Went in unipart last week and got a new cambelt kit and waterpump for my car.

i clearly told the chap on the counter that it was a 1.9jtd 8valve engine. gave him the reg of the vehicle and he went off and got the parts.

went outside today and stripped the car down in the freezing cold to do the belt and to my surprise the water pump was wrong. so i got the new belt out and offered it up to the old one and it had more teeth.

went indoors and looked the part numbers up on line, only to find out that the plonker had gave me a 1.9 16v pump and belt. I'm bloody furious as I have spent a day stripping the daily driver down and putting it back together for no gain other than freezing my nuts off.

I don't know if its just me but it seems to be too much of a common occurrence.

Anyone else had this happen before?



[Edited on 28/11/2010 by ashg]

Yup... happened a few times..

I now only do jobs like that on days when the parts place is open.... just incase

I trust nothing anyone tells me in such circumstances.
I'm more likely to have agonised over the part numbers beforehand so I can be sure that the thing he's just handed me is the right one.

You're more likely to get it right than the individual at the other side of the counter.

Me too !!
I now always make sure that my Mother, or her car is available to go and get the bits changed
luckily for me she lives about a 5min walk away to borrow her car

Steve

Yup....unless it's an absolute emergency, I will not touch the tintop unless there is a parts place open that I can get to.

Thankfully Camberley Autofactors is open 7 days...

My local Unipart is incredibly helpful. I think it may be their system that is more at fault as everything i buy for my dads Fiat Doblo's, seems to be wrong. Brake disks, pads, filters, you name it.

Also had a problem with a Passat power steering pump which despite me giving them the part number, was still wrong. They do always go out of there way though to find the right part.

It's a persistant problem & more than just annoying. I ordered a cambelt kit for an Astra 1.6 petrol 8V, kit arrives & it's a 16V one! Bloke says the reg tells him that's the right part so it's not his fault, but I gave him all the details he could possibly need from the car so one of two things has happened: most likely 1, he's not checked that the spec for the car the computer has brought up matches aginst the spec of the car which I've given him, or 2, he thinks the computer knows better than me! I'd estimate it happens with around 30% of the parts we order, getting the right bloke at these places is the key to avoiding it but all the garages know that & it means that the decent staff are always tied up & you have to deal with someone else.
When you're doing these jobs for customers who have taken a day off/organised other transport & the job is sat taking workshop space up which is wanted for other jobs coming in it becomes costly, & we're 15+ miles from the town so sometimes cant get delivery & we cant just pop over & swap the part!

as said typically i would only do these kind of jobs on a day when the place is open but today is the first opportunity i have had to do it in a month, coupled with the fact that the workshop has a kitcar in it, that is in a thousand pieces half way through its engine swap, meaning i had to wait for a day to do it outside when the ground was dry.

i think my car must come up wrong on their system, it used to have a private plate and when i swapped it back to a normal plate every time i did an online insurance quote it come up as the 16valve that got sorted but im guessing their system still shows 16valve

what nacks me off is that i specifically told the bloke that it was an 8valve!! im just glad i can do these jobs myself as i would have been out of pocket if i had paid a mobile mechanic to come round and do it.

quote:

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Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
Refering to people as "Tards" is really offensive and I hate it, sorry. Hope you get your parts sorted

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sorry changed it didn't mean to cause offence.