I probably know the answer to this already, but does anyone put any jacking point marks on their car for the Kwik fitters of the world to know where
to jack their cars up without going through the floor?
The answer I'm expecting is 'I would never take my kit car to a tyre fitters in the first place', but just in case someone does
actually trust a tyre fitter enough to have a tyre fitted on their car I thought I'd ask.
(And I should mention that I don't even trust tyre fitters with my tintop, I'll always take loose wheels to them if possible).
After my wifes Punto got a crushed sump when having her front tyres fitted (not noticed at the time I'm afraid) I would go with your last sentence (tintop as well)
It’s not just tyres, when I took mine in for mot and the tester asked where he could jack the front to check for play in the steering.
I quite regularly see cars that have been to "fast fit" places for tyres and were left with damaged sills, undertrays and even damaged
suspension due to a lack of observation by someone more worried about bonus than care of the vehicle they're working on.
It would be advised to find someone who is mechanically sympathetic and would bother to use jacking points to start with, but their ramp configuration
may affect what points are reachable - there should be enough alternative points on a kitcar chassis to work around this.
Dave
You can't get thicker than a Quick fit fitter!
quote:
Originally posted by rusty nuts
You can't get thicker than a Quick fit fitter!
I am in the camp, of taking the wheels off the car at home, as wouldn't trust any tyre place with my sportscar, also I doubt
there huge trolley jack would go under my car anyway
My Mondeo, I trust the tyre place that I use, so its not a problem
steve
High end cars with bonded aluminium floor pans get written off because of this, little Aston Martin V8V Vantages are very suceprible as the box
section gets crushed... One idot reduces your car to scrap
Couldn't get into my usual kit car friendly MOT place once and had to take it somewhere else
It was pretty obvious from the start that they hadn't tested a kit before as he wanted to test the emissions on a Q plate
I chose to stay with the car while they tested it and showed them where they could and couldn't jack it for testing
If i hadn't of stayed with it gowd knows what would have happened
It was no problem
Take the wheel off and take round to my local NOT quickfit.
After Kwick-bodge cost me a sump pan and sill repairs on my 5 series I would never go somewhere like that again.
Now I either take the wheels to them or seek out a decent family run garage.
Jay
It’s pretty simple
Get out of your car and say “I’ll show where to Jack the car, don’t lift it till I’m happy”
The local tyre supermarket type place point blank refused to jack my car up. This was reassuring, it demonstrated that some outfits do worry about
jacking things up.
Car in question had long since lost any structure around the jacking points, and any structure that wasn't 30cm away from a 'sensitive'
area. There absence of a rear window (the frame had corroded, it fell out) didn't inspire them with either as they went to 'check' the
rear wiper...£
I only ever take loose wheels to these type of folk, the above was an emergency pull-in, solved with a can of Tyreweld from the adjacent supermarket
since no elevation of the vehicle was possible at the tyre folk's premises.
If it was me, loose wheels only, period.
Not a fan of Kwik Fit and TBH wouldn't trust them to know where to jack a car safely or even where to find out before jacking.
I've use a local tyre fitters (Micheldever) all my driving life and never had an issue with tin tops.
I took my MK Indy there once and the operator did ask where to jack it and followed my instructions to the letter - quite happy.
Other than that I'd remove the wheels and take them to a fitters for new tyres.
So the general consensus is exactly as expected, basically avoid the situation in the first place!!
I'm also glad I'm not the only one to do it for the tintop too, my friends think I'm odd to go through the effort of taking loose
wheels. Especially when I'm doing a set of four and have to get the entire car off the floor.
Interesting thought about the MOT though, but I guess the average MOT guy is a bit more savvy than a tyre monkey. I do trust my local MOT tester, I
was going to book an hour of his time to go over the car once it's built (if it ever gets built!!).
Edit: Oh yeah, and avoid Kwik fit completely!! Yep, I agree with that sentiment too, loose wheels or not!
[Edited on 26/11/18 by Slimy38]
I once gave a kwik fit guy a telling off who was about to jack my Bluebird up right on the sill flange, his response was he jacks all cars up there,
what an idiot. Didn't even have a pad or anything on the jack either and as far as I'm concerned just didn't want to have to lay down
and have a look under the car. Some garages try to keep the owners out of the workshop but if you state right at the start you want to supervise where
the car is being jacked up they can either say yes or no and if no go somewhere else.
I've helped out fitters while they fit my tires and even helped during MOT's operating the controls for my kit cars so if they don't
want you there, they've probably got something to hide...
[Edited on 26/11/18 by Mr Whippy]
You'd not believe how many mates I've had to bollock for standing on the exhaust as they try to get in! Seriously I'm not fussy,stand on the side,the seat,the tunnel,forward roll over the cage, but dont stand on that red hot shiny pipe hanging off a little rubber bobbin!
Chris,
Been there ! and she had a nice pair of shoes on as well, that went all blobby over my HOT exhaust , and her heel !!!
thankfully she was pissed,
steve
quote:
Originally posted by rusty nuts
You can't get thicker than a Quick fit fitter!