I feel like a complete *newbie* for asking this one, but I have to start somewhere so here goes. I hope to do some RTW-ish travels by 4x4, but my skills as a mechanic are close to zero (and that's probably generous). But I am very keen to start learning. Fortunately my uncle is a mechanic but he's not the most approachable fella (!) and it would be good if I could come to him with some idea of what I want to know.

What are the essential maintenance and repair jobs I will need to be able to do in order to keep my vehicle on the road after thousands of miles; what tools/kit/spares are really handy to have on board; what is a cheap, economical, RELIABLE 4x4? :confused1:

Thank you so much for helping someone out who clearly doesn't have a clue!

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I'm going AWOL: www.mathgoesawol.com

Hi Buddy

Well this is my story 13 months 37000 kms katmandu and back a few punctures and no real breakdowns.

I think you need to learn how to prevent problems rather than how to cure them because you cant carry enough spare parts and tools with you, ie headgasket goes have you ggot the tools and knowledge...maybe not. A rear differential crown wheel turns for the last time what do you do then. So my approach was... learn how to check fluid levels everyday as this will point towards problems arrissing, ie if your water levels are low or oil levels it gives you an idea before the expensive brek down.

I did the trip in a 1994 Toyota 3ltr tdi Surf bought on the internet from Japan it cost 3800 pounds i gave it a good service before i left and it was fantastic...toyotas are found everywhere in the world, when i got home i could have sold the truck for 2000 pounds so that make cheap motoring.

If i can help anymore. tntgoeast@hotmail.com or goggle tntgoeast and read our blog. Later tim

That's right, prevention is the main thing. Make sure you have a routine of doing certain checks every day without fail and sticking to the right service schedule.
Learn how to go through the car and check everything for being tight with a toffee hammer rather than having to use every size of spanner each time.
Look and look again around the car so you can tell if something is different to how it was before, like a bracket that has moved. When you see a bit that has been cleaned off, is it because something is loose, moved about and cleaned the dirt off?

Diagnostics are important, often more so than mechanical ability. If something is/sounds/looks/feels wrong, if you diagnose it right you might spend five minutes unblocking the breather hole in the fuel cap rather than five days re-building the engine when it is running rough or cuts out.

Get to know what it all does and what it can't do.
Be nice - if the car can cruise along at 100km/hr, only cruise at 80km/hr. If it can carry 600kg, only put 400kg in it.
And so on.

Fantastic answers, thank you so much .

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I'm going AWOL: www.mathgoesawol.com

I was too complete newbie before my first trip. What I did was I aquired workshop manual for my car and also Haynes manual. Then I did all service points for my car before the trip, plus I also replaced all bushes, belts and rubber hoses with new ones, also put on new shocks etc. With this work I learned a lot about general mainenance and how stuff basically works.

Also a book that I can recommend is Auto Fundamentals (ISBN 1590703251). That is a big format automotive "bible" with a lot of illustrations about how (and why) different systems in a modern car work. The book is quite expensive but well worth it, IMO.

Hi There,

18 months ago I entered into this strange world also. At that point I had only driven an automatic corsa (aged 35!) and not even successfully put up some shelves, let alone looked under a bonnet. I wouldn't say I was an expert now, but I am more confident and can figure out what may be wrong with our landie.

As the guys have said concentrating on services is a good thing. Perhaps get your uncle to go through the haynes manual 6k, 12k services and more if he has time. We also went on a mechanics course, which was cheap and got us started. But it wasn't great, and the teachers seemed more interested in chatting up the girls than spending any time with people who wanted to learn. But it did get us started with oil changes and brakes.

We don't leave for another 18 months on our main trip, so we will have had 3 years lead in time, which is more than most people. we have already had shake down trips to Ireland and Portugal and probably one more at some point. These are a great help. So my advise is to buy the vehicle and start using it.

The debate about which vehicle is an endless one and comes down to toyota vs Land rover. We went for a defender and haven't regretted it. Things have gone wrong and will go wrong, but this will be part of the adventure. Maybe

Check out our website if you want, as we have been documenting this since just after we decided to go, before we had bought the landy. Might make interesting reading, as the blog goes right back to almost day one.

Good luck, and feel free to email if you wish

__________________
Ollie

www.jollyfollies.com

Land's End to Sydney 2009