Your new shite procedure.

[Jim Bell]

Mine go one of two ways.

 

1) Sell at a loss as I have no use for it and bought it on a whim.

 

2) open my wallet, immediately spend far in excess of its value on parts and labour, only to have it then commit suicide for no discernible reason.

[Lord Sterling]

Check all levels/tyre pressures where I can. Set seating position and drive home.

 

Once home I'll take a good look around the car and note down what it needs and sort by priority. Meanwhile I'll give it a good wash and hoover and if the weather is Ok, a good polish and valet inside.

 

These days stuff like that can take time. Even washing/hoovering the car can take time often due to lack of money and time and prioritising other jobs it needs. The Merc has been washed and hoovered but nowhere near to my standards. All in good time though.

[brownnova]

I check if got air in the tyres, visually, then off we go!

 

Get 5 miles down the road and think "these brakes are crap!" (every time)

 

Once the collection of a £300 Dolomite involved failing to grasp how to use a manual choke and nearly dying on a traffic island, and having to ring the seller because I couldn't fir the life of me fathom how to get the car into reverse! (I felt like a right twit that day, I was only 19)

 

Most recent collection involved breaking down, getting fixed then breaking down in a ' rather rough' area of Liverpool... In a bright yellow MG Midget I felt rather conspicuous!!!

 

Once home give A quick one over then drive til something breaks. It's not a very thorough method, but oh well!

[gordonbennet]

I'm a gut feeling person, if the seller sounds right and the car sounds right i'll buy it, if the bloke sounds like an evasive conning twat (advert should tell you that) then no ta.

 

Last purchase was the Legacy Outback H6, bought unseen via the Bay and bloody cheap too, spoke to the bloke at length via messages before the sale and on the phone after the sale and we hit it off well...that gut feeling thing works both way.

 

Travelled up, he picked me up from the station in another car, i wanted a cold start on the Scoob, car was better than expected, washed, sitting on new correct size winter tyres on new alloys, proper full set of getting scabby originals in the boot (now refurbed with new summer tyres).

Engine sweet as new, didn't even test drive, paid him his due (rounded the figure up to the next £100 cos the bloke was fair and square), drove it home, ran lovely.

 

I do the same with every car new to me regardless of its age/history, jack up all wheels off, full brake overhaul as needed, check all suspension and drivetrain, underneath is where neglect shows and brakes and transmission show it first.

Scooby didn't desperately need, but got cos i'm OCD, new discs and pads all round (£134 the lot Mintex), and both front inner CV joint boots were splitting (known problem exhaust cooks 'em), one badly, so rebooted and repacked them (pleasure to work on), then a full engine service and check all levels.

 

Ran the car for a month, so impressed with it we shoved it straight in for LPG conversion, then set about seriously rustproofing it, changed all transmission oils, new sparkies etc...this one will be kept till it dies, goes like fuck with a silky smooth auto box and sticks to the road like shit to a blanket.

 

 

My problem is i'm OCD about stuff, they have to be right and they have to be maintained properly, couldn't buy any of this modern shit that's had manufacturer bollocks recommended oil changes of 20k miles intervals, been ragged for 100k miles with only 4 soddin engine oil changes and still on the original oil (now gnats piss) in the gearbox and diffs,  i assume no bugger else bothers with proper maintenance especially brakes and i aint wrong very often.

[Parky]

Quite right Gordon and there even seems to be some resistance from garages to do basic maintainance.

 

Bini gearboxes have a reputation for self destruction which a simple fluid change can help towards delaying. Dealers wouldn't do a change because the oil is "Lifetime" even though I was offering cash money for it. One major Mini dealer even claimed you couldn't change the oil as there wasn't a drain plug on the early gearboxes (which there is).

 

A specialist said he would do it but was reluctant as it wasn't necessary. He wanted £120 for the oil as he had to buy it in five litre cans.....couldn't remember what make or type of oil it was but remembered the cost. Oh, plus vat of course.....and labour will be around £100

 

So I bought the correct stuff from Land Rover (MTF 94) for £16 and did it myself in 40 minutes. No idea if I prolonged the life of the box but a lot of swarf came out - better out than in as they say - and the box was now smoother and quieter.

 

Lifetime means "until it breaks" which is often long before it should. Nobody changes gear oil anymore and it is usually such a simple job, not expensive, and it makes the car nicer to drive. Plus you know the right oil in the right amount is in - I am a bit OCD too!

[twosmoke300]

Or in the case of the pk6 box in trafics and Laguna's they fill to the level plug and it fucks the box! The correct level is quite a way down from the level plug. Because Renault

[gordonbennet]

Or in the case of the pk6 box in trafics and Laguna's they fill to the level plug and it fucks the box! The correct level is quite a way down from the level plug. Because Renault

 

Isn't that the case with some Pugs too, where you measure the amount of oil to put in, which comes nowhere near the filler plug level, makes checking the oil level a bit of a palarva unless you mulluck some form of dipstick up when you have a correctly filled box to start with.

Some Honda boxes are unusual in that they have three plugs, drain, small level plug and filler.

 

 

 

Coo, glad i'm not alone, Parky insists on proper maintenance too.

 

This sealed for life pish annoys the hell out of me, usually expensive badges with the shortest warranties and reputations for not standing by their product when it fails ten minutes out of warranty, note Toyota have never gone down this road and have a well deserved reputation for fixing failed vehicles on a goodwill basis after the normal warranty, time and mileage, have ceased.

 

Have been able to tell the difference on every single vehicle after a transmission fluid change, smoother quieter and with manuals a sweeter change.

[xtriple]

I'm OCD as well. Can you not tell?

 

If it's a banger, fuck it, run it 'till it breaks, fix it, rinse and repeat. The most stress free motoring I've ever had has been with cars I don't give a fook about - no worries about parking it, no worries about washing/hoovering it. But, I can't do it for long!

 

I always get the trans fluid changed, check the specs of oil required and only buy what matches exactly, brakes have to be 'spot -on' and I HATE rusty discs... the new ones on my Honda are covered in surface rust due to lack of use and it seriously bothers me.

 

When I had my SL, it used to get serviced every year with Mobil 1 fully synthetic 0/40 with the exact spec Merc insisted on. Even though it had probably only done a few hundred, maybe a thousand miles. I spent a fortune servicing that thing and took great delight in doing most of it myself (can't do the gearbox as it needs Star and a dipstick from Merc so it went to them and I watched through the window) sometimes with the aid of my wife under my supervision.

 

Funny thing is, when I was younger, I didn't give a fuck so long as it looked right, ran well and didn't smoke or make nasty noises. If it did get an oil change, it'd be the cheapest shit I could find and everything else got changed when it broke.

 

With bikes, I have always been fastideous. I love cleaning/servicing them as much as riding them!

[2MB]

Everyone seems so organised. All I do is check which side the filler cap is on and that the cigarette lighter works! If it's still going after a couple of weeks I may check the fluids etc if the car has behaved it's self. I'm either very lucky or the breakdown gnomes haven't got my address as I've not bought a pup yet! Touch wood,spin round three times etc!!

The gauge tells you what side the filler is on. If it just shows a pic of a petrol pump it's on the right, if the picture has an arrow pointing left next to the pic of the pump its on the left. Probably common knowledge buti spent years jumping out of unfamiliar cars to check before I knew

[doobietoo]

Buy it and give it an italian tune up on the way home, if it doesn't break its a keeper. Replace all the service bits because everything i buy has stuff like this air filter on it.

 

 

Then if its really dirty i give it a good clean and polish. Then i drive it until i get bored and sell it for something else.

[Parky]

Always picky with oil too - but only the specification, not necessarily the brand.

 

Pistonheads et al often munt on about Castrol but I have never noticed any improvement in my cars with it. The Bini was a different car on AC Delco, smoother and I swear a little more economical and that stuff was £22 for 5 litres rather than the £44 for 4 litres of the correct Castrol Edge.

 

Gulf Oil is surprisingly cheap from Opie, and Total is VERY cheap from Nielsen CDG. The racers in us can claim our Motorsport heritage with either brand, although filling up with Gulf while convincing the neighbours "It's what Steve McQueen used" is fun!

 

But when Halfords do their Chrimbo sale, you can't argue with 4 litres of the correct spec of their oil (Comma) for a tenner!