Hobby Mechanics - Manace or not?

[Carrot]

I would consider myself an average hobby mechanic, in the sense that I can do pretty much anything to fix a car barring deep engine, engine out work and transmission. Mainly due to lack of space, time and specialist equipment to do this (engine hoists etc and space to leave a car for a week while slowly working on it).

I have done head gaskets, timing belts, brakes, replaced all kind of parts from radiators to exhausts. All repairs I have done have lasted and I have very rarely had anything come back to bite me. This is all self learned with assistance from a mechanic friend of mine on occasions. I imagine a lot of people on this forum are at this level, if not way above it.

The reason I mention the above is...

I was having a debate with what you would call a professional mechanic recently. The argument started when he said my front brake discs and pads are low after an MoT (advisory not failure), and I replied saying "You are right, I have the parts at home and plan to fit them this weekend". This started with a whole nobody who is "untrained" should ever touch brakes, and that as I am not a full time mechanic there is no way I could know what I am doing etc etc. He seems to think that working on cars should be regulated with a "Part P" style thing from the electrical industry, making it illegal to work on your own car unless you are certified.

Interested in hearing the opinions on the forum regarding this, as there is a mixture of people that really know and work on there cars here, along with people that wouldn't even open the filler tank without assistance of a silk handkerchief and the main dealers telephone number

Do you think "people like me" are a menace and killing the motor trade, or should we go legislation and prevent anyone from working on their cars / motorbikes?

[Carrot]

chrisxr2 said:

Untrained?? Surely read the haynes manual makes you as qualified as some mechanics who only know how to plug in a computer for fault diagnosis nowadays. Ask him if he shoddily paints and decorates his own house or does DIY jobs he has no "training" for.

Thankfully I won't be having contact with him again

Does bring back the question of what you have to be in order to be "Qualified". If there is a guy working on cars for 30 years generally at an indie unqualified because he doesn't work on one make of specific car despite being an excellent mechanic? Is someone who has only ever worked on Peugeots then completely unqualified when working on a VW despite a lot of the general principles being the same?

Tough one.

I think he was more pissed that he couldn't charge £190 to do the discs and pads

Parts cost me £58... (both sides discs and pads)

[Carrot]

VinceFox said:

Most of the stuff i've learnt to do on cars and bikes over the last 25-30 years has been because i've not been satisfied with the quality of work done by garage mechanics.

Spot on

[Carrot]

kambites said:

If you're remotely competent, do it yourself with better than (but almost certainly cheaper than) OEM. Changing brakes is trivial on most cars.

Discs and pads are the first job I ever did on a car. Trivial definitely. Rears can be more difficult as you usually have to wind back the brake piston but even this is fairly simple with a cheap universal tool.

[Carrot]

MG CHRIS said:

As a mechanic myself I can see both sides. The one side I see is when people try to work on there own cars where they haven't got a clue on what to do then comes to us and we got to spend looking sorting their fk up on top of fixing the original problem.

That's what he is on about but as I fix my own car there plenty of hobby mechanic better than some so called trained mechanics so I can see both sides.
Outside of britian very few people actually work on there own cars and the future looks like less people will due to ever increasing technology in new cars specially coming into euro 6 regs.

But surely you are charging for the time of fixing the original feck up, and fixing the fault. So it's a win win, no?

[Carrot]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

After seeing the etis Ford worksheet for a diesel service and paying over £250 for what was effectively an oil and filter change, so was I!

Must have saved thousands over the years by doing these things myself.

[Carrot]

Cerberaherts said:

Pit Pony said:

This..... Tell him twice from me.


The difference between me, and a trained mechanic is that I actually care, about the jobs I do, and they just want to get it done and (over) bill the customer.

Yes. That's right. All trained mechanics cut corners and you could do a far better job on your driveway with a £20 jack from halfords and Haynes manual.

I have done markedly better jobs with my £18.99 jack and a Haynes manual

My previous mechanics from various garages have cut corners

I think this is generally what the thread is getting at and one of the reasons hobby mechanics become such