Understanding your car

[Greenmeanie]

It is the wrong thing that car manufactures are doing .They are instilling in the general public that their cars are buy and forget. As long as you do the service you will be right.

The cars motors of today come covered in plastic shields with only a few dipsticks and caps painted yellow most everything else is hidden. The people of today are used to throw away parts ,repair nothing just remove and replace. Hey some of those parts can be replaced sooner and save you a bigger repair bill.

To know what is happening you have to look, feel and listen to your car the signs are there ,just pick up on them. Coolant leak is a big one, oil leaks, engine idle etc etc. One I noticed yesterdayhttp://i808.photobucket.com/albums/zz8/warwick_bucket/DSCF1684.jpg
Thats oil spray coming from the covered timing belt or off the auxilary belt and being thrown around the engine bay, this is on the underside of bonnet. The cam seals are leaking and need replacing. the belt was covered as well and that needs to be replaced because you dont want it breaking or sliping teeth on the cams
I know I am most likely preaching to the already comverted ,but we all have to spare the time to understand our cars and it a hell of a lot cheaper than having them break down. Cheers Chris

[vectra.lee]

Yeh I agree, it makes sense.
And I think if you know your car to some extent, you can be really sensitive to picking up little changes and issues.
Sometimes the mechanic doesn't like that.
I've been to them a few times where I've heard or felt something different, and they can't pick it up, so they get all hissy at me.

I guess if we do get issues that we pick up, it might be good to point them out, so that at least others can get a sense of what it might be, perhaps even look out for the signs.

Thanks Chris.