Not quite a dealer, but I like this one...

I'm a firefighter, for a big enough city that we have our own shop that maintains all the rigs. For a long time, the engine at the station I was assigned had a loud turbo whine. Sounded like a 747 trying to take off. Every time someone new was at the station, they would comment on how bad it sounded, and call up the shop. The shop foreman would always tell everyone, that's normal, they all do that. Finally we were slated for a brand new truck, and surprise, surprise, the new one doesn't have any super loud turbo whine. The best part of the whole story was my officer calling the shop foreman after a few days of having the new truck, and telling him there was something wrong with it, it didn't whine like the other one did, and since that was supposed to, he figured something was wrong with the new one. The shop foreman was not amused.

Same on my Discovery. But I fished around and found a tool (read: metal plate with holes) I bought a while ago to hold a pinion still while tightening the crush sleeve on a GM 10 bolt rear end (and marketed to do the same on a wide variety of rear ends). I widened one of the holes, bought a couple different bolts, and it made a perfect Land Rover crank pulley remover.

My Land Rover Discovery has no transmission dipstick or fill tube. So you need a fluid transfer pump (all of $10 at Harbor Freight) to fill it. And, if you talk to the dealer, the transmission has to be at a precise temperature when you fill it (until it starts leaking), otherwise it might be over or under filled. And of course, there's no trans temp gauge, so you need some specialty tool for that, too.

I went with the, start the car, fill it until it leaks, go for a drive, come back, fill it a little more, go for another drive, come back, it won't take any more so I guess it's good method. Transmission seems to be fine, but I'm sure the dealer would tell me it's about to explode.

I've acquired a variety of large or specialized sockets, bought piecemeal for whatever one off automotive job. Every once in a while I actually find a use for them other than what I bought them for in the first place, at which point I get all excited because the purchase has just been justified a little more.

Well, as far as actually doing today, I changed the oil in my wife's Jeep, rotated the tires, and changed the oil in the Spirit. Very exciting stuff.

Yesterday, however, I walked into the garage to find a large piece of wood had fallen out of the rafters (it was up there for storage, it wasn't actually a rafter) and onto the Spirit, with a corner coming down exactly on a spot I had previously (and not very well) repaired a rust hole. So now I have about a 1" hole in the C pillar, and need to find a decent body shop. I think the wood which had been pretty secure must have vibrated off when we had our driveway redone- I'm assuming some sort of I vibrating compactor was used. Unfortunately, because I just paid for that driveway which damaged the car, I don't have the cash at the moment to fix the car. So it's going to have a hole in it for a little while. At least I can keep it indoors.

Holy crap a Marlin for $275! Just don't look at the right rear and everything is ok.
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