I am a complete newbie in car maintenance and am trying to learn as much as I can about maintaining my car. Could some of you experienced car guys give some advice on essential tools for full maintenance (per the maintenance schedule) and light modding on the EVO IX?

If you guys could start your tool kits all over from the beginning, and build them from scratch, how would you build your tool kits considering that I will be moving often and do not want more tools than I need.

I've been looking at the Sears Craftsman mechanic tool sets like this one: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...ol%20Setsmv=rr

But I noticed it does not come with some essentials like the 24mm for changing the gear oil, nor any pliers, or hammer/mallet for pushing the pins back into the brake calipers for brake jobs.

 

I have a very basic tool set i have been able to just about anything on my car. The craftsman set cant go wrong. If i could do it over i would make more money and pay someone to do the work lol

 

That is a good kit I have it and use it all the time it has most of what you will need.. You wont find a set that has everything you mentioned. All of that stuff you can buy in a set of its own like set of pliers, a set of phillips, set of flat head etc. Hammers just pick one out. Socket just go buy one, but you'd be better off with a wrench not a socket. Your on the right track and almost all the maintenance you can accomplish with that stuff. If you need something else just buy it as you need it.

 

Socket Wrenches (1/2" and 3/8")
Metric Socket Set (1/2" and 3/8")
Metric Open-ended Wrenches
Torque Wrench (1/2" and 3/8")
Allen Wrenches
24mm Socket
Tire Iron (for convenience when taking off tires)
Jack
Jackstands
Rubber Mallet
Needle-nose pliers
Vice Grips
Screw Driver Set
Random things such as gloves, cleaners, rags, etc., etc.

From there, buy bits-and-pieces as you see fit!

The craftsman set will cover everything but torque wrenches, jack and jackstands, pliers, vice grips, 24mm socket, and the random bits

 

You can take apart just about anything on an evo with a set of wrenches. But If I was going to start again I would a list something like the following.
(also, craftsman are cool, as long as they are the ones made in america. they have some Chinese or something ones that suck)
metric wrenches - I like the Gearwrench. they make jobs a lot faster- especially when you have a hard to reach bolt that you're only gonna get one shot. that right there will cover half of what I use probably.
With socket wrenches I'd say get some extensions and u-joints. like some 4inchers and a 10in one or something like that.
Breaker bar... a must
screw drivers just generic - long ones and short ones.. remarkably helpful.
few pairs of pliers.. I like pipe wrenches - because they bite hard and can be used for a lot of different sizes.
Also a pair or needle nose, and Vice Grips can be handy.
aside from specialty tools, I think that is what I use most often.
I've recently started using craigslist to find tools - seems like there are a lot of people selling them for super cheap... and as long as its a good quality company you probably can trust it.. don't ever use cheap sockets or wrenches... or anything that will be under a large potential load.
hope that helps

 

A few other random items that I have purchased and wished I had around before:

-Dishwashing gloves (for changing oil/trans fluid/any type of fluid)
-Small magnetic pen for when you drop bolts into the engine bay
-General gloves for working under engine bay while semi-hot
-Possibly air compressor/impact ? I didn't purchase one until recently and paid almost $400 for everything. Def. well worth it and I wish I had it in the past. Makes cracking loose rusted bolts very easy.

 

Get a magnetic pen and pan its not only where you drop bolts but where you hold them. Also a great wratchet wrench I like is the rotator. Its basically a wratchet wrench that's like a impact wrench but by hand so you can reach in hard spots without an impact wrench if your low budget but its still a quality tool. They have one for duralast too with screw drivers and alumni heads for hard to reach spaces too.

 

craftsmen starter set is great for anyone, recommend a set of gear wrench ratchet wrenches as well. Although I have not used a set of craftsmen for nearly 10yrs.

 

The best tools-to-dollar is one of the $300+ or so Craftsman sets. It's going to give you 90% of everything you'll probably ever use. I have one that I purchased back in 1998 and it still works like new and without issue. Guaranteed for life, too.

Get a brake line wrench. I think the stock Brembos use 10mm for the line and 11mm for the bleeder nut.

Look into getting a decent split beam torque wrench that goes up to at least 85 ft/lb so you can torque your lugnuts to spec. Don't get one of those 'click type' torque wrenches as they often break or get out of calibration fairly quickly.

Get a cheap impact socket set since they're usually large enough and deep enough for your wheel lugs and will be necessary for torquing down your lugnuts. IIRC the stock lugs are 21mm.

If your kit doesn't come with them, you might want to consider adapters that let you use 3/8" and 1/2" wrenches with similar sized sockets. So 1/4" Female -> 3/8" Male, 3/8" Female -> 1/2" Male and so on. It's quite useful for the $30 or whatever they ran. I use them with my torque wrench since it's 3/8" and my impact sockets are 1/2".

Get some decent 3 ton jack stands and a fairly decent jack. You can get some reasonably priced ones from Harbor Freight. This is your life we're talking about here, you don't want some ****ty welds from overseas breaking on you and crushing you underneath. Call me paranoid.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ne...o-you-use.html

Any specialty tool you might need you can rent from O'Reilly Auto or Autozone. You can also buy them at Harbor Freight for a really low cost. Who cares if it's poorly made, you'll probably only ever use it once anyway. I picked up a $11 set of coil compressing tools to swap the springs on my MR Bilsteins. Totally worth it.

For a breaker bar, I just use a 12" section of 1" diameter iron pipe that's threaded on both ends. You can find them already pre-cut and threaded from Home Depot for like $6. The threading is nice when you wear gloves because it creates friction.

Hit me up if you have any specific questions.

 

bring the car to me w/ cash and
I'll handle all your maintenance needs

 

Are you advertising? Interested in becoming a site sponsor? I think beginner packages are $900 annual.

 

I cross-referenced what I learned here with what I learned at garage journal and came up with the following to add to my basic set of Craftsmans...

http://www.harborfreight.com/low-pro...uty-68050.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/6-ton-j...set-38847.html (2 sets of these)

these in combination give you 23" of clearance under your raised car, enough to work comfortably on a creeper (I work on asphalt so I have 3/4" plywood bases screwed to my stands, when combined with a hockey puck on the saddle, I can get the full 24")

Compressor:
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-hors...sor-67847.html

will easily run the following

Impact:
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-p...nch-68424.html

Air ratchet:
http://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-i...nch-68426.html

DO NOT get your air connections from HF, get them from HD or Sears or somewhere else. Don't forget teflon tape.

Impact sockets are dirt cheap at HF and seem to do the job just fine. Get the wobble extensions, you'll want them eventually (I still need to go get them).

These orange handle screw drivers are sposed to be well worth the money, buy two sets at that price:
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-piec...set-68868.html

This wobble set for ratchets is brilliant (makes like so much easier):
http://www.harborfreight.com/9-piece...ons-67971.html

Crows Foot wrenches, highly recommended (you won't know you need them until it's too late):
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...126_0058866141

The magnetic pen menioned above? Saved my *** recently when I dropped my PCV valve into the engine bay while trying to reinstall after cleaning. I just fished around until I felt it CLICK! on the end and gingerly brought it out. A few days later the tip broke off. I took it to Sears and got my 20 year old magnet replaced with a brand new equivalent unit for free:
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-magne...8&blockType=G8

That's all I can remember right now. Might be a little overkill, but for me to actually do the work, I need it to be as painless as possible.

 

Oh I was just being facetious and messing with the guy,
thank you for the offer though.

 

Forgot to add, don't buy from Harbor Freight until you've checked the harbor freight coupon thread at GJ, the front page of their website and their monthly coupon book.

Sometimes something will be on sale in only one of these three locations. Take your time, wait for killer deals, save hundreds.

 

So am I.