Since day one, Haynes has been all about helping you, the home mechanic, to carry out your own repairs on your vehicles. Here, we celebrate those who use their spare time and Haynes Manuals to repair and improve their pride and joy.
DIY champion: Chrissie Murray, West Yorkshire, England
Vehicle: 2011 Fiat 500 by Gucci
Eyes open. Wide open. That’s what you need to have if you’re going to commit to long-term ownership of some cars. And the Fiat 500 is undoubtedly one of those cars. It has the sort of looks that make you go: “awwww”, but it also has the sort of reliability record to make you go: “aww no, not again”.
Thankfully, Chrissie Murray bought into the Fiat 500 ownership in complete knowledge that she was going to find herself dealing with crusty, oily components every so often.
And that didn’t bother her in the slightest, because she has long enjoyed fixing things herself, and is proud to say: “I’ve learned how to do many jobs using my Haynes manual and YouTube.”
Better still, she’s built up an admirable collection of tools over the years, so has no qualms about tackling any job on her Fiat.
Fiat 500 maintenance
Any job? Yup. For example, she has recently replaced the front brake discs and pads on the Fiat. And to make sure the stopping system is in the best nick possible, she’s also refurbished the calipers.
Then, when the front suspension started to feel a bit soggy, she set aside some time then whipped out the front struts, before replacing the top mounts, the springs, and refurbishing the Koni shocks themselves.
That’s not all. Chrissie wasn’t content with having a car that looks great, because she also wanted one that sounds great, so stuck the car up on axle stands and fitted a stainless steel exhaust system.
Fiat 500 reliability
However, Chrissie decided to leave it to the professionals when she had to have her Fiat’s gearbox reconditioned. And then she wished she hadn’t, because all of a sudden there were little puddles of lubricant on the ground under the car. Not good.
So, in a fine expression of “if you want a job done right, do it yourself”, Chrissie removed the passenger-side driveshaft and replaced the gearbox seal. And then she replaced the gear-selector seal at the same time. The sense of satisfaction must have been strong after such a tricky task, because as she says: “It was emotional, but I got it done.”
Talking of oil, Chrissie also does all of her own servicing, including oil changes every six months.
Fiat 500 interior
Chrissie isn’t just happy carrying out jobs on the grimy bits of her Fiat 500, she’s also completely at home sorting out electrical stuff on its interior. To that end, she ditched the car’s audio system and replaced the head unit with a Pioneer seven-inch touchscreen unit.
But there’s no point having a cracking head unit if the sound it puts out travels to your ears through some lightweight standard speakers, so she ditched the car’s standard door speakers and fitted new ones.
Then she fitted an under-seat subwoofer.
It’s fair to say that this little lot, plus the stainless exhaust, mean that Chrissie’s 500 sounds fantastic, both inside and out.
