Car servicing

Octafish

Nikc said:

I do love a home mechanic they often pop in for free advise and ask to borrow tools. I have even been asked if one can use my workshop to do a head gasket over the weekend !!
Surprisingly I've often said a polite no. Now as an Mot tester I kinda feel that your 1/2 ton killing machine should only be worked on by someone qualified to do so just like your boiler  

That would be good, but seeing a lot of mechanics are bodge artists waiting to rip you off, highly unlikely. Had loads of bad experiences in the past with so-called qualified mechanics doing shit jobs, I wouldn't trust them to mess with my car. I've come across £400 of sagging incorrectly fitted exhaust system, incorrectly assembled drum brakes, fuel starvation that 3 different garages failed to identify as a hole in the filler neck, misidentifying a failing fuel injector as a blowing exhaust  , not tightening up wheel nuts enough, overtightening and snapping threads etc, etc.

Obviously MOTs have to be carried out by someone qulaified, even then a lot of testers leave something to be desired. It's only because a lot of the public know little about the ins an doubt of their vehicle that the motor trade gets away with so much shit.

Octafish

Foster said:

Just ordered all the bits I need to service the van. Oil, filters (oil, fuel, air). Came to £31 delivered.

For shits n giggles I looked at the kwik fit website - around £150! Jesus wept, it's not like they're going to do anything different. You'll be lucky if they actually carry out the work they say they have.

Why would you pay someone 5 times as much as it would cost to do it yourself? I can understand if the car is under warranty but it's not exactly difficult to do is it? 

Jesus, do people really take their car to Shitfit for a service . They find undoing and doing up 4-5 bolts challenging enough...

Dominic

jellyroll said:

I could service my car about as well as my mechanic could set up a cross border financing structure....

Such a good comment and so true
Ultimately it's also down to what your own time is worth per hour -if you earn more than the mechanic and you are busy then pay them to do the job, use your own time for yours and you are still better-off.

Dominic

I happily pay somebody to clean my car .........I could do it better myself but the cost of all the cleaning agents, chamois,wheel cleaner, bucket,sponges,shampoo and wax and my own time make a £6 carwash a no-brainer.

Octafish

RaymondLin said:

The oil alone for my car is £65 for 4L and I need 5.8L....

https://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Volvo_C30_2.5_2011/p/car-parts/engine-parts/engine-parts1/engine-oils/?521770991&1&f79e852aebf996294314546f6b814e69939dc423&000398 ;

Isn't that oil for long service intervals though? They need to charge you twice as much as you proabably only have to have your oil changed every couple of years.

Foster

Sporky said:

Foster said:

Sporky said:

Surely it depends on how you value your own time?

You could say that about most things, I doubt many of us hire a company to run a bath for us

Erm, yes, exactly.

I do some stuff myself that most people here get someone in for. I get someone in for some things that a lot of people here would do themselves. It's a balance between cost, time, and inclination for each.

Fer example, I suspect you don't do your own MOT test...

No I don't do my own MOT test. I fail to see how that's comparable though. You can service your own vehicle on the driveway with a couple of tools, to perform an MOT you need to be registered garage with VOSA.

Of course I could buy an Austin A40, service it myself and do the MOT myself (as it doesn't need one).

Nunogilberto

I used to think the same as the OP. Nowadays, I can't be bothered lying on my back in the cold and damp, struggling to undo bolts and skinning my knuckles in the process.

Foster

Nikc said:

I do love a home mechanic they often pop in for free advise and ask to borrow tools. I have even been asked if one can use my workshop to do a head gasket over the weekend !!
Surprisingly I've often said a polite no. Now as an Mot tester I kinda feel that your 1/2 ton killing machine should only be worked on by someone qualified to do so just like your boiler  

I use mechanics for the big jobs where lying under a van supported by axle stands isn't ideal. I've had the entire exhaust system fitted by a local mechanic (even if it took him 3 attempts to order the right parts...). I've even had to do work on the van myself purely because the local mechanic couldn't be arsed to do the work - clearly he doesn't want the money.

I'll be enquiring locally about getting the cambelt done on the van. I'm quite sure I can do it myself with a lot of research but better to have someone who knows exactly what they're doing - plus if they fuck it up they can replace the engine for me, if I fuck it up i'm on my own.

midlifecrisis

usedtobe said:

Foster said:

Sporky said:

Surely it depends on how you value your own time?

You could say that about most things, I doubt many of us hire a company to run a bath for us

How much do they charge?

my new business idea for 2018

p90fool

Nikc said:

I do love a home mechanic they often pop in for free advise and ask to borrow tools. I have even been asked if one can use my workshop to do a head gasket over the weekend !!
Surprisingly I've often said a polite no. Now as an Mot tester I kinda feel that your 1/2 ton killing machine should only be worked on by someone qualified to do so just like your boiler  

Being an ex MOT tester myself I both agree and disagree, I used to get people asking to borrow not only my tools, but the ones we sold in the shop. 

On the other hand, another MOT tester once charged me for a new set of wiper blades I'd fitted myself at home a couple of days before, even though we'd played together in bands a few years before and were supposedly friends. 

Some mechanics are so instinctively dishonest they can't even switch it off for mates, so you can't blame people for wanting to fix their own vehicles. 

Lestratcaster

If I had time and knew how to all the changes and stuff I would do it myself, luckily I know a very goof honest reliable mechanic who is a mate of my neighbour. He doesn’t rip me off and won’t make up work that don’t need doing.

Grunfeld

Octafish said:

Jesus, do people really take their car to Shitfit for a service . They find undoing and doing up 4-5 bolts challenging enough...

I had Halfords attempt to "fit" a hands-free kit. 
If one of the local pikeys had nicked the radio they'd have done a better job.

Foster

Just to point out i'd never touch kwik fit - they were the first result for 'how much does a service cost'.

My ex's dad refused to do anything himself - mostly because he was a lazy git. He once sat for an hour in snow conditions waiting for the AA to change his wheel as he had a flat. He could've done it in 5 minutes himself. 

I do wish most cars came with a emergency jack like the older BMWs had - slide the pole into a hole and wind away. These widow makers make me nervous.

johnswiss

I retired from lying under cars at 40. I did enjoy years of home servicing though, and brakes and other stuff. When I once over tightened a sump bolt and the head sheered off that was a low point!

celentium

Self servicing your own vehicle would put potential buyers like myself off.

Foster

celentium said:

Self servicing your own vehicle would put potential buyers like myself off.

Better to have a list of parts ordered and receipts than a stamp in a book in my experience. A dealer stamp is worthless really.

RaymondLin

Foster said:

celentium said:

Self servicing your own vehicle would put potential buyers like myself off.

Better to have a list of parts ordered and receipts than a stamp in a book in my experience. A dealer stamp is worthless really.

To you may be.

for example I would never get any BMW without the relevant inspection 1 and 2 stamps.

Any service stamps will accompanied by a work sheet and break down so you know what has been replaced. 

Strat_a_tat_tat

RaymondLin said:

 

Any service stamps will accompanied by a work sheet and break down so you know what has been charged for. 

FTFY

lustycourtier

I work in vehicle warranty and servicing. I thought like you until I did this job. Here do you dispose of the old oil and how do you transport it? How do you stamp your service history? 

Foster

lustycourtier said:

I work in vehicle warranty and servicing. I thought like you until I did this job. Here do you dispose of the old oil and how do you transport it? How do you stamp your service history? 

Whip it over the neighbours fence and I don't. I think the time has come where nobody cares too much about the service history book for a 17 year old van