Can’t decide to do clutch + other jobs myself - mini

[Arnie Cunningham]

I'm impressed with the way he works. He's got all the little routines sorted to get the job done safely, efficiently and quickly without rushing.
And no swear words. I'm not sure I've ever done any work on my cars without at least a little swearing.

bern said:

Not sure if you've seen this? Might help you make a decision. It's the first car in the video. This guy does clutch changes on people's drives all day, every day.

https://youtu.be/HTslo7fTBz8

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Monday 3rd May 18:45

[paintman]

Interesting watch.
Not a single 'Get on you b******d' with any of them!

[Megaflow]

Arnie Cunningham said:

I'm impressed with the way he works. He's got all the little routines sorted to get the job done safely, efficiently and quickly without rushing.
And no swear words. I'm not sure I've ever done any work on my cars without at least a little swearing.

bern said:

Not sure if you've seen this? Might help you make a decision. It's the first car in the video. This guy does clutch changes on people's drives all day, every day.

https://youtu.be/HTslo7fTBz8

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Monday 3rd May 18:45

Funnily enough, he was the chap I saw do a Mini clutch, and when you see how swiftly he can do others, and the time it takes to do a Mini, I wouldn’t dream of attempting it myself.

[bern]

Megaflow said:

Arnie Cunningham said:

I'm impressed with the way he works. He's got all the little routines sorted to get the job done safely, efficiently and quickly without rushing.
And no swear words. I'm not sure I've ever done any work on my cars without at least a little swearing.

bern said:

Not sure if you've seen this? Might help you make a decision. It's the first car in the video. This guy does clutch changes on people's drives all day, every day.

https://youtu.be/HTslo7fTBz8

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Monday 3rd May 18:45

Funnily enough, he was the chap I saw do a Mini clutch, and when you see how swiftly he can do others, and the time it takes to do a Mini, I wouldn’t dream of attempting it myself.

And I don't think anyone could accuse him of not earning his money?! How much would you want in your back pocket to do that every day?

I'm currently weighing up the options of doing the timing chain on our cooper d. I have the space, time, and probably just about enough knowledge but I'm still wavering!

[Megaflow]

bern said:

And I don't think anyone could accuse him of not earning his money?! How much would you want in your back pocket to do that every day?

I'm currently weighing up the options of doing the timing chain on our cooper d. I have the space, time, and probably just about enough knowledge but I'm still wavering!

I couldn’t do that every day! I know you’d get used to it physically, assuming you could stick at it, but I’d be broken after a day!

What I find interesting is he has a portable scissor lift, I have seen him use it on RWD cars, but he always uses axle stands for FWD. there is obviously a reason, but I don’t know what.

[Arnie Cunningham]

Generally, if I'm after a DIY, I prefer a written one I can print out. But I notice most HowTos are videos these days.

I did a friends astra cambelt on friday. I didn't have the proper cam locking tool, but the video I used for reference didn't either, they used a nut, bolt and a couple of repair washers to lock the cams. All looked simple.

Exactly how many seconds after I took the cambelt off did it take for bolt & washer assembly to ping across the garage and the cams to spring into their resting position? And how many hours did it then take to reset and lock the cams without having the right locking tool--- and not enough hands to have one hand on each cam and another 2 hands on the belt. Got there in the end though.

The learning - the vids make stuff look easy when sometimes it's one dropped bolt away from a complete nightmare. Always get the proper tool for the job!

On the flip side though, that same Astra (H) is well known for shorting out the central locking meaning you end up with all the doors locked and impossible to open! 2 garages had quoted £1500 quid for it!!

Managed to remove a bit of trim to get access to the relevant door looms that were damaged and just by jiggling (or could have cut a couple of wires if I needed to) them it cleared the short temporarily, doors unlocked. And then a chap on ebay sells rear door repair looms for 25 quid a side. So a 50 quid fix vs 1500 from the garages. RESULT!

Back to the OP. I agree. It'd be a close call for me - I suspect if I knew someone like Williams Clutch man, I would go with him for an easy life. Because all the little "extras" he has, or knows, all save time.

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Tuesday 4th May 11:42

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Tuesday 4th May 14:37

[paintman]

Megaflow said:

I couldn’t do that every day! I know you’d get used to it physically, assuming you could stick at it, but I’d be broken after a day!

Especially the two when it's chucking it down with rain

Megaflow said:

What I find interesting is he has a portable scissor lift, I have seen him use it on RWD cars, but he always uses axle stands for FWD. there is obviously a reason, but I don’t know what.

Presumably that with FWD there's no need to detach anything towards the rear & the box comes out sideways so no need for under rear end access whereas RWD the propshaft needs disconnecting & the box needs to be pulled rearwards to get it off so you need the height & room.
I've done both types on our own cars (Ford, several Peugeots 205 & 306 petrols, Range Rover Classic) & that's how I do the two types - although I don't have the luxury of a lift!

Edited by paintman on Tuesday 4th May 15:13

[Arnie Cunningham]

It's a funny old world. If you look at Kevin's channel, you can see he has 844K views, 300K views, 173K views on some of his vids
So cumulatively, there are more than a million people watching this bloke change clutches
https://www.youtube.com/user/kanmarad/videos?view=...

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Tuesday 4th May 16:38

[paintman]

Always interesting watching someone that knows what they're about at work.

Never felt the need for one but having watched him all of a sudden I think my tool collection is lacking one of those natty battery powered right angle wrenches

[Arnie Cunningham]

I had the same thought about the impact wrench

[Megaflow]

paintman said:

Presumably that with FWD there's no need to detach anything towards the rear & the box comes out sideways so no need for under rear end access whereas RWD the propshaft needs disconnecting & the box needs to be pulled rearwards to get it off so you need the height & room.
I've done both types on our own cars (Ford, several Peugeots 205 & 306 petrols, Range Rover Classic) & that's how I do the two types - although I don't have the luxury of a lift!

Edited by paintman on Tuesday 4th May 15:13

Sorry, I get why he uses it for RWD, I don’t get why he doesn’t for FWD, it must be easier than messing around with a Jack and multiple axle stands, note he always uses 4.

[Krikkit]

Arnie Cunningham said:

It's a funny old world. If you look at Kevin's channel, you can see he has 844K views, 300K views, 173K views on some of his vids
So cumulatively, there are more than a million people watching this bloke change clutches
https://www.youtube.com/user/kanmarad/videos?view=...

Would seem to be cheap for a reason - not a single properly torqued bolt in sight, everything just done up to big impact wrench tight... Wheel bolts done up chasing each other rather than a crossed pattern.

Bodge.

[CoolHands]

Decision made we’ve decided to pay. I can do lower arms / replace turbo oil pipes etc in the future as their own jobs, and they aren’t massive overwhelming. The clutch one I think I could end up regretting half way through the week so I’ll pay the guy.

Incidentally I went to another back street garage today who in a huge coincidence was doing a clutch on the same model today! He had it up on the ramp. He hasn’t done one on that model before and was having a mare.

[CoolHands]

Krikkit said:

Would seem to be cheap for a reason - not a single properly torqued bolt in sight, everything just done up to big impact wrench tight... Wheel bolts done up chasing each other rather than a crossed pattern.

Bodge.

To be fair that’s going to be the same in any garage!

[Arnie Cunningham]

To be fair, I don’t torque wrench every nut and bolt any more either. Critical ones, absolutely yes, but most of em I do by feel these days. Albeit I do it by hand, not with a battery powered job.

[Krikkit]

I wouldn't expect anything like every bolt done up with a torque wrench, but I'd at least expect a little care with the flywheel bolts, bell housing bolts and things like the hub nuts (which are pre-loading the bearings) to avoid issues like stripping threads, ruining wheel bearings down to wrong torque etc.

[InitialDave]

That's a generic "mechanic" problem, not restricted to whether they're mobile or not.

If you want to be 100% certain things are done a given way, I'm afraid you have to do it yourself.

I sometimes idly imagine that if I had a garage, all the impact guns would have the switch disabled so they only run one way...

[devnull]

CoolHands said:

Krikkit said:

Would seem to be cheap for a reason - not a single properly torqued bolt in sight, everything just done up to big impact wrench tight... Wheel bolts done up chasing each other rather than a crossed pattern.

Bodge.

To be fair that’s going to be the same in any garage!

And it's st like that which pisses me off. Do it properly to factory spec.

But like everything, people want stuff done as cheaply as possible. I came here to suggest watching this very guy, actually!

Also, I am very surprised at the number of fairly new cars with fked clutches. Are people generally that crap? I've yet to rinse a clutch in any car, and I've done a combined 400k in the last 20 years.

[Captain Answer]

devnull said:

CoolHands said:

Krikkit said:

Would seem to be cheap for a reason - not a single properly torqued bolt in sight, everything just done up to big impact wrench tight... Wheel bolts done up chasing each other rather than a crossed pattern.

Bodge.

To be fair that’s going to be the same in any garage!

And it's st like that which pisses me off. Do it properly to factory spec.

But like everything, people want stuff done as cheaply as possible. I came here to suggest watching this very guy, actually!

Also, I am very surprised at the number of fairly new cars with fked clutches. Are people generally that crap? I've yet to rinse a clutch in any car, and I've done a combined 400k in the last 20 years.

Most mechanics I've known only get a torque wrench out for wheel nuts and head bolts, other than that... you can imagine

[Arnie Cunningham]

InitialDave said:

If you want to be 100% certain things are done a given way, I'm afraid you have to do it yourself.

I'm one of the relatively few people who does all the work on my C5 RS6 myself. All of the jobs, which has included engine out, turbos, suspension, everything.
There's then a substantial group who use MRC & Unit 20. They always do a good job.

And then there's other's who give either Audi or a local independant garage a chance.
They regularly end up disappointed - there's a chap right now who's been waiting for a local garage for a month to finish his cam belt!!!

devnull said:

Also, I am very surprised at the number of fairly new cars with fked clutches. Are people generally that crap? I've yet to rinse a clutch in any car, and I've done a combined 400k in the last 20 years.

I worry about this too. I must be doing something wrong since I've never worn a clutch out either - I assume they're biding their time to all fail on me at once.

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Wednesday 5th May 16:03

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Wednesday 5th May 16:05