Bought a new car

SMEagol said:
I had an old 528i it deceptively looked the nuts in pimp gold but cost a fortune to run. It got hooked on the meth-amphetamine of the motor world - "Dampstart", before some chav stole it in its latterly uninsured form with a crane!
I used an independent BMW specialist, and they actually tried to keep the bill down and suggest various strategies. Its first fix was a new camshaft - as my brother who I bought it off must have ragged it - ...should of sold it. At least I know what a worn camshaft sounds like now.
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If it was an E28 528i (ie from 82-88) then a worn cam is to be expected, whether it's been ragged or not - it's the only problem in the M30 engine which, if serviced regularly, will go on forever.
 
DavidF said:
Yes

I looked at an E plate 320 a few years back.

A local oldish gent had had it.....30000 miles or some hting.

I would have loved it.

Like you say though I don't doibt the bills would have been bad.....
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E30 320i - cheap to run.
 
Hi Seeker...

yes it was an E28! My brother used to drive it til it hit reserve then put the trip counter on. One day when I was having a lift he said "right we've got 17.5 miles" it dutifully hit 17.5miles and conked out at the petrol pump, a very odd way of running a car and filling the fuel system full of crap into the bargain! Still bought it, it really turned heads.
 
DavidF said:
If your mecnhanic usually gives good service why not go back to him...maybe he made a mistake. (Emphasise the point you 're a bit of stickler for detail...or mates have suggested this thing....could he go along with it?)

In my experince f*rd main dealers are interested only in getting your car in for booking, to replace an xyz.......for £zillion ......they're knowledge when you phone them up has not been impressive in ME.

I woiuld be astonished if they knew dip differences.....only (maybe) that there IS a dipstick.
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I went to him he checked and and said there is no way it could have been overfilled now he knows he gets a lot of business from us so I can't see why he would lie about that.
 
On my car if its white and it smells sweet your coolants leaking into the combustion chamber and your head gaskets gone. maybe thats just a 944 thing.
The water leaky pump wasn't a great idea either Mr Porsche.
 
At the moment I must admit to having a sneaking suspicion that the oil in my car is wrong - I think someone has put something like 5W30 or 10W40 in it, instead of the recommended 0W20. Problem is, how to know for sure...
 
I-S said:
At the moment I must admit to having a sneaking suspicion that the oil in my car is wrong - I think someone has put something like 5W30 or 10W40 in it, instead of the recommended 0W20. Problem is, how to know for sure...
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what makes you think that..? :)
 
I suppose we should all be doing our own oil changes, the problem is on modern cars its not easy to do and getting rid of the old stuff is tricky.

The great thing about my engine is it dosn't really care what you put in it, my mate uses 20/50 in his £1.99 for 500ml and hasn't done it any harm.

I use 10/40 in and so has my dad for the past 15 months with no mechanical problems whats so ever.

Modern 16 valve engines though correct oil is crucial, this has been one of the problems with finding a Zetec, you ask what oil they put in and they say "motor oil from wilkinsons" in otherwords 20/50 mineral oil in a modern twin cam engine, not clever :(.

I have to drive down Chester Road (A56) soon to a job and dreading that but before my car I would have walked there, 2.8 miles in 5c temperature so I should be greatful.
 
amazingtrade said:
I suppose we should all be doing our own oil changes, the problem is on modern cars its not easy to do and getting rid of the old stuff is tricky.

The great thing about my engine is it dosn't really care what you put in it, my mate uses 20/50 in his £1.99 for 500ml and hasn't done it any harm.

I use 10/40 in and so has my dad for the past 15 months with no mechanical problems whats so ever.

Modern 16 valve engines though correct oil is crucial, this has been one of the problems with finding a Zetec, you ask what oil they put in and they say "motor oil from wilkinsons" in otherwords 20/50 mineral oil in a modern twin cam engine, not clever :(.

I have to drive down Chester Road (A56) soon to a job and dreading that but before my car I would have walked there, 2.8 miles in 5c temperature so I should be greatful.
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Sorry , you're talking to the wrong person about this stuff....it doesn't help that my brother is a mechanical engneer...who works for major oil complany.

I got the importance of good quality oil in a car instilled in my BIG STYLE.

IMO your crap 1,99 stuff with a packet of chewing gum just ain't the same stuff.

Ok, so your goign to dump youy motor next mot......thats a bit different....but just think about those metal parts rubbing against each other @ 5000 rpm then tell me it doesn't matter.

FWIW I don't do my own oil changes; the sump plug is usually heat welded on.....so I',m happy to let the guy down the raod do it for 30 quid. (50 actually, the transit uses dear oil)
 
David I don't personaly use the stuff, I don't touch it, its horrible narty stuff, but my mate uses it all the time.

I buy Halfords 10/40 semi synth for top up purposes (23 a for 5 litres) it is supposed to be good Comma stuff.

I am not sure if I will dump the car or not come MOT time, I know there are a lot of parts I have on this which my dad needs (MAF, ICV etc) so I could seap them and still sell it for £200 spares/repair it might be better than spending £200 on an MOT, but thats ages away yet.

I actually tell my customers more and more often that their PCs are not worth fixing, I then get the job of transfering data to their new PC to everybody is happy. I haven't done a motherboard replacement for over two years now, it is not good value for the customer.
 
amazingtrade said:
I actually tell my customers more and more often that their PCs are not worth fixing, I then get the job of transfering data to their new PC to everybody is happy. I haven't done a motherboard replacement for over two years now, it is not good value for the customer.
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Was even worse when I was repairing laptops, it's just not worth it these days (which is why I went more on the web design/software side) what with the likes of Dell knocking out quad core Intel's with two terabyte hard drives and 500GB of RAM for £12.50 - it's a pointless exercise :cool:
 
Yep, with most hardware jobs now if its a regular customer I just collect the PC, stick it on my bech at home do all the tests, if its RAM will fix it, anything else depending on the age will tell them to scrap it, I still do a lot of hard drive replacements though on desktops and laptops, this is a repair still worth doing.

I was supposed to go into the web side of things, have actually produced some high quality websites for clients but I am lazy and would not professional enough doing it full time.

Most my work now is virus removal, network diagnostics, advice that sort of thing.

Now I am driivng though in the new year I will have see if I can find something better paid, I am 26 and driving round in a £350 car so something has to change although I am not exactly skint.

I have a feeling the longer this recession goes on the busier I will be, because people are no longer automaticaly going to PCWORLD etc, people at the cheaper end of the scale will be a lot busier (the ALDI effect).
 
DavidF said:
FWIW I don't do my own oil changes; the sump plug is usually heat welded on.....so I',m happy to let the guy down the raod do it for 30 quid. (50 actually, the transit uses dear oil)
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Unless he uses one of those things that sucks the oil out through the filler pipe which doesn't remove all the sh1t from the sump :mad:
 

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