Learning Basic Car Maintenance

September 2, 2024

Workshopshed: I’ve done some basic car maintenance myself with varying degrees of success from replacing air conditioning filters and lights to swapping out a wiper motor. The manuals you get with a car are pretty much non-existent and the Haynes manuals can be confusing. So when Kev told me about his mechanical maintenance course, I thought that sounded really useful.

Workshopshed: Hey Kev, Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed, what made you decide to create a course for people to learn about car maintenance?

Kevin Connolly: Hi Andy, thanks for inviting me, I really appreciate it. Over the years I have seen that the younger generations have not been as fortunate as us older folks to be taught by our parents to be able to maintain and repair our cars. We seem to be in a situation that everyone is just getting used to having the work done for us, but the not realising that we are paying a premium for the privilege and in turn losing the skills along the way. So I decided that, if I build a course then those who are interested will have the opportunity to learn and also be in a position to save lots of money along the way.

Workshopshed: Do people need to have any skills or prior experience before starting the course?

Kevin Connolly: The real benefit here is there is no experience  necessary just a will to want to learn, the course was designed around the basics so is really for newbies

Workshopshed: Will people need a garage or a toolbox full of expensive tools?

Kevin Connolly: That’s a great question, something that I have always hated around some DIY videos especially 5 minute crafts is that it is supposed to be quick and simple yet they often use tools that I don’t even have. So when I show how to do these simple jobs I use tools that everyone should have, a very simple collection of tools like a Philips head and a flat head screw driver, a couple of spanners and a few special but cheap tools like an oil filter spanner, I also do all the jobs in my yard under the same conditions that most other people would do them as well.

Workshopshed: I noticed there are two variations, what is the difference between the job provider and public courses?

Kevin Connolly: The Job Provider login is for government organisations in Australia, everyone else will login to the public login, there are 2 separate courses within the site but the site will be split into 2 separate sites later on 

Workshopshed: There are many different types of car now, petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric. Does the course cover all of these and does it make a big difference to the basics?

Kevin Connolly: For the most part 90% of the course will cover all of the vehicles currently on the road with the exception of changing oil as obviously electric cars don’t have oil changes.

Workshopshed: How much time do people need to dedicate to get through the course?

Kevin Connolly: There are 2 hours of videos however you don’t have to do it all at once, I have set the course up so that the students can come back and look at what they need to at any time

Workshopshed: Are there particular skills that need lots of practice?

Kevin Connolly: Not really just some common sense when using tools most of what is in that course won’t take a lot of practice once they have done it the first time it will be easy to do it again the next time

Workshopshed: Am I correct in thinking you are from Queensland? Will people find a big difference in car maintenance if they are not from Australia?

Kevin Connolly: You are correct I’m from North Queensland Australia which is in the tropics. Other than the differences in temperatures from extreme heat to extreme cold there won’t be a lot of other differences since we are only covering the basics.

Workshopshed: Have you ever had to remove snakes or spiders from a vehicle before working on it?

Kevin Connolly: It’s funny you ask, we don’t worry about the spiders too much but not so long ago I did n job on my car and the next day went to take it somewhere when I noticed the check engine light was on, I realised that I probably forgot to plug in the cable on the air intake so go out to check, when I opened the bonnet there was a large (6 foot) python sitting on top of the engine, it gave me a small fright but I left it there and plugged in the cable and then went and found a container to put it in to relocate it, it was happy to stay there but I grabbed him up and relocated it down the road.

Workshopshed: Thanks Kev, that sounds a bit scary, but thanks to your course a check engine light doesn’t necessarily mean snakes or large garage bills.

Kev’s maintenance course consists of 25 lessons with 2hrs of video to ensure you car is in top condition and able to safely transport you to your next destination.

For more details visit: https://kevsmaintenancecourses.com

By Andy from Workshopshed Add Comment

  Posted in: Interview Tags: car maintenance, car repair