What Did You Buy Today?

[dkemppai]

( $457 ) Parts and Labor . $43 at Advanced Auto and an hour of work in the driveway , along with a few cold ones . Not sure what the labor rate was but I surely never made it .

It's a game. Shops do everything by the 'book' now. If the books says 4 hours, they bill 4 hours even if it takes 45 minutes!

I always figured brakes are a no-brainer money maker if you do them yourself. I do pads and rotors every time (they're so cheap now).
Helped my Dad do Mom's care a while ago. With two of us, all four corners was 1 hour 45 minutes, including 45 minute trip to town. Something like $250 on parts, and figured it would have been $800+ for a shop to do it!

Yep, that lift has earned it keep! lol.

 

[mmcmdl]

It's a game. Shops do everything by the 'book' now. If the books says 4 hours, they bill 4 hours even if it takes 45 minutes!

I need to get a copy of that book ! Being retired now , I could use the extra income .

 

[dkemppai]

I need to get a copy of that book ! Being retired now , I could use the extra income .

Or at least be able to justify tool purchases. (Strut compressor was easy to justify that way! lol)

 

[woodchucker]

The mechanic up the road tried to start a lug nut on the 4 Runner with an impact when he rotated the wife's tires . Found that out when doing the brakes yesterday . The brakes took an hour . Took 2 hours to find a couple M12-1.5 taps in the basement to fix his FUs .

My son did that with my impact wrench. He didn't hand thread it on. Was unable to get it off, or fully on. Since the lugs were inset into the mag wheel, had to take it to a station to remove. I think he O/A cut it, some slight damage to the wheel. He learned to never do that again.

 

[SouthernChap]

He'll need a 240/120 transformer to go with it (and one of those funny plugs they use in the UK).

Oh yeah, I forgot, you guys aren't keen on proper electricity.

Seriously though, what is the deal with the 110v thing? I know Europeans mostly used 110v for a long while, but even they've pretty much switched to 230v now. So why the 110v in the States?

 

[WobblyHand]

Oh yeah, I forgot, you guys aren't keen on proper electricity.

Seriously though, what is the deal with the 110v thing? I know Europeans mostly used 110v for a long while, but even they've pretty much switched to 230v now. So why the 110v in the States?

No idea, besides inertia. Maybe because insulation (gutta percha) was expensive and copper wasn't? Now a days, the insulation is cheap and the copper is expensive. Don't forget there's the 50/60 Hz thing as well.

 

[dkemppai]

Oh yeah, I forgot, you guys aren't keen on proper electricity.

Seriously though, what is the deal with the 110v thing? I know Europeans mostly used 110v for a long while, but even they've pretty much switched to 230v now. So why the 110v in the States?

Safety. 120V is safer than 240V... Do you really need 230V for your cell phone charger anyway???

Don't forget with our dual main center tapped panels, we do have 240V available. Line to Neutral gives 120, where Line to Line gives 240. Usually higher current devices are 240V, though. The theory is with the center tap being Neutral (= Ground), any point in a 240V system is always only 120V above ground, which makes it 'safer'.

And you guys with your 50Hz, require bigger capacitors in your DC power supplies! And larger transformer cores! So there!

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Safety. 120V is safer than 240V... Do you really need 230V for your cell phone charger anyway???

Don't forget with our dual main center tapped panels, we do have 240V available. Line to Neutral gives 120, where Line to Line gives 240. Usually higher current devices are 240V, though. The theory is with the center tap being Neutral (= Ground), any point in a 240V system is always only 120V above ground, which makes it 'safer'.

And you guys with your 50Hz, require bigger capacitors in your DC power supplies! And larger transformer cores! So there!

This is a very good explanation...

 

[ChazzC]

Yeah Chazz . This is a new guy that took over Sam Walker's shop at the top of my street . Never used him before but figured they could handle an oil change and tire rotation . Oil changes aren't an issue for me , but tires are heavy these days . He stated the rear pads were low and should be replaced . ( $457 ) Parts and Labor . $43 at Advanced Auto and an hour of work in the driveway , along with a few cold ones . Not sure what the labor rate was but I surely never made it .

---

Stand by for OT:

After a woman ran a stop sign on Rt72 near the Turnpike, T-boned my S10 Blazer and put me upside down in a ditch (miraculously only cracked ribs & sternum, and sore all over) in front of Highland Tank in 97 I needed a new vehicle. Once I was able to move around I went shopping. Looked at the Buick Regal, but the dealer was also the Cadillac dealer and I saw the Catera and fell in love (big mistake: built in Germany to Cadillac trim and first model year; Cadillac spent over $15K fixing issues before I traded in before the [Cadillac funded] extended warranty ran out).

The funny part: was getting the first (free) service on the Catera and a service rep came into the waiting room to tell an old guy (younger than us) he needed new brakes and quoted around $500; the guy throws down his paper says “No way, I saw a new Seville in the lot, I’m trading it in!” I guess the ashtrays were full, too.

 

[ChazzC]

It's a game. Shops do everything by the 'book' now. If the books says 4 hours, they bill 4 hours even if it takes 45 minutes!

I always figured brakes are a no-brainer money maker if you do them yourself. I do pads and rotors every time (they're so cheap now).
Helped my Dad do Mom's care a while ago. With two of us, all four corners was 1 hour 45 minutes, including 45 minute trip to town. Something like $250 on parts, and figured it would have been $800+ for a shop to do it!

Yep, that lift has earned it keep! lol.

Pads & rotors are the cheap parts: pad thickness sensors are expensive and designed to break if you try to reuse them.