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The ability to check things like your tyres, and your vehicle’s oil and water levels, are part of general car maintenance. While you can’t work on modern cars in quite the same way you might have done forty years ago, it is still a good idea to know about general maintenance tasks that you can carry out. The best way of learning how to maintain your car and make sure that your radiator does not empty, or you don’t run out of oil on a long journey, is to find someone to teach you. In fact, there are plenty of places where this is possible, and it’s often an inexpensive choice – especially compared to paying huge garage bills!
Plenty of schools run evening classes on a wide range of subjects, so it’s worth checking out whether your local educational establishments run the sort of course you are looking for. Finding classes on car maintenance will depend very much on where you live. People who live in large cities may find it easier to locate such a class than those in rural areas. Vehicle maintenance courses vary quite considerably from one institution to another, from university level courses, diploma courses and city and guilds, to courses where there is no certificate. It should be pointed out that some maintenance tasks can only be undertaken in a professional garage, because of the way that modern vehicles are made.
London Colleges
One of the great things about taking classes in London, and many other big cities, is the public transport system. Parking a car may be difficult, but it is easy to get to Westminster College from anywhere on the London underground system. The course at Westminster includes general repairs and servicing, as well as vehicle safety and checking for faults. If you can learn how to identify where a fault is occurring, then it’s a lot cheaper to put it right. Ealing and Hammersmith College also offers a number of vehicle maintenance courses at different levels.
Outside London
Finding courses on vehicle maintenance outside London is not quite as easy as in the capital, but it is certainly possible. If you live in Scotland for example, then Kirklees College offers a City and Guilds (levels one and two) qualification in vehicle repairs and maintenance. For people who live in Hampshire, Havering College offers a diploma course in light vehicle maintenance.
If you live in Cornwall, there is a car maintenance course in St. Ives and you need to take your own vehicle to work on. The course is a short one and costs from £25 whereas certified courses can run into a couple of thousand a course. In the Midlands, Chesterfield College offers a course resulting in a Diploma in Vehicle Systems Maintenance.
Back in Scotland, the Borders College offers a course in vehicle maintenance. There are vehicle maintenance courses in most parts of the UK but a number of institutions only offer courses at higher qualification levels, mainly aimed at those wishing to work as a trained vehicle mechanic.
