D.I.Y.

I told you that if you needed a car radiator you should go to Bond St. behind Guinness, well now Gary stocks the full range of oil and air filters at a really good price.
Wipers and bulbs he will fit for you and he has a mind like Google when it comes to cars.
Time to take control of some of your costs.

Roy in his blog was having trouble with a garage, nothing new there.

I have been doing my own oil changes and simple servicing for years.
Every time I lapse back into going to the garage I get stung again!
If I need brakes I go to the brake man, exhausts I go to the other place.

Look! a gallon of the best oil and new filters comes in at less than €80,(this includes the pollen filter) you can change the oil and filters in a car in less than one hour.
So why waste a day at the garage.
In the UK you can rent out a service bay for your work and if you need a mechanic there is one there is there who will give you a hand out, its big business.
If you buy a set of socket wrenches and use them only once they have paid for themselves.
I have been buying a magazine for years called "Car mechanics"
They had an article in an issue I was reading about a Massarati, a home service. Well this guy had bought one and they talked him through the steps...
The oil has 6 drain points and the car has a dry sump!
Food for thought there and the air filter is located inside the front nearside wing !
So you have to take off the wheel and the wheel arch to get at the filter...Which had never been changed in spite of the car having had 3 fill services. each service costing over £1,500
Every issue of this mag gives you at least one secret of the motor trade..It really is good reading, I keep it beside my bed.
They had a special 50th year addition last year, I well remember one addition where there was a 45rpm record which played the sounds of a worn big end, noisy tappets etc.

Learn how to code a key yourself.

Did you know that if you have one of the faulty E class Mercs and it dies for no reason you can get her going again?
Leave the window and drivers door open, pop the bonnet, disconnect the battery for 5 mins, connect it up again and the on board computer re-boots itself and off you go again.
When the battery is re connected the doors lock themselves, so you don't want to be locked out.
You have to feel for Mr.Toyoda, he takes over his grandads company and has to preside over all those recalls, costing Toyota Billions.
Nothing wrong with My Prius though, nothing wrong with any Toyota I ever bought, I will be buying Toyota again and again.

Well here we are heading into St.Valentines weekend.
Did you know that there is a relic of St.Valentine in a church in Dublin?
It is in Whitefriars St. church on Auinger St.
There is supposed to be a black Madonna there too, but she just has a light tan.

Religion is a funny thing.A friend of mine was very sick he had cancer and a priest came to visit him,he brought a mitten from Padre Pio to bless him with it. John,the patient who is not at all religious told the priest to brace himself. Then he showed him his two hands which were bleeding from the palms....."I think I caught that myself said John"
The poor old priest was gobsmacked and took it as a sign for the good.
John did very well he just built a house in his garden which he has rented out, he has been to Las Vegas for a trip and life is for living !



There is no excuse for not going out.
Specials at Little Cesar's near the WESTBURY.

Now on the 14th it is the Chinese New Year, so rush into your local take away and say.
Happy New Year, I'm feeling lucky,, give me Nr.13.

Year of the Tiger, I hope it doesn't stink as much as the last one.

I am still carrying a passing er, in my head..
I picked her up on James's Sr near the hospital going to Ushers Quay.
If she weighed 5 stone that was it..Skin and bone.
Junkies and people with aids really upset me, in one respect I could drive past them, but they always pay..It is the waste of a life that upsets me and that "there but for the grace of God go you or I".
This girl has very little time to live, she complained of the cold, wearing pajamas would not have helped her situation. The trip was not eventful, nothing bad happened, but I can't put her out of my mind because she was so far gone.

You know if an animal was suffering like that you would put them down and end their misery..If I was in charge I would follow the line back to the one who imported the drugs on the first day and take them out too..