greetings all,
had a friend of mine pop into the workshop today to ask me for some advice. he said the front end of his type R was squelling under braking. straight away i noticed the discs were starting to score so as a looked through the wheel i noticed there was no material to be seen on the pads. i said i'd get a price on new discs and pads for him. now his R has had extensive mods professionally done to the suspension and engine so as a result he fitted some EBC REd pads fitted onto the standard discs. suffice to say that the discs have been hammered by the red pads. any way i came back with, what i thought were reasonable prices: pads £35, discs £85. all in , inc the dreaded, it came to £131. i got back to him and he asked if i could check the discs thinkness' and if they were warped. so the discs were ok, but they were down to 23.5mm. he phoned honda they said they allow wear down to 19mm. he says pink fluffy dice it i'll just do the pads. my point is if you are going to have a fast car why skrimp on the maintenence especially if you are trying to seel it. i once owned a mint '90 sapph cosworth that ran a measured 298 BHP @ the whhels. never did i skrimp. what's wrong with people?
this site is the best!!
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1st rule to make any car faster is to make sure the brakes are perfect.
You can mod all you like to the engine etc but the car with the best brakes will win every time. Ask any serious competitive motorist.
False economy !
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One of my neighbours is obviously from the same mould as his car tax ran out in March this year and he still drives the car on the road.
Classic thing is he owns a L reg BMW 5 series and he spent a huge sum on new alloy wheels, stupid Xenon look-a-like headlights and a personal number plate. Probably sent a few hundred all in all, but still he can't find the money to tax the thing.
TBH he is asking to get pulled over by plod driving around in the thing - young chap from a certain ethnic background driving around in a 'modded' BMW 5 series. First thing they will check after asking "is this your car sir?" is the tax disc.
Might just call DVLA myself.....
It does annoy me that I duly pay for my tax disc and others seem to be able to think they can get away with it, or would rather spend their money on, erm, 'improving' their car.
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>>Might just call DVLA myself.....
>>It does annoy me that I duly pay for my tax disc and others seem to be able to think they >>can get away with it, or would rather spend their money on, erm, 'improving' their car.
I would do just that. Afterall you wouldnt want him running into you, or anyone else for that matter, as he wont be insured (in all likelihood he wont be anyway and thats why there is no tax on it in the first place)
Why should we pay and others feel they are above the law. Ring DVLA and report it!!
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If by 'seel' you mean sell, then why spend to have new disks if you plan to get rid?
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I thought DLVA knew if you had not renewed your VED?
Is it registered at that address? by the owner?
Or pay an automatic fine- what a waste of money
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Please, do it now!
0800 0325 202
I always do, because if it ain't taxed, then probably it's not insured, and has he (sorry, the driver) got a license, etc. etc.
It won't cost you a penny!
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If one sees an untaxed car, but not in use, is it worth reporting as it might have been SORNed?
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An untaxed car being used on the road (or parked) while a SORN is in effect is a much more serious offence (trust me I know from bitter experience).
If car is un-taxed but parked on drive/garage then just leave it be. If car is being used I guess the problem is that they may need to be 'caught in the act' for anything to happen.
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because anyone that looks at the car as you should do, especially a high performance one, wiil see the the brakes have been hammered, a certain clue to how the car has been driven. surely if you want best price then you should make it look its best, no?
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?>> If by 'seel' you mean sell then why spend to have new disks if youplan to get rid?
because anyone that looks at the car as you should do, especially a high performance one, wiil see the the brakes have been hammered, a certain clue to how the car has been driven. surely if you want best price then you should make it look its best, no
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Well wayne1980, its so common I wonder there arn't more accidents! If I had a pound for every time I have seen a vehicle with a serious defect & the owners first words are " I'm selling it!" I wouldn't need to work anymore & most of those type are covered in bling! & got thousand pound sterio's but run on knackered brakes or bald tyres. In the thirty years + of workshop experience All you ever seem to experience is " How much!!!!!!!!!!!!" oh I will leave it. I spent 7 years taking a HND in the motor trade & studied law etc & all for what!. I could have trained to be a dentist in five & be earning £150+ an hour.
When the gas man comes to fix your boiler you cant argue & say you only want a part repair because he will seal the gas off & leave you with no boiler if it is considered unsafe!
So if readers wonder why there is so much unskilled people working in the trade its mostly down to lack of respectfor the oily rag who now have to be a multi task technitian skilled in electronics & air-con & LPG & the mechanical workings & it takes years of experience !
You know that if you go to a consultant you cant get advice without paying for it & my orthopedic one charged me £400 an hour! so thats where we go wrong!
Regards
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To add to injection doc's story. Anyone in the trade will tell you the same.
Had a little vw brought to me to look over. Bad steering faults, poor brakes, and in desperate need of a service, and a seized closed window. Gave the owner my report. the reply was, " I cant afford all of it. Its hot so can you do the window first and I will get the other bits done when I can afford them !"
Luckily ??? I knew the parents of the owner and came to a deal where I did the window and the eseential safety work, and got paid in instalments. The parents guaranteed my money if need be.
Thats just 1, and I couldnt afford (or want to) to do the deal for every car that comes in like that!
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To add to injection doc's story. Anyone in the trade will tell you the same. Had a little vw brought to me to look over...
I bet the owner was female. ;o)
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My sis-in-law had a Citroen ZX a few years back for 4 years, and 'didn't know' it needed to be serviced periodically.
From what I overhear at the MOT station, many owners consider the MOT to be the annual service, and as long as it has passed, it's OK for another year! And the government wants to make MOTs a two-yearly affair!
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>>And the government wants to make MOTs a two-yearly affair!
I think it should be 6 monthly,considering the number of motors I see that probably have non at all :(
--
Steve
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injection doc
I couldn't have put it better!!! About one in four on my jobs now fizzles into nothing.
Looks like you're another trade specialist who now realizes that this has become a mug's game. Only the crooks and the mouthy idiots make any money.
Wonder who'll try and fix all the tricky faults once we've all gone...? I don't see anyone coming on to follow us - maybe the youngsters have more sense?
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Thank you screwloose, your dead right once wev'e fizzeled out & no ones left to repair em I can sit back & smile. There are a huge amount of companies out there not necaserialy motor trade who have got rid of experienced staff & employed uni graduates then found 5 years later the companies in trouble & they want all there old experienced staff back! & thats what will happen in the motor trade if we don't get the respect we deserve for time served & experience gained.
I don't know of many other trades where were expected to get covered in oil ( carsengenic) cow dung or dog sh... from removing road wheels ( health hazard!) work all day for nought! offer advice but then its not taken up! ( someone down the pub know better! cut our nuckles to the bone & exceed all laws of lifting restrictions & all for 10-15 quid an hour! Mugs game is dead right & I'm chuffed to say I have just packed up so no more frezzing my nu.... off in the winter!
Great to see DIY'ers struggling with electronics now & the damage they do sometimes on the simple of jobs because they all think there born again mechanics !
3k for total air bag replacement on a car when one of my clients thought he would change his own battery at home when I had already offered to do it for the cost of the battery sum's it up really.
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Oops...
What annoys me, is people that do this - hopefully they won't make you too jaded to ffer advice to people who aren't morons!
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I'm interested to know what the issue with the airbag was. I changed the battery in my '97 Mitsubishi with no problems, and it has airbags. Was I lucky or did the other chap do something wrong?
Oh, and here in New Zealand our MOT (Warrant of Fitness) is six-monthly unless the car is less than 3 years old.
OP is quite right about skills, and cheapskates. My trade is electronics, and few things have changed as much as this in the last 30 years. How many TV repair men are there left? It's all disposable now, and few have the skills to fix it if it were possible. I do the occasional car ECU repair for friends, and most of them are fairly simple. The dealers and specialists make out that they are not repairable and contain 'powerful magic' so to speak, but I know different.
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I was about to ask the same question. I have changed batteries in my 96 Nissan without problem, and the instructions for my present { 04 } Toyota are to disconnect the negative lead if the vehicle is to left unused for a month or more. This presumably would have the same effect on any air bag controls. I had no problem with the Toyota last year when I did as they instructed.
In terms of the original point of the thread, I am a firm believer in thumping a problem heavily as soon as it rears its head. Usually, that is cheaper than letting it just increase until you are stranded out in the boondocks. However, I do always go over the anticipated work with the Service department before turing them loose.
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Dear Pete M
Whilst air bags are not high risk they are renowned for going off unexpectedly so any care helps with reducing the risk! for those who have had it happen its quite an experience. manufactures have recommended procedures in connection & disconnection of vehicle batteries to reduce any minimal risk of an air bag deploying. The procedures can vary from disarming first ,to what they call stand time before comencing work etc etc.
I agree with your opinion on MOT's & i think every 6 months would be safer & an mot from new would be good. At present some repmobiles are covering 200k before there first MOT!
I too have repaired many ECU's in the past but the skill is unreconised so it aint worth doing, many in the past have been dry joints! more difficult as the eye's get older! Some manufactures are filling the circut boards with a silicon film rendering repair difficult & I have also found some of the components come from countries like the Philipines! making ordering difficult.
Regards
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>I do the occasional car ECU repair
I heard of someone doing this sort of thing to washing machine circuit boards. His main problem was the components weren't marked (resistor values etc.). He had to have several cards of the same type and then swap components piecemeal (the black ones were burnt out).
So how do you identify ECU components, or do they use standard items?
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