Ouch!
 

In the 49 years I've been driving, the 1st 48 I did all my own maintenance. I am now discovering the "pleasures and pain" of paying to have the work done.

Having defected from 75's 2 years ago to an S type then X type Jag, I realised how much more reliable my Rovers were, and after trusting a garage to inspect my X type before replacing the timing chain, cover, tensioner and crankshaft pulley, (£1060) I discovered on getting the exhaust flexi replacement estimate, that the car as well as being unreliable, was rot. :mad:

Now, having just purchased a facelift diesel Connie, within 3 weeks the alternator packed up. With quite a lot of pain, (knackered back and knees) I fitted a new regulator and brush set. Still no go, so I've had to book it into a local garage, the only one locally that seems trustworthy. When I last did one about 7 years ago, it cost me just under £90 for a recon unit. Paying to have it done, £398.00. I had never appreciated how much money I had been saving.

A wise man once said "With age, comes experience, wisdom and knowledge". He forgot to mention arthritis, bulging discs and piles!!! :D:getmecoat:
Don't ask me how I know this!:shrug:

When I started out on motorbikes and cars I did my own maintenance, I then went through a period of about 5 years of getting work done by garages as I was busy at work.

I was let down by a failed HG repair on a 50k R214 bubble. The garage said the engine was shot and they would have to fit a replacement for over a grand! I towed it home, fixed it myself, and drove it back to the garage to renegotiate their bill. That R214 went on to do well over 100k miles, before being sold as a runner.

From that experience on, I only used garages rarely, or for things not worth doing myself like tyres. I hope my health will allow me to continue to as I enjoy doing technical stuff. Forums have been a great help in sorting out problems and motivating me.

Tell me about it! I used to spend many an hour in the garage pottering on my motorbikes then cars. In the last few years I have been hit by several (fairly major) medical problems, coming to terms with and dealing with one only to be smacked back down by something else :(

Oh so true! What was once a 10 minute job is now at least an hour, excruciating back pain, glasses that keep slipping of my head and the perpetual scramble for dropped fixings and sockets. As someone much more famous than me said, "Woe, woe and thrice woe".

I'm in the same boat with arthritis, heart issues etc and have only just started jobbing out "heavy" jobs as rebuilding the gearbox on my MGF last year just about did me in hoisting it in and out through the wheelarch. (It even showed up as an "event" when my cardiologist checked my pacemaker! :eek:) .
I have found a decent shop locally that is honest and does decent work for a realistic price. They put an exhaust and lower front arms on my 190 this spring. I do find that I need to check their work as I have found a couple of details that weren't taken care of as I would have.

Don't think I could afford to run our cars if I didn't do the work to them myself. I have saved myself many thousands of pounds over the years and hope to continue to for a long while to come.

The mk.2 X-Type was better for rot (rear of sills on earlier mk.). I've always thought the engine bullet proof (v6 2.5). For me, suspension is the bug bear - dem der joints don't last long.

Not worth the initial list price but better value for money after about 4 years.

Kev

I must be the odd one out here. I feel fitter as I get younger!

I also tell my own fibs less convincingly.

:}

I think it is called self-denial. :shrug:

Rev.