servicing the car.

[zippy]

As we all know Garage prices are not cheap, Mind you, I can understand why?, with new cars been much more complex and no help from manufactures to lay out and accessibility of components to be repaired even changing a fog light bulb means some bumper removal or the wheel has to come off just to change a bulb. Renault been the Biggest offender of the most difficult, inconvenient Bulb change on any car...

I used to work for a VW, dealership in my younger days, I enjoyed working on cars them days it was fun and satisfying and it paid the bill's...

my, BMW, e90 Is getting older now so I do my own servicing, Just to show you what is involved just to change a mere Air filter, crazy,,, see bellow.
All this just to change my bloody Air filter on my BMW no wounder they charge so much at the garage, see bellow...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xugiDqRkEB4 Just to change an Air Filter com-on....

I also did all this, bellow,,, now for a beer and curry....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVUYp45SZs8

The joys of motoring Eh!.....

[neil]

you`ve never done the spark plugs on a v12 jag then, not all the older cars were easier(a v8 sunbeam tiger was worse, never again)

[Blackbaronfish]

I couldn't believe what had to come off. You wouldnt want a dodgy garage saying they have replaced it as you would never know . A peep hole would have been good .

In the 70.s a friend of the family had a Jaguar and i remember how crammed the engine was. We had an old Commer van and that was easy for my Dad to work on. The cover came of in the cab and he used to fiddle with the carb as we drove along. There were loads of room to warm your chips

BBF

[zippy]

Agreed mate, However , BMW have reverted back to the fitter been in a box at the side of the engine were you just undo a few clips hoover out the dirt wipe out with WD,40 and push in the filter.. Job done. BMW have gone back to this old design , Thank goodness.

Mind you, BMW have done away with the dipstick to check oil, It's now checked through the dash computer telling the owner how much oil to put in. This oil checking is done trough the BMW I,Dive computer ect.

What BMW did was, they made servicing periods and miles much longer service intervals, but more things are done and changed with been longer periods between servicing.

To be totally honest, I would never leave my oil change that long between changes it is just far to long and too many miles for the turbo bearings to be lubricated properly.
BMW dealership charge well over £100 to change the oil and filter, This however is a very easy job to do on most BMW'S.

You would not believe the complex and difficult, head busting, Jobs I have done on cars over the years. Manufactures are only interested in selling points and keep the emissions low for government low tax rebate, not the poor chap trying to repair the thing.

[wastrel]

best one I heard, this is 100% true guys- a VW polo 1.6 gti needs the front bumper & part of the RHS engine removing to replace (drumroll please)
a wing mounted indicator repeater bulb!

[rogers1]

it's actually quite dismaying watching that vid clip. I used to do all my own servicing, up to and including clutch changes etc, particularly when I owned SAAB's exclusively for 30 years.

But, once GM got hold of SAAB, they too turned to utter shyte to work on.
My old 900 range (and earlier 99's, 94's etc) were so easy to work on and so accessible it was unreal.
I could climb into the frontal area of the 900 to change the clutch there was so much room.

Duncs

I have a Mondeo that I have to part dismantle to change light bulbs.

[neil]

it's actually quite dismaying watching that vid clip. I used to do all my own servicing, up to and including clutch changes etc, particularly when I owned SAAB's exclusively for 30 years.

But, once GM got hold of SAAB, they too turned to utter shyte to work on.
My old 900 range (and earlier 99's, 94's etc) were so easy to work on and so accessible it was unreal.
I could climb into the frontal area of the 900 to change the clutch there was so much room.

Duncs

I have a Mondeo that I have to part dismantle to change light bulbs.

fords are an absolute doddle to change bulbs on compared to most other modern cars, lamps out in a few seconds on most of them, wait til you need to change a pollen filter on a Renault, If I won the lottery i`d pay someone else to change one of those sob`s even though I've been on the spanners for years and worked in a Renault dealers, I hate those bloody things more than landrovers

[roadrunner]

Gentlemen welcome to my world

[FPoole]

The right rear plug on a 390 c.i. V-8 Ford pick-up is also pretty bad. We once did the job and found that the first 2-3 garage jobs had failed to remove that one original plug. You have to drop the fuel tank on most cars to change the pump, but my old 69 Buick Riviera had a hole and removable plate to do the job with ease. Of course, it never went bad.