Yep , Not all mechanics are rip off.
There is a reason it is a trade.
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Yep , Not all mechanics are rip off.
There is a reason it is a trade.
Another vote for AliExpress... the bright white headlamp globes that sell for $100+ for a pair at SCA and Repco can be replaced by $15 a pair globes from Ali. And the Chinese ones throw the same pattern and last longer!
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtayhWX
Good and honest mechanics are as rare as hen's teethQuote:
Originally Posted by jusepy81
And don't trust Google star ratings either if you looking for a mechanic.
I disagreeQuote:
Originally Posted by Snap 4T
I've found quite a few straight up mechs, auto sparkies and tyre guys
I did however once get a wof from VTNZ Porirua which turned out to be illegitimate because the woman working there was stealing wof stickers and her Mongrel Mob boyfriend was selling them on the black market
I would never use Google ratings for anything - word of mouth works for me
I had a tinker with a poorly running go-cart engine a couple years back, after it had been given a ‘tune-up’ by a workshop.
It ran a lot better once I reassembled the intake bits in the correct order..
I desire with a local non-franchise mechanic, he’s straight up and has saved me money with his diagnosis of faults that I had erroneously diagnosed as a different more expensive fault.Quote:
Originally Posted by 308
Sounds fuel, pilot side of the carby probably.Quote:
Originally Posted by 308
That really annoys me - not the people having a crack themselves as that is the kiwi way and it's how ya upskill and learn. It's the bagging of the pros just because you don't like paying to get the job done properly, just not necessary!Quote:
Originally Posted by blip
I do a lot of the work myself, but certain things where you need to either have specialist gear or make it it's often not worth setting yourself up for a one-off job. Gotta swap an injection pump shortly, not worth me paying for the tooling even with the savings on labour.
Not all mechanics are good either heck there's some useless mechanics about in all sizes of out fits these days who can't diagnose simple problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by jusepy81
That is true, there are absolute limits to how useful OBDII is.
My own ute is a perfect case in point, no way ODBII or mechanic guestimate could have ever got to the bottom of that without playing the $25K parts swap lottery. It took a lot of datalogging and investigation and research to get to the bottom of the issues it had - multiple individual faults contributing to the same issue and throwing the same series of DTC's. Getting rid of the noise from the electronic problems allowed us to really focus onto the mechanical stuff, which meant that the actual problem could be diagnosed and fixed. Over a couple of years of work - if I wasn't doing it myself no way it would have made financial sense to do the work as is it's marginal with the number of individual parts that got replaced.
But at the end of it the thing is mechanically good enough and runs so well that there isn't any advantage to change it out especially at the price of the new ones. Circa $90K to swap out now, ridiculous $$$.
Yea things have changed a lot as far as the electronics go on vehicles. Advantages of working for a franchise is you get training on that shit you can get a lot of data off vehicles but you need to know what good numbers are and what isnt. Being a small workshop Im self taught on that kind of stuff so not fully up to date but can do a fair bit of it. Work has a scanner and Ive got a couple and do mobile scanning on the side and can do mobile wheel alighnments as well. Builders are rip offs all they are doing is hitting nails in right?
Haha don't you believe it - the builders are getting their apprentices to hit the nails in and charging you full whackQuote:
Originally Posted by blip
I once had a builder working at my place with his new apprentice. He was going to charge me full hourly rate for both of them, I politely told him to f-off with that idea as a 1st year isn't getting charged out at the tradies rate and also his productivity drops every time he has to stop work to show the appy something. I later found out he had only recently started working for himself so probably had no idea about those things. Had no idea how to hang a door either so I flicked him soon after anyway.
I've now got 1 door frame 10mm lower than the 1 next to it, Just as a permanent reminder to background check tradies better
I don’t ‘desire’ at all -it should have been ’deal’! (bloody autocorrect!)Quote:
Originally Posted by Finnwolf
My son at 17 in 1999 had a VW Golf jap import. Solid indestructible....well...took.him.5 yrs but anyway. I asked him when he last checked the oil and, radiator and battery water levels. " Dad, thats what mechanics are for!"Quote:
Originally Posted by blip
Sigh....
Years ago a young guy came into the garage with a sugar bag full of gears, shafts, bearings, loose needle rollers, and the (now empty) gearbox casing from a Mk2 Zephyr.
Could I please check it over, put in any new bits needed, and assemble it?
Well yes, no problem. All I had to do was suss out what bit came from where, what bits where missing from his strip down (to save money), and get the new parts needed.
It really would have been quicker if he had just dropped the gearbox in to me straight from the car.
At least I wouldn't have lost any bits, or smacked the crap out of every shaft while dismantling the thing.
As per Dirty Harry..."A man's got to know his limitations".
Fuk those are the worst. We even get guys with their project they have completely stripped wanting us to put it back together for them......until we give them a rough price. Cunts of jobs those ones and takes up workshop space for too long. Im sure some of them do it just to get under cover storage for their pile of shit projectQuote:
Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi
Yeah, man's jigsaw puzzles are fun as a private thing but no way are they a good idea for money making!
We have done a couple for customers where money was no object but those are few and far between
Car departed our possession this morning and the good wife has some Christmas $$$.
I thought the last symbol meant fresh dog shit in tyresQuote:
Originally Posted by gonetropo
Those old gearboxes were so easy to do, the problem as you say is the damage the person that stripped it caused and the damaged and missing parts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi
Recently had two tubs of parts dropped off and asked to rebuild it with the parts provided, it was stripped by a specialist and the specialist refused to put it back together.
When I cleaned all the parts up I found several major parts missing and some others damaged.
I had to source some new parts that were needed and not supplied.
Love doing jigsaws.
Also recently had the phone ring while both hands were busy holding something up and putting a bolt or two in to stop it falling on me.
I returned the call when my hands were free, 4 minutes after the call, person says you didn't answer the phone quick enough, so I went elsewhere.
My immediate thought, Thank you I don't want you as a customer, so I just replied "thank you, have a great day".
I could give you quite a few examples of "entitled" customers who think you are just waiting for them to phone or walk in so you can do their job right there and then and pay them for the privilege
Quote:
Originally Posted by 19Badger
yea we usually get the campervan and bus owners rolling in 2 weeks befor xmas "my camper has failed its warrant heres a list 5 times longer than the ten commandments i need it fixed before the 20th" fucken annoying they have all year to sort this shit out but wait till the last minute then wonder why they get turned away......and we are the only ones in town that will do that shit told the boss he has to bump the hourly rate up cos no-one else wants to do it.....(we dont either but we all have a price)people with old shitters on the road are gonna be fucked when all us old fucks decide to chuck it in not many of the new ones coming thru the system can think outside the ssquare
We get that a lot. Thought id just get a cof before we head off. But but i need it fixed now. Some times I need to check our name of our shop as sometimes I think we must be called piece of shit motors or something. We are the only ones in the area that will work on campers as well. Some of the impaitent old cunts will ring every half an hour wanting updates. Those ones get charged phone time as well....Quote:
Originally Posted by scotty
Took my ‘89 Corolla to a place in town, he turned me away “because your car is too old” and it would take too long to check it over.
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i hear that....."every 5 minutes i spend listening to your life story is 5 minutes im not working on your vehicle.... you do realise im not the one who hasnt maintained it regularly"Quote:
Originally Posted by blip
and they always turn up at morning smoko or lunchtime .....
and then you get the ones that want to come into your workshop ignoring all the "do not enter" "multiple hazard area" "all enquiries to the office" signs.....its a good thing im hard of hearing , also handy to have really noisey tools you can pick up and start using
Do we work at the same place or something. Then they have to go over every single repair its ever had and how his mate said to fix it. Fuk me its a fukn late model transhit not a 1930 fukn bedford....Quote:
Originally Posted by scotty
I feel for you on this l!Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi
When a lot younger and dumber I had a Mk2 Zody over a pit that had 2” of water in the bottom of it, thought the rear of the gearbox was just a cover of some sort so undid the four bolts holding it to the actual gearbox and pulled this ‘cover off only to hear the splash of components landing in the water!
I’d never put a gearbox together until then but did successfully get it reassembled - by 3am!
Well that's just plain tragic, I'm guessing no diagnosis port to get an error code.Quote:
Originally Posted by MSL
I'm from the days of twin carb Mini Coopers, MG's (the real ones...not the Chinese ones), big old Wolseley 6/99 and 6/110, etc.
No sweat to clean and tune twin carbs.
But try and find some one these days to do that work, or to get a good old quadrajet running right. As @trapperjohn said...'no diagnosis port....'.
So the modern parts swappers (they aren't 'mechanics' any more) don't know what to do.
Mind you, I'd not like to work on a modern car. Too many computers, electrical gear, and stuff under the bonnet now. Try and fix that out on the road at night when it stops working.
Favourite car to work on for me was the Ford model A, and the sidevalve V8's. Those old buggers just went and went.
We lived in the best of times but didn't know it back then.
i have to love the home handyman who works on modern car electrics. had a young fella turn up with the engine management unit he had tried to re-chip himself. circuit print torn off the pcb etc. didnt use static protection let alone flux to remove it. told him no way am i touching it.
he was almost teary when he told me the replacement was $3k.
or the all time classic. guy brings me the powered mixer from his band (has audio mixer and amps in one unit). complains of hug humming noises and distorted audio.
spend bloody forever on it and wasnt the easiest thing to work on . asked him if he had taken it anywhere else or had a go himself and he replied no.
8 hours later i find an insulating washer is missing from behind a power transistor. this meant someone had undone the m3 screw, removed washer and then reassembled it.
10 cent part later and i tried to charge him a days labour. finally he admitted an electrician had "taken a look".
if he had told me in the first place the job would have been a whole lot cheaper.
My father was a great one for taking things apart to see how they worked, they usually didn't afterwards. As a kid I wanted to use the jigsaw but it was a box of parts, I took it to the local tool shop and said that I took it apart to clean it and couldn't re-assemble they were good enough to reassemble it for me and told me to not clean dads tool anymore.
My mum was mad at me for lying but my old couldn't stop laughing.
Are you looking for a particular engine?Quote:
Originally Posted by blip
No some are really easy to do tho
Its the season had one just now. Camper failed cof siezed handbrake cable. None in the country and the rip of cunts want too much to get one in urgently from overseas can we get one in. No sorry mate get it in yourself and save yourself some money btw hope its the right one when it turns up...
can i haver it on a tshirt please -would save me wasting breath on a lot of modern knowalls!!Quote:
Originally Posted by gonetropo
my mechanicall skills run to very basic level so my son handles my truck .eldest son was a whizz with remotes etcetc so he handled that .mr mechanical /welder/spraypinter has a very extensive network of contascts whom i trust implictly .my late father was an a grade petrol/diesel mechanic in charge of a whole truck fleet bewfore alas a CVA took him at age 47yrs.
Iam very suspicious or tireless self promoters or those promising the superduper service in any sphere "if it looks too good to be ture it probably is"same applies in the firearms fraternity .
I meant to say, this was for a warrant, nothing wrong with the car.Quote:
Originally Posted by trapperjohn
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Dam..... The locals seem to like my older stuff....cos they all need two wofs a year doubling what they can get out of me.....(of 6 vehicles I own 4 are pre 2000 and as such are still on 6 month wof..)Quote:
Originally Posted by MSL
MTA member?Quote:
Originally Posted by MSL
report the bugga
