Classic car servicing and repair in Lowestoft, by people who learned on them.
Carburettors, points, timing set by ear and by gauge. A different trade from plugging in a laptop, and one we never stopped practising. Sympathetic servicing, repair and MOT preparation for classic and cherished cars across Suffolk.
- Carburettors and points, not just plug-in tools
- Serviced to the schedule it was built to
- Voluntary MOT testing for exempt cars
Old cars need old skills.
Thirty-five years in the trade means we started on cars that had no electronics to read. Setting up a pair of carburettors so they balance, getting the points and the timing right by ear as much as by gauge, judging a bearing by feel. Those are skills you cannot look up, and they are quietly disappearing from the trade as the people who have them retire.
- Carburettors and points ignition
- Balanced, set and timed properly. We still have the gauges, and more to the point we still have the ear.
- Servicing to period schedules
- Older cars want servicing more often and to different intervals. We work to what the car was designed around, not a modern schedule.
- Brakes and hydraulics
- Including drum systems, cylinders and the seized components that are the price of a car sitting still for six months.
- MOT preparation and voluntary testing
- Whether your car is exempt or not, the same checks, so you know it is safe rather than merely legal.
- Honest parts advice
- Original specification where it can still be had. Where it cannot, we tell you what the sensible alternative is and let you decide.
Looking after a car that is rarely driven.
Occasional use is the other half of the problem, and it is the one that surprises owners. A classic that does six hundred miles a year suffers from standing rather than from working: brakes seize, rubber perishes, fuel goes stale and eats through carburettor components, batteries sulphate and moisture sits in an engine that never gets properly hot. Most of what we put right on a classic is caused by it not being driven.
On the legal side, a vehicle over forty years old with no substantial changes is generally exempt from MOT testing. Exempt is not the same as roadworthy, and a good many owners have a voluntary test or an equivalent inspection done anyway. We are happy to carry out the same checks and give you the report.
Common questions.
Not the question you arrived with? Ring the workshop and ask. We would rather talk it through than have you guess at it.
+44 (0)1502 572711Mon to Fri, 08:30 to 17:30
Vehicles over forty years old with no substantial changes are generally exempt, but exemption is not the same as roadworthy. A good many owners still have a voluntary test done, and we are happy to carry out the same checks.
Yes. Setting up carburettors, points and timing by ear and by gauge is a different trade from plugging in a laptop, and it is one we have never stopped doing.
That is most of the classics we see, and standing still causes its own problems: seized brakes, perished rubber, stale fuel and flat batteries. A yearly check before the season is usually the right rhythm.
Wherever they can still be had, yes. Where a part is no longer made we will tell you what the sensible alternative is and let you decide, rather than fitting something and not mentioning it.
Find us on Whapload Road.
- Address
- 207 Whapload Road, Lowestoft
- Open
- Mon to Fri, 08:30 to 17:30
- Telephone
- +44 (0)1502 572711
Drivers come to us from across Suffolk.
We are a few minutes from the harbour, and cars arrive here from over the Norfolk border as readily as from the next street. If your town is not on this list it does not mean we cannot help. Ring and ask.
- Lowestoft
- Oulton Broad
- Carlton Colville
- Pakefield
- Corton
- Kessingland
- Gisleham
- Blundeston
- Somerleyton
- Beccles
- Worlingham
- Southwold
- Reydon
- Wrentham
- Bungay
- Halesworth
- Gorleston-on-Sea
- Great Yarmouth
Plus Lowestoft itself and everywhere in between.
Related services at our Lowestoft garage
Car servicing, MOTs and repairs in Lowestoft, rated by 500+ drivers.
Drivers across Lowestoft and Suffolk bring their cars to Carl Wigg Auto Services for MOT testing, servicing, brakes, cambelts, clutches and diagnostics. Every rating below is published by Google, Facebook or Suffolk Trusted Trader, never by us.