Your most satisfying car repair

[DickyC]

One of the jobs I did when fitting a new camshaft and hydraulic followers to my ancient Range Rover was a new oil pump. Doing the camshaft and followers was great, the Rover/Buick V8 has a single camshaft in the bed of the V and it's a lovely thing to work on; a nice piece of engineering. The oil pump was a step in the dark for me. It is primed by packing every last bit of space inside the pump with Vaseline. The first time the engine turns over, the pump drives the Vaseline up and the Vaseline draws the oil after it and is dispersed into the oil. Having been brought up on the simplicity of the A -Series BMC engine, this was voodoo to me. Umpteen times the warning in the manual is repeated not to have any air pockets. Turned the engine over, it fired, it sounded wonderful with the new camshaft and followers and the oil pumped. Right first time. Very satisfying. It helped being an amateur mechanic out of his comfort zone; I followed the instructions to the letter.

This was over thirty years ago and still feels good.

[Veryoldbear]

I had a nice one a couple of weeks ago. Sorted out reverse parking sensors for a few quid and ten minutes with a small screwdriver.

[Super Sonic]

Cambelt on my mk 4 civic 1.4. most difficult bit was removing the engine mounting bracket top bolt. Spent nearly an hour swinging on the spanner with thick tube for leverage, then realised it was welded in and had a nut on the bottom.

[Darkslider]

I fitted a new oil pump to a 4.6 rover v8 in a range rover last year after the old one shattered to bits, I just cracked on without reading a single manual as it all looked pretty straightforward.

Needless to mention I ended up taking it all apart a 2nd time to pack full of vaseline once I realised it still had no oil pressure!

[Griffith4ever]

Rebuilding and English diff with new bearings and crush washer. Mrs came home to find the diff housing in the oven and the bearing in the freezer.

Made a torquing tool lb/inch gauge out of a rod with a weight hanging from it

Worked!

[Matt Harper]

2 kind of tricky ones...

Installed a Transgo shift-kit in my C5 Corvette (means pulling the transmission out)

Replaced the crankshaft rear main seal in my F-150 (means pulling the transmission and the torque converter out)

[sixor8]

Very similarly to the OP on the old Rover V8, I repaired the engine on my last TVR Chimaera in 2017. It had developed a tap and stripping the top of the engine, I found a hydraulic lifter had failed, you could push it down with your finger, I still have it. Changed just the one (yes, lazy, but the other 7 were fine), put it all back together with a new valley gasket and it worked fine. I never went as far as changing the camshaft but it is suppposedly a job you CAN do at home without too many specialist tools.

Flushed with that success, I changed all the front suspension arms (they were corroded). That was a bh of a job, and took ages and of course ended up changing balljoints, track rod ends and getting the front ARB powder coated 'while I was there.' Thankfully October 2017 was incredibly warm & dry, having to do it all outside. I managed it.

[993kimbo]

Unblocked one of the windscreen washers on my estate car today without hurting myself.
Job done. No drama. Result. Beers.

[Bootdog]

Not really a "repair", but no less satisfying : car hit bump, cut out immediately, a long way from home. Had a poke around the engine bay & relays - saw nothing amiss, had a quick google, found out about the fuel cutoff switch. Reset it 10s later, and away home.

[BananaFama]

Any repair that is successful for me is a win ,changing a bulb without cutting my hand or scratching the paint when I slip with the screwdriver are all wins .

[LordFlathead]

Whining noise coming from the interior. Had it for years when driving the Porsche.

Finally fixed it with a divorce

[Muddle238]

My Rover didn’t start last year randomly, so after opening the bonnet and tapping the fuel pump with a spanner, it started straight away. Never had a problem with it since.

I also solved a curious case of temperamental main beam lights occasionally working, occasionally failing, then coming back to life by simply disconnecting the battery for half an hour.

[miniman]

Seamlessly welding in new scuttle corners to my first Mini.

I say welding. I mean Isopon.

[swisstoni]

I’m close to useless mechanically but, as the alternative was going to be a front end respray, I decided to learn how to fix stone chips on my car years ago. Took my time at weekends and despite an alarmingly increasing repair area I eventually got it back to a perfect finish.

I’ve since fixed some quite bad chips, scuffs and scratches on several cars.

[spikeyhead]

As a passenger in a Mk 1 Escort, back in the 80s, the throttle cable broke. A length of baling twine found by the side of the road, operated from the rear seat got us to the next village where there was a TV repair shop. Purchased a length of choc block and managed to tear a single section from the length and used that to join the two ends of the broken cable together.

[alfabeat]

Replacing the rear wheel bearings on my fiesta. No access to a bearing press, so I used my hydraulic log splitter! Worked an absolute treat!

[languagetimothy]

Early days. Replacing the head gasket and water pump on my mk2 cortina in the street outside my parents house. I think I had a Haynes book one of the first “major” things I’d done on a car.

Replacing a clutch cable (I carried a spare) on a mk1 golf Gti…. On Sloane Square.

Throttle cable broke on a mk2 Gti. Again in west London where I didn’t live at the time. (GF did, hence the mk1 above) Found some string tied things together through the original cable hole in the bulkhead and drive home with a hand operated throttle as I couldn’t get it attached to the pedal.

[MitchT]

Replaced the final stage resistor ("hedgehog") in my E36 3 Series. If you know, you know. If you don't, think yourself lucky!

[Fastpedeller]

Many years ago my Sister's car was stolen in the middle of the night. The replacement Sierra had been ok for a few weeks but the cam belt broke whilst she was driving it one day. She coasted to the side of the (thankfully quiet side street). I fitted a new cam belt at the side of the road with minimal tools and got it going for her.

[off_again]

Changing the transmission fluid in an R53 Mini auto. After a lot of abuse, it was changing gear badly and totally ruined the car. Found some great instructions about draining and re-filling without having to basically take the engine out. Was skeptical but tried it. A lot of faffing around and way too much time, got it sorted. Did 3 flushes and totally transformed the car.

Very satisfying if time consuming. For the cost of a long extender for a socket, a few quarts of transmission fluid and time - brilliant. Transformed.