A home garage basic toolkit should contain, at a minimum ......

[jackwall5]

I wonder if any of the more hands on members here, might care to finish the title sentence above in terms of priority tools needed for home car servicing.

My initial need is to change out my thermostat for which I know I will not require any particularly special tools. The tools needed vs those I'd use is kinda the crux of the question here.

We all know that long shank flat head, designed to be a long shaft flat head screwdriver, but which is actually a universal tool for many of us, used in a variety of ways never intended by it's original design concept and never left in the box.

That's what I'm talking about here. But also recommendations on appropriate socket and wrench sets also please.

I'm not about to go out an blow a grand on stuff I think I need but my starting off point is pretty inadequate for car servicing to be honest as I've not needed to service my previous cars.

That said, I'm prepared to pay for quality.

I now have a car that I want to keep in good condition.

A professional will be used for the big repairs and servicing but I want to do all other servicing and repairs [such as the thermostat above] myself.

Any words for wisdom to help me get the basics together would be gratefully received.

If there is an existing thread covering this that I've missed in my search, my apologies, do let me know.

Safe Driving

 

[television]

A socket set with long sockets, a set of torx bits and sockets A set of metric spanners, and here the ring one end and open the other are useful. A torque gauge is useful

That should cover service work

 

[brandwooddixon]

Perhaps in order of importance.
1/2" drive metric socket set.
Set of spanners (open one end and ring at the other) 8mm to 22mm.
Phillips and flat bladed screwdrivers.
Adjustable spanner, one small, one large.
Pliers.
Mole grips (to grip and rip up!)
Wire cutter.
Light hammer (to hit, shock and destroy!)
Small lump hammer (to hit, shock and destroy more quickly!)
Torque wrenchs (one to about 40Nm, another to about 150Nm).
Trolley jack and axle stands.
Oil filter removal tool.
Blow torch (for thermal shocking tight stuff and setting fire to underseal and plastic!)

That should cover you for most things. Anything else you can get as you need them.

You can do without the trolley jack initially, but its quicker and easier than using the car jack.

Light weight servicing can be performed without torque wrenchs, but I always think that its better to use them.

Anything else, buy as and when.

 

[Juddian]

Most, most, most important, your life will depend on it at times.

A sturdy high quality trolley jack.
Not a tuppeny ha'peny thing from the supermarket with a tiny cup the size of an egg cup.

As long lift and as weight capable as your pocket can stand.
I've had mine some 25 odd years, and though i shouldn't i've put my trust in it many times.
Sometimes there just isn't the room for stands when you are doing certain jobs.

That is one purchase you must not skimp on.

 

[popuptoaster]

Halfords proffesional range is a good place to start for tools, they are cheapish and good quality and come with a no quibbles warranty, if you break something you can take it into any halfords without the reciept and they'll swop it there and then even if they have to open a whole set to get whatever you broke, its very handy especially as there are Halfords everywhere and they are open on Sundays which is when i break stuff, having said that, so far i have only broken one set of adjustable grips and i was using then to hold an exhaust on when they fell off and bounced up the road at 40mph.

Lots of stuff to choose from, make sure its the Pro range you buy stuff from, the rest of it is made of cheese.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...1_catalogId_10151_categoryId_165532_langId_-1