Bit of a rant really - mostly fuelled by seeing that hogwash the garage on discovery.

Mechanics nowadays arent mechanics like the way I would know them - like the father and brother - theyre just fitters.

None of them seem to know how to fix anything or find out why something happened, and they certainly dont make their own tools or solutions - everything is about changing parts. Its a f*cking joke.

I had to go to a so called specialist garage a few days ago to drop in a part that I had sold a guy who worked there - there were three of them standing around a laptop plugged into a diagnostic port on a car depating which one of the probable causes they would tackle first - idiots.

Just as an experiment Id love to leave a car into one of these specialist garages with a planted carb fault. I guarantee theyd be f*cked because they couldnt plug it into a laptop. Or theyd bin the carb and replace it with a new one.

Not like this guy "Bo the cardoctor" then. He has TV shows, radioshows and helplines in newspapers. He really knows how it works and comes up with his own solutions. He has passion for Brittish cars and his dreammachine is a Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato (they only made 19 of them in the sixties )

Ill always think more of the swedes because of that general lee audi 80.

Remapping is another one doing the rounds - any idiot with a laptop and downloaded flash maps off ebay is now remapping cars

In other words, theyre reflashing a generic map over the OEM one - and have no clue what a VE table or what AFRs are.

I did an edit while you were posting.

Id love the know a decent mechanic - the kind that I envisage as being exactly as described in your post Mark.

When I first bought the five and took it to the local garage who I trust, I thought I would be getting first rate service, and while they arnt cowboys, what I would expect as a mechanic is certainly not what is put into practice by them.


I asked for everything to be flushed properly and replaced - they simply drained and topped up Easy to spot when your 5 year coolant now looks the same diahorrea brown as the old coolant.

They were not at all careful with their sh*tty wheel nut guns, so there are scuff marks around the sockets on the alloys :x

When I had my brake pads and discs replaced I asked them to ensure they reused the shims from my OEM pads as the new pads were not supplied with them. Ive now realised a month or so down the line that the intermittent rubbing/dull thumping noise is caused by this, they didnt bother at all :x  

I attribute it to the monkeys they take on fresh out of school to do the work, instead of getting someone thats been in the trade 40 years and will actually listen to you and has a genuine passion for professional maintenance of vehicles.

If anyone can recommend me a rocks solid garage in the Yorkshire area Id love to hear from them. Im tempted to start going to mx5city on what is a good 20 mile round trip Id guess, just for peace of mind.

But that dont stop at Mechanics. Same as every line of work.
They will change part after part until it works, then bill you for everything & not just the part that needed changing.

Luckily I know a good mechanic. Hes been in the game for as long as Ive known him, which is all my life as hes my parents friend.

He aint cheap, but it can be difficult to get a booking because he is choca

Same can be said for IT bods nowerdays. Far easier, quicker and in most cases cheaper to replace a part, than repair.

Bosse Bildoktorns (Bo the car doctors) dreamcar
http://www.supercars.net/cars/64.html

Quote from: M3ta7h3adSame can be said for IT bods nowerdays. Far easier, quicker and in most cases cheaper to replace a part, than repair.

nobody has ever repaired IT Stuff down to circuit level. Well, not unless they ca source replacement parts. Only time I can recall doing so, is with UPSs when they fail to charge.

Its more cost effective to just replace a part than repair a part with the price of labour these days.

A lot of what I expect from a mechanic is what I dont mind paying the labour for and what really should be expected as part of the service. When I asked for them to flush my coolant and oil it was for a very good reason as the new oil and coolant were to be totally different. I find it bizarre that someone there didnt think "hang on these coolants dont match, this might cause corrosion problems later, etc".

If you as a n00b took a Win 95 PC to a shop and asked them to flatten it and install Windows Vista, you wouldnt expect them to just install over the existing copy of Windows. Same deal.

Ive tried 5 different garages in the area for mots and they were all useless, either overcharging, breaking things, not doing what I asked or leaving dangerous things unfixed. And people wonder why Id rather spend days sourcing parts and fitting them myself instead of just paying someone else to do it.


It should be a proffesional qualification, like you should have to go do a 3yr course before you can work on cars, and then have to do refresher courses once every couple years.

Id like to be more involved with my car but I dont have the time, work area, tools or enough basic mechanical skill about me for most things. At this rate though Im very tempted to try flushing and replacing my coolant and oil myself.

My car has just recently sprung an oil leak.  Dont know where from yet Ive just got some carboard under it atm.

I only had my MOT and Service a few weeks ago.  I know for a fact they had the rocker cover off because of a small leak they found and cleaned it up for me.

guarantee they did a half assed job of putting the camshaft cover back on, and prob used some sort of sealer rather than a proper rubber gasket.

Quote from: Clockd 0NeA lot of what I expect from a mechanic is what I dont mind paying the labour for and what really should be expected as part of the service. When I asked for them to flush my coolant and oil it was for a very good reason as the new oil and coolant were to be totally different. I find it bizarre that someone there didnt think "hang on these coolants dont match, this might cause corrosion problems later, etc".

If you as a n00b took a Win 95 PC to a shop and asked them to flatten it and install Windows Vista, you wouldnt expect them to just install over the existing copy of Windows. Same deal.

Fair cop but thats a different matter. Thats professional workmanship, not knowing your craft.

As for repairing... think back to collossus... if a computer died, theyd have engineers in repairing it, replacing vacuum tubes, jumper leads and what not.

If peoples kits broke down back with the altair, enthusiasts would take it apart, replace the electronic components and get it working.

Old VAX/VMS systems, again... very often used to be repaired instead of replaced.

Its the culture, everything is disposable & biodegradable nowerdays. Its so cheap to just throw away and replace with new.