The Panic Mechanic Blog

I have heard that this year we will see plenty of snow and ice. In fact, Scotland had snow only last month!

At the moment we have had funny weather with November being more mild than normal, but don’t get fooled into thinking winter is going to be mild. Get yourself prepared now for the unexpected. The last thing you want is to be coming home from work and stuck in traffic because the weather has taken a bad turn. Worse still, is to be stuck in your car, as many motorist experienced last year and to run out of fuel, over-heat your engine and have limited visibility as your screen wash ran out.

I thought I would put together a check list of items you need to be thinking about packing into your boot so that you are prepared and I mean, as soon as possible:

1 – High visibility waterproof coat, gloves and hat. You might need to ditch the car and walk.

2 – 3 litre bottle of water, not only will it keep you hydrated, it can be used to top up engine water if your car has over-heated due to no water. It can also be used for the windscreen washer, if you forgot to top that up.

3 – Shovel, it will most certainly help you free your car in the snow.

4 – Snow chain and a tow rope are ideal, but understandably most people won’t have these items, so the shovel would be a must!

5 – Emergency phone numbers and mobile phone car charger.

6 – Torch

7 – Sweets, it might help keep the hunger worms at bay if you have missed dinner stuck in your car.

8 – Mask, or at least scarf of some sort to wear over your face if you have had to ditch the car and are walking past traffic. This happened to a friend who said the fumes almost knocked him out!

9 – Jump leads, this is something you should always carry, but certainly if you are stuck in traffic and are using electrics, you don’t want your battery to go flat, particularly if the life of your battery is old.

10 – Warning Triangle and first aid kit. Be prepared if its not you that’s in trouble and you come to the aid of someone else!

It’s not much fun when the clocks go back, except the extra hour in bed you get, but those who have children don’t even get that!

It’s been a while since I have blogged and as you can see from my last post months ago, I have joined the ranks of parenthood and certainly did not get an extra hour in bed!

Anthony Nicolas Martin is almost eight months old and I am very aware of the the early dark evenings. My wife finishes work and collects Anthony from nursery and has to travel back home in the dark. I don’t like it, and I am sure there are other Dad’s out there like me, who want to make sure that if their loved ones are traveling in the dark, the car had better be tip top for any winter weather troubles!

Recently I have been promoting a free winter health check for your vehicle with any service from £99, which includes parts. But since you are a Panic Mechanic follower, I am going to give you a winter health check list here, so that you can make sure you or your family members are prepared, and I hear its going to be a tough winter this year!

Okay, so here are a few things you can check for yourself that does not require any mechanical knowledge:

1 – Check the condition of your tyres including the spare.

2 – Check the condition of your windscreen wiper blades.

3 – Check the level of your windscreen washer fluid. In most cars the bottle can be found in the engine bay.

4 – Make sure all the lights are working correctly and that the light covers are clean.

5 – Salt gets sprayed over the roads when its icy, which is a main cause of rust. So if you have any scratches in the bodywork that has gone through to the paint. Get it repaired or at least layer with thick polish.

6 – Check your windscreen for any chips or cracks that would get worse under freezing conditions.

Whilst these are a few things you can check, you should seek professional help to ensure your car is ready for winter, such as topping up anti-freeze and condition of your brakes and fuel lines.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about the above or if you are in need of a winter service.

Keep warm, drive safely!

Hi there,

After neglecting my blog for a long time, with all my anticipation for the arrival of our first child. He has finally arrived!!!!

Our little Anthony Nicolas Martin was born at 3:44 am on Wednesday the 16th March and weighed in at 7 pounds 7 ounces!

My wife had quite a long labour and I am glad that both my wife and our baby is healthy and doing well.

Now I understand the meaning of sleepless nights!

Best regards,

Shane.

Anthony Nicolas Martin

Hi there!

I just wanted to let you know about a promotion I am currently running. I am offering a full vehicle service at your work or your home from only £99!

As you know, I am a mobile mechanic, so there is no need to worry about taking your car in to a garage and having the hassle of organising transportation, not to mention the high labour prices, the mark-up on parts and the worry that “they always find something wrong that needs fixing…ho hum!”

You will find it hard to compare my low costs and 100% honesty with any garage. If you click this link you can read a few customer testimonials that have been posted to google.

I also offer Maintenance, M.O.T Preparations or M.O.T Failure Repairs and Custom Modifications on any Private, Fleet or Light Commercial Vehicles.

Your relationship with your mechanic should not only provide you with the confidence that your car is in good hands, but also be built on trust and honesty. If you would like to change mechanics to get a better deal or simply feel you are not getting the right service from your existing mechanic, but feel nervous about changing, I am happy to provide customer references so that you can be sure you have made the right choice.

Please feel free to post back any questions to this blog posting and I would be happy to help!

Winter/Spring Full Service From £99

Hi Everyone

The past few months have been a roller coaster ride for me since I found out my wife was pregnant with our first child! A good enough reason not to have posted many blogs!

We went for the first scan today and had been given a CD with pics and to our surprise, video footage of our 6cm child. At 12 weeks 3 days the baby can be very clearly seen.

If you visit my YouTube channel you can see the video of our baby waving at us: http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePanicMechanic

As for the Panic Mechanic, I think I have a good excuse to get a bigger car Actually my wife needs a new car now. She has a little Mk2 MR2, so with just two seats and limited room it’s not going to be big enough for the three of us. If anyone out there is interested in buying an MR2 or would be interested in a part exchange, I would be glad to hear from you! I have listed the MR2 on the pistonheads website: http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1957548.htm

Happy Days!

Sometimes when I sit back and take stock of my life, I think to myself how very lucky I was to have grown up on a farm in South Africa. But of course back then I did not think that was the case having to shovel cows muck before school!

So what has this got to do with rust arches…well, one lesson I learned on the farm was that money was precious and possessions very valuable. My father was a gifted engineer and very strict about keeping our possessions in good order and making things go a long way.

I learned a lot from my dad and especially how to clean an engine and look after a vehicle. It wasn’t till I moved to Cyprus, where I met my wife I realised how bad salt air was to a car. But worse was to come when we moved to England and I saw the annual salt spray on the roads and the damage it caused not only with rust, but the pelting of salt crystals as you drove past a salt truck.

I think my father-in-law felt pleased when I arrived and became the mechanic in the family. With four daughters, old cars and dealing with dodgy mechanics, he had had enough. I would congratulate my wife and sister-in-laws when I saw them “wash” their cars which was rare but amazed how none of them ever washed their wheel arches. Having been in England for many years now I am still amazed at how many car lovers seem to forget the one place where rust is most likely, the wheel arch!

So the lesson here today is that if you want to avoid getting rusty arches, which starts off as bubbling under the paint, simply get a nice scrubbing brush and wash right under the arch and the lip around the edge.

When salt is sprayed on the roads the mud, salt, rain and everything else on the road is picked up on your wheels and sprays around the arch. If you don’t wash the arch then the salt remains in the arch and lip, even when there is wet weather. The salt is mixed in with the mud which is stuck to the arch and so the salt can only be removed if the mud is washed away.

If it’s too late and you have rust arches, the best thing to do is to keep the area clean to prevent further erosion, but as the rust has set in it will only spread. You should ask a trusted mechanic or a body repair shop to remove the rust and re-spray the arch.

Hi everyone, it’s been a while since my last blog and boy, haven’t I got a lot of advice, stories and tips to tell you, just like this one…

I was busy servicing a family member’s car last week, (I am sure some of you can sympathise with the family freebies), and the car was due for its MOT. I took it to a garage I have used before, when suddenly at the end of the MOT I was told that the car had failed. Quite to my surprise I asked how it failed. It turns out that the MOT failure was due to the brakes needing to be changed. Well I immediately knew something was wrong since the breaks had been changed not so long ago and should have passed. When I quizzed the garage and we all took a trip out the back where I asked them to re-check the breaks in front of me, low and behold, I had proved that I was right and the car should have passed its MOT without any hesitation.

Quite surprisingly, the MOT engineer had not check the breaks properly and somehow “assumed” they needed to be changed. I am sure you can imagine that I was not impressed!

Since it is my job to repair all sorts of vehicles I make it my business to get to know the history of my customer’s car or bike and what potential areas could fail an MOT. I was able to question this garage because I have mechanics knowledge. But what if that was someone else who does not know about cars. That person would have paid out unnecessarily for a set of brakes.

Okay, this may not sound like good news, so what can you do to make sure you are not a victim of a bad MOT?

One simple thing is to ask to watch the MOT from an MOT viewing area. Most if not all garages have an area that the owner can stand or sit to watch an examination. At least then you know what is involved and how thorough the examiner is checking your car. But if you have no time to wait around and watch you could do two things: ask your own mechanic to take your car in for an MOT, or, have your car checked by your mechanic before your MOT to assess what the potential failures could be and possibly fix.

If anyone else has a similar story, please feel free to share?

Let me set the scene…my wife meets up with an old girlfriend at the pub after work. She parks in the carpark directly opposite her friend’s car. The girls have a light beverage, then leave the pub and walk to their cars only to find that my wife’s car has rolled forward and into the front of her friend’s car…oops!

This example shows that you need to pay particular attention to the the tension of your handbrake. My wife said that she thought she had pulled the handbrake all the way up, but in fact it was just one click away from the top. It came to light that for a while she was parking without the handbrake on full because she thought that she had raised it high enough according to how tight it felt to her. That last click would have been very tight and so she never knew there was a “last click.”

So how do you know if your handbrake needs adjustment? The average number of handbrake clicks from down to up should be between 5 and 8. Anything above 8 could suggest that your handbrake needs to be made tighter and likewise, less than 5 clicks means it’s too tight and can cause your rear brakes to drag.

The next time you are parked on a slope make sure you have your handbrake all the way up, otherwise you could end up in an embarrasing situation like my poor wife!

I should probably say that if you have parked on a slope and realised your handbrake needs adjustment, keep you car parked in gear to help prevent it from rolling…then give me a call

If you are ready to buy a second hand car and don’t want to be taken to the cleaners, here are my 10 tops tips for what you can look out for:

1) Check the paper work. Make sure the V5 registration document is present and match the seller’s details. Also check the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on the registration document and matche it to the VIN number printed on the VIN plate on the car, (normally located under the bonnet).

2) Look over the condition of the body work. The older the car the more dings and scratches you can expect. The condition of the body however can tell you a lot about how the car has been looked after. In the UK cars are prone to rust from the rear wheel arches due to the salt during our winter season. Check the condition of the rear arches for rust but more importantly a build-up of dirt that will hold the salt!!! Another rust prone area is the bottom of the doors so be sure to check these well.

3) Accident damage could be problem so look for ripples or a change in texture of the paint that may indicate a repair and the presence of body filler. This can be easily checked using a small magnet. The magnet will stick to the metal but not to the body filler. Also look under the bonnet along the front of the car for signs of welding and repair. Paint overspray and body panels that don’t line up properly can also be evidence of a crash.

4) Have a good look at the engine – if its really dirty it could be a sign that the car has been neglected and not serviced regularly. Before starting up check the colour and smell of the oil, if it is black and smells burnt this could suggest you may end up with some problems. Also if the engine is gleaming and spotless it could have had a steam clean to hide evidence of an oil leak.

5) While you are here check the fluid levels – Oil, water and brake fluid. If the car has power steering then that will also need fluid so check that to. The water should also have antifreeze in it and should not be a dirty brown colour!

6) To test the suspension, push down on each corner of the car individually. The car should return to its normal position but if it seems to bounce the shock absorbers are at the end of their life and will need to be replaced.

7) Tyres will also tell you a lot about the car and how it’s been looked after. Uneven tyre wear on the outside edges or centre of the tyre is normally a sign of incorrect inflation. These are crucial components that need to be in good condition not only for you safety but if you get stopped with tyres that don’t meet the minimum legal requirements you will get a fine!

8 ) Start up the car from cold and it should start easily and not make any knocking or pinking noises. This could suggest very costly repairs so If you hear any strange noises get a professional to have a look. Blip the accelerator and take note of any blue smoke coming from the exhaust that could indicate worn engine components. Listen to the exhaust. If its loud it could be leaking. If the car has a recent MOT check the emissions; if they are high the catalytic converter could be in need of replacement and these are very expensive!

9) During the road test make sure that the car tracks straight and doesn’t pull to the left or right. Any strange vibrations especially at speed could be wheel balancing and although not expensive to have done go back and check that there has been no damage done to the tyres. Also test the foot brake by pushing quite hard and listen – a grinding or scraping indicates the pads need to be changed whilst a vibration while braking suggests the disks are warped and will need to be replaced.

10) Above all else – use your instinct! If it feels wrong then don’t do it. You will always find another car!

A cheap version of car air con – use a cold water spray gun to spray a fine mist of water into the air flow of the cold air blower. When air is passed over cold water it cools, so you get an air conditioning effect. Just a little tip for those who don’t have a fancy air con system in their car. It’s been so hot lately even having the windows down is still hot. Why not try out my little tip!?