Cheap Basic Starter Toolkit

[Z4MCSL]

Any good recommendations for a basic toolkit that will cover most of what is needed for basic tinkering?

Seeing as track days are all getting cancelled im thinking I'll have the time to start tinkering

Thanks

[LennyM1984]

I would recommend the following:

Decent socket set with ratcheting lever/handle (whatever you call it)

Set of spanners

breaker bar

torque wrench (super important in my opinion - it will take all of the guess work out of any work you do)

Trolley jack, jack stands, and wheel chocks.

These days you can usual research the job in advance and buy any additional tools you might need (Google and Amazon Prime makes DIY much easier!).

[carl911rugby]

As Above

Halfords Advanced do a good set, with a lifetime guarantee. Very handy to take on track days and a decent set at affordable money for a first set.

[Burnzyb]

As above above.

The Halfords advanced sets are very good, but the best one you can afford. It depends on how deep you want to go with tinkering, but the big sets should see you right on most jobs.

I’ve got a sealey 1/2” torque wrench that was cheap enough and came with a calibration cert.

SGS do some good stuff for jacks and stands, I’m always a fan of nice chunky stands, and I abuse their jacks and they are great, the aluminium ones are better for lumping around too.

I also use a set of caravan levelling ramps, I drive onto them first, this gives me clearance to get the jack under and I can take the undertray off and jack from the subframe if the car allows it, or Jack from the diff or rear subframe.

[Jamescrs]

I also recommend the Halfords socket sets, probably ideally the 150 piece set though I started off with the 120 piece.

Also a decent set of screw drivers

[james_gt3rs]

Brake rewind tool, mole grips, gloves, dremel.

[NewUsername]

Halfords 150 piece Advanced kit
Some high quality allen keys
Brake wind back tool
trolley jack/axle stands
dremmel
Quality torque wrench
Brake Bleeding kit
Breaker Bar
Manual impact driver

[Willuk]

I'd recommend the Halfords advanced kit as well.

[Fonzey]

Willuk said:

I'd recommend the Halfords advanced kit as well.

Likewise, I had one of those "this day 7 years ago" photos pop up in Google photos recently with my first real toolset which was the Halfords Advanced kit, they usually do great deals on them around bank holidays.

I've still got it, and it's still the core of what I use. I've broken one of the ratchet spanners through misuse and I've lost a couple of lesser-used sockets but generally it's been perfect - the ratchet spanner I would have got replaced through warranty but they no longer make that particular variant in the newer kits.

I've supplemented it with air tools and a few niche spanners/sockets over the last 7 years but it really has been brilliant. I consider buying another slightly smaller one to keep mobile.

[Cambs_Stuart]

All the above, but a couple of things ive found useful are Rachet spanners, especially those with a flexible head.
And a good quality set of screwdriver bits.

[pikeyboy]

I've found bacho tools to be fairly inexpensive considering they are good quality.

[NJH]

Buy multiples of your most used sockets and spanners. Stuff like 10mm, 1/2" etc.

Guarantee that if you don't, the first big job about 1hr in with the car already in bits, your 10mm will either go pinging off somewhere never to be seen again, or splits in half.

It's like the Murphy's law of car mechanics.

Stuff the gets used an amazing number of times: dead blow mallets/hammers, pry bars, long breaker bars, snips and grips, long nose pliers.

[Tommie38]

Halfords is a good shout and remember to keep the receipt for the warranty.

Buy the biggest set you can stretch too (on sale) so that you are less likely to have multiple boxes. Mine is a 70 ish piece kit and I have bought lots of additional pieces over the years.

I know it isn’t Snap-On, but being able to buy matching bits on a Sunday afternoon works for me.