the other discussion board is pathetic..........seriously...it realy is pathetic.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I for one am happy there are people here to answer my dumb-ass questions. I grew up in the city and didnt get my first car until I was 23 and didnt get my second car until I was 31. I dint have a father around growing up and the only tools we had in the house were a little ***** hammer for hanging pictures and a multi-bit screwdriver for god-knows-what. We lived in apartment buildings, and when something broke, the landlord hired someone to fix it.
I am learning as I go here. A haynes manual came with the car and it taught me to change oil and filters. I just finished converting my 300D to veggie oil and man, did I learn a lot. I am glad I could come here and find out how to take the centre console out to install new switches. Silly stuff like that. I'm installing new mufflers tomorrow, and I posted here about a dozen times before figuring out how to do it...I'd still be taking the bus if it werent for forums like this...
the 300SD needs injector cleaning, glowplug replacement, window motor replacement, tie rod ends, the calipers are dragging I'm told and I have no friggin idea what that means but I hope I dont need to replace them. They're 250+ dollars. I'll figure it out. The A/C can stay broken.

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1980 300D (Luna)
1980 300SD (Sunny)

Do you provide the mechanic with room and board?

Do you give him time for meals?

Does he get health benefits?

Hey thats worth a try. How about $550.00

$3300.00 for all the vehicles and all the bikes.

VWBUGE,

1.I've developed this theory,that there are 5 different stages of homo-sapiens co-existing concurrently on planet earth.
2. number 1's and 2's we never are able to differentiate from the rest of the
population (they are so intelligent, they realize the path of least resistance
is to blend in with the "Hoi Poloi")
3. The number 3's can: do their own taxes , refuel their own vehicles,clean
fish without a diagram, AND sucessfully enrich others lives to boot!
4. The number 4's and 5's are wal-mart employees and politicians respectively.

6. NO ONE GETS OFF EARTH ALIVE (for long).
WHY NOT BE AS NICE TO THE OTHER POOR EARTHLINGS AS WE CAN??
7. at the same time on of the hardest VIRTUES to learn is PATIENCE.

8. On a very good day I might be on the bottom rung of number 3.

I'd say an even $3,000 per year. I was pretty close to that when I had that many on the list.

Hey, the heck with guessing. Just let me say that you pay too much, then you could help a brutha out that has, oh let's say, an undrivable smoking mesquito killer. Think of the $ you would save on insuring it!

**edit**
Good Lord I'm getting shameless in my desperation to drive an MB again.

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

helloTo All!,
hy I made not be able to do many major repairs, I certainly want to make sure the mechanic involvbes does it right and exactly What I am expecting. Recently, AC ork as done on my 240D and the damn mechanic converted my system to R34, I was pisses and informed hin this aws not my intention and upset about the conversion. R34 is an inferior refrigerant in series123 cars, mo I must get sytem dicharede, evacuated and rechareged ith Freon

I am not much of a poster but I read quite a bit. Most of the time these people want confirmation from those who have been there or done that, that way they can have peace of mind sending their car to this mechanic or simply doing it themselves given all the advise is taken. Sometimes they also don't want to try simply because they fear they might mess things up all the more. Not everybody is handy with tools, let alone the computer. That's the least they can do--ask. You have every right to worry about them, and you should, for their lack of knowledge. But in time they will learn, and that's where both sides will benefit.

Of course it's unavoidable to come across someone who just sends the car to a shop just because he/she has the money, or lacks the time, skills and resources to fix it him/herself.

When I was a new MB owner, I kept asking. That's how I got information, aside from searching. Then I tried things out. That's how I learned.

Everyone has to start somewhere. If these are young kids then they more than likely know squat about cars.
I know for me when I try doing something that I have never done before it get a little intimidating. That's why I do a lot of research and ask questions before I attempt any repairs. This is even though I have confidence in my mechanical abilities.
This type of discipline has to be LEARNED!! You learn from a teacher or by doing.
I think everyone here at some point has decided to be the teacher. I think if we recognize the point that an individual is in his "training" that we can be a little more objective and coach that person along to the next level.

I don't know what board your all talking about but I know one thing. If even a few of the regulars from here started posting over there some people would mature into some very good mechanics.

Just my 2c

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination

it's pretty easy to see who's trying and who's not - make sure you can scroll fast and/or spend more time here.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

Speaking about who is trying and who is not... after 20 years working in garages and body shops I can tell you that anyone who works with their hands, even if it has nothing to do with cars, is usually a reasonable customer. They understand what things cost, how much time it can take to do a repair, and are sensible and reasonable to deal with. I will always cut these people a break if I can because I know they don't have a lot of money to throw around and they will meet me half way in making my job easier and paying their bills.

The worst customers are the stuck up ones who never get their hands dirty and wouldn't even consider getting out of bed in the morning for less than $1000 a week. These are the ones who expect you to take the bread out of your children's mouths so they can have a play toy, and moan and chisel every chance they get. You can't afford to take a chance on these people. All you can do is do a perfect job using the maximum number of new parts and charge accordingly. If they don't like it they can go someplace else.

These are the ones you can break your back for doing a perfect job, then they will go around badmouthing all mechanics for being theives and incompetent morons. Yet they couldn't even change their own oil on a $1000 bet. They don't even know what they are talking about.

I would forgive a poor hard working mechanic for giving a customer like that the business. Believe me, I have seen it more than once. There are a hundred ways you can take advantage of one of these know it alls and they will never even suspect. The main thing is to flatter them and go along with their ignorant opinions, charge accordingly, then do the actual repair their car needs which costs about 1/10th of what they diagnosed themselves.

Speaking of which, there was an independent import car mechanic I used to know whose customers thought he was next to GOD. I thought he was a good mechanic by reputation but got a surprise one day when I saw a friend explaining to him how an engine worked - he didn't know the first thing about how a car ran. So how did he get such a great reputation as a mechanic?

His technique, for example if a car came in that wouldn't start, would be to replace the starter,starter relay or solenoid, battery, battery cables, and do a complete major tuneup. It would cost the customer $2000 but the car would start without fail for the next 3 years. If the same car came to me I would diagnose the problem as a loose fan belt, adjust the belt for $5 and send them on their way. Then the car would fail to start 3 months later for some totally unrelated reason and I would be the bum who charged all kinds of money to fix the car and didn't fix the problem. While he was the god like mechanic who could cure any problem permanently. I am not joking or exaggerating in the slightest. Obviously his customers were the type who drove BMW's SAABs and Jaguars, knew nothing about cars, and had the money to pay his bills. The type who think they know everything. He catered to them and gave them what they wanted. And I am not suggesting for a minute that they didn't get their money's worth. He did all the work he charged for and did it well. But 90% of the money was spent unneccessarily to my way of thinking. The fact that his customers loved him and held me in contemp, only proves that from a business standpoint he was right and I was wrong.

This no longer bothers me now that I am out of the business. You have to take it philosophically. There are all kinds of people in the world, and some of them seem like simpletons to me because they don't understand certain things, while they may have talents that I don't have and never will have, that are just as mysterious to me as mechanics are to them.

VWBUGE,

"I'll give someone one of my cars if they can guess how much I pay in car insurance a year."

$3,852 for just the cars is my guess.

Is the Imp registered and street legal? Ha Ha

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85' 300D No inspection, No registration fees, Cheap insurance
"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious %$&^."

I may ask some stupid questions (and ive even titled the thread stupid questions), but this is the first place in 2 1/2 years I have found that car answer my questions. I have 2 kids under 3, dont have a lot of time to do things to the car and well dont have a lot of money, so i try to find the cheapest, easiest, fastest way to do things.
Ive worked on cars before, minimal work, but never a diesel, so i ask LOTS of questions, because its a lot diffrent as far as im concerned. So, when you see these "stupid" people, maybe you should think about it diffrently.

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Kenni
'85 300D turbo
208K miles
FOR SALE (kinda)