Thread: Introducing your kids to wrench work

A day after getting the car serviced, I noticed oil leaking from Mums car. Shoved my head under and saw that they didn't put a washer on when the put the sump plug back in.
Mum took it back to the servo, they got the apprentice (who probably did the original job) to put it up on the hoist and have a look. Mum pointed out too him the tell tale red washer was missing, he said no problem and proceeded to unscrew it.

Thankfully my Mum had the good sense to back away once she realized what he was doing.

That's a gem.

And it's not just apprentices. I've had work done by qualified mechanics on the bike which was positively dangerous (eg. key nuts not tightened).

Pays to know a bit.

I used to do all the mech work myself on the bikes and cars but I'm getting too creaky for it now. Still do oil and filters cos I don't like the intervals recommended.

Oh Ern! You positively "old person". Not liking the intervals of oil change to modern motors.....

How about this. A bloke I know bought a big BMW car. His father is a retired mechanic and took over the servicing after the warranty period.....BMW state that if you use their oil the changes can be at.....70,000km intervals.
I am with you the intervals are to far apart.
My 30 year old diesel Landcruiser and the 18 year old commodore get theirs at 5000km with oil filters also changed. I figure the cost of oil and filters and my time to do it hopefully will save major breakdown further on.

A mate had a little Nissan Bongo Van. Wifey decided to do the right thing and check its vitals." MMM looks like it needs water,cos I can't see it". Yep she put half a gallon of H2O in the filler.

Yoiks!

Yeah, my car mechanic says the oil change intervals are too long on modern cars. Sure the manufacture and metallurgy are better but he's seeing too many vehicles come in with 100+ km on the motor that requires a rebuild.

My car has 10k km intervals but as I do some towing and quite a few short trips I drop it to 5.

The bike was made in 2002 and has 12k km, which I only follow with fully synthetic.

Through a club bulk buy I was able to get 20l of fully synth for $76.

Its funny how they talk about todays metalurgy being "better".
These days the engine block is alloy and very sensitive to over heating and anything less than the right coolant.
Back in the 70's you had the trusty red motor which you could fill with the grottiest water you could find, and it didn't matter that the temp gauge didn't work because the old cast iron block could take a lot of heat.

Originally Posted by Sparhawk

A day after getting the car serviced, I noticed oil leaking from Mums car. Shoved my head under and saw that they didn't put a washer on when the put the sump plug back in.
Mum took it back to the servo, they got the apprentice (who probably did the original job) to put it up on the hoist and have a look. Mum pointed out too him the tell tale red washer was missing, he said no problem and proceeded to unscrew it.

Thankfully my Mum had the good sense to back away once she realized what he was doing.

Was the apprentice's name Tail light, not bright enough for a Brake Light

I taught a young fellow at school many years ago. He certainly wasn't the brightest
lad I have ever had to deal with but he was an honest toiler.

Managed to get himself an apprenticeship as a mechanic, and that worried me a bit.

I was right to be concerned. He put the two rear wheels back on a car and only did the
wheel nuts up with his fingers. Little old lady owner got quite a fright just around the
corner from the workshop!!

I have 'several' BMWs and change the oil on them twice as often as the Service Indicator suggests (ie when half of the green lights are out). I don't reset the service indicator so that the remainder of the service is done on time - then I reset it.
I don't use synthetic as the engines were not designed for it. I use GTX (20W-50) all year round with no problems. I also use genuine coolant as it is low phosphate and does not stuff up the radiator.