When performing car maintenance and repair work, it is recommended to follow some basic rules.
Install bolts and nuts after cleaning them and lubricating them with a thin layer of oil. Check the condition of the nuts and bolts and make sure that their threads are correct. Remove any burrs that have formed. If in doubt about the quality of the nut or bolt, replace them with new ones. Self-locking nuts must be replaced if they have been loosened. Do not apply grease to bolts and nuts.
Replace all dismantled oil seals, gaskets, sealing pads, lock washers, cotter pins and o-rings. Lubricate the working surface of the oil seal with engine oil. When installing the stuffing box, the working surface of the stuffing box must face the direction from which oil or grease can flow.
Considerable attention should be paid to safety measures, especially when working under a raised vehicle. The jacked up vehicle must be securely fastened to prevent it from moving during any operation.
Install jack stands under the car raised by the garage lift. They will ensure its stability. Do not use bricks as coasters. In this case, it is better to lay building blocks by placing wooden beams on them. The locking bolt, with which the height of the gantry is adjusted, cannot be replaced by a randomly selected pin of the appropriate diameter. In this case, the pin may break under the weight of the vehicle.
Various greases, oils, underbody anti-corrosion compounds and other petroleum-based substances are aggressive to rubber parts, as well as parts of the brake system. Therefore, do not allow such substances, as well as fuel, to come into contact with hydraulic parts. Use brake fluid or alcohol to clean the brake system. However, in this case, it must be remembered that the brake fluid is poisonous and also aggressive towards the paintwork.
A prerequisite for successful repair work is the installation of original parts. To avoid problems during the subsequent operation of the car, it is not recommended to use parts produced by «side». Exceptions are parts of the electrical system if the manufacturer guarantees compatibility.
All work on the vehicle, especially on the brake system, steering and suspension, must be carried out with the utmost care and caution. Performed repairs and maintenance must ensure the safety of the vehicle. We do not recommend doing on your own those works that are not familiar to you or require certain experience.
The workplace should be equipped with a workbench and vice and have good lighting. The workplace must be kept clean at all times. It goes without saying that the workplace should be equipped with a sufficient number of quality tools, including a set of wrenches or combination wrenches, one end of which is a regular wrench and the other end a ring wrench. Such wrenches are very convenient when working in hard-to-reach places, as well as when unscrewing tightly tightened nuts.
Curly (cross) screwdrivers or inserts for screws and cross-head bolts, pliers, pliers, needle nose pliers, pliers, hammers. The automotive industry is increasingly using bolts and screws with Torx heads, the slot of which is an asterisk. These bolts require a set of special inserts.
In addition to the specified basic equipment, you can purchase special devices and tools necessary for performing work of a specific nature. These include, for example, an impact screwdriver, which is required for loosening factory-tightened cross-head bolts. Without such a screwdriver, these bolts are usually damaged during dismantling. The screwdriver is also used for tightening bolts, especially where tightness is required.
During repair work, needle nose pliers are needed to remove the thrust rings, also called Seger rings. In addition to the mentioned needle nose pliers, you can not do without different types of pliers.
by the most «useful» the tool is a torque wrench, used like a regular wrench, but with the only difference that it is adjusted to a certain bolt or nut tightening value, upon reaching which it starts to slip, thus «refusing» from further tightening.
The more «bells and whistles» on a car, the more different tools you need for self-repair and maintenance. In some cases, repairs are impossible without special equipment, and in addition, some types of work are still better to entrust to a specialist. Multifunctional devices for checking the electrical system of a car are very useful, but without proper experience and knowledge, you can only harm yourself with their help.
1.0 Recommended set of tools necessary for car care
1 - jack
2 - oiler
3 - goats
4 - electric lamp
5 - stroboscope (12 V)
6 - torque wrench
7 - hacksaw
8 - metal brush
9 - measuring templates
10 - tire pressure gauge
11 - pin for measuring the height of the tire profile
12 - mounting sleeve for piston installation
To remove and install many parts, punches of different diameters are needed (3 and 6 mm).
In general, for car care performed on your own, it is enough to have a certain set of tools and devices that are acquired gradually (see illustration 1.0).
Attention! Make sure the onboard tool kit is in place before starting your trip. Even the best equipment available in the garage will not help if you need the tools from the on-board kit on the road. The car must always be equipped with a jack, cross-shaped (pampered) a wheel wrench, screwdrivers, pliers, spare bulbs and fuses, a tow rope, wires to start the engine from an auxiliary battery and an electric torch. Remember that repairs are dirty hands. Rags and towels should also be in the trunk.
Unscrewing bolts or nuts on a new car is not difficult. The situation is different when performing the same operation on vehicles with a long service life.
Scrub the protruding ends of the bolts with a wire brush before unscrewing their nuts to remove accumulated dirt and rust. After cleaning the bolt, treat the threaded connection with a rust converter or suitable spray. If necessary, remove the bolt from the welded nut (usually on the body), it is recommended to machine the threads on the back of the nut, if possible. Often, the bolts of such connections break when unscrewed or the welded nut breaks out.
Bolts or screws with a screwdriver head are usually difficult to remove. The screwdriver slips out, breaking the slot. In these cases, you can use the following method.
Insert a screwdriver into the hollow cylindrical rod and fix them on the screw head, and then hit the screwdriver with a hammer. As a rule, the bolt seat is loosened and can be unscrewed quite easily.
Difficulties also arise when unscrewing bolts with a head for a hexagonal socket wrench or with heads for a polyhedral (usually 12-sided) key. Before starting work, carefully clean the hole for the socket wrench (e.g. with a small screwdriver). You can use an appropriate replacement end insert, as well as loosen the fit of such a bolt by hitting a hammer on a key or end insert. Sometimes it's best to use an angled socket wrench. In this case, to increase the applied force, you can put a tubular wrench on the socket wrench.
Small socket head bolts can be unscrewed with grapple pliers (grapple). The same applies to socket head bolts, in which the internal hexagon is broken.
It is often necessary to unscrew bolts whose heads are damaged as a result of using a larger wrench. The same damage is often found in nuts. You can unscrew such bolts or unscrew the nuts using the already mentioned pliers with a clamshell grip. Nuts + can also be broken or cut. If there is enough space, a nut puller can be used to remove a nut with a damaged hex. The damaged nut is clamped into the puller and the puller bolt is tightened until the nut crumbles. The advantage of using a puller is that the bolt threads are not damaged.
The term is frequently used in the text of the manual «self-locking nut», meaning that such a nut locks itself during installation. However, when unscrewing, it loses this property. Therefore, such nuts should be replaced without fail with new ones after unscrewing them.
It often happens that when the bolt is unscrewed, its head is twisted. The rest of the bolt can be unscrewed by drilling a hole in it and inserting a self-tapping roller with a left-hand thread into it. When it is tightened, it cuts into a damaged bolt and unscrews it. Such self-tapping rollers are sold in parts stores. You can remove a damaged bolt by drilling with a drill of almost the same diameter (a bit less). After that, the thread of the bolt hole should be renewed.
The studs can be unscrewed using two lock nuts relative to each other. When unscrewing the stud, the key is installed on the inner nut, and when screwing in, on the outer nut.
The thread on light metal quickly goes astray. If the thread is slightly knocked down, then it can be updated by slightly expanding the hole. Otherwise, a threaded bushing is installed, followed by threading. This work should be entrusted to the workshop. Appropriate taps are used for threading, the threading process itself consists of three passes: pre-cutting, fitting and final cutting. When performing each stage, use the appropriate taps. For preliminary threading, a tap with one ring on the shaft is used, for fitting - a tap with two rings and for final cutting - a tap without rings or with three rings on the shaft.
Each tap is used exclusively for its operation with a constant oil supply. The hole is cut gradually. In this case, the tap moves forward, and after a while it unscrews a little back. This is necessary so that the tap does not break due to jamming with metal chips.
Tightening torques
This manual contains the tightening torques specified by the manufacturer. It is possible that a tightening torque of, for example, 47 Nm can be rounded up and realized as 50 Nm. However, we recommend that you follow the instructions of the vehicle manufacturer. A torque wrench and interchangeable sockets are required to meet the required tightening torques. In some cases, access to a nut or bolt is so difficult that it is not possible to use a torque wrench. In such and similar cases, experience is needed that allows you to tighten with the right moment by intuition.
For the most common threaded connections (bolts and nuts) generally accepted tightening torques apply (see table).
The use of lubricants and sealants
Each manufacturer recommends the use of grease from certain companies, which was selected when creating the car. For this reason, the text contains the names of lubricants recommended by the manufacturer.
The remedy is often mentioned «Loctite». This liquid consistency agent is applied to the threads of nuts and bolts and is designed to protect it, as well as to prevent spontaneous unscrewing of bolts and nuts. There are the same tools from other manufacturers that can be used after consulting upon purchase.
If the text contains an indication of the need to apply a sealing mass (sealant), it is recommended to consult with the workshop which composition is needed and for which parts. Basically, the sealing mass is needed to seal the engine.