What Can a Mobile Mechanic Actually Do? (And What Needs a Garage)

A bloke rang me last month and opened with: "You'll probably say no, but can you do brake discs on a driveway?"

Yes. Did them that afternoon.

That call happens most weeks, and it's always the same job. Something completely routine that people assume needs a garage because the words "mobile mechanic" make them picture someone jump-starting a car with a set of leads and a shrug.

So here's the honest version of where the line actually sits, why it sits there, and what to ask before you book anyone, including me.

Most car repairs can be done on a driveway. The limiting factor is not skill or equipment, it is whether the car needs to be properly lifted.

If a job can be done with the car on the ground or on axle stands, a mobile mechanic can do it. If it needs a two-post ramp, an engine crane, or the subframe supported, it needs a workshop. That line is about safety and doing the job properly, not about what anyone is capable of.

Everything below is really just detail on that one idea.

This is the list people are usually surprised by.

Diagnostics. The tools are the same tools. I plug into your car on your driveway, read every module, watch live data while the engine runs, and show you the screen. There is nothing about fault finding that needs a building.

Full and interim servicing. Oil and filter, spark plugs, air filter, pollen filter, fluid levels, brake and tyre check. Standard service work is very comfortable driveway work.

Brake pads and discs. Front and rear. The single most common job people assume can't be done, and it absolutely can.

Batteries. Supply, fit, and code where the car demands it. Plenty of modern cars need the new battery registering to the vehicle or the charging system will cook it. That's a tool job, not a workshop job.

Alternators and starter motors. Access varies by car, but on most of them, yes.

Sensors and electrical faults. ABS sensors, lambda sensors, airflow sensors, coil packs, wiring repairs. A lot of my work is this.

Cooling system. Hoses, thermostats, coolant leaks, finding where an oil leak is coming from.

Suspension. Shock absorbers, springs, drop links and anti-roll bar bushes on many cars.

Wipers, bulbs, filters, belts. All the small stuff that fails MOTs and irritates people.

I'd rather say this plainly than have someone find out when I turn up.

Clutches. The gearbox has to come out and the engine has to be supported. That's a ramp job, always.

Gearbox work generally, including DSG. Same reason.

Timing belts and wet belts, most of the time. Some are borderline, most are not. These are precision jobs where getting it wrong destroys an engine, and you want the car held properly.

Anything needing the engine or subframe supported.

Serious exhaust work. A section, sometimes. A full system, no.

Head gaskets, injectors on some engines, anything deep into the engine.

Bodywork, paint and accident damage. That's a different trade entirely.

It comes down to three things.

Safety. A car on axle stands is fine to work under if it's on flat, solid ground. A car that needs to be at chest height for two hours while an engine is supported is not something to be doing on a sloped tarmac drive. Anyone who tells you otherwise is someone to avoid.

Torque and access. Some fasteners have to be tightened to a specific figure in a specific sequence, in a position you can only reach from underneath with the car properly lifted. Guessing at that on your back on a drive is how bolts come loose later.

Contamination. Anything where the engine is open, or where a clutch surface is exposed, wants to be somewhere clean and out of the weather. A driveway in the Black Country in February is neither.

None of that is a reason to use a garage instead of a mobile mechanic. It's a reason to use one who has both, or who will tell you honestly when a job isn't a driveway job.

Usually, and here's why rather than just the claim.

A garage is paying for premises, ramps, heating, a reception, and often a service advisor sitting between you and the person doing the work. That all lands in your bill whether you wanted it or not.

Mobile work strips most of that out, so the labour rate tends to be lower.

But the saving that actually matters is the one that never appears on an invoice. You don't take a morning off work. You don't arrange a lift. You don't sit in a waiting room drinking bad coffee for three hours. For most people that's worth more than the difference on the hourly rate.

Where a garage genuinely wins is on the jobs that need the kit. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, which is precisely why I have a workshop as well as a van.

Some are excellent. Some are a bloke with a socket set and a Facebook page. The trade has no barrier to entry, so the honest answer is that it varies enormously, and you have to check.

What to look for:

• ▸A real qualification, not "20 years experience" on its own. City & Guilds, IMI, or main dealer training.
• ▸A business, not just a mobile number. Registered company, an address, a website that says who they are.
• ▸Public liability insurance. Ask what the cover is. If they can't answer, that tells you something.
• ▸A warranty on parts and labour, in writing.
• ▸Reviews on somewhere they can't edit. Google, Trustpilot. Not just testimonials typed onto their own site.
• ▸They'll tell you what they can't do. This is the big one. Anyone who says yes to everything is either exceptional or lying, and the odds aren't in your favour.

Reasonable worry, and worth asking whoever you use.

I fit quality parts and everything comes with a 12 month parts warranty. If a part fails inside that, it gets sorted.

If you'd rather supply your own parts, plenty of mobile mechanics will fit them, including me, but understand what changes. Nobody can warranty a part they didn't supply, and if the wrong part turns up, the job stops and you've still paid for the visit. It usually works out easier to let the mechanic source it.

No. Nobody can.

The official MOT has to be carried out at a DVSA-approved test centre, on approved equipment, by an approved tester. There is no mobile version and there is no way round it. If someone offers to MOT your car at your house, they're not offering you an MOT.

What a mobile mechanic can do is take the travelling out of it. We collect the car, take it for the test, fix anything that fails and bring it back. Details on our MOT service, and if you want to pass first time, Keith's MOT checklist covers the whole walk round.

Yes, as long as the service is done to the manufacturer's schedule with parts of matching quality, and it's recorded.

Block exemption rules mean you don't have to use a main dealer to keep a manufacturer's warranty valid. What matters is that the right work was done at the right intervals with the right specification parts, and that there's a record of it.

More on that in how often you should service your car.

Practical stuff that saves a wasted trip.

Somewhere flat and safe. A driveway, a private car park, a quiet residential street. Not a steep slope, and not a busy main road.

Room to work. Enough space to get a door open properly and to get round the car.

Permission, if it's not your land. Work car parks are usually fine but check. Communal parking at a flat, have a word with whoever manages it.

The keys, and ideally you. Not always essential, but useful for the ten minutes where I show you what's wrong.

If the car isn't safe to move at all, say so on the phone. That changes the plan but it doesn't end it.

Four questions. They take a minute and they'll tell you most of what you need to know.

1. What's your qualification? A straight answer comes quickly.
2. Is this a driveway job or does it need a ramp? If they say every job can be done on a driveway, be careful.
3. What's the price, and what's the split between parts and labour? Vague answers now become surprises later.
4. What happens if it turns out to be something bigger? Everybody's honest when the job is simple. What matters is what happens when it isn't.

The reason I do this rather than work in a garage is that I like the ten minutes where I show someone what's actually wrong with their car.

Most people have never been shown. They've been told, given a number, and left to decide whether to trust it. That's the bit of this trade that puts people off, and it's got nothing to do with whether the work happens on a driveway or under a roof.

So if you ring me and it turns out your job needs a ramp, I'll tell you, and we'll collect the car and do it properly at the workshop in Dudley. And if it's a driveway job, which it usually is, you'll be stood next to me while it happens.

Not sure which yours is? Ring or message and describe what it's doing. It's a thirty-second conversation and it costs nothing. We cover Dudley, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Brierley Hill and the rest of the Black Country, and the full detail is on our mobile mechanic page.