Does anyone else do their own servicing? I've always done my own. My mechanical skills came from my Dad. Watching him change oil, adjusting points / tappets (remember those!) and helping bleed brakes " Peddle down! Peddle up!" on his 1960's Hillman Minx.
Modern cars are a doddle to service these days. There's nothing to adjust anymore, it's all fluid and filters.
My 2 yr. Corsa was due its second service so I made enquiries:-
"What do you do on second year service"?
"We change the engine oil and filter, the pollen filter and the brake fluid, Oh, and the key fob battery"
"How much does that cost?"
"£250"
"£250! Your having a laugh!"
I did it all for about 50 quid which meant I didn't feel guilty spending £90 on some Pioneer upgrade speakers!

Hi and yes I try to doas much as I can myself with the help of these pages. I will try and only if defeated visit the garage. My Barchetta is a second car so I have the luxury of no pressureto get anything finished fast.
SteveD

One of the reasons I bought the Barchetta was that I missed a little bit to do these kind of things. Really fun so far.

More or less everyone outside of UK does their own servicing, we don't really call it a service, we just call it changing oil and do it on the road... Nothing to be proud of.
It costs buttons and is easy to do for even the most uneducated folk, yet in UK it's all super Glorified!
Service is when you actually do something to the car...

yes you do really need to do your own servicing and maintainf when you own a 20 year old car or the car will be in the garage all the time.
But as Steve PD states, its fine when you have another car available.


Thats part of the fun of owning a Barchetta, you can tinker with it !!

yup. barchetta actually is quite easy to work on..

Since buying my B the only job I've 'delegated' to a garage is a recent change of rear trailing arms - just couldn't face trying that on a driveway. But I probably should have given it a go. Combination of having just been paid and laziness led to me booking it in somewhere, but at least I sourced the arms myself.

itaa5x said:

yup. barchetta actually is quite easy to work on..

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Whilst I agree on doing routine maintenance on the B is as you say quite easy. Removal of some items can be very testing, starter motor, alternator and steering rack are a pain to remove.

Yes I do enjoy working on my Barchetta.So far since it arrived July,2015, I have repaired a leaking fuel pump seal, replaced passenger side front strut and regreased the strut mount bearings,(will replace left side in spring)removed right side half shaft and totally dissasembeled inner CV joint, cleaned and regreased, because of a ripped cv boot, installed a new radio,(Japanese radios not much good in Canada),and installed a back up trunk release just in case, you never know, replaced all brake pads and rotors, and fluid.All in one season.And after all that I still cant get the bloody door panels off because Im scared ****less of breakin the door handle shrouds.Oh yes, bought the Multieuscan program and cables from Gendan to turn off the air bag light on the fuel pump repair.But this site has been invaluable to me on repair so I thank you very much.