What have you done to your car today?

Rroff said:
Wish I had the setup at home to be able to do some work like that at home, especially a decent way to get vehicles well off the ground safely would be a game changer instead of spending £££ at garage/dealer for work I'm completely capable of doing myself.



Strangely enough I've not seen that, or the more usual one with this kind of weather of a vehicle with its bonnet up having barely made it to the side of the road often with a nice cloud of smoke or steam from under the bonnet. Got a feeling that one might be more common over the coming weekend/early next week though.
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see above reply mate. you can do it just take the procautions
 
keef247 said:
see above reply mate. you can do it just take the procautions
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It is all on a bit of a slope here and either deep loose gravel or farm track like lane. Just isn't sensible getting under a vehicle on it.

I have a lot of the kit, several torque wrenches, etc. and do stuff like changing wheels fine but other jobs I'd just rather pay someone than struggle through it under less than ideal circumstances and/or taking risks.
 
Rroff said:
It is all on a bit of a slope here and either deep loose gravel or farm track like lane. Just isn't sensible getting under a vehicle on it.

I have a lot of the kit, several torque wrenches, etc. and do stuff like changing wheels fine but other jobs I'd just rather pay someone than struggle through it under less than ideal circumstances and/or taking risks.
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mate I had the same situation before the tarmac, half was concrete half was pisd concrete and stones...
As long as you have a decent handbrake/chocks/stands you can do whatever. just position the car accordingly/do the end required first/seperate it, you'll be fine. at worst buy even more stands and support it with them AND 2 jacks?
If you have RWD or AWD remember you can jack it up on the diffs, and also you can use the factory subframe towing eyes should you have a factory plate welded...

IF not find a mate with a unit/friendly drive and sort them some beers... there's nothing stopping you.
I've even go to public car parks and done stuff that isn't going to bleed any fluids and done stuff there... Just think outside the box.

At worst you'd need a battery powered grinder/impact etc etc and all new hardware should you immobilise your vehicle and require cutting your way out to fit new parts, trust I only mess with the old school and that's the way I've learnt over the years.

I don't even have a daily so yeah just commit to it and have the spares and you can crack on. Plus once you learn/realise you CAN do it you'll laugh your ass off at what you're saving labour wise... I changed a rack stuck behind an engine without dropping the engine or subframe or suspension via the arch for access on a silly rack mounted to the firewall (cheers modern cars) with 400mm clearance from the drive in the rain in 7.5 hours (not impressive and slow but I was very careful and rebuilt the rack myself with no experience doing either bar changing a rack on my last beamer) and then found out it'd of cost me £1200 PLUS the vat in labour and they'd only have done it if they coulda ripped me off double that PLUS vat to supply the rack (back hander 'we don't fit supplied parts' we get a backhander from suppliers - technique talk bs) now whenever I do anything I just think sweet more money towards a genuine/race uprated part I can spend vs labour...

FWIW as well you'll be shocked at what you've 'paid' for vs what's been done... I won't bother to give long examples but let's just say i've caught many people out who've said they'd do simple things whilst doing summit harder and they haven't then i've checked it and been like wtf you could have easily done this/torqued this/done this up etc and they haven't... doesn't inspire confidence... as with main stealers/garages saying yeah we'll pretend to diagnose a fault for XX an hour... or say they'll do it cheaper than charge twice the amount of hours thus you get screwed either way for them dragging it out...

Personally I'd rather know myself everything is torqued to spec/safe... VS summit fail you asked about then them want you to come in again for a cash in to fix what they shoulda before...
 
keef247 said:
Plus once you learn/realise you CAN do it you'll laugh your ass off at what you're saving labour wise...
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I'm reasonably capable, especially with a workshop manual to hand, I just hate messing around with a less than ideal setup. For instance need to do some corrosion treatment under my truck - if I could get it a decent distance off the ground could do it no hassle over a couple of weekends but 0.5m lift just doesn't cut it.
 
Rroff said:
I'm reasonably capable, especially with a workshop manual to hand, I just hate messing around with a less than ideal setup. For instance need to do some corrosion treatment under my truck - if I could get it a decent distance off the ground could do it no hassle over a couple of weekends but 0.5m lift just doesn't cut it.
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as I said previously, the only thing I haven't done is welding (can't be blowing the fuses on my house) and the underbody coating as takes days for epoxy primer then raptor coating to dry per layers... so excluding that the rest is possible.
why not rent a council garage or a unit with friends? easy. or become mates with someone into the same cars as you as I have mates wise?

If not you do know there's garages you can rent a lift on for hour/days at a time thus still saving you the price of paying someone per hour/day wise for a coating to dry...
 
keef247 said:
why not rent a council garage or a unit with friends? easy. or become mates with someone into the same cars as you as I have mates wise?

If not you do know there's garages you can rent a lift on for hour/days at a time thus still saving you the price of paying someone per hour/day wise for a coating to dry...
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I live out in the country side so not very practical renting a (general) garage/unit to do stuff, there are actually a few places around here which have a garage/lift you can rent but they are always booked up like 6 months in advance.

EDIT: Personally not so bothered about the money - I'd rather pay someone to do the job proper than messing about myself - but it does bug me that a lot of this work I could do myself with an ideal setup - like changing the rear shocks on my truck which I've done stuff like that before - not much more than a 15 minute job but I just don't fancy messing about doing it on my back with the bare minimum of room needed to do it.
 
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Rroff said:
I live out in the country side so not very practical renting a (general) garage/unit to do stuff, there are actually a few places around here which have a garage/lift you can rent but they are always booked up like 6 months in advance.

EDIT: Personally not so bothered about the money - I'd rather pay someone to do the job proper than messing about myself - but it does bug me that a lot of this work I could do myself with an ideal setup - like changing the rear shocks on my truck which I've done stuff like that before - not much more than a 15 minute job but I just don't fancy messing about doing it on my back with the bare minimum of room needed to do it.
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So do I... You can still speak to as council in another town and rent a garage/unit mate - look into it.

Yeah problem is you won't be checking it yourself thus will never know who's really done it be it apprentice/who said they would do it and wether it's torqued to spec/done right/bodged if you don't go over their work after.
I'd rather know it's bang on myself and torqued to spec vs rattle gunned on and rounded...

Each to their own but I get a buzz being stupid tall getting a kick out of doing it myself in limited space rolling around on the floor and knowing it's right/saved stupid money on labour and thus more to spend on the part itself.

I get you though.
 
Well, had another go at the seized top nut - this time went down to the garage for some assistance. Mechanic let me use his impact wrench and a few other tools, plus valuable advice like "Put some ****ing effort into it" :p

Top nut off (ended up being a blowtorch, mole grips and rattle gun job), worked a few other rusty bolts off and finally we have a new suspension spring fitted:


I'll need a buy a few more tools to do the other side myself but it was a good experience, my mechanic is a top bloke for letting me do that :)
 
keef247 said:
So do I... You can still speak to as council in another town and rent a garage/unit mate - look into it.
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Not to be awkward but it is a fair trip to anywhere with decent garages/units to rent so not very practical.

keef247 said:
Yeah problem is you won't be checking it yourself thus will never know who's really done it be it apprentice/who said they would do it and wether it's torqued to spec/done right/bodged if you don't go over their work after.
I'd rather know it's bang on myself and torqued to spec vs rattle gunned on and rounded...
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Unfortunately an experience I've had too many times with some of the smaller places and even with the main VW commercial dealer for the area! (when they fitted a replacement EGR under warranty for instance they did a bodge job on one of the pipes using grease in place of a gasket which eventually leaked). Generally I inspect any work done but you can't really see stuff like that until a problem happens.

Which is why I'm mostly using a nearby Nissan dealer now - a touch on the expensive side but they pride themselves in doing a good job and work is done to at least a minimum standard - whenever I've checked their work stuff has been torqued correctly (or close enough) rather than rattle gunned.
 
Rroff said:
Not to be awkward but it is a fair trip to anywhere with decent garages/units to rent so not very practical.



Unfortunately an experience I've had too many times with some of the smaller places and even with the main VW commercial dealer for the area! (when they fitted a replacement EGR under warranty for instance they did a bodge job on one of the pipes using grease in place of a gasket which eventually leaked). Generally I inspect any work done but you can't really see stuff like that until a problem happens.

Which is why I'm mostly using a nearby Nissan dealer now - a touch on the expensive side but they pride themselves in doing a good job and work is done to at least a minimum standard - whenever I've checked their work stuff has been torqued correctly (or close enough) rather than rattle gunned.
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yeah they don't call them main stealers for nothing. I've worked in the trade in multiple disciplines this last 8 years and you'd be shocked at who does what/outsourced... That's why I love working for an independent/not a franchise!
Fair mate whatever works for you - atleast you check most of it afterwards... Yeah I live in the sticks too so I get you but I still ask my mates nicely if it's something that worries me that requires a ramp to check. But 99% time despite it being 'awkward' you CAN check yourself rolling around in the dirt... I'm 6ft8 and my jack only goes 480mm and I manage. And I've done engine swaps the lot on the floor...

Nice to know, where possible you will get your hands dirty/check though. Maybe I'm just anal from building fast road/drift cars but yeah I like to KNOW my shiz is tight/safe.
 
Heat makes the air expand so chances are it wasn’t 62 when originally inflated. No doubt today’s weather isn’t helping. Sure it was still way over what it should’ve been though :D
 
Phemo said:
Yeah it makes absolutely no sense. I've sanded it, filled it, sanded it some more and painted it now. The little dents around the holes are still there because there's no point going to too much effort for an area that will never be seen and the paint job looks pretty awful, but it shouldn't rust now and there's no more random holes for water ingress .

Quick and easy fix, just absolutely baffling as to why it was done like that. Clearly twice in the past since there are two sets of holes. Morons.
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It makes perfect sense. It’s far quicker and easier to just whack some self tappers through, than having to mark and drill holes in the number plate to line up with existing holes.
 
Well, yes, makes sense for garages who don't give a crap and just want to get things out the door as quickly as possible. Still seems stupid to me to damage the bodywork because they can't be bothered to measure up for the two factory fit holes though :)

In fairness, I'm not good at measuring that stuff up myself. Luckily my wife's car is also a BMW which has the plate screwed in correctly so I just took her plate off and used that as a template to drill the holes in mine.

Today I took delivery of an fairly expensive piece of metal (for what it is anyway):

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It's a tool for press cutting PDC sensor holes. I used a step drill bit to do the front PDC sensor retrofit on my previous car and it worked fine but up close you could tell the holes aren't perfect. Conveniently the Skoda tool is 18mm which is the same size as the BMW parking sensors. The BMW tool is hilariously priced but the Skoda one was about 24 euros including delivery and I figure I can sell it on after anyway.

Just need to decide if I can be bothered to take the front bumper off today or not so that I can cram this lot in (and cut off the excess wires on the harness that I've made myself)

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Phemo said:
Well, yes, makes sense for garages who don't give a crap and just want to get things out the door as quickly as possible. Still seems stupid to me to damage the bodywork because they can't be bothered to measure up for the two factory fit holes though :)
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I didn’t say it was right but unfortunately they don’t care about you or your car, wether it’s a beemer or a Vauxhall. That’s obviously assuming it was done by a garage.
 
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