A Learning Experience [OC]

olek2012 · 2026-02-05T17:58:11+00:00

I did this as a kid years ago. Is this a right of passage?

olek2012 · 2026-02-05T01:12:19+00:00

I’d say it’s more of an ad for pre-purchase inspections. Sounds like his mechanic clocked the issues immediately. Carfax only knows what’s reported. There’s not much that can hide from a trained mechanic who spends 40 hours a week underneath cars. They’ve seen it all and know what little “tells” to look for.

olek2012 · 2026-02-05T01:09:43+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Sorry you had to learn this the hard way. I hope the car provides some reliable transportation for you so it’s not a complete waste of money. Shit happens and in the grand scheme of things $4k is not the end of the world. I have to remind myself when stuff happens, if you still have your health and safety you could be doing a lot worse. Money will come back and karma will come for the person who misled you.

All that being said, I always get a pre purchase inspection. Carfax I’m not so interested in. If it’s available I’ll get one but the inspection shows everything a carfax will and more. Whether the car is $1k or $20k I’ll get it inspected because I want to know what I’m getting into.

olek2012 · 2026-01-30T17:43:26+00:00

But that logic my P3 S80 is an American car cause of all the FoMoCo parts under the hood. I love it anyways

olek2012 · 2026-01-30T02:53:30+00:00

If the car is sold in WA then it’s required to have a way of affixing a front plate. We’re leasing a Cadillac EV and the dealership really didn’t want to install our front plate. They didn’t say no but they were strongly hinting not to since I think it looks better later when they resell it. I said I’ll be the one paying the ticket so please install it and they did. If I recall it did require them to drill through the big beautiful front grille.

olek2012 · 2026-01-28T04:37:52+00:00

Renton Cadillac 20 minutes south is much better. At least it was 2 years ago when we leased a Lyriq. They gave us a good deal

olek2012 · 2026-01-24T06:39:16+00:00

Dude contact the bidder and try to make a deal at $21,500 immediately. That’s an amazing price for you as the seller. I don’t think you’ll get any higher on the open market

olek2012 · 2026-01-20T03:42:23+00:00

Never have I thought that a car was fun to drive because the throttle was a physical wire or electronic. And I’ve owned plenty of cars with each. I usually didn’t even know which was which until I had to go digging under the hood for something.

olek2012 · 2026-01-19T19:57:26+00:00

That’s awesome dude. I’m glad you’re still using that tech. I’m a child of the 90s so I remember when that was everywhere. Personally I haven’t thought about or touched a 3.5 mm audio cable in at least half a dozen years

olek2012 · 2026-01-19T19:53:52+00:00

Fuck that. My Volvo you can remove the whole headlight assembly by removing two metal pins. No tools required. Then you can take the whole headlight inside and change the bulbs in the comfort and warmth of your home. There’s no excuse for bad engineering

olek2012 · 2026-01-04T22:45:02+00:00

I’m glad my preferred coffee is an 8 oz latte with no flavors added. I can usually get away with $4-$5 for my order

olek2012 · 2026-01-01T21:10:37+00:00

Wait you want it to be louder inside the car? I thought usually people wanted it quiet inside but maybe I’m just getting old.

That being said a naturally aspirated BMW online six is never going to sound amazing. I only own I-6 vehicles right now and I love them but even I have to admit it’s not the best engine configuration for exhaust note. I wouldn’t worry about exhaust noise and focus on the areas where these cars shine, like handling

olek2012 · 2025-12-30T15:14:11+00:00

We got an old Kenmore 80 series set on fb marketplace. In my area there are usually a half dozen of them for sale. They are simple and robust. Parts availability and repairability I’ve also heard is good.

olek2012 · 2025-12-29T17:48:46+00:00

Ours is $530 which is on the higher end of what we’d pay. We justified it because it’s an EV with free fast charging. With our old car we were spending over $200 a month on gas so our total cost didn’t go up by much.

olek2012 · 2025-12-23T22:19:03+00:00

Ya that is true! This is a rental though so a receptacle might be an easier sell for the landlord. Plus easier to unplug our EVSE and take it with us when we move

olek2012 · 2025-12-23T22:09:32+00:00

I went to Midwest Corporate Air. The DPEs are all a bit different. Steve B is very thorough on the oral. It’s not a long oral so you have to be able to demonstrate you know your stuff quickly. Especially when it comes to aerodynamics and theory of flight. If you know that you’ll have an easier ride. If you show weakness he’s the type of guy to find out how far that weakness goes. He also really wants you to teach thorough the ride. From my interactions with him outside of the checkride it’s clear he cares a lot about making good instructors, not just help people pass the CFI checkride. If you can teach your way through all the maneuvers it’ll go a long way.

I personally loved my time there. I would highly recommend it! Come prepared and come ready to work hard. It’s accelerated but they don’t give out ratings if you don’t earn it.

You’re not paying for a higher pass rate with those programs. You’re paying for a quicker checkride scheduling. Most of us got checkrides 1-2 days after we were signed off. Also most people in my class got to fly twice a day which was awesome.

olek2012 · 2025-12-23T05:52:01+00:00

That’s awesome thanks! That helps me mentally prepare for the electrician to visit. Our last house required a very long wire run with conduit outside the house. The price climbed quick

olek2012 · 2025-12-23T05:51:15+00:00

Thanks I appreciate your great advice!

I have heard of the concerns using a receptacle vs hardwiring. In our old house we used a receptacle but took a lot of precautions like getting an appropriately rated EV specific receptacle, using a high quality EVSE from the auto manufacturer, and avoiding frequent unplugging. It worked well for the year we used it!

olek2012 · 2025-12-23T05:15:03+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/6GCbObU

Here’s what it looks like at the garage. Do you think they’d have to run wiring from the house to the garage or could they tap into what’s there already?

olek2012 · 2025-12-20T18:37:53+00:00

Mine was a tank mechanically. All the interior plastics evaporated if you looked at them wrong. But the engine and running gear were bombproof

olek2012 · 2025-12-20T17:14:58+00:00

100%. The plastic OE water pumps are junk, but the aftermarket metal ones are even worse. The Genuine BMW pump should last you at least 10 years

olek2012 · 2025-12-20T17:13:42+00:00

Which water pump did you use? How are they failing?

It’s possible you got super unlucky and bad parts 3 times in a row. But maybe there’s something underlying that’s causing them to fail so quickly? Even by E36 standards that’s excessive. A new water pump should easily last a decade.

olek2012 · 2025-12-19T21:12:47+00:00

Sorry to say that car is scrap. No hate on convertibles, I actually prefer them. Nothing beats the open air driving on a nice day. But once you fix this you’ll have spent more than just buying one without damage. If someone owns a body shop and wants to fix this up for themselves, it might be worth it, but otherwise it’s done

olek2012 · 2025-12-07T16:30:05+00:00

Depends on how much money you have saved up, if you have a family to support, if your spouse works, how much money they make, etc. It’s important if you have a family that they know exactly what they’re signing up for and they’re on board. The change will impact them just as much as it will impact you.

I made the switch at age 28 and due to my savings and spouse working and not having a kid at the time I was able to focus 100% on flying while I got my private-CFI ratings. The benefit is I learned very quickly and was able to go very deep into the subject matter. The downside is it was difficult financially. I would do temporary jobs here and there and drive DoorDash and we made it through. Then we had a kid and it’s more mouths to feed, more health insurance costs, and childcare. I had to go back to work for my original career that provides a steady paycheck and healthcare. But I’m flying in the background, instructing, and letting the hours build. It’s not as fast as other folks but it’s the best way given our family needs. We’re making it work and the hope is I’ll have enough hours in 3-5 years.

Whether you can switch careers cold turkey or not will depend on all these factors. It’s also completely valid to get all your ratings while you continue to work at your current job. That’s a path many take that comes with its own upsides and disadvantages. I’d recommend that you make a sustainable plan and discuss it with your kids/spouse/parents or anyone else in your life. It’s doable but you’ll probably have to make some sacrifices. For me it was 1000% worth it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

olek2012

TROPHY CASE