Hi All,


Is there a place in Basel that teaches courses about cars (basic maintenance, practical know how for drivers, fixes for day to day situations etc) in English, or a book, or a particular youtube channel etc that you can recommend...?

Thank you for your help.

Kind regards,

N

I don't know about a course in Basel, but for YouTube this video is a fairly comprehensive introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjX79GsALd8

Unless you're maintaining an older car, you should not need to do much, just keep an eye on the tire pressure and fluid levels (oil, windscreen wash) and use a good shop consistently that will keep track of things like brake wear and recommended service of long-term items (belts, coolant, etc).

Good luck!

Hmmm, I'm pretty good.

But now I wonder: If new BMWs don't have dip sticks, how does one check the oil?

You start it and if the pistons remain in the engine it has oil in it

There's a lot on youtube, often whole channels for your particular make/model. Also forums for make/models as well and it's worth a visit as many have recurring problems that if you note and spot them in time it can save you money.


If you do want to fix things yourself just be sure to watch and rewatch so you're really confident you know what you are doing.

Wait for the warning message on the screen

But, unless it's a 10+ year old car or the car leaves a smoke trail behind, why check the oil in first place?

Reminds me of tiktok "old people"

For anyone with an old car, by which I mean buillt before 2010...

Don't knock it. Mine was built 2008, runs like a sewing machine, purrs like a kitten. Yet still has a lot of fancy stuff the world doesn't need in it.

Unless your car is rare or really old, I'm sure you'll be able to find YT videos on how to.
You can try and search online for your car's repair and service manuals as well.

all my new cars use oil and need regular top ups. much more so than my old cars.

And the trans fluid too?

In the old days, if you were from the U.K, you'd buy your car and then buy the correct Haynes manual for make, model and year.

These covered everything from checking the oil level to stripping down the gearbox.

I have the same issue with my Tesla.

I had one of those for a Dodge Ram. Helpful, but not as helpful as the manufacturer service manual in PDF version I found later in some shady websites

I drove 7K km between the last yearly oil change. And the engine is a baby: 27K km. That may explain why I have not worried yet about oil refill.

PS, on the other hand, are you bragging about your spirited driving reflected in oil consumption? If so, cheers.

@naynam: as you can read, there's a bunch of bored car people around here. Just ask us

For motorbikes as well - I've had a few in my time.

Commonly known in biking circles as the Haynes BoL. Book of Lies. "assembly is the reverse of disassembly". Yeah, right.

Got some fun answers but nothing useful. So - once again - a woman had to go out and get the answer

It's the car computer that does it for them, takes up to 3 minutes and the motor obviously needs to be running ..... pheeew. Ah yeah and it's on "newer BMWs like 2007" Turns out even my baby is younger. I don't really trust those computers, so yes Axa the smoke trail might be the thing to go for.

However, interesting, in spite of apparently being old news.

I have Haynes and Manufacturer's manuals for most of my vehicles, and the needed special tools (very few special ones, actually, even for the Ducatis, normal tools work fine most of the time). My four torque wrenches probably cost more than all the other special tools combined!

Tom

Every BMW I've seen on the road has had a dip-stick in it



[jk, no hate :-) ]

my 2005 M5 doesn't.