It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
1 - The kind of car that you drive.
I hear horror stories that BMW need their own washer fluid and everything is all software these days. If you don't have the right software to plug it in, it beeps at you reminding you that your car needs a service. Cars are getting ever more complicated, it's getting more and more not something you can do at home now.
2 - The kind of jobs that you have.
Why would you care about saving £100 when you can earn £1,000 a day? Instead of losing £1,000 in earnings. It's best to earn that £1,000 and pay someone £100 to do the "dirty" work.
3 - The kind of person that you are.
There is a thinking that goes something like....there are reasons why people have specialties. Doctors fix you, lawyers defend you, plumbers fixes your pipes and architects design houses. Mechanics fixes cars, so you pay the right people to do what they are good at, whist you do what you are good at that earn your living. Nothing wrong with that is there?
4 - That it is a new-ish car.
I might buy a 40 year old classic car that has been self serviced in the last 20 years of its life. But i would never touch a 5 year old car that do not have any stamps in the log book.
Of course if fixing car is your hobby then go ahead and do it, but the knowledge to know what to do, what to look for takes time. I certainly don't have time to learn all that. Get all the tools, all this learning cost time and money.
if you have a car that is easy to work on and it is old car that is worth peanuts so paying someone £300 to service it is not economical. However, the majority of the time, especially in this day and age of leasing, PCP and finance. Who self service their cars anyway? Anyone who has a car less than 6 years old would take it to a garage.
Barristers.
Freelance IT consultant.
Wedding photography.
Sure you can on/off days but instead of time spent under the car, time can be spent working or looking for more work.
However, there is a reason that the "average" salaries in this country are so misleadingly high. £1000 per working day would equate to a salary of approx £250k, I have a sneaking suspicion from their purchasing patterns a handful of Fretboarders earn that much, it isn't exactly common but it isn't terribly rare either.
I am sadly not one of them!
As for it being cheap shite, I've looked on amazon and the same set came to £46.43. Regardless of who I buy from i'm saving £100 which can go towards something else. If it takes me a day to do the job then that's fine, the lab is shut anyway and it'd take me just over a day to earn the £100 that I'd be paying someone else to do.
A quick google will usually show you how to reset a service light. For a BMW E90 it's put the key in, push the brake down, hold down the trip button to access the menu, find the service icon, press a button on the indicator stalk.
One pain in the arse job is changing brake pads on a car that has an electronic handbrake - you need the right software to tell the calipers to unwind fully (sometimes you can get away with it using a clamp on the brake hose and a caliper rewind set* but you have to be careful not to confuse the car)
*g-clamp and a bit of wood can sometimes suffice
There's a right lot of old lady stuff in this thread.
Shell isn't cheap shite. 20 quid for a 4-5 litres of oil is perfectly OK. The kit can be cheaper than individual bits because of their massive buying power. There's only so many oil refineries out there. Branding works the same as other fields. The only oil I'd really avoid is the super cheap recycled stuff, except for breaking in an engine where it gets changed very quickly and you want things to bed in anyway.
I'd be annoyed if it took me over an hour to do oil & filters & fluid checks. £150 might well include some other checks but if not that's steep.
Loads of independent garages get parts & consumables from ECP.
There's nothing illegal about using a recycling centre - they (should) have a tank where you pour your old oil, and another for the oily containers. Mine goes straight into a catch can that either gets emptied at the tip or goes into an old container. Then oil & container both go to the tip at some point.
The idea that only garage servicing makes a car safe is just ... I don't know even where to start with that one.
My Honda had it's 1st service earlier this year , they send you a link to a film recorded by the mechanic doing the inspection taking you around the car and showing what (if anything needs to be done) . if you agree they do the work and send another film showing the work done and final inspection .
I'm clumsy as hell and the only tools I own are for guitar maintenance . I wouldn't know where to start with servicing a car but then I wouldn't expect a mechanic to have the skills that I have .
That's partly why people still hire bands for weddings , if they could do it themselves they would !
A bit of diligent reading and it turns out it needed a litre of oil and the rest was 24-carat bollocks.
This is far from the only nonsense I've had from a Ford franchised dealer.
As for the rest of it, I've used the same local mechanic for years. He has a reputable garage and the staff are courteous and knowledgeable. If work needs doing they do it, and if it doesn't they tell me.
There are mechanics and there are mechanics.
Yeah, I stopped that nonsense when I got to 50.
Not every doctor, lawyer or plumber is as competent as we would wish.
Exactly the same case as mechanics. I've known some truly appalling 'mechanics' and some excellent ones. Unfortunately the excellent ones are in the minority.