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IME if it's a cheap cable or an extensive bit of deep engine surgery, it's never the cable...

Speaking as a person who just had a headlight bulb blown and ended up spending almost a grand just this month.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I will add the caveat that while I don't consider my luck in life to be better or worse than most, on average, "getting away with" mechanical failures is an area where I consider my fortunes to skew heavily to the "out of the frying pan into the cesspit."

Much the same as myself.

Previous motor was a dream to drive, but the speedometer conked out. Turns out, one of the previous owners proper bodged the electrics, and the only fix was pull the entire wiring loom and replace it.

That car went to the great scrap heap in the sky.

Surprising, replacing the wiring loom isn't actually that big of a job in most cars.

Meh. I fixed my bad alternator last year in about 15 minutes (and most of that was wrestling with the new serpentine belt that I decided to replace while I was at it) and about $100 after the Core Charge. It isn't complicated. Basically remove and replace. If [RANDOM HOLLER TRASH] like me can do it, then I think MDG will be okay.

Think I’ll stick with the garage. That way I get some kind of guarantee if it goes wrong. And I can be sure it’s not just the one problem!

 Gadzilla666 wrote:
Meh. I fixed my bad alternator last year in about 15 minutes (and most of that was wrestling with the new serpentine belt that I decided to replace while I was at it) and about $100 after the Core Charge. It isn't complicated. Basically remove and replace. If [RANDOM HOLLER TRASH] like me can do it, then I think MDG will be okay.

Like I said up thread, every 20 minute job is one sheared bolt from a 3 day nightmare.

Theoretically I can change the oil on pretty much anything short of a semi, but I pay the garage so when the sump nut is rounded off, or fused on as it once was on a particularly defiant Italian car I had, it isn't my problem to deal with, and, more to the point, they're infinitely better equipped to deal with it.

Plus I'm giant and my back isn't what it was, and most cars these days require the flexibility of a gymnast and the hands of a child to work on!

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Gadzilla666 wrote:
Meh. I fixed my bad alternator last year in about 15 minutes (and most of that was wrestling with the new serpentine belt that I decided to replace while I was at it) and about $100 after the Core Charge. It isn't complicated. Basically remove and replace. If [RANDOM HOLLER TRASH] like me can do it, then I think MDG will be okay.

Like I said up thread, every 20 minute job is one sheared bolt from a 3 day nightmare.

Theoretically I can change the oil on pretty much anything short of a semi, but I pay the garage so when the sump nut is rounded off, or fused on as it once was on a particularly defiant Italian car I had, it isn't my problem to deal with, and, more to the point, they're infinitely better equipped to deal with it.

Plus I'm giant and my back isn't what it was, and most cars these days require the flexibility of a gymnast and the hands of a child to work on!

You've got the money to pay others to do it. Good for you. I've fixed cars in deep snow and on the sides of roads because I had no other option. Consider it working class rural Appalachian sensibility vs urban/suburban European sensibilities. Good for you, I guess?

Oh calm the feth down, Jesus Christ.

There's a world of difference between scheduled repair and maintenance and emergency breakdowns, we've all got stories of times we got stuck, no need to get weird about it.

Ummm, I am calm? Like I said "good for you". Why do you find it problematic that some of us have to fix such problems ourselves?

I don't, I find it problematic when those people appear to be getting defensive because other people who live in different countries make different decisions.

But, I'm not? Like I said, it's different sensibilities from different places/economic situations?

There's clearly no point in continuing this discussion, I suspect I'm entirely right on judging the tone and intent of what you wrote, you're simply going to claim innocence.

Given there's no way to resolve it conclusively either way, we'll just leave it there and anyone else reading can make their own decisions.

Trouble for this repair is it seems you need to take a wheel off to access the belt thingy. As I’ve no proper jack, and indeed no driveway, I just don’t have the tools and space.

I say proper Jack, as I do have one for the changing of tyres. But I wouldn’t really trust it, or myself, for a longer more fiddly repair.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Plan worked so far. Battery charge from last night was enough to get the old girl down the road to the garage.

Hopefully it won’t be a big job!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Trouble for this repair is it seems you need to take a wheel off to access the belt thingy. As I’ve no proper jack, and indeed no driveway, I just don’t have the tools and space.

I say proper Jack, as I do have one for the changing of tyres. But I wouldn’t really trust it, or myself, for a longer more fiddly repair.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Plan worked so far. Battery charge from last night was enough to get the old girl down the road to the garage.

Hopefully it won’t be a big job!

For your situation, it makes absolutely the most sense to just let the garage handle it:

- some of the potentially faulty stuff is still under guarantee
- you are not sure what exactly the problem is, or if there are perhaps several problems
- you have neither the space nor all the equipment to comfortably and safely do the job yourself
- in many of the potential problem cases you'd need to order replacement parts through a garage anyway
- you want to have a guarantee if additional problems arise later on

It's absolutely the right call to accept that this job lies outside of your current material/skill corridor and to take it to a pro.

It does need new headlamps though, as the current ones have misted quite badly.

That I’m happy to do on my own. Undo two bolts. Slide out and disconnect, then reverse the process with the new unit. And I can safely do that roadside, as I’d be stood in front of the car, not off the side where I might get squished.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It does need new headlamps though, as the current ones have misted quite badly.

That I’m happy to do on my own. Undo two bolts. Slide out and disconnect, then reverse the process with the new unit. And I can safely do that roadside, as I’d be stood in front of the car, not off the side where I might get squished.

When I was parking in the street and needed to change a headlight, I tossed my tools in the trunk of may car and did the change in the parking lot of the parts store. Much lower risk of getting splatted. And if I needed a different part, just a few steps away.

That’s true! Probs gonna order online from Eurocarparts. They’re fairly reasonably priced.

I could get a cleaning kit, but I’m not entirely convinced of their efficacy.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
That’s true! Probs gonna order online from Eurocarparts. They’re fairly reasonably priced.

I could get a cleaning kit, but I’m not entirely convinced of their efficacy.

Depending on your legislation 'cleaning kits' may be of questionable legality, do not use them if you intend to drive through France or Germany - some of them work as an abbrasive or coating agent, which can lead to losing the type-approval for the headlights and in consequence for the whole car. German police is always on the lookout for stuff like that and will happily fine you hundreds of euros as well as end your trip till you can replace the lights if they catch you I'm not aware of the exact regulations in the UK, but you better check that out beforehand.

Iiiiiiittttttttsssss.

The alternator. Needs a new one, and a drive belt.

Looking at £200 inc VAT for parts, and currently unknown Labour. As the guy said, the older the car the more chance something has seized.

I reckon I’m looking at £400 minimum.

It was the odds on bet, good job it wasn't any fall out of a leaking battery because that could have gone anywhere.

As far as headlights go, it's increasingly common to require the front bumper be removed, or at least loosened if you're cutting corners, to get the headlights out, so if you're not 100% sure they just slide out, that's worth double checking. Not inherently a massive issue, but it will add time and complexity, as well as maybe require being able to get the nose off the ground to access some bolts.

Secondly, you might be able to just replace the glass on them, rather than the whole unit. It's increasingly uncommon now, they're usually sealed units, and fitting them might take more effort than a swap out, but it would definitely be cheaper if it's an option.

Definitely easy slide out, and non-replaceable covers.

Looks like I can get them for around £88 a pop. So maybe I will give a cleaning kit a bash…

 Azreal13 wrote:
It was the odds on bet, good job it wasn't any fall out of a leaking battery because that could have gone anywhere.

As far as headlights go, it's increasingly common to require the front bumper be removed, or at least loosened if you're cutting corners, to get the headlights out, so if you're not 100% sure they just slide out, that's worth double checking. Not inherently a massive issue, but it will add time and complexity, as well as maybe require being able to get the nose off the ground to access some bolts.

Secondly, you might be able to just replace the glass on them, rather than the whole unit. It's increasingly uncommon now, they're usually sealed units, and fitting them might take more effort than a swap out, but it would definitely be cheaper if it's an option.

08 Ford Fiesta headlights ought to be dirt cheap to get at any junkyard that sells auto parts. Doubly so if it's a yard that lets you do the work yourself. That also doubles as training time for removing your own later on

 Azreal13 wrote:
My big reservation is that most of the things being discussed would stop the car starting but they wouldn't stop the car running.

Unless they were utterly fethed, but if they're utterly fethed then I'm a little surprised that the car starts at all.

A bad alternator would take a charged battery and run it down until the electrical system died. Back in the day (when you could push-start a car), that wasn't fatal, but today's gizmo-laden vehicles can't run without electricity.

I had a 1986 Mercury Topaz go dead one memorable Saturday night while turning left in heavy traffic. We got it into the closest lot, called for service but it would not jump or even twitch. Turned out the very early computer chip in it had burned out, killing the thing.

And she’s fixed! Wallet is £300 the lighter, but job’s a good’un.

Given buying the parts would’ve been around half that? I feel I got a bargain overall. Also the peace of mind what needed fixing was fixed, and there’s not something else lurking.

Yeah, by the time you buy the tools you need and spend a few hours swearing at it, the £100 labour cost to get it done properly doesn't sound like a bad deal.


And absolutely never do anything with the included wheel changing jack than change a wheel, those things are pretty much for emergency use only so there's no way I'd put anything under the car whilst up on one.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And she’s fixed! Wallet is £300 the lighter, but job’s a good’un.

Given buying the parts would’ve been around half that? I feel I got a bargain overall. Also the peace of mind what needed fixing was fixed, and there’s not something else lurking.

My father once remarked that when he hires someone to do repairs, he's effectively paying himself to not have to deal with the problem.

Definitely proper fixed as well, as made the commute without incident on Friday.

Though I’ll freely admit to a certain level of paranoia on the drive to work. Also some relief when I realised just how close it had come to breaking down in the two lane roadworks, which most likely would’ve seen me squished to deth.