Send a question about your own car — fault code, warning light, symptom, MOT advisory or garage quote — and get a written reply from a qualified UK mechanic within 6 hours, 24/7 (overnight 10pm–7am excluded). One-off pricing: £14.99 single question, £24.99 3-question pack, £29.99 5-question pack, £19.99 Faster Reply (within 1 hour), £19.99 Full Diagnostic & Reply. No subscription, money back if Bob can't help.
What you get for £14.99
A written answer about your own car from Bob, a qualified UK mechanic with 32 years on the tools running a DVSA-approved workshop in Birnam, Perthshire. Not a chatbot, not a forum thread, not a template — a reply written after reading your registration, mileage, fault codes and description.
Replies come back within six hours, day or night, excluding the overnight window between 10pm and 7am. If Bob cannot help with your question, you get your money back.
Pricing
Single question: £14.99. Three-question pack: £24.99. Five-question pack: £29.99. Faster Reply within one hour: £19.99. Full Diagnostic and Reply: £19.99.
There is no subscription and nothing renews. Packs do not expire, so you can save the remaining questions for the next time something goes wrong.
The questions worth asking
Is this garage quote fair? Send the quote, the registration and the mileage and you will get an honest read on whether the price and the work are reasonable for that job.
What is this noise or warning light? Describe when it happens and what makes it worse, include any fault codes, and you get the likely causes in order with what to check first.
Should I buy this car? Send the registration before you view it and get the MOT history, advisory pattern and known model weak points read by somebody who works on them.
Is this MOT advisory urgent? Advisories vary from ignore-it-for-a-year to fix-it-this-week, and knowing which is which saves real money.
How to get the best answer
Include the registration, the mileage, any fault codes you have read, and exactly when the problem happens. Cold or hot, braking or accelerating, over bumps or on smooth road — those details are what turn a general answer into a specific one.
Photos and short video clips help enormously, especially for noises, leaks and warning lights. Send them and Bob will use them.
How asking a mechanic online works, step by step
Step one: fill in the short form with your registration, make and model, the fault code or the symptoms, and anything you have already checked or replaced. Step two: pay once through PayPal — £14.99 for a single question, or a pack if you expect follow-ups. Step three: Bob reads it and types a reply, normally well inside the six-hour window during workshop hours.
The reply is plain English, not a copied-out technical bulletin. It sets out the likely cause, what to check first before spending anything, which part actually fits your car if a part is needed, and a realistic UK price for the repair so you know whether a quote is sensible.
There is no account to create, nothing renews, and nobody rings you. It is one payment, one written answer, and a money-back guarantee if Bob genuinely cannot help.
Why ask a mechanic instead of a forum or an AI chatbot
Forums give you five confident answers from five strangers who have never seen your car, and no way of telling which one is right. AI chatbots are useful for a first shortlist, but they do not know your registration, your MOT advisory history, which build of that engine you have, or what a fair labour rate is in your part of the UK.
Every reply here is typed by one named, qualified UK mechanic in a DVSA-approved workshop, with 32 years on the tools behind the opinion. If the honest answer is that the car needs to be in front of somebody with a scan tool and a lift, you get told that rather than a guess.
That is also why it is not free. A paid answer means your registration, mileage and description get read properly and the answer commits to a position.
Doing the job yourself? Ask before you order the part
DIY questions are a big share of what Bob answers, and they are where the money saved is most obvious. Send the code, the registration and the part you are thinking of buying, and you will be told whether that part number actually fits your build, whether the fault is the sensor or the wiring behind it, and whether the cheap online version is the same casting as the expensive one.
You also get the practical detail that catches people out on the drive: torque figures, one-time-use seals and bolts, the order things have to come off in, whether the job needs coding with a scan tool afterwards, and the bolts most likely to be seized on that model.
One wrong part costs more than the answer. That is the whole argument for it.
What a diagnostic normally costs in the UK
A standalone diagnostic at an independent garage is usually £50 to £90, and main dealers commonly charge £120 to £200 before any repair work starts. Ask a Mechanic is £14.99 to £19.99 for a written, registration-specific opinion.
It is not a substitute for a physical diagnostic — nobody can run live data, a compression test or a smoke test through a web form. What it does is tell you whether the garage's diagnosis fits the symptoms, what the likely cause is, and whether the price you have been quoted is normal for that job in the UK.
Who answers, and where
Bob's Mechanical Repairs is an independent, family-run garage and DVSA-approved MOT centre in Birnam, near Dunkeld in Perthshire. Bob has 32 years on the tools, on everything from old diesels to modern hybrids and EVs.
The written answers go out UK-wide — you do not need to be anywhere near Perthshire to use the service. Cars, vans and light commercials, petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to ask a mechanic online?
£14.99 for a single question with a written reply within six hours. Packs are £24.99 for three and £29.99 for five.
How quickly will I get a reply?
Within six hours, 24/7, excluding the overnight window between 10pm and 7am. Faster Reply within one hour is £19.99.
Is this an AI chatbot?
No. Every answer is written by Bob, a qualified UK mechanic with 32 years on the tools.
What if you cannot help?
You get your money back. If a question genuinely needs the car in front of a mechanic, we will say so rather than guess.
Can you check whether a garage quote is fair?
Yes, and it is one of the most common questions we get. Send the quote, the registration and the mileage.
Can a mechanic diagnose a car without seeing it?
For most common faults, yes — enough to narrow it to two or three likely causes, save you a diagnostic fee and stop you being overcharged. Physical checks such as compression tests, live data and smoke tests still need the car in a workshop, and Bob will say when that is the case.
Do I need to know the fault code before I ask?
No. If you have a P-code from a reader, send it and the answer goes deeper. If you have not, just describe what the car is doing, when it happens and what changed, and Bob works backwards from the symptoms.
Do you answer questions at weekends and at night?
Yes, seven days a week within six hours. The only gap is overnight between 10pm and 7am UK time — questions sent then are answered first thing in the morning.
What kind of car questions can I ask?
Anything car-related: warning lights, fault codes, MOT fails and advisories, noises, smells and vibrations, DPF and EGR problems, clutch and gearbox symptoms, EV and hybrid faults, used-car pre-purchase checks, DIY jobs on the drive, and whether something is safe to drive.
Will you tell me which part to buy?
Yes. Send the code and the registration and you will be told whether it is the sensor, the wiring, the actuator or the whole assembly, and which OE or OEM-equivalent part fits your exact build.
Is my payment safe?
Payments are handled by PayPal, so card details are never seen by the garage. Every tier carries a straight money-back guarantee.
Who is Bob?
A UK-qualified working mechanic with 32 years on the tools, running Bob's Mechanical Repairs, an independent DVSA-approved MOT centre in Birnam, Dunkeld, Perthshire. He writes every reply personally.