I took over my wife's '02 Mini Cooper S (long story). Been having a ball with it for around a month when one Saturday morning on the way home from rehearsal I heard a *pop* and then the car starts misfiring. It had blown a spark plug out (I honestly didn't even know that was a thing). I waited two hours for a tow home less than 10 miles away (another long and seriously goofy story, the driver drove past me three times) and started researching the issue. Turns out it's not as rare as I thought and the most heavily recommended fix was buying a $200+ kit from a company called Time-Sert to replace the threads in the aluminum head with a threaded insert. I tried a couple of other fixes first and they didn't work so I sprang for the Time-Sert and the problem was remedied in less than an hour. Sweet.
The alternative was to take it to a shop. I don't have a shop I trust anymore. This is one of those classic problems where you hear "well, we tried to repair the threads but it didn't work. You're going to need a new head. Big bucks".
So, as I got my car back on the road for what initially seemed like a hefty price for the kit vs. the competition, it ended up seeming like peanuts. Cue the bunnies and birds... it was a nice day. Yay.
Then I came here and read one guy complain about people making recommendations followed by him making a recommendation. That was funny in it's blind hypocrisy. Then read a stream of people putting other people's gear down, people ranting about things that don't work that do and all sorts of the usual dumbness.
The lesson: next time I'm having a great day... no internet.
Forgot the pic...
View attachment 940140
You seem to be winning all around. Bass world and you can now be issued a 'man card' made of sheet metal. Thanks for the aside. Getting back to thread, are there particular musical situations that bring on the boutique guilt? I've had that. Pickup gig. Rest of the band rocking Casio/80's Peavey/ibanez/behringer (no prob if you sound good) and I whip out the $4K+ funk stick
