Barry

When people say that flushing older stuff isn’t good, what they really mean is the transmission is already banjaxed and all the dirt and gunk is blocking leaks and hiding noises which would otherwise not be noticeable. A transmission doesn’t get used to an oil. It’s a specialised piece of equipment built to high tolerances. It needs a proper flow of clean oil to work properly. Better to flush it and fix it properly instead of hiding and ignoring problems.

Mk 1 Escort Mexico ❤️ Tastefully modified too ❤️❤️ My uncle has a signal green one. Worth close to 250k now. Not the fastest car in the world but a lot of fun to drive.

I’ll have a play with it after the weekend and see what happens. Hopefully it works. It can be a pain in the arse sometimes working on these old cars. The parts just aren’t available and you have to work with what you’ve got. And if you break something? That’s a whole new story.

I concur, do a full flush, not just drain the sump and refill. If you don’t flush, you’re still left with dirty oil in the torque converter, valves etc. We have a flushing machine in the shop. Haven’t tested it yet, just saw it sitting in the corner.

Thanks for that. Every days a school day in this trade!

Unfortunately not. The only adjustment on it is for steering torque. When the gears inside are gone, that’s it.

E46? Illegal as heck. Show me your automatic licence ya akhi habibi!!

Yes. But I haven’t got time to look into it, I have too many projects on the go. I should post some of them on here. I need someone to fix this and I will say ok I will pay you cash.

I'm restoring a classic Mercedes at the minute. I guess the best way to describe the steering would be something similar to driving a hovercraft. I have renewed every steering arm and balljoint including idler and pitman arm, rebuilt the entire steering column with every bush, bearing and knuckle. Now I am stuck with a sloppy steering box. Proper old school hydraulic steering box, not a nice modern rack and pinion system. Does anyone have a reliable person who can rebuild steering boxes with no faults first time? I just don't have time to tear it down and spend 3 days looking for parts. If they don't rip me off on price, well that would be fantastic.

Tyres I can't comment on but for batteries I only use Amaron in the 4 years I've been here and never had an issue with them.

There used to be a guy who posted on here offering a service like that, I forget his name, maybe that’s him? Last garage I worked in I used to hire out lifts. Wasn’t a mega success but there were a few regulars who used to come and do their own thing. Maybe I should start it again. I’ve got 11 lifts and 2 motorcycle lifts so if anyone fancies doing their own work with a mechanic on standby, hit me up.

Bisaya master race! If you’re seriously interested, hit me up on Whatsapp, I will help you. I did a small investment as an experiment and it worked. The framework to make it big is all in place. Like real big. One condition, separate hammocks. I’m not a cuddly person.

True. I’ve bought so many cars at auction in Ireland. The cars are driven through so at least you know they are running. I remember buying a Renault Clio at an auction once. I knew my cousin was looking for one so I took a chance, it was super cheap, so I bought the car and stuck in on a trailer and brought it to her, cash up front, didn’t even charge profit, big mistake. She drove like 3 miles and it overheated. I ended up buying a new engine and fitting it for free because family. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You can either win big or lose big. That’s the fun of the game. It’s like betting on horses.

The Philippines has to be one of the most screwed countries in the world. The Spanish screwed them, the Japanese screwed them, the Americans screwed them, now the Chinese are screwing them. Independence is a good thing but you have to claim it and own it. I’m planning to retire there too when I’m old and useless (older and more useless). Way out in the bukid where I don’t have to deal with people. Nice quiet life where I can swing on my hammock, listen to the radio, play some guitar and enjoy my plants. I started a small business in Davao last year and it has just started passing the break even point last week. For a long time it felt like I was just sending money via western union for fun but now I can see I’m making a future for myself.

Some people don’t understand engine temperatures. I would quite happily run an engine up to 150 degrees if it had the proper coolant. Temperature isn’t an issue when it comes to engine cooling. I see so many people shit their pants if their temperature gauge reads 95 and they think they need a full rebuild. Running hot and overheating are 2 different things and I don’t think most people here understand the difference. Just because your temperature gauge hits the red doesn’t mean you overheated. Overheating is when the coolant boils. It creates air bubbles in the system which creates hot spots, which is why gaskets fail, they expand at different rates. I would have no problem running an engine to 150 degrees with waterless coolant. Running hot and overheating are 2 different things

If you’re smart about it and know the market and import/export costs there is money to be made. American muscle cars sell for buttons here. People buy them and don’t know what to do with them. They then lose all their value. I know people who make a decent living buying muscle cars here and then ship them back to the states. If you’re going to buy stuff like tiidas and corollas you’re going to lose. You need to be smart about it, know what you’re buying. I used to buy auction cars all the time at home. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you end up with a ball of dung. Buying muscle cars and shipping them to the states is a win win situation. Americans are crying out for these cars do your research. This is only my advice

So are movies. It’s entertainment.

I’m not a big WWE fan either. I like the smaller indie promotions like ring of honour, or tna back in the day. All elite wrestling is a new company worth checking out. It’s good harmless fun

@treks makes a valid point. I too have my doubts about it being sand in the system. For one grain of sand to get sucked into an overflow pipe is something, for a handful of sand to get sucked in is something else. The only way you’re going to get loads of sand in the expansion bottle is if there’s a big hole in it and sand is constantly getting kicked up around it, in which case the bottle would be leaking coolant everywhere. Waterless coolant is the way forward. I would put it in everything if the customers were willing to pay for it but they don’t understand, they just chase the smallest price. It’s simple to use but you need someone who knows what they’re doing. I’ve only seen it used in uae maybe 7-8 times and every time it’s been me who used it. First the system is flushed with a special fluid which removes every trace of water from the system. Then it’s filled with waterless coolant. The flushing fluid isn’t a big issue because you can filter it and use it over and over. Then you have the issue if you ever take the car to one of the small roadside garages, the “mechanics” won’t understand it and will properly top it up with “red coolant because it’s the best”. It’s all the little things and bits of knowledge like this why I charge 3 times more than most mechanics in Dubai. If you want to save money in the short term, go to rashidiya, if you want to pay a little bit more and save money in the long term, come to me.

People shouldn’t be so scared to talk about mental health issues. It’s no big secret to anyone who knows me but I deal with being bipolar every day and I’m still dealing with mild schizophrenia from years of taking lsd and mushrooms amongst all the other crazy shit I did before I came to uae. I wouldn’t change it because it shapes who I am and the way I see the world. I have a good wife who understands me and is very patient with me when I’m being crazy or unreasonable and having someone like that to talk to when things are rough makes life worth living. Social media like Facebook, Instagram etc is a cancer that affects people in ways that they don’t even realise. Sometimes I’m on the train and I see rows of people with their face glued to their phone just scrolling up and down the same few Facebook posts and I think to myself, you poor bastard, you don’t even know. Nobody has a perfect life and social media isn’t an accurate reflection of real life. People usually only post the best of the best stuff. I know people who haven’t got 2 washers to rub together in their pocket and are living on rice, sleeping in bed spaces, but if you looked at their social media accounts, you would think they were living the Dubai millionaire lifestyle. I deleted all my social media accounts a long time ago, it just wasn’t good for my head at all. I recently signed back up to Facebook for work purposes but I ended up deleting it after 2 weeks. Some people might think this sounds paranoid but my phone was listening to me and relaying the information to Facebook. I was getting friend recommendations for people I don’t know, have no connection to and had literally only spoken to for a few seconds. I was getting ads for things I had never searched online for but had been talking to people about. The internet is an amazing thing. There’s so many websites, so much information, so much to learn, but some people only revolve between Facebook and instagram and maybe a google search here and there. Social media mobile data packages only compound the problem. People are being encouraged and rewarded to visit these dross sites. Give everyone free access to Wikipedia instead, it would do a lot more good in the world, or maybe getting people to stick to social media is a good way to create subservient citizens instead of creating free minds.

I guess you’re not a wrestling fan? John Cena “you don’t see me”

John Cena is confirmed for the new movie https://deadline.com/2019/06/john-cena-officially-joins-fast-furious-9-1202629115/ How will we know if he’s actually there? I thought the whole point was that you can’t see him

If you clean the bottle, it will just turn brown again. You need to do a full coolant system flush with a proper flushing agent then rinse all the flush out with clean water, bottom to top. Dishwasher tablets are great for this. If you rinse tip to bottom, the water doesn’t get into all the galleries and you miss some. Bottom to top means the whole system is filled and all the crap gets washed out. Be 100% sure the coolant you’re putting in is the proper stuff. Don’t listen to the parts shop monkeys, they will tell you this colour is better than that colour when colour has nothing to do with it. You can get extra corrosion inhibitors like Fleetguard DCA4 to add to the system. They don’t sell them in normal car part stores but a decent truck and plant parts store should have them. Personally, I would just switch to a waterless coolant like Evans. The engine runs a few degrees hotter but it will never overheat and you won’t have any more corrosion problems because there’s no water in the system to boil and no water to cause oxidisation.

I used to deal with this a lot as a mechanic, especially when I worked in smaller garages. I don’t mind taking time to explain things to people who want to learn but when someone tries to tell me my job when they obviously don’t have a clue it makes my dung boil. I’m a lot more chilled out these days but a couple of times in the past I’ve pointed a customer to a tool box and said ok, you fix then.