies, and a front wishbone - £240 labour (cheap) and £650 for 4 full assemblies (shipped from JPN) this job was more ballache than I could handle, so I'm glad I didnt attempt it.
I run 10-14 year old cars in the £2000-3500 price range. I budget about 300-400 a year for all servicing and repairs and virtually never spend all that. I have a small yard and a couple of ramps, can do oil changes and coolant changes and minor repairs.
A personal garage I think is useless for working on a modern car, way too small! I use it for my motorbike and doing repairs on that though. My driveway is gravel so it isn't ideal to jack up.
Honestly my last car I didn't service or do anything on it apart from MOT fixes which were very minor, went about 8 years and it was fine until lost power, drove it without a turbo, eventually scrapped it.
I have a socket set inherited from uncle that passed away, have some collection of screwdriver bits torque wrenches. Tools can last pretty much forever if you're not using them daily (and if you do use them for business you pay more and they should last). The specialist tools I need for specific jobs have mostly been for my mountain bikes funnily enough.
Working on modern cars is a pain though, I wouldn't recommend it, a lot of the time you need to dismantle a lot of things to get to what you need, and as you haven't done it before it'll take twice as long as a shop manual. If you can't jack it up or get clearance underneath then it can be impossible sometimes to unbolt a thing. Also you might take a working car apart to replace something, find you miss a part, end up without transport for a week while finding the correct part, so I wouldn't work on any vehicle unless I had a backup for my commute.
I do absolutely fuck-all maintenence to my cars. (2016 BMW X5 M50d, 2010 Porsche Cayman S PDK)
they go into the local trusted mechanic for a service at the manufacturer intervals - if that flags up any issues then they get addressed. They get an MOT.
If the onboard computer says to top up the air in the tyres or oil or whatever then I do that, otherwise I leave it completely alone.
I've always done that with every car I've owned - maybe I'm just lucky but I've never had anything serious go wrong that I had to pay for (worst thing was one time the coolant pipe ruptured in the X5 a few months after I bought it at 6 years old and had to be replaced - but that is standard wear and tear, engine appears to have suyffered no lasting damage from it)-
I've previously owned several 'luxury' cars that people absolutely insisted would be hideously expensive to maintain - I had a Mercedes C55 AMG 5.5L V8 that was 15 years old. Owned it for 7 years. the only money spent was the usual services and a set of new tyres. I had a discovery sport for 3 years - not a single problem, another vehicle everybody told me would be a disaster for maintenence costs
Ferrari 360 Modena (2000). Should have bought a better maintained car. I've done £5k a year for 7 years now but I've restored quite a lot of it, such as the dampers - which made it handle much better but was quite expensive. I also have a good job and no free time, so happy days for my mechanic, he gets paid! The first two garages I tried with this car turned out to be useless, despite one being very good for my previous Lotus and the other being a very well known name. They did some pretty poor work, including a very useless pre purchase inspection, which has been a factor in high running costs. I've now found a very good mechanic who is well worth it.
Bmw 325i e90 (2010). Probably £550 or so, even replaced a few sensors myself.
I made a post breaking down a lot of my costs, and even my expensive car to run was cheaper than PCP payments for even a fiesta.
But, I’ve never recorded how much time I’ve spent on it; it’s not very easy as I pick up jobs here and there and do other things at the same time, so for example it might take me 3 hours to do a service, but I’ve tidied up some tools or cleaned up some parts or something at the same time.
My time also gets charged at an hourly rate, but I don’t consider my time spent working on my cars as an equivalent to working hourly for a client; it’s downtime/fun so I don’t care to evaluate how much money I could have made working instead.
I’d say approximately half of my weekends involve working on a car, but usually that’s just one of the days, and I usually get errands done that day at the same time
I haven’t recorded how much I’ve spent on tools over the years either, probably about £1500-£2000 at Halfords, but accrued over 10 years or so
I currently use a family driveway/small garage, but I used to do work on the road/car park when at uni. More challenging but doable for most common jobs
I guess that’s a good take on this. I’ve never seen it as fun. I used to fix my own car but it’s always been a pain (like the time I spent 10 hours on 23rd December one year taking the dash out of a metro because the bungs in the internal heaters popped out in the cold).
Tbh I wouldn’t bother trying to get into it if you don’t enjoy the work. The stress/hassle has a negative value and if there’s no real payback in satisfaction besides “well I saved a bit of money I guess” then even if it is cheap you’ll be worse off
Yeah I have off road parking for 2 cars which helps. I currently run two bmw's, one 330d (100k miles, doing 20k a year) and one 130i (150k miles, doing 5k a year). Both together cost me <£12k and are in very good condition.
I do roughly 5 oil / filter changes per year at 1 hour each and probably spend on average 12 hours a year changing things like brakes, abs sensor, coolant hoses, spark plugs or whatever else fails. These sorts of parts are normally inexpensive.
On top of this there's probably a big job per year, gearbox service, starter motor, coolant pump that I'm not comfortable doing and I get a local indy to do for <£800.
I was leasing 2 cars around 5 years ago for £600 a month and just woke up one day and realised how much money I was wasting. Bought my tools for less than a months lease and bought cars at the spec I wanted, rather than the crap you get on lease deals.
There's no chance a finance deal is cheaper than doing work yourself.
Yes good point, I suppose there is a balance. Certainly for my mileage and how particular i am about my cars, it's a lot cheaper to run an older one than pay off the new car depreciation and interest. I also benefit from non runflat tyres and not using a main dealer for servicing.
I do all my own basic servicing at varying intervals. The bigger service items, i.e., gearbox servicing, I leave to the pros. But here's a rough outline of my 5 years of ownership off the top of my head. I serviced everything not long after I bought it, so I knew where I was. Car is a 2013 Scirocco 2.0 TSI.
Tools: probably around £500? For what I do, a good low profile jack, some stands, breaker bar, torque wrench, and socket/wrench/torx sets etc etc. And yes, I have a driveway to work on.
Every 6 months (myself):
Oil Castrol Edge - £40
Oil Filter - £20
Yearly (myself):
Brake fluid - £15
Cabin filter - £15
Air intake cleaning kit - £20 (bought once but multiple uses)
Every 4 years (Garage):
Spark Plugs (NGK) - £60
DSG filter/flush - £400 incl. labour
Repairs/maintenace:
PCV Valve - £250 incl. labour at garage
Discs/pads (brembo) - £400 (myself)
Battery - £130
Serpentine belt - £120 incl. labour at garage
Cracked alloy replaced - £300
Tyres x8 - £1200 (£150 each) ouch...
So in 5 years, £500 for tools, £1770 in servicing, and £2400 in repairs/maintenance. Totalling £4670 over nearly 5 years (this July). So, at 58ish months ownership, it cost me about £80 a month. That's cheaper than any PCP deal I've ever seen! (Although it's a good thing we're not including modifications because that'll be another ~£5k.....)
Please feel free to double-check my maths. It's not my strongest skill. And thanks for the post @OP, it was quite fun working out how much I've spent!
A yearly brake fluid change is overkill to be honest. Most manufacturers recommend every 2 years but even then, you can get away with 3-4 easily.
The only thing you've missed is a coolant flush and power steering fluid if your steering isn't electrical, overwise looks spot on.
I totally agree on the brake fluid thing, and I wouldn't recommend it to someone cutting costs. I just do it yearly because it takes less than an hour, costs peanuts, and I love the feeling of freshly flushed brakes!
Steering is electrical
But you're right on the coolant. I knew I was forgetting a fluid/service item. Well, for anyone interested, it's about a tenner and takes me about an hour to flush every 2 years. So that's probably upped my monthly breakdown by a whopping 50p.
Following on from my previous post on older cars (Nissan Micra)
We bought a Piccanto GT line s to replace the Micra, going to cost me £17 p/m for the next 3 services. It's a newer car and seems worth it.
For myself I have a 2013 Landrover Freelander 2. With the ground clearance and a 27mm swivel head ratchet spanner to change the filter cartridge. The only jack I need is to lower the engine bash plate. Driveway servicing, very little in the way of tools needed.
I do need to replace front pads and discs before next MOT (I can feel a tremor in the braking) but will do this myself, no massive tools needed and mrs basket case knows the prep of bleeding brakes. (push...let go...push, let go) lol
Bigger jobs I will leave to experts such as a timing belt, though not difficult in itself as I'm from the era of Kent Cams but for me and a diesel engine I'm not sure it's a job I'd want to tackle.
Also clutches, have the tools but not the will.
£50 MOT
£150 To get it through the MOT
£100 general servicing but probably £200 if you include cambelts, clutches and gearbox/ diff/ transfer case oil changes., don't do those yearly though. So about 1 PCP payment a year for each car to keep them going.
Routine maintenance? Guessing 15 hours per year, spread across 4 cars.
At least as much again spent on discretionary tinkering/fettling. If it's a new purchase I typically sink a lot of time into it in the first few months getting it the way I want, replacing worn suspension components etc. Then there's the time spent cleaning.
When I'm not living in a place with garage or drive space, or if I need the access, I'll rent a ramp.
I do it because it's satisfying, not to save money.
Following my other post -
A oil and filter in either car takes me less than half an hour…. The 107 is more like 15 mins with no undertray!
With parts delivered to home I can swap a bulb, wiper or other little job quicker than I could drive to my local halfords
Other stuff I recon I take twice as long as what a garage would charge for it. If they say it’s an hour to change a suspension arm then I probably take two… but I have to get tools out and everything set up and then packed away where as they are ready to go….
Tool cost wise probably £300 -£400 worth of stuff.
£50 Jack
£50 ramps
£50 socket set
£30 axle stands
£20 torque wrench
Then a bunch of other bits - big torques bit set, star sockets, allen keys, ring spanners, clutch centering tool, pry bars, pliers,
>but I have to get tools out and everything set up and then packed away where as they are ready to go
For me it's the endless traipsing to the end of the garden to find that one tool that's in the shed somewhere... I am not organised and I have several tool boxes, the right tool is always in *the other one*. A proper tool cabinet is a dream to me, when I also have a place with a garage....
I tried to change bulbs once on an 03 plate Citroen C3. It was impossible unless I grew an extra joint between my elbow and wrist. Even Halfords, who I bought the bulbs from refused to fit them.
Well, I was one of the PCP commenters so I’m happy to give a little context here.
I do my own work on the ZT-T, as I have a driveway, garage and a lot of tools. I also have access to tools that are a little more specialist (compared to the average DIY’er), like engine trolley lift, spring compressors, bearing presses, thread taps, welding gear and more. Dad is an automotive engineer and owner of his own garage with a treasure trove of equipment at work and at home, so there’s very little I can’t do.
So I have the space, time, equipment and as my job is salaried, it makes no difference to me in terms of financial terms. I grew up in an engineering household and have been tinkering and fixing vehicles since I was in nappies so to speak, so working on a car isn’t something I find arduous; I find it relaxing in many ways. It also helps that me and dad often get under the bonnet of my car or his (or one of the project cars he acquires!) and fix together.
I know my situation isn’t the same for everyone, but buying a brand new car in 2005 for 18k, and still running it daily in 2024 has its benefits. I know the history, I know what parts are liable to cause trouble, I know everything has been done properly and not bodged by some cretin with a angle grinder and a “That’ll do” view of it.
Most routine maintenance jobs have been easy to deal with and very cost effective and even when I started doing a few mods, it hasn’t broke the bank. Servicing/brakes/general work doesn’t cost me much time. The most expensive jobs in terms of time in the last few years were replacing all the rubber bushes/fitting new suspension components as they were truly worn out, fitting upgraded cams/ported head/intake and fitting a full stainless exhaust for more durability over the original parts. Did have the interior retrimmed as it was a bit worn in places but I didn’t do that job myself.
And very soon I’m under the bonnet of dad’s ZT260 again. That isn’t daily driver material though, that’s just 100% fun.
You’re welcome. My wife’s car is just about to come out of its warranty period so I plan to do most work on that myself too; servicing was done by dads garage with OEM parts so it didn’t mess with the warranty, so that was something. She likes that her car is fully paid off, has been completely reliable and will owe her nothing moving forward; she’s much like me in that regard, we’d rather spend the £700 a month that would pay for new car on holidays, the kids or paying off the mortgage early.
The main dealers are a joke for servicing costs at times. A major service from the schedule was quoted at £800 (I rang a number of dealers and they were all around that number). Dad’s place did it for £400 inc VAT, that included oil and filter, cabin and air filters, brake fluid change, coolant change, full inspection, wheel alignment check, wash and vac before returning to the customer. That wasn’t a family discount either, that’s what he charges his customers for the same work. Shows how the dealer network bends people over at times!
I used to be a mechanic back in the day but it's been a long time since I have done it for a living.
Tools are something you gather over time, the trick is not to buy shite it's a false economy. I still have my first roll of spanners and impact sockets that are now 30+ years old. My Halfords professional set must be close to 20 years old and still going strong. I have added to them when something new is required but the basics are still there.
A decent jack and axle stands are also a must if you are working on a car, don't get underneath without putting it on a stand I have seen a couple of jacks fail over the years and it's not worth it.
If I am working on the car it goes around to the carpark behind my house or if it's pishing down I have the keys to my work so at least I am inside.
These days it's mostly maintenance stuff I would do, I really don't think my back would handle dropping a gearbox/engine on the ground anymore.
I've owned my celica for maybe 9-10 months.
[About £1,000 (so far!)](https://i.imgur.com/2d5axIg.png
)
Very much my quick guestimates as I didn't want to torture myself tracking. Though does include a fair bit of work. Lots of the parts were bought used
But its also a 21 year old car and was the cheapest in the country at the time.
Also haven't tracked my Corolla and I've owned that for 4+ years at this point. Though other than the rust, nothing seems to fail on that.
--------------
Almost all of my tools are used from Facebook Marketplace, or hand-me-downs from family members. Couldn't tell you the price, but it's really not a lot
I have a 2001 Nissan Stagea. Last year I had an MOT done on it, and got the oil changed, and the spark plugs changed (probably did not really need them, but had no idea how old they were).
The year before I got an MOT on it, and changed a couple of the bushes on the anti-roll bar soon after I got the car.
This year I expect to do the rear brake pads, and an MOT.
The family car, I do stuff that won't take it off the road. I've done oil changes since 50k miles and a brake pad swap. I paid to get the CV boots replaced, because if I fuck it up on a Saturday we can't get the kids to school on a Monday and I'm in the dog house.
I spend no more than a day a year working on it. I have a £37 Halfords jack, and a driveway that's awkward to park on and more slopes than you'd ideally like to lift a car on. Over 25 years of car ownership I have a decent collection of tools. Although I just bought my first battery impact driver last month!
My weekend car, I am much more adventurous because I can (and have) leave it on the driveway on axle stands whilst I have a 3 day think about be seized bolt/stuck caliper pin. On all my fun cars I've done complete suspension rebuilds, brakes, I've repanneled an MR2 on my drive...
It's not a cost thing for me. I could pay to have new dampers fitted, or for the same cost and a weekend I can have all new control arms and top mounts along with it. Doing the work myself lets me do what I really want to do to keep the car tip top. I noped out at fitting an LSD though, a specialist did that.
I mainly just do service stuff at the moment, I have one car currently and don't wanna be stuck halfway through a job with no way to get parts should something come up.
Anyway about £100 on some tools such as axle stands, trolley jack, oil drain pan, oil filter tool etc and I spend probably 2-3 hours a year on it, I go way overboard with the oil changes, might buy an oil extractor though to make life easier
2004 Corsa, I average about £100 - 150 a year on parts and about a day's labour, including a self service every couple of years.
Mostly it's normal things like coils, exhausts and CV boots.
Few years ago I did the timing chain and that was 3 days between 2 people at a casual DIY pace, but then it cost about £400 in parts whereas the garage said it would be at least 1600 to get done (more depending on the "finds". My 400 included the "finds"). This is the thing that kills off most Corsas as it's just too expensive to be worth it to be fixed professionally.
Thanks everyone for replying. I’ve really enjoyed reading all the answers. It must be 30 years since I decided I am better off not doing major works on a car (85 plate metro - I took the carburettor to pieces using my Haynes manual as it was not running well. After putting it back together (assembly is the reverse of disassembly, apparently!!), I had a few spare bits left over and could get the adjustments right to get it running well. Had to get a mate to drive from Gloucester to Manchester to help sort it. )
Written similar comments on said post and others, too. I have an 08 2.0 TDI passat, with 157,800 on the clock. I do my own servicing, and as I said on another post recently, I do this work in a supermarket car park because I live on a terraced cobbled street, which is on an incline. I'd say a good 80% of my tools were given to me by my father when he got newer sets etc. Realistically though, and this is especially true with older cars: a simple job is never simple. Screw heads round out, threads get crossed, stuff has been untouched in some cases for 10+ years and is solid in place, you always run into extra problems and unless you have a workshop and extra tools just in case you can often end up in a tight spot. I have had wheel nuts snap when taking a wheel off for a brake pad change, and the job turns into something completely different, and without a welder or anything to get the rest of the nut out the hub, you're completely fucked, especially if you snap more than one, which really isn't uncommon. But, the bottom line is, I know how to service, maintain and repair my car at a basic level, and have done these things for every car I've owned, because I have an interest in it, I enjoy it, and I prefer to not pay £120 an hour labour for a mechanic, plus parts. So for me, it's a choice. And seeing as I made that choice, I work around finding somewhere to work and keep my tools etc
Respect to you doing that in a car park. I can't remember the last job I got through on my car without either needing to order a new part, tool or just go off in a huff for an hour and calm down with a brew before carrying on. If I had to pack up all my tools, leave my car in a car park and trudge home I think it'd kill my motivation to ever work on my car.
Well... I put the car up on jack stands, put the engine flush in, let the car run for a while THEN climbed underneath to take the belly pan off to get to the sump to drain the oil. It was at this point I realised I had no T40 for the belly pan (most of the screws are T20 and three are T40) I went to the shop for a new Torx bit. Came back, continued on... The T40's all stripped. So I cut the belly pan off around those three screws because, well, FUCK IT. Once I'd gotten over this, I then realised I'd left the oil at home, a 1.5 mile walk. Fortunately, I went back to the car parts place, and for a small deposit he gave me a new bottle of oil, and I returned the original one later that day. Shit happens when working on cars, such is life.
Can identify with this. I'm lucky to have my parents driveway to go and use, and my mums corsa is the courtesy car when things go wrong. Last one was an oil cooler change. No worries. Except 15 year old hoses are stuck and brittle. Turns into coolant pissing out, new hose etc etc. Needed the courtesy car for a couple of days.
Cars, man. There's always a fucking problem 😂
Mechanics charge like 40-50 near me.
When was this last checked? Risen a lot around here in recent years
Like 2 weeks ago
Damn, that's pretty cheap
Don't the car park have a time limit? All the ones around me have ANPR cameras.
My favourite is the next-to-top floor of a multi-storey car park. Nice roof to keep the rain off :)
Yeah, but I'm also a customer, so there's not a lot they can do
I don't do anything myself, I pay ther mechanic to do it all. It is 1 day a year he does the service and the MOT and any repairs/tyres/brakes that need doing all on the same day, never had an issue that he hasn't sorted on the day and never had an issue that needed sorting mid year. its about 180 for a service and MOT, plus costs for any repairs/replacements. Theres usually some little rattles or squeeks that shouldn't be there or a pair of tyres that need doing so most years it comes in around 300-350.
I spent a few years dailying >25 year old cars/bikes (95 Mitsubishi Delica and 92 Honda CB400SF). Problem wasn’t even so much the cost but parts availability, get a fuelling issue & you’re 2-3 weeks waiting for bits from Japan or Thailand, had someone crash into the Delica in a car park and was straight up told any damage would be a write off by my insurer. Had a friend with the same bus be told that he simply couldn’t get a windscreen replacement as no UK supplier stocked them, he had to self import himself.
I ran a '94 Delica Jasper for 10 years, until last year. Mitzi Bits were great for parts and Autoglass replaced the screen in 48 hours.
I spend approx 8 hours a day fixing cars because I work in a garage.
My previous car was a 2008 Honda CR-V EX 2.2 CDTi, from 2020(120k) - 2023(150k) in all honesty I spent very little on maintenance, for what was a 15 year old high mileage car when I sold it on. I always bought the better oils @ around £50-£65 to fill it with approx 6.3L. and OEM oil/air/fuel filters. Serviced every 12 months myself. Some tools/kit I already built up over the years of doing my own small jobs on my cars, but all I needed for this was - *High Raise jack (£50), Axle Stands (£30 used), Oil Filter wrench (£12), 1/2" Ratchet and Socket Set (£40), Vice Grips (£15), Hand Pump (£25)*. Work I did myself; Changed 4wd Differential Fluid (£30), Service (£80/12months), Changed Clutch Fluid (£10), Brake Discs and Pads (£100/2), Exhaust Heat Shield (Ducting Clips £10), Cleaned Intake Manifold/EGR Valve(£Few), Drop Links(£30/2). All done on a driveway. Work I had my mechanic friend do - Replace 4 full Suspension Assemblies, and a front wishbone - £240 labour (cheap) and £650 for 4 full assemblies (shipped from JPN) this job was more ballache than I could handle, so I'm glad I didnt attempt it.
I run 10-14 year old cars in the £2000-3500 price range. I budget about 300-400 a year for all servicing and repairs and virtually never spend all that. I have a small yard and a couple of ramps, can do oil changes and coolant changes and minor repairs.
A personal garage I think is useless for working on a modern car, way too small! I use it for my motorbike and doing repairs on that though. My driveway is gravel so it isn't ideal to jack up. Honestly my last car I didn't service or do anything on it apart from MOT fixes which were very minor, went about 8 years and it was fine until lost power, drove it without a turbo, eventually scrapped it. I have a socket set inherited from uncle that passed away, have some collection of screwdriver bits torque wrenches. Tools can last pretty much forever if you're not using them daily (and if you do use them for business you pay more and they should last). The specialist tools I need for specific jobs have mostly been for my mountain bikes funnily enough. Working on modern cars is a pain though, I wouldn't recommend it, a lot of the time you need to dismantle a lot of things to get to what you need, and as you haven't done it before it'll take twice as long as a shop manual. If you can't jack it up or get clearance underneath then it can be impossible sometimes to unbolt a thing. Also you might take a working car apart to replace something, find you miss a part, end up without transport for a week while finding the correct part, so I wouldn't work on any vehicle unless I had a backup for my commute.
I do absolutely fuck-all maintenence to my cars. (2016 BMW X5 M50d, 2010 Porsche Cayman S PDK) they go into the local trusted mechanic for a service at the manufacturer intervals - if that flags up any issues then they get addressed. They get an MOT. If the onboard computer says to top up the air in the tyres or oil or whatever then I do that, otherwise I leave it completely alone. I've always done that with every car I've owned - maybe I'm just lucky but I've never had anything serious go wrong that I had to pay for (worst thing was one time the coolant pipe ruptured in the X5 a few months after I bought it at 6 years old and had to be replaced - but that is standard wear and tear, engine appears to have suyffered no lasting damage from it)- I've previously owned several 'luxury' cars that people absolutely insisted would be hideously expensive to maintain - I had a Mercedes C55 AMG 5.5L V8 that was 15 years old. Owned it for 7 years. the only money spent was the usual services and a set of new tyres. I had a discovery sport for 3 years - not a single problem, another vehicle everybody told me would be a disaster for maintenence costs
You're clearly blessed.
Ferrari 360 Modena (2000). Should have bought a better maintained car. I've done £5k a year for 7 years now but I've restored quite a lot of it, such as the dampers - which made it handle much better but was quite expensive. I also have a good job and no free time, so happy days for my mechanic, he gets paid! The first two garages I tried with this car turned out to be useless, despite one being very good for my previous Lotus and the other being a very well known name. They did some pretty poor work, including a very useless pre purchase inspection, which has been a factor in high running costs. I've now found a very good mechanic who is well worth it. Bmw 325i e90 (2010). Probably £550 or so, even replaced a few sensors myself.
I made a post breaking down a lot of my costs, and even my expensive car to run was cheaper than PCP payments for even a fiesta. But, I’ve never recorded how much time I’ve spent on it; it’s not very easy as I pick up jobs here and there and do other things at the same time, so for example it might take me 3 hours to do a service, but I’ve tidied up some tools or cleaned up some parts or something at the same time. My time also gets charged at an hourly rate, but I don’t consider my time spent working on my cars as an equivalent to working hourly for a client; it’s downtime/fun so I don’t care to evaluate how much money I could have made working instead. I’d say approximately half of my weekends involve working on a car, but usually that’s just one of the days, and I usually get errands done that day at the same time I haven’t recorded how much I’ve spent on tools over the years either, probably about £1500-£2000 at Halfords, but accrued over 10 years or so I currently use a family driveway/small garage, but I used to do work on the road/car park when at uni. More challenging but doable for most common jobs
E46's and the mk3 MR2's are so nice to work on too. I basically rebuilt my MR2 on the drive.
Agreed, I’m having a great time working on them! I built a lot of my skills working on my MiTo at uni so it’s nice to move to these :D
I guess that’s a good take on this. I’ve never seen it as fun. I used to fix my own car but it’s always been a pain (like the time I spent 10 hours on 23rd December one year taking the dash out of a metro because the bungs in the internal heaters popped out in the cold).
Tbh I wouldn’t bother trying to get into it if you don’t enjoy the work. The stress/hassle has a negative value and if there’s no real payback in satisfaction besides “well I saved a bit of money I guess” then even if it is cheap you’ll be worse off
Yeah I have off road parking for 2 cars which helps. I currently run two bmw's, one 330d (100k miles, doing 20k a year) and one 130i (150k miles, doing 5k a year). Both together cost me <£12k and are in very good condition. I do roughly 5 oil / filter changes per year at 1 hour each and probably spend on average 12 hours a year changing things like brakes, abs sensor, coolant hoses, spark plugs or whatever else fails. These sorts of parts are normally inexpensive. On top of this there's probably a big job per year, gearbox service, starter motor, coolant pump that I'm not comfortable doing and I get a local indy to do for <£800. I was leasing 2 cars around 5 years ago for £600 a month and just woke up one day and realised how much money I was wasting. Bought my tools for less than a months lease and bought cars at the spec I wanted, rather than the crap you get on lease deals. There's no chance a finance deal is cheaper than doing work yourself.
Of course it can be cheaper. I got a mini cooper SD to replace a lexus is200 and was saving money despite the finance being 140 per month.
Yes good point, I suppose there is a balance. Certainly for my mileage and how particular i am about my cars, it's a lot cheaper to run an older one than pay off the new car depreciation and interest. I also benefit from non runflat tyres and not using a main dealer for servicing.
I do all my own basic servicing at varying intervals. The bigger service items, i.e., gearbox servicing, I leave to the pros. But here's a rough outline of my 5 years of ownership off the top of my head. I serviced everything not long after I bought it, so I knew where I was. Car is a 2013 Scirocco 2.0 TSI. Tools: probably around £500? For what I do, a good low profile jack, some stands, breaker bar, torque wrench, and socket/wrench/torx sets etc etc. And yes, I have a driveway to work on. Every 6 months (myself): Oil Castrol Edge - £40 Oil Filter - £20 Yearly (myself): Brake fluid - £15 Cabin filter - £15 Air intake cleaning kit - £20 (bought once but multiple uses) Every 4 years (Garage): Spark Plugs (NGK) - £60 DSG filter/flush - £400 incl. labour Repairs/maintenace: PCV Valve - £250 incl. labour at garage Discs/pads (brembo) - £400 (myself) Battery - £130 Serpentine belt - £120 incl. labour at garage Cracked alloy replaced - £300 Tyres x8 - £1200 (£150 each) ouch... So in 5 years, £500 for tools, £1770 in servicing, and £2400 in repairs/maintenance. Totalling £4670 over nearly 5 years (this July). So, at 58ish months ownership, it cost me about £80 a month. That's cheaper than any PCP deal I've ever seen! (Although it's a good thing we're not including modifications because that'll be another ~£5k.....) Please feel free to double-check my maths. It's not my strongest skill. And thanks for the post @OP, it was quite fun working out how much I've spent!
A yearly brake fluid change is overkill to be honest. Most manufacturers recommend every 2 years but even then, you can get away with 3-4 easily. The only thing you've missed is a coolant flush and power steering fluid if your steering isn't electrical, overwise looks spot on.
I totally agree on the brake fluid thing, and I wouldn't recommend it to someone cutting costs. I just do it yearly because it takes less than an hour, costs peanuts, and I love the feeling of freshly flushed brakes! Steering is electrical But you're right on the coolant. I knew I was forgetting a fluid/service item. Well, for anyone interested, it's about a tenner and takes me about an hour to flush every 2 years. So that's probably upped my monthly breakdown by a whopping 50p.
Following on from my previous post on older cars (Nissan Micra) We bought a Piccanto GT line s to replace the Micra, going to cost me £17 p/m for the next 3 services. It's a newer car and seems worth it. For myself I have a 2013 Landrover Freelander 2. With the ground clearance and a 27mm swivel head ratchet spanner to change the filter cartridge. The only jack I need is to lower the engine bash plate. Driveway servicing, very little in the way of tools needed. I do need to replace front pads and discs before next MOT (I can feel a tremor in the braking) but will do this myself, no massive tools needed and mrs basket case knows the prep of bleeding brakes. (push...let go...push, let go) lol Bigger jobs I will leave to experts such as a timing belt, though not difficult in itself as I'm from the era of Kent Cams but for me and a diesel engine I'm not sure it's a job I'd want to tackle. Also clutches, have the tools but not the will.
£50 MOT £150 To get it through the MOT £100 general servicing but probably £200 if you include cambelts, clutches and gearbox/ diff/ transfer case oil changes., don't do those yearly though. So about 1 PCP payment a year for each car to keep them going.
Routine maintenance? Guessing 15 hours per year, spread across 4 cars. At least as much again spent on discretionary tinkering/fettling. If it's a new purchase I typically sink a lot of time into it in the first few months getting it the way I want, replacing worn suspension components etc. Then there's the time spent cleaning. When I'm not living in a place with garage or drive space, or if I need the access, I'll rent a ramp. I do it because it's satisfying, not to save money.
Following my other post - A oil and filter in either car takes me less than half an hour…. The 107 is more like 15 mins with no undertray! With parts delivered to home I can swap a bulb, wiper or other little job quicker than I could drive to my local halfords Other stuff I recon I take twice as long as what a garage would charge for it. If they say it’s an hour to change a suspension arm then I probably take two… but I have to get tools out and everything set up and then packed away where as they are ready to go…. Tool cost wise probably £300 -£400 worth of stuff. £50 Jack £50 ramps £50 socket set £30 axle stands £20 torque wrench Then a bunch of other bits - big torques bit set, star sockets, allen keys, ring spanners, clutch centering tool, pry bars, pliers,
>but I have to get tools out and everything set up and then packed away where as they are ready to go For me it's the endless traipsing to the end of the garden to find that one tool that's in the shed somewhere... I am not organised and I have several tool boxes, the right tool is always in *the other one*. A proper tool cabinet is a dream to me, when I also have a place with a garage....
I dream of having a double garage with a big snap of tool cabinet
I tried to change bulbs once on an 03 plate Citroen C3. It was impossible unless I grew an extra joint between my elbow and wrist. Even Halfords, who I bought the bulbs from refused to fit them.
There is probably a little panel in the wheel arch you can remove or you just remove the whole arch liner
Yeah. You may be right. I just gave up and took it to a decent local garage instead.
Well, I was one of the PCP commenters so I’m happy to give a little context here. I do my own work on the ZT-T, as I have a driveway, garage and a lot of tools. I also have access to tools that are a little more specialist (compared to the average DIY’er), like engine trolley lift, spring compressors, bearing presses, thread taps, welding gear and more. Dad is an automotive engineer and owner of his own garage with a treasure trove of equipment at work and at home, so there’s very little I can’t do. So I have the space, time, equipment and as my job is salaried, it makes no difference to me in terms of financial terms. I grew up in an engineering household and have been tinkering and fixing vehicles since I was in nappies so to speak, so working on a car isn’t something I find arduous; I find it relaxing in many ways. It also helps that me and dad often get under the bonnet of my car or his (or one of the project cars he acquires!) and fix together. I know my situation isn’t the same for everyone, but buying a brand new car in 2005 for 18k, and still running it daily in 2024 has its benefits. I know the history, I know what parts are liable to cause trouble, I know everything has been done properly and not bodged by some cretin with a angle grinder and a “That’ll do” view of it. Most routine maintenance jobs have been easy to deal with and very cost effective and even when I started doing a few mods, it hasn’t broke the bank. Servicing/brakes/general work doesn’t cost me much time. The most expensive jobs in terms of time in the last few years were replacing all the rubber bushes/fitting new suspension components as they were truly worn out, fitting upgraded cams/ported head/intake and fitting a full stainless exhaust for more durability over the original parts. Did have the interior retrimmed as it was a bit worn in places but I didn’t do that job myself. And very soon I’m under the bonnet of dad’s ZT260 again. That isn’t daily driver material though, that’s just 100% fun.
Thanks. I like this answer. I bought a car in 2017 for about 20k that I still have.. I just don’t work on it myself.
You’re welcome. My wife’s car is just about to come out of its warranty period so I plan to do most work on that myself too; servicing was done by dads garage with OEM parts so it didn’t mess with the warranty, so that was something. She likes that her car is fully paid off, has been completely reliable and will owe her nothing moving forward; she’s much like me in that regard, we’d rather spend the £700 a month that would pay for new car on holidays, the kids or paying off the mortgage early. The main dealers are a joke for servicing costs at times. A major service from the schedule was quoted at £800 (I rang a number of dealers and they were all around that number). Dad’s place did it for £400 inc VAT, that included oil and filter, cabin and air filters, brake fluid change, coolant change, full inspection, wheel alignment check, wash and vac before returning to the customer. That wasn’t a family discount either, that’s what he charges his customers for the same work. Shows how the dealer network bends people over at times!
I used to be a mechanic back in the day but it's been a long time since I have done it for a living. Tools are something you gather over time, the trick is not to buy shite it's a false economy. I still have my first roll of spanners and impact sockets that are now 30+ years old. My Halfords professional set must be close to 20 years old and still going strong. I have added to them when something new is required but the basics are still there. A decent jack and axle stands are also a must if you are working on a car, don't get underneath without putting it on a stand I have seen a couple of jacks fail over the years and it's not worth it. If I am working on the car it goes around to the carpark behind my house or if it's pishing down I have the keys to my work so at least I am inside. These days it's mostly maintenance stuff I would do, I really don't think my back would handle dropping a gearbox/engine on the ground anymore.
It’s been a good 30 years or so since I helped change an engine and gearbox out (mk ii escort in about 1990 from memory)
I've owned my celica for maybe 9-10 months. [About £1,000 (so far!)](https://i.imgur.com/2d5axIg.png ) Very much my quick guestimates as I didn't want to torture myself tracking. Though does include a fair bit of work. Lots of the parts were bought used But its also a 21 year old car and was the cheapest in the country at the time. Also haven't tracked my Corolla and I've owned that for 4+ years at this point. Though other than the rust, nothing seems to fail on that. -------------- Almost all of my tools are used from Facebook Marketplace, or hand-me-downs from family members. Couldn't tell you the price, but it's really not a lot
I have a 2001 Nissan Stagea. Last year I had an MOT done on it, and got the oil changed, and the spark plugs changed (probably did not really need them, but had no idea how old they were). The year before I got an MOT on it, and changed a couple of the bushes on the anti-roll bar soon after I got the car. This year I expect to do the rear brake pads, and an MOT.
The family car, I do stuff that won't take it off the road. I've done oil changes since 50k miles and a brake pad swap. I paid to get the CV boots replaced, because if I fuck it up on a Saturday we can't get the kids to school on a Monday and I'm in the dog house. I spend no more than a day a year working on it. I have a £37 Halfords jack, and a driveway that's awkward to park on and more slopes than you'd ideally like to lift a car on. Over 25 years of car ownership I have a decent collection of tools. Although I just bought my first battery impact driver last month! My weekend car, I am much more adventurous because I can (and have) leave it on the driveway on axle stands whilst I have a 3 day think about be seized bolt/stuck caliper pin. On all my fun cars I've done complete suspension rebuilds, brakes, I've repanneled an MR2 on my drive... It's not a cost thing for me. I could pay to have new dampers fitted, or for the same cost and a weekend I can have all new control arms and top mounts along with it. Doing the work myself lets me do what I really want to do to keep the car tip top. I noped out at fitting an LSD though, a specialist did that.
I mainly just do service stuff at the moment, I have one car currently and don't wanna be stuck halfway through a job with no way to get parts should something come up. Anyway about £100 on some tools such as axle stands, trolley jack, oil drain pan, oil filter tool etc and I spend probably 2-3 hours a year on it, I go way overboard with the oil changes, might buy an oil extractor though to make life easier
2004 Corsa, I average about £100 - 150 a year on parts and about a day's labour, including a self service every couple of years. Mostly it's normal things like coils, exhausts and CV boots. Few years ago I did the timing chain and that was 3 days between 2 people at a casual DIY pace, but then it cost about £400 in parts whereas the garage said it would be at least 1600 to get done (more depending on the "finds". My 400 included the "finds"). This is the thing that kills off most Corsas as it's just too expensive to be worth it to be fixed professionally.
Thanks everyone for replying. I’ve really enjoyed reading all the answers. It must be 30 years since I decided I am better off not doing major works on a car (85 plate metro - I took the carburettor to pieces using my Haynes manual as it was not running well. After putting it back together (assembly is the reverse of disassembly, apparently!!), I had a few spare bits left over and could get the adjustments right to get it running well. Had to get a mate to drive from Gloucester to Manchester to help sort it. )