Basic car repair/maintance

kiddums

I would like to learn how to do some basic car maintance to keep my going and avoid garage costs for something I could do.

Problem is there is no haynes manual for my car (opel agila) to guide me. Is there something similar I could get?
I'm pretty sure that would cover most things I'd need to know.

Would the fact that I don't have a garage I can use and my drives on a steep slope rule out much?
I wouldn't like to be under the car with it jacked up, Just about comfortable with it being jacked up on the slope to change a wheel.

Due to work night classes and the like can be ruled out also.

mickdw

I wouldnt be doing any work under the car on a slope tbh.
Still, you could probably put your agila under you arm and leave it up on the kitchen table to do abit of work on it:D
Surely you know someone with a flat drive or a shed that you could use the odd occasion that you need to get under the car.
If the oil filter is accessible from the top, you could get an oil extractor and that would save needing to go underneath at all for oil changes.

kiddums

mickdw wrote: »

I wouldnt be doing any work under the car on a slope tbh.
Still, you could probably put your agila under you arm and leave it up on the kitchen table to do abit of work on it:D

Thats true.:D Missus might complain tho.

mickdw wrote: »

Surely you know someone with a flat drive or a shed that you could use the odd occasion that you need to get under the car.
If the oil filter is accessible from the top, you could get an oil extractor and that would save needing to go underneath at all for oil changes.

I might be able to use a friends drive occasionally, but I'm mostly talking about maintance from above rather than under.

no1beemerfan

Even basic maintainence is going to require you get under or have the car raised up. Never work on a car when its not stable, as you are probably aware of already!

As for help on working on your car, even though its not covered by a haynes manual etc, I'd be pretty sure its not that complicated to work on and others familiar with opel's would be able to help. Have you searched for any opel forums?

kiddums

no1beemerfan wrote: »

Even basic maintainence is going to require you get under or have the car raised up. Never work on a car when its not stable, as you are probably aware of already!

As for help on working on your car, even though its not covered by a haynes manual etc, I'd be pretty sure its not that complicated to work on and others familiar with opel's would be able to help. Have you searched for any opel forums?

Thats why I'm looking into what can be done without lifting it. For now if I need to get under it I'll just get a mechanic to do it.

The engine is supposto be similar to some corsa engines and the body is a suzuki wagon r+. I couldn't see any opel forums but I found a vauxhall forum and they only seem to care about vectra's and zafira's. I've asked a few questions and got no responses.

Also I'm a noob to this kinda stuff, I was hoping to learn with this car as its a small engine. However I can't even find the spark plugs in it.:o

no1beemerfan

Mabey take a picture of the engine and we can point out stuff to you.

The most basic and cost effective thing a home mechanic can do is do their own oil change. I did the missus' '05 focus on saturday. For fully syntethic oil, sparkplugs, airfilter and oil filter it cost €52 and I did it in less than half an hour.

kiddums

no1beemerfan wrote: »

Mabey take a picture of the engine and we can point out stuff to you.

The most basic and cost effective thing a home mechanic can do is do their own oil change. I did the missus' '05 focus on saturday. For fully syntethic oil, sparkplugs, airfilter and oil filter it cost €52 and I did it in less than half an hour.

I'll see if I can get a picture later.

I would like to try that. I might be able to do that without lifting the car, depending on there the sump nut is of course. Don't have a clue where the oil filter is tho. I'm guessing under the car.
The oil was done not very long ago, about 3k miles so should be ok for a bit yet.

I'm not aware of anything needing done now, but better to know how in advance.

Desailly

I have done some work on a few different Opel models (Corsa's, Astra's and a Zafira), they all seem to have a very similar layout, so if you could get your hands on a Haynes model for a Corsa / Astra of a similar year it should be similar to your own car

kiddums

Desailly wrote: »

I have done some work on a few different Opel models (Corsa's, Astra's and a Zafira), they all seem to have a very similar layout, so if you could get your hands on a Haynes model for a Corsa / Astra of a similar year it should be similar to your own car

So an 02 1L corsa manual would cover me for the engine? 02 1L agila.

I just checked and haynes don't do one for the wagon r either so anything I'd still need something for the body/interior.

Desailly

Best thing to do would be go into a car shop - Halfords for example and you can usually find one copy of the Haynes manual you are looking for without a plastic cover on it. Have a look at it and see if it looks similar to your own car