Man of Honour
Does such a thing exist, and if so, would it be any use at all?
Personally i'd just buy a haynes manual, sign up to a decent owners club forum for the car you wish to work on and then get cracking. As long as you have a reasonably mechanical mind and a good tool set then you'll be fine.
While I haven't been to the classes - I can safely say your suggestion's not apt.This TBH.
I think the classes for the absolutely clueless where they tell you where to put the oil, how to check all the fluid levels, tyre tread etc. are a good idea but for anyone that already has that base level of knowledge (and if you are male that should be coded into your additional chromosome ) the knowledge they provide is less useful.
depends what you wanted to maintain
Some very modern cars like the E60 BMW 5 Series are almost impossible to service yourself, because there are so many things that can only be done with the proper dealer ECU programming tools.
Forums add to this knowledge but don't replace it.
agreed but my vision of such a course would be to point of out mistakes that you might be making or should never make while doing a particular job. e.g.: never over filling oil. Simple thing but many people might over fill and regret and not something a lot of step-by-step guides might have in them.agreed. you can follow step by step guides, but you wont realise what mistakes youre making if you dont have a basic understanding of what youre taking apart, why youre taking it apart, and what the function of the various components are.
maybe its just me, but i cant see how a course would help. being lectured on how something works etc is only going to get a certain amount of info to stick rather than having a actual interest in whats going on
depends what you wanted to maintain
Some very modern cars like the E60 BMW 5 Series are almost impossible to service yourself, because there are so many things that can only be done with the proper dealer ECU programming tools.
Can you not just get hold of one, like vagcom for instance?
I was thinking about maybe getting some old banger type car (That still works) and learning how to do stuff like that, so when it comes to servicing my newer car, or changing brake discs/pads/suspension/whatever... I could do that myself, rather than pay a garage to do it. I could probably borrow most tools I didn't get in say a Halfords pro set. Jamie over the road might lend me bits and bobs.
I'm not so sure about that, i bet you could do 70% or more of the jobs at home if you had half an idea.
I was thinking about maybe getting some old banger type car (That still works) and learning how to do stuff like that, so when it comes to servicing my newer car, or changing brake discs/pads/suspension/whatever... I could do that myself, rather than pay a garage to do it. I could probably borrow most tools I didn't get in say a Halfords pro set. Jamie over the road might lend me bits and bobs.
This isn't true - there are various other companies who supply equipment and/or software solutions which can read/write/configure these ECUs.on an E60 ?
No you can't. You can't even change the battery on an E60 5 series without the dealer.