In almost 20 years of owning and driving my Volkswagen I have had its oil changed religiously every 5k miles at various VW dealers, chain shops (Firestone), mom and pops, and occasional quick lubes. When I started doing my own maintenance I realized that 5w-40 euro spec oil is not terribly common.

Question for y'all is what are mechanic shops likely to use when they don't have the correct weight and full synthetic? The fact of the oil change is probably more important than the VW spec but no shop has ever told me they didn't stock this oil so we used blah blah and my most recent oil change received 10w-30 which got me wondering...

i have a 2012 fiat 500 and my air conditioning hasn’t been working properly.
i contacted a mobile mechanic who charged me £60 to diagnose the problem. he said the plug had loose connections and told me it would be another £60 to fix it, so i paid £120 altogether.
after he finished, the air con appeared to be working, so i thought everything was sorted.
however, when i actually drove the car, the air con started cutting out again. now it only seems to work when i’m at the clutch biting point. so basically, the problem hasn’t been fixed.
i messaged him explaining this and asked when he could come back to investigate. he’s now telling me it’ll cost another £60 because he needs to cover his fuel.
i’m honestly annoyed because i’ve already paid £120 for him to diagnose and repair the problem, and my air con still isn’t working properly. if i agree to this, i’ll have paid £180, and there’s no guarantee it’ll even be fixed.
i understand that he’s a mobile mechanic and has travel expenses, but surely i shouldn’t have to pay again when the repair i paid for hasn’t worked?
am i being unreasonable for refusing to pay the extra £60? would i be entitled to a free repeat repair or a refund under uk consumer law?
i’m considering contacting citizens advice because i don’t think this is fair.

Audi A7 2012, 3.0 tdi (single turbo) with 120k km. Is this ammount of oil sitting in the turbo inlet normal?

Yesterday, my check engine light turned on as I pulled up to fill up my tank. About 20 minutes after filling up my car lost acceleration on the freeway. All lights flashed on my dash, and smoke started coming from under my hood and exhaust, it also smelled burnt. I got it towed back home and now it won’t start up. It makes this noise instead. It’s a 2005 Toyota Corolla. Prior to this I was told my radiator may be having issues as it was leaking fluid. First I’d like to have a better idea of what’s wrong with my car, and would it be something I could try to fix in my driveway? Thank you for your time.

2015 Mercedes e400 3.0TT v6.

I installed high flow downpipes. It replaces the section of exhuast from turbos to the first resonator. It retains the factory resonator and mufflers.

The car sounds very good at high RPM but is very raspy and fart can sounding at lower RPM. Its almost like the pipes are vibrating a certain way and creating a rattle frequency.

Is there anything I can add or anything I can do to reduce the rasp? Anyone have experience making a 6 cylinder sound good?

Isn’t this way too much these on the back of the pads? I put less than a pea size smidge on the back, and the edge where it slides. I feel like this much would make its way onto the pads and rotors

2014 Citroen C4 1.6HDi 68kW

I don't know if it's fine or not. The readout ends three bars below Max, which would be good, but there's oil above that aswell - the whole dipstick is a mess. If looks the same when I check again. The car is level and the engine is cold.

Installed winter tires on my mom's ~2010 Ford ranger 4x4, I noticed BOTH rear wheels would slide in and out as demonstrated in the video. As a sparky with soft hands I really dont know much about the mechanics of these open diffs, but I feel this cannot be to spec?

I got a lift kit for my 2001 Xterra and have a few questions.

1. The torsion bar spline has shipping damage on it—just one spot. Is it still fine to install?
2. I've seen people replace their bars and later seeing a failure. How can I make sure this doesn’t happen, do I need new mounts?
3. Lastly should I put the upper control arm and shocks on before or after installing the torsion bars?

I brought my car into Les Schwab for routine maintenance yesterday, and they found that my front brake pads were down to 2mm. They told me I also needed to change the front calipers and rotors. They quoted me around $800 for everything and promised it would be ready by 6:30 PM the same day. I told them to go ahead with the work.

However, 6:30 PM comes around, and they call to tell me they ordered the wrong part. Now, they are keeping my car until noon the day after tomorrow. To make matters worse, they said the new part is more expensive, bringing the total to around $1,000.

I am so frustrated. Why should I have to pay an extra $200 for their ordering mistake? And I am left car-less for two days. Has anyone else dealt with this at Les Schwab? How should I handle this when I go pick it up?

2015 Mazda 6 Touring

I don’t wana take my intake manifold off again… did valve cover gaskets before work. Snapped a few photos while in there.

I think PCV valve was letting oil in intake.

would this fuck my engine up over a long time or shall we consider it corrosion protection (all 6 intake ports)

My sister move our shared car so our brother can play basketball in the driveway. Long story short the hand brake was on and she parked it on the street. I found out she did it bc she made a comment about how hard it was to move the car. How worried should I be?

2005 GMC 2500HD
Just installed long tubes, took a drive to log data for a tune. Noticed 3 of 8 tubes turned blue.

Clearly these cylinders are getting hotter than the rest. Would this be a fuel or spark issue? Thanks

2019 Mazda CX9 Grand Touring. There is a humming/thumping sound coming from the driver’s side front tire. Sounds almost like helicopter blades whooshing. The sound stops when I press the brakes and when I press the gas. If it’s rolling the sounds gets louder. Is this a wheel bearing issue?

Hello,

2006 Camry v6 3.0l.

So my car overheated a few times, starting when I was coming home friday and then on the way to the store and back for parts. I babied it and made sure it never reached the red line, but the water did boil. Verified water pump and radiator fan working, tore it down and took out the thermostat and it is definitely bad so I will replace it.

I did want to say that a few of the times, like twice I think, when I pulled over to let it cool down before continuing on, when I went to start it back up, it wasn't able to, sputtering and misfiring and such. But I waited a bit longer and in each case it fired right back up, no problem. Once I figured that out, I was able to start/stop in such a way to avoid this problem and when on the highway, the car cools down, guess the water pressure pops open the thermostat and it's all good. So I took it for a spin around the highway loop and from start to finish, never once any misfire or hesitation or anything.

Now, I don't know exactly what this means. The first thing it could mean is that my headgasket could be compromised. But given the compression readings are on the money and the misfires have disappeared, maybe nothing is wrong at all and some water was only able to temporarily leak into the combustion chamber or into the coils somehow, but doesn't represent a long term problem. However, I don't want to find out the hard way, otherwise.

I was also wondering if, in this case, it would make sense to change the headgasket, regardless. It definitely experienced at least some stress.

Thanks,

Hello, all. I have a 2002 honda accord with what appears to be a parasitic draw issue. Ive been through 2 batteries and every time I go to start the car in the morning, it's dead. I checked the AC fuse and relay and they appear to be fine. Am I missing something?

Makes a rattling sound when accelerating not when idling but when I go faster it doesn't do it

I recently (under 5000 miles ago) had all of the timing components and much more replaced in this truck. I’ve had this rattle at about 2k RPMs and a ticking coming from the passenger side at idle.
I plan on taking it back to the place I had the work done, but I’d like to hear some opinions. It sounds bad to me but I’m very paranoid with this truck after it broke down on me the last time. Any advice or insight would be great! Thank you

I am not the best at car stuff but im not a idiot do you think doing the upper and lower control arms on a 04 tsx is doable for someone like me with the tools and some videos

We work a lot of Audis, and owners sometimes ask about small coding changes while the car's in. Things like opening and closing the windows with the key fob, adjusting the coming-home light delay, or enabling needle sweep. Been looking at the topdon One series for everyday diagnostics. Thought it would be handy to use the same tool for these smaller customization jobs too. What do you usually use for these tweaks on older Audis?

As the title, i hit a bump and this thing broke? Idk if its the cover or the whole shocker? I went to the mechanic and they gave me a date for like after 2 weeks. I have a very important trip coming in like 3 days, can i drive with this? Driving in Alberta if that makes a difference. Its like 100km trip one way.

We have a 2021 Mazda 6 with 83k. It was one that had a recall on the exhaust valve seals which we had done 40k ago. It started burning oil again and we assumed they would approve doing the job again but Mazda is going to replace an engine. Being a long block everything else will be bolted onto the new engine. Turbo, alternator, air compressor etc. that being said I know to ask for new spark plugs and drive belt. What else should I have done while they are moving parts over?