The blessing of forums

Since the dawn of the combustion engine, people have been relying on mechanics to keep their rides going. Until quite recently, one had to drive his car / motorbike to a garage and hope not to be ripped. Wether it would be an official dealership or a scruffy 'all makes' workshop, one could only hope for a 'good deal'.

A friend of mine had a couple of 'minor' annoyances with his car: the tailgate would drop on his head while unloading, and in the car there was this never-ending high-pitch squeel, that drove him berzerk. He popped by at the dealer's workshop and they told him it would cost him over 200 Euros to fix the problem: two new gas-struts and some sniffer part of the ACC, plus an hour or so to replace the parts, plus VAT...

He asked me if I could help him out, so paid a visit to a forum dedicated to the car make and learned that the squeel could be fixed by removing a coverplate and then squish in some WD40. On the same forum I found an address for the struts.

I got the struts for 38 Euros (including postage from Holland), drove over with my can of WD40 and fixed both problems in a few minutes: the struts just clip on, only a small screwdriver needed to remove. and a telescopic broom came in handy to keep the tailgate open...

Thanks to the internet and dedicated forums, my pall saved a lot of money and I got a free meal.

Long live the forums

I agree completely and I love the you tubes as well!

I once had to install an adapter plug to the back of the stereo in my car and I was puzzled as to how to gain access to that area.

Sure enough there was a youtube video showing how to pull a hinged access panel down that feels like you are going to break it but it showed that you can pull it off without breaking it. I never would have tried that, even with printed instructions, without seeing it happen on video.

Saved me a fortune paying an "expert" to install a $10 adapter plug for aux input.

I can't thank enough, people like JeffR and Bigbird for thier illustrations and instructions. As i am in UK i would never had been able to gain this information otherwise, i keep a folder with all thier invaluable guidance in it. Also the one's that did the Backrest info and removing the wheels(front and back) I thank everyone once again.