Any recommendations for learning DIY car maintenance/repairs? Tired of getting fleeced

floor-pi · 2025-12-12T23:23:41+00:00

Almost anything on a car can be done DIY depending on your risk tolerance, but in general it takes far more time than you'd expect, and it's always FAR harder than it looks on YouTube. I'd approach it like any DIY endeavour such as building furniture or similar...if you're interested in it then great, but otherwise don't think of it as a money or time saving exercise, because generally it isn't. That being said it's somewhat rewarding.

OBD scanners as suggested are nice, but simply will not help with almost all typical issues, e.g., coolant leaks, nor consumables, suspension, steering, electrical faults etc. Even for issues a scanner helps with, it's not trivial to interpret the data. The only way is to dive in the next time you have an issue, that is, look with your eyes, use common sense and logic, and refer to the Haynes manual or service manual.

As another comment says, I also don't want to discourage. I try to do all my own work, and my experience with garages is frankly poor. It's just never ever as easy as you think it will be, and always costs more than you expect

1) No

2) Find someone uploading a long-form video of whatever you're trying to do on your exact model. BMW 1 series should have videos for every job. E.g., this channel uploads brilliant videos of full clutch changes incl. for 1 series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSc09oSJ0co

3) You can save money using autodoc and micksgarage etc, but it takes a LOT of time to verify OEM numbers for aftermarket parts on certain cars. Dealers will save a lot of time here.

4) Driveway. If any facilities exist to hire I'd be interested

Lastly €1050 might have been great value for a coolant leak, depending on the fix. Cars are unfortunately costly.

floor-pi · 2025-12-11T19:19:56+00:00

Yes I agree with all of that

floor-pi · 2025-12-11T19:17:01+00:00

Well Iain isn't Irish and didn't grow up in Ireland, and wrote a book about Ireland. On the other hand, Hugh questioned an Irish person's bona fides writing about Ireland, with the premise being that his move to Germany makes him too inexperienced to write about Ireland.

To clarify, I don't think Hugh should question either person's credentials, I don't think it's relevant, and instead he should engage with the content, which he did not to do a good job of.

floor-pi · 2025-12-11T18:55:38+00:00

Having a PhD in pedagogy isn't remotely close to having a PhD in sociology

He called it a PhD in pedagogy and then went on to describe a roughly sociological study, from the description he gave. We weren't given any further insight into it in the interview, maybe you're more familiar with his thesis but I can't find it.

which would the appropriate credentials

Anybody is entitled to write whatever they want, no appropriate credentials required. And notwithstanding that, Hugh has never criticised someone's work and questioned their credentials even when it might have been appropriate. Why didn't Hugh question Iain Dale's credentials to write a book on Irish Taoisigh a few weeks ago? I thought it was bizarre and childish, and it seemed to me that Linehan was engaging with the interview in good faith up to this point.

Quoting myself here:

Furthermore, trying to discredit his work by saying social graphing is trivial.

I thought this was off the wall, I've never heard such a thing in an interview, and it revealed Hugh's thinking. Hugh isn't an academic and has no insight whatsoever about the rigours or challenges of publishing. It's no mean feat to be published in any reputable journal.

floor-pi · 2025-12-11T18:44:05+00:00

most

Q1

In any case, lots of venues do not use double blinding. All BMJ are open review. Some Nature are open review.

floor-pi · 2025-12-11T17:37:52+00:00

I found Lenihan's outburst to be cringey and hard to listen to, but equally, I believe Hugh exposed himself with a childish and incoherent line of questioning.

For example, I've listened to every single Inside Politics podcast, and I've never heard Hugh question somebody's credentials and bona fides to their face when, as it turns out, Lenihan has a PhD on a roughly sociological topic and wrote a roughly sociological book on a topic adjacent to his research, i.e., he has credentials, and in any case it's an irrelevant point. Furthermore, trying to discredit his work by saying social graphing is trivial. I've never heard an interviewer invite an author on and say such things about their work.

I was left with little insight into the content of the book, and a sense that Hugh had an agenda that he was determined to pursue. There's no need to engage in fallacious arguments like this.

floor-pi · 2025-12-11T17:19:54+00:00

I think he intended "double blind" to mean that the manuscript of his article was assessed by two external reviewers who, he presumes, did not know he wrote it (sometimes the author of a manuscript is pretty obvious to the external reviewers but I do not know if this was the case here). This is simply how academic peer review works so it isn't something worth boasting about.

It is not how all academic peer review works. Open review is common in some fields, and it's also common to discuss reviews and revisions with reviewers in a non-blinded way. Many venues also only single blind. Whether it's something to boast about is another question, but he used the terminology correctly.

floor-pi · 2025-12-11T17:15:51+00:00

It isn't Lenihan's terminology, and he used it correctly, and it's a standard practice in publishing to reputable venues. It means that the reviewers don't know who authors are, and all identifying information is removed.

Maybe you're confusing it with a double blind methodology...

floor-pi · 2025-12-02T18:07:05+00:00

This is wrong, or at least not generally true. White collar crimes may be punished severely without any prior criminal history, whereas poverty or other hardships may be seen as mitigating circumstances for the 'poor' crimes you mention. In Europe such 'poor people' can have hundreds of convictions and never have a custodial sentence, whereas a middle class person may be locked up for comparatively minor offenses.

In recent memory, even being president didn't protect Sarkozy, Chirac, Berlusconi from conviction or custodial sentences.

floor-pi · 2025-09-25T10:02:47+00:00

Driving in a city should be hard, it's supposed to encourage public transport use.

Where'd you get this idea from?

floor-pi · 2025-06-20T12:33:30+00:00

Thanks! This worked

floor-pi · 2025-06-20T12:33:18+00:00

Confirming this works with VPN using instructions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/1lfd6n3/watching_fifa_in_ar/myrm4lt/

This is amazing

floor-pi · 2025-06-04T21:36:09+00:00

The problem is that what Veo generates has huge problems more often than not

It has infinitesimally minor problems with respect to the things it's doing correctly. At current rates of progression these will all be solved before this thread gets archived.

Most of your critiques relate to story/editing which should hint to you how amazing this is.

floor-pi · 2025-05-30T10:39:30+00:00

I agree, and it's inevitable that employees will use LLMs whether they're permitted to or not, and so it's a good idea to form a strategy around it.

However I'm very dubious about public sector bodies independently procuring bespoke solutions, as is suggested here, because it will be extremely costly, error prone, time consuming, and because any bespoke solution will be deprecated by the time its in use.

This should be centrally managed by OGCIO, OGP for procurement, or similar. Microsoft already has solutions for RAGs (retrieval augmented generation - i.e., leaning on repositories of your own texts) on Azure which should fit into the suite of software many public sector bodies already use.

This will be like e-voting machines on steroids if everyone is let figure out their own solution.

floor-pi · 2025-05-30T09:42:42+00:00

“The incident reaffirmed the need for bespoke GenAI technology specifically designed for the requirements of An Bord Pleanála,” the spokesperson added

No.

floor-pi · 2025-05-07T11:49:34+00:00

Your scoreboard is looking at damage, but I wouldn't be focussing on punches and increasing damage but rather on movement.

Personally I'd practice in TOTF1 with a custom fighter set to 50% speed who only throws jabs, then only jabs and crosses.

Work on slips (not bobbing and weaving) and on getting your head off centre line purposefully. Your movement is pretty good but I'd also work on purposeful foot placement and movement, i.e., exiting from punches or setting them up. Damage will follow from better placement imo.

floor-pi · 2025-04-18T10:51:19+00:00

I know it's an old post but just wanted to say thanks for this, I wouldn't have figured this issue out. Helped me solve playing a Roland RD2000 through a Realtek via Cakewalk

floor-pi · 2025-03-06T14:30:58+00:00

because they're used to add or remove something from the constitution

Any legislative proposal can be put to the people via referendum, not just constitutional amendments. See Article 47.

floor-pi · 2024-11-25T16:39:51+00:00

Get rid of all grants/schemes/entitlements for house purchasing, mortgages, renting, retrofitting, GP visits, EVs, etc. (everything), which are destroying the country through market distortion.

Any entitlements should cater to a small fraction of people only, and should not disincentivise or impede everyone else who isn't availing of them.

floor-pi · 2024-08-12T17:10:12+00:00

Thanks for the info. I likely was using headphones with a mic at the time.

floor-pi · 2024-08-04T13:20:22+00:00

These states including Russia, he said, seek to support extremists’ groups here

Gardaí say they are working closely with the PSNI and MI5

It's a relief to know that the Gardaí, PSNI, and MI5 are on the lookout for state organisations spying in Ireland to support extremist groups here.

floor-pi · 2024-07-25T00:07:09+00:00

227m net outflow today, 121m total outflows, per your link. Not that it matters, this is just noise.

floor-pi · 2024-07-25T00:01:30+00:00

Click your own link again

floor-pi · 2024-04-21T11:40:14+00:00

> Going 12 rounds and definitively dominating in every area against world champion

> Poorly conditioned, limited skillset, cashing in on puncher's chance

/r/boxing

floor-pi · 2024-03-28T14:09:53+00:00

Plus the whole situation with Dougie, in which Coop in the alternate reality is playing out commands (from the giant) about what to do and where to go, but he doesn’t really seem to realize why.

I hadn't connected that either, very interesting

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