Can we take a minute and just acknowledge our superiority over normies...

You're doing Gods work.

Enjoy the 10% loss the moment you drive it off the lot and additional 10% depreciation every year it's on the road.

I would have taken the fucker up on his offer of $700 for brakes...I did the brakes on my 05 Silverado, front to back, including wheel cylinders and calipers, and GM brake lines all around...parts were about $1500 alone...
It would have been a win...
Winning???

>gt
>ecoboost

pick neither, slow faggot

>kek

ecoboost fags need to die.

>mildly mechanically skilled and own a few tools
>can make a hundred bucks changing someone's brakes after the shop tries to
jew them

Feels good.

>I'm poor: the thread

Actually trading in your car is the smart thing to do thanks to tax credits

When you're earning 100$ an hour and have no interest in cars or equipment to work on them, 700$ is worth it.

Same reason you smug fags probably buy off the shelf speakers instead of just buying the parts for half the money and following a youtube video on how to put it together.

>oil change

kek, that is actually the only thing I would pay a peasant mechanic to do since I don't want to risk spilling on my garage floor.

It depends why.

Working on your car because you are Jewish? Yeah you are probably also poor.

Working on your car because you have the time and want to do the repair yourself? This has nothing to do with being poor, its almost the opposite. I consider it a luxury to have the ability to do my own repairs.

Everyone is always talking about how easy brake jobs are. "Super simple" "piece of cake!" "can't mess it up".
Well I'm somewhat knowledgeable on mechanics, took some auto classes, but never touched brakes before. Now I have squealing brakes on my miata and so I decided to tackle it myself. I determined it was most likely the pad shims so I got new ones, some brake cleaner, brake grease and some pad backing glue/ squeal stop stuff. Shouldn't take more than an hour or two.

1st hour: figuring out how to raise the vehicle. Lots of arguing online over proper jack points. The manual says to lift the rear by the diff but none of my 5 different jacks will fit under there and lift the diff without crushing the exhaust or something else.

>Finally get it up and get the wheels off

Next 20 minutes: Try to get the dust cap off the slide pin. Pull as hard as I possibly can, doesn't move. Turn it clockwise. Turn in counterclockwise. Pull hard again. Go online and try to see if there's a trick to it, every instruction just says "remove the dust cap lol".

>find out I need to turn a screw that "slides the calipers back" first before removing slide pin.

Next 40 minutes: spent trying to find the right size allen wrench to turn this asjustment screw. I can't see it, it's on the inside. Finally able to turn it, and the caliper doesn't move. Read online: some people say to also use a C clamp, some say not to, some broke their caliper by not doing it right.

I then did some more reading and it just looks like the next steps is opening a can of worms. Then there are people arguing over whether the brake reservoir cap needs to be on or off, people calling other people idiots for doing or not doing some thing that I am not familiar with, people talking about how they tried to do their brakes and ended up ruining the caliper, master cylinder and everything inbetween etc.

Then there's all these things in the instructions that they assume you should just know like Duh! Of course you need to lubricate the retaining springs and grease the shims and wax the rotor. What are you an idiot? It doesn't even need saying!

So anyway I spent a couple hours reading on how to basically just pop out the brake pads, clean and lube shit and put them back in but there's so much bad information and differing opinions I just gave up. Took me 4 hours to basically accomplish nothing, I didn't want to spend the rest of my weekend ruining my brake system only to have to still take it to a shop.

So basically, fuck everyone who says brakes are easy.

Yeah I don't get doing your own oil change. There is no way to do it and not make a mess, and there are shops that will do it in 20 minutes for $30.

because some quick lube shops are known to jew people and use inferior oil, or say they did the oil filter and just put the old one back in

>I consider it a luxury to have the ability to do my own repairs.
>I consider it a luxury to work my ass off for hours getting filthy and covered in oil

Now I'm all for repairing things yourself, but it in no way fits the definition of luxury. You think the bourgeoisie fix cars themselves so as to be more luxurious? Hell no, they take it to some mechanic while they drive their other s class around.

Name 5 shops in your area that are known and proven to be jewing people with bad oil and used filters

Though some of my shitty jobs i've worked over the years, i've learned a few things

If you love something its easy to become good at it and tolerate the bullshit about it.
My friend who is a chef likes to work in a kitchen, I fucking don't
I'd rather work in a garage and pound out obnoxious shit

Like to him, working a broken bolt out of its threads sounds like hell, but to me it sounds like a decent afternoon if i need to do it to get a job done
Conversely, I'd rather slam my dick in a shop press than work another dinner rush

Actually, I'm the guy he's replying to and I once had a shop charge me (like $25) to change the cabin air filter. All they did was flip it over and have it blow all the shit out of the filter into the cab. That was at a Mobil 1.

Walmart

Canadian tire

Jiffy lube

Kal tire

Kwik lube

While i'm sure there are a bunch of shops doing all kinds of shit to get easy money, I don't think the practice is as widespread as people make it out to be.
Not going to a shop because they may or may not pretend to change stuff you are paying for is like saying you don't want to go to a restaurant because the cook may or may not dip his balls in your plate and use inferior ingredients than advertised.

It's just needless paranoia that can be avoided by doing a tiny bit of research.

Prove it

>gave up
well there's your problem

You don't need to grease the shims or wax the rotor or any of that shit, just a little grease on the ears of the brake pads is fine unless you are dealing with very rusty shit from up north in which case the other stuff is somewhat necessary.

Miatas are easy as fuck, I did a first time change of pads, rotors, and front bearings on my '99 NB in about an hour and a half, but I had Alldata, a lift and an ASE-certified instructor to help me as I'd never worked on a Miata before in my life.

You will not fuck up the rear calipers or the brake system so long as you DO NOT USE a C-clamp or caliper spreader on the rears. See, you can use a C-clamp on the fronts, for which you should undo the reservoir cap. But the rears are only adjusted back by that screw you found.
You just turn it until the piston is retracted enough to fit the pads and disc in between without contact, then you tighten it very slightly so you can just barely hear the disc rub the pads while spinning the wheel. This sets your handbrake tension and is extremely important if you don't like having your Miata roll away without you in it.

Actual mechanic here. The amount of jobs I've had to complete for people that tried fixing their car on their own is staggering. For example

>Neighbor comes over
>"user my car needs brakes, can you come over and replace them"
>"No I don't work on cars at home or in a driveway bring it to my shop on monday"
>Reluctantly agrees
>Have car in the air, wheels off. Pads rotors all around, front and rear calipers have seized pistons. Needs a bunch of other shit as well
>Give him quote for parts and labour (reduced rate, and parts at cost)
>looses mind, claims I'm scamming him says he'll do it himself
>lol k goodluck

>fast forward to thursday morning
>See neighbor attempting brake job in driveway bought parts and tools that internet told him to buy
>Go over to make sure car is lifted on stands safely, try to offer some guidance like make sure to bleed new calipers
>cuts me off tells me to go away
>lol k
>Get home see car still apart
>not surprised in the slightest

>Friday afternoon
>Car arrives on tow truck
>Back bumper destroyed
> "user I put it all together and went for a drive but the car wouldn't stop!"
>"Did you bleed the brakes"
>"...what?"

He also couldn't get the rotors off so he just slapped new pads on the old ones.

Yes there is, you go to Autozone and get a drain pan and a fuckload of shop rags.
Stuff shop rags into the drain pan and they'll soak up the oil so you can just throw them away in the regular trash without having to fuck around with 4 quarts of black death

and I bet he still wonders why your quote was so high

gee it's almost as if repairing a 2-ton death machine so it can safely do 80 mph is an enormous responsibility or something hmm

I know my shit is fixed right when I do it myself. I know exactly how it was fixed too, and that it is up to my standards.

good lad

>You just turn it until the piston is retracted enough to fit the pads and disc in between without contact,
Yeah that's the point I gave up at, because I couldn't see the calipers or pads move with my turning the screw. Though I could tighten it until the brakes grabbed, but I wasn't sure it was loose enough when I went the other way and people said you could ruin the caliper if it's not loose enough.

I really need someone to do it once with me but I don't have any friends.

I didn't say fixing cars yourself isn't a good thing to do, I only said rich people don't really do it unless they're very passionate about cars.

The worst is trying to not drop the drain plug into the bucket or you have to reach in and fish it out, so you unscrew the plug by hand so you can hold on to it but then hot dirty oil gushes out and runs down your arm and onto your shirt. But hey you saved $15!

>putting quarts of used oil in the trash
Sounds like an emvironmental disaster

People are just so shocked when they see an estimate that's worth half the cost of the cheap old shitbox they bought. So they resort to the internet to guide them through. All those forum posts and youtube videos won't help you when shit inevitably doesn't go as planned.

Cross threaded a bolt, now what?
Snapped the head off a bolt, now what?
Rotor seized hard to a flange, now what?
Piston came out of a caliper, now what?
Slider pin seized into a caliper, now what?
Broken exhaust manifold bolt in the cylinder head, now what?

I could go on for days. Part of what you're paying for when you go to a mechanic is experience. I've got experience in dealing with situations on cars when fecal matter hits the oscillating device.

you two realize that you can take your used oil to any place that sells fresh oil and they're legally obligated to dispose of it at no charge? at least that's the law in Canada

Same in America we just take it to vatozone, don't know what they're complaining about

>mfw spic mechanics exist and get fleet vehicle contracts

iirc it's perfectly fine to dispose of oily paper products with normal garbage, just not pouring straight oil in the trash can or down the drain or something.

also have fun taking a pan full of oil to autozone without splashing it all over your fucking trunk. Again, the rags somewhat mitigate this.

>not just pouring it into a big jug using a funnel

Do people actually drive around with a pan full of oil in their trunk?

yeah you turn it until it moves, there's a little space there where they do not move until the screw starts to pull them back. You can also totally unscrew the screw without damaging anything and check to make sure it's still a screw -- some have been stripped of threads by morons and thus don't adjust anything.

Because they haven't got a jug and you would think a "spill proof" oil pan would actually prevent spillage but nope.

>trying to glorify being poor
Turning bolts doesn't make you special, kid.

*Tips fedora* ill give you one upboat sir

Honestly I've stopped draining the oil pan these days. When I want to change the oil I just drop the pan, put it in my other car and dump the oil at the car part store.

But what about the now empty oil jugs they have after pouring the new oil in?

Being handy in general is a good way to save quite large amounts of money, and it applies to pretty much anything

PC not working? Knowing how to diagnose and what does what means you can order parts cheap and replace yourself, or fix whatever software is wrong

Car needs a brake job, oil change or whatever? Buy parts, do labor yourself - save maybe 66% of the cost

Drains clogged? No problem, you know how the pipes work and where they run

Go to the Safeway bakery department and ask for old buckets. They might charge you $5 but the buckets lick tight and have a rubber seal.

My body shop guy drives a 458 italia
>Worked for a shop and learned skills
>Saved up shekles and started his own after a few years
>all his tow truck friends give people his card at a wreck and he hooks them up
>all the new car dealers bring their cars to him when they are damaged in transport
>the detailing guy up the street also has a deal with him
>kept reinvesting in the business
>He has easy 30 employees now, people who just do quotes, people who just wash the cars, and is busy all the fucking time

I like it when my boyfriend licks me tight and has a rubber seal.

You just described an entrepreneur, not a mechanic.

>Cross threaded a bolt, now what?
tap and drill

>Snapped the head off a bolt, now what?
tap and drill

>Rotor seized hard to a flange, now what?
what? just stop being a pussy and hit it harder

>Piston came out of a caliper, now what?
put it back in? lol

>Slider pin seized into a caliper, now what?
throw away the whole caliper and order a new one? probably like $30 from a junkyard lol

>Broken exhaust manifold bolt in the cylinder head, now what?
this is pretty much the only thing I would go to a mechanic for. that is until I discovered I could buy a $15 extendable magnet from Amazon and just fish it out myself. lol

t. someone that wasted thousands of dollars and hours going thorugh all this bullshit

He's so cute. I just want to hood him and stroke him. :3

Wow I'm sure everyone here is impressed by your problem solving skills

I just got my first care half a year back and it's brakes are spongy. I'm going to replace the brake master cylinder and brake pads.

My question is, if I replace the brake master cylinder with a new one, filling it with brake fluid, do I need to bleed/flush the brakes? If so, in what order should I do the the cylinder replacement, brake pad swap, and bleed?

>take car to niggerauto for an oil change
>70 merkels
>tell me to come back in 2 hours
>call me as i'm about to return
>"hey your coolant is old and dirty and full of rust, we can flush it and put fresh one back in for 70 more"
>tell them to fuck off
>get car back
>leaking oil
They put the oil filter o ring wrong

>friend's car is in need of an oil change
>figure I can do it myself
>friend's mom said she'd pay for it to be taken to a shop
>sure okay why not
>take it there, spend 70 dollars on what is inevitably recycled oil and a noname filter
>smells like a stinky nigger when it comes out
Never. Again.

My father is rather well-off, and literally does everything himself to save money. But he worked as a mechanic in his youth before getting a degree and job that pays real money so maybe he likes doing it in the end.

you should prove that they dont do that shady shit

do you really believe you're getting true synthetic? or a house bulk brand which is comparable to supertech by the barrel?

>They put the oil filter o ring wrong

Happened to me too, people are fucking incompetent

>maybe he likes doing it in the end

Yup, that or he's very thrifty

t. normie who can't wrench

Dont feel bad, man. I worked with a guy whose a fairly knowedgable mechanic by trade and he also had trouble with his Miata's brakes, and he's done countless brake jobs. I dont know about the fronts but the rear brakes are built kind of weird. MOST brake jobs are easy once you get the basics down, but there's always the exceptions that send even veterans for a loop.
Best way to learn how to work on a car is get a Chilton/Haynes manual for the car and go from there. Or even better an official Factory Service manual. Its by no means easy otherwise auto-mechanic shops wouldnt exist and everyone would fix their cars themselves. Some people have a kmack for it and some people dont.

Just get a $10 drain pan with a nozzle, you fucking nigger.

Use the jug the new oil came in.

I'm with this guy. If you take pride in anything you have ever done or accomplished, you are a complete fucktard.

>Working on your car because you have the time and want to do the repair yourself? This has nothing to do with being poor, its almost the opposite. I consider it a luxury to have the ability to do my own repairs.
This. It takes significant money to be able to do car repairs yourself. First you need to live in a house, preferably with a garage. So either renting or owning, meaning you make money and saved money.

Two you need proper equipment; two good jack lifts that are rated for your car gross weight or close, (couple hundred), quality jack stands and the usual equipment plus specialized equipment for your car. So we are talking a couple hundred just for car repair equipment. So unless you are in the neck of the woods with nearest light pole few miles away, doing you own car repairs in a cvilized, non Autozone parking setting is a status symbol now.

Couldn't afford a big boy muscle car, eh?

>Yeah I don't get doing your own oil change. There is no way to do it and not make a mess, and there are shops that will do it in 20 minutes for $30.
I used to take one of my cars to mechanic for oil changes. Got a warning light at 2.5k miles one time. Get home, do quick googlefu and then proceed to check the oil level. The oil didn't even register on the dipstick! Fucking mechanic underfilled the oil and if I ignored the warning my engine would've been toast in a day or two. After that experience I change the oil myself. Rather get dirty and have a small clean up job than have to pay a few grand for an engine replacement.

pls respond

Yes, you will need to bleed the system...in the order you listed...

Yes you need to bleed the system and you should anyways w/ a brake change. Do serious googlefu, that shit can vary per manufacturer and you may be able to purchase bleeder kits for your car that make it painless.

Jack: 25$ from vatozone
Jack stands: 30$ from vatozone
Socket set: 10$ off amazon
Wrenches: 15$ amazon

You easily save that money doing one or two simple jobs, with the added benefit of now owning your own tools

>you need house with garage
I just do it mexican style in the street

You can also do it at O'Reilly
Just make sure you don't mix containers otherwise you'll have to take it to a special recycling place because the oil is contaminated(don't put used oil in a coolant container

My shitbox baby 98' Accord makes a clucking sound when I press on / release the gas.

I thought it was a loose muffler but the mechanic says I need a new catalytic converter which they can do for $300.

They don't seem like liars but idk

I used to work at a GM shop and we always had the three most used oils in those 200L barrels and they were all synthetic, for other oils with specs that were incompatible with our oils we simply went to the part store and bought by the quart.
Full synthetic is pretty much the norm around here, every part store has shelves full of synth, while the blends are usually just stacked in a small corner because they sell very poorly or were marketed for non-car use like lawnmowers, generators and stuff like that so you usually have to ask for blends or non-synth or they would just give you full synthetic.

I also used to go a lot to workshops nearby to help them or ask for help and all of them had synth as their primary oils.

So yeah, you should really show me a proof of what you say, because as far as my limited experience goes, everyone sells synthetic oils around here.
Also filters are so goddamn cheap that I don't really see a reason for not changing them (we did change them, all the time) and risk a huge PR nightmare just to steal a few bucks.

There are so many other, more profitable components that you can pretend to change (like sensors and electronic parts in general) and turn a good profit on, that a cheap ass filter, which anyone with a very basic understanding of cars can check and track, becomes an absolute no brainer to change

>Jack: 25$ from vatozone
>Jack stands: 30$ from vatozone
I wouldn't trust that shit when getting under a 4000 lb car.

Seriously, if you're gonna cheap out on car supports then at least get some plastic ramps or something. Hell, park it on a curb if you have to.

There was some ancient pop mech article where they make do with sandbags for ramps...

>superiority
>over this
There is a lot more to people you know, age many metrics that you'd have to consider. I work on my own car too, but that doesn't mean I'm superior. Do you think you're superior to someone like Euler?

>purchase bleeder kits for your car that make it painless.

This

Tried flushing my system manually with tubing and stomping on the brake pedal, just ended up getting a ton of air in my lines. Gave up, ordered a bleeder kit, fixed it in like ten minutes. For the sake of your paint job, don't fuck around with brake fluid for extended periods of time.