doing your own maintenance

tracer

'96 a4 1.8 se
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hi all, this is aimed at people who do their own servicing and maintenance, basically i want to know what you guys have as a basic setup, eg jacks, axle stands, ramps. how would you setup your car to work on it. do you follow any particular source of info like haynes manual or online stuff? what about tools, what are commonly used spanner/socket sizes?

basically what are the must have items.
 
yeah trolly jack at least 2t and the same with the axel stands i have drive up ramps but can only use them for the back front to low, full socket set in 1/4 3/8 and 1/2, you need a torx set as well. yeah info off garages, haynes and common sense it does help as idid this at college and im a engineer by trade.
common size's you need are 10,13,17,19 in spanner and in 3/8 or 1/2 drive socket wize.
 
cheers for the reply, sorted for tools in that case more than enough, seen a few ramps on internet but fancy these

ramps.jpg


3 pairs for £60 quid inc vat and delivery seems a good deal, my mind is ticking , thinking i'l get them and stick the spare two in the local paper, maybe even try them at £30 each and get my money back :) is that being a bit too thrifty?

see aldi and the like doing cheap trolley jacks , car creepers and stands. then again quite often cheap = *****. not worth taking risks with this kind of thing huh.,?
 
I've got an aldi trolley jack and its fine. It doesn't go up as quicky as a posh one, but holds the car securely and the quality seems fine.
 
Buy yourself a oil filter spanner to save a lot of grief at service time
 
I tend to find most modern cars are too low a the front to drive up car ramps!
I use a Halfrauds 2 tonne trolley jack (now a good 18 years old and still going strong) and some axle stands (cost £10 also from Halfrauds) to support it when I do interim servicing.:o.k:
But if you can get your car up on ramps then good-o!, however not much use for working on brakes etc.:huh:
 

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