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[Shackeng]

I was musing on how much easier it was in my early days of motoring. A friend returning from leave in a pre-war Austin 10 or similar, threw a big end. He pulled into a lay by, drained and dropped the sump, fitted a set of big-ends, and still got back to camp without sanction. While cars are of course mechanically much more reliable these days, the sort of problems we encounter causing breakdown are exponentially more difficult to fix without suitable spares and equipment.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I was musing on how much easier it was in my early days of motoring. A friend returning from leave in a pre-war Austin 10 or similar, threw a big end. He pulled into a lay by, drained and dropped the sump, fitted a set of big-ends, and still got back to camp without sanction. While cars are of course mechanically much more reliable these days, the sort of problems we encounter causing breakdown are exponentially more difficult to fix without suitable spares and equipment.

Open the bonnet and plugs and distributor with points were easily accessible. As was the coil and often the dynamo.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I still have a small spanner on my key ring that fits the mixture adjusting nut on the bottom of SU carbs.

Last needed it on my 1976 Triumph 2500S........along with the trusty colourtune.

I could only get it to run smoothly when the engine was running 'rich' which gave 13 MPG.

[dave the builder]

Indeed,
all the sensors to reduce emissions etc and no room to get at things make repairs a pain.
it is nice to be able to read fault codes and look at live data ,which you could not fo back in the day .
no one bothers doing big ends these days,just scrap the car, I did a full rebuild on a corsa including shells ,rings,lifters etc etc early this year and parts alone was £400 ,more than the car was worth if you included labour (which was fee because i did it) but it meant the engine was sorted and the corsa was for a family member,
 I feel sorry for people who don't have a clue ,and just take their car to a main stealer for £500+ of repairs on a regular basis .
 cars seem to be built in chunks now, computer says replace this chunk , so that big expensive chunk gets replaced,rather than stripping it to replace the 10p  O ring ,that caused the issue.
 A "throw away society" that talks about recycling 

[JasonH]

Nothing's changed.....we drove past an Austin 7 the other day, the owner had broken down just as he entered a major  motorway junction style roundabout. He had managed to pull over in a sort of chevron area in the middle of the road and appeared to be rebuilding his engine! As we went past he had a distributor in his hand.

That was August 2018!

[STEMO]

Indeed,
all the sensors to reduce emissions etc and no room to get at things make repairs a pain.
it is nice to be able to read fault codes and look at live data ,which you could not fo back in the day .
no one bothers doing big ends these days,just scrap the car, I did a full rebuild on a corsa including shells ,rings,lifters etc etc early this year and parts alone was £400 ,more than the car was worth if you included labour (which was fee because i did it) but it meant the engine was sorted and the corsa was for a family member,
 I feel sorry for people who don't have a clue ,and just take their car to a main stealer for £500+ of repairs on a regular basis .
 cars seem to be built in chunks now, computer says replace this chunk , so that big expensive chunk gets replaced,rather than stripping it to replace the 10p  O ring ,that caused the issue.
 A "throw away society" that talks about recycling 

A bit like telecomms. I used to drive around in my little van taking people's telephones to bits to fix them. Then someone had the bright idea of plugging them into a socket and sending a new one out in the post.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Indeed,
all the sensors to reduce emissions etc and no room to get at things make repairs a pain.
it is nice to be able to read fault codes and look at live data ,which you could not fo back in the day .
no one bothers doing big ends these days,just scrap the car, I did a full rebuild on a corsa including shells ,rings,lifters etc etc early this year and parts alone was £400 ,more than the car was worth if you included labour (which was fee because i did it) but it meant the engine was sorted and the corsa was for a family member,
 I feel sorry for people who don't have a clue ,and just take their car to a main stealer for £500+ of repairs on a regular basis .
 cars seem to be built in chunks now, computer says replace this chunk , so that big expensive chunk gets replaced,rather than stripping it to replace the 10p  O ring ,that caused the issue.
 A "throw away society" that talks about recycling 

A bit like telecomms. I used to drive around in my little van taking people's telephones to bits to fix them. Then someone had the bright idea of plugging them into a socket and sending a new one out in the post.

Would this be during the old GPO era when there were still more horses than cars?

[STEMO]

Indeed,
all the sensors to reduce emissions etc and no room to get at things make repairs a pain.
it is nice to be able to read fault codes and look at live data ,which you could not fo back in the day .
no one bothers doing big ends these days,just scrap the car, I did a full rebuild on a corsa including shells ,rings,lifters etc etc early this year and parts alone was £400 ,more than the car was worth if you included labour (which was fee because i did it) but it meant the engine was sorted and the corsa was for a family member,
 I feel sorry for people who don't have a clue ,and just take their car to a main stealer for £500+ of repairs on a regular basis .
 cars seem to be built in chunks now, computer says replace this chunk , so that big expensive chunk gets replaced,rather than stripping it to replace the 10p  O ring ,that caused the issue.
 A "throw away society" that talks about recycling 

A bit like telecomms. I used to drive around in my little van taking people's telephones to bits to fix them. Then someone had the bright idea of plugging them into a socket and sending a new one out in the post.

Would this be during the old GPO era when there were still more horses than cars?

Yep.

[2boxerdogs]

Got to say most people nowadays don't even know how to check oil & tyre pressures let alone do running repairs when required , having said that can't remember the last time I broke down or had a car that wouldn't start .

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Got to say most people nowadays don't even know how to check oil & tyre pressures let alone do running repairs when required , having said that can't remember the last time I broke down or had a car that wouldn't start .

Can't be that long. This is an Omega forum after all.

[Sir Tigger KC]

Got to say most people nowadays don't even know how to check oil & tyre pressures let alone do running repairs when required , having said that can't remember the last time I broke down or had a car that wouldn't start .

Can't be that long. This is an Omega forum after all.

 

[BazaJT]

Going on standards these days it seems a lot of people barely know how to drive their cars let alone fix them In some ways it's a bit of a balancing act given the labour rates charged by stealers in particular[although in fairness to them the "techies" don't earn anywhere near what some people believe]means it can be a close call-if not cheaper-to replace a part rather than pay the labour cost of taking something apart to fix it.

[2boxerdogs]

Very lucky to have had a father in law who was a proper mechanic (Jag & Aston Martin specialist) who used to work on my cars provided  I assisted & listened & watched exactly what he was doing taught me no end of useful things  to do with cars he died 14 years ago but often think of him when doing the odd jobs on our vehicles. Just wish he could have seen the Mercedes think he would have been very impressed with it, but probably would have talked me into buying an Aston Martin instead.

[Lazydocker]

Indeed,
all the sensors to reduce emissions etc and no room to get at things make repairs a pain.
it is nice to be able to read fault codes and look at live data ,which you could not fo back in the day .
no one bothers doing big ends these days,just scrap the car, I did a full rebuild on a corsa including shells ,rings,lifters etc etc early this year and parts alone was £400 ,more than the car was worth if you included labour (which was fee because i did it) but it meant the engine was sorted and the corsa was for a family member,
 I feel sorry for people who don't have a clue ,and just take their car to a main stealer for £500+ of repairs on a regular basis .
 cars seem to be built in chunks now, computer says replace this chunk , so that big expensive chunk gets replaced,rather than stripping it to replace the 10p  O ring ,that caused the issue.
 A "throw away society" that talks about recycling 

Because there aren’t many mechanics these days, just fitters. 

[Nick W]

Because there aren’t many mechanics these days, just fitters. 

And they're expected to diagnose and repair increasingly complex systems too - carburettors and distributor ignitions are simple and so are their faults. That is not true of modern inter-connected electronics