donut
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 posted on 7/3/08 at 06:09 PM |
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conning bar stewards!
Had the VW Sharan service by Croydon Volkwagon about a month ago and they recommended new rear pads and tyres. I said no at the time but they wanted
£150 just to replace the rear pads. The tyres are on the limit and will be replaced next week. I bought some mintex pads for the rear for about £20
and was charged £20 from my mechanic mate for fitting, total cost £40 and VW wanted £150!!! What got me really mad was that VW said the pads were
75% worn and when we removed them they were not even 50% worn. What a bunch if thieving ar*&%$£*s!!!!
Rant over...have a nice weekend 
Andy
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andywest1/
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r1_pete
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 06:59 PM |
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They all try it on, a while back my daughter took her 18 month old saxo for new tyres, they told her, her pads were worn out and the disks worn past
the legal limit. Till I turned up with micrometer, measured them and then asked for the legal limit specifications.. Red faced they put things back
together, then got told to shove the their tyres up their @rse.
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zzr1100rick2
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 07:12 PM |
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In defence of mechanics with service intervals getting further apart ie 20k or what ever they have to cover there backs as advising that things
have x amount of life left is a bit reliant on customers remembering
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froggy
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 07:53 PM |
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one of my customers took his relay van into the dealer when he couldnt get reverse and was given a £1900 quote to replace the gearbox ,he asked me to
go and have a look and i took wd40 mole grips and a hammer .two minutes and the tower selector was freed up and i left him to tear the service manager
a new arsehole as the van was just out of warranty.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 08:25 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by zzr1100rick2
In defence of mechanics with service intervals getting further apart ie 20k or what ever they have to cover there backs as advising that things
have x amount of life left is a bit reliant on customers remembering
Sorry but IMHO, that's a Bollox excuse. It seems to be standard practice nowadays for dealer garages to do this, irrespective of when they were
last changed.
I have known the Reading VW dealer say that a set of pads were worn and they'd only be put on there 6 weeks before!
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john_p_b
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 08:56 PM |
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brakes and tyres are a easy target for garages to try and play the safety card on ppl. some customers at the mention of worn breaks will just say yes
at any cost as it seems there's an ever growing number of ppl nowdays who haven't got the 1st clue about cars other than how to select the
dual climate control and put fuel in once a week.
i got my sister in law a car a couple of years back, little KA, got it cheap needing a bit of work, put 4 tyres, both bottom arms, battery, front pads
and discs and a couple of other little bits. 12 months later it's due mot, she was up in durham at uni and couldn't get the car back to me
so took it to kwik fit up there for thier £99 service and mot.............. she phoned me up in tears that night as she'd just had a bill for
£458
she's early 20's blonde dizzy as anything and they saw her coming in a big way, with the exception of the rear tyres they changed
everything i'd changed only 12 months and about 6000 miles previous! i was mad at her for not ringing me before she gave them the go ahead but i
couldn't believe how blatant they were in ripping her off.
built a car, built a home, had a family. lost the family, lost the home, still got the car.
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DarrenW
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 09:23 PM |
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I got a set of tyres on my BMW from National last year. They reported that rear springs were broken. Car was serviced a few months later and mechanic
said they were OK.
Ive heard of garages too often claiming brakes and tyres etc are ready for replacement. Dont trust any of the big ones now.
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Danozeman
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 09:30 PM |
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quote:
In defence of mechanics with service intervals getting further apart ie 20k or what ever they have to cover there backs as advising that things have x
amount of life left is a bit reliant on customers remembering
Thats no excuse. The wprkhop im in we share a workshop with bt fleet. They change tyres if the tyres wont last untill the next sevice!! Alot of
there cars are on 20k services. They change tyres at 4-5mm cos they wont last until the next service. Id hate to be paying for them.
When i last had my car serviced at a dealer they told me my car needed 1 tyre and a rear wiper blade. 85 quid for the tyre and 30 quid for the rear
blade. I told them to stick it blade cost me 5 quid and i sold the car 20k later with the same tyre on.. Theyr all at it. My mum took her yaris
for a puncture one day and came out with 4 new tyres. I had serviced it 2 weeks previous and the tyres well all good.
Dan
Built the purple peril!! Let the modifications begin!!
http://www.eastangliankitcars.co.uk
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LBMEFM
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 10:07 PM |
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Come on you guy's, if you can build a kit car surely you can change a set of pads yourself. Don't pay garages, DIY.
Barry
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joneh
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 10:14 PM |
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Can we get a list of garages that people trust? Maybe a whole topic on this. I trust my mechanic: Denbar Motors in Ronan Rd, Southsea, Portsmouth.
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bob
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 10:17 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by LBMEFM
Come on you guy's, if you can build a kit car surely you can change a set of pads yourself. Don't pay garages, DIY.
Barry
Yeah andy, barry is right.
You have nailed 3 cars together so far, so changing a set of rear pads should be a dodle, or maybe someone else has been building your cars for you
   
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 10:37 PM |
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I always used to take my Yaris to the Ipswich Toyota dealers for a service. Didn't have any probs until a new franchise took over - last year I
took it to the Colchester dealers because I started to doubt the quality of the work in Ipswich.
About 20 minutes after dropping it off I got a phone call - "did you realise that the front discs were completely shot?" I didn't
ask them to replace them - that's an easy job that I could do - but when I took them off I saw that the inner face was totally rusted.
It was fairly clear that the Ipswich branch had never undone 1 bolt to lift the caliper and inspect the disc - as the Colchester branch had done.
Oh - as an aside - I took my Yaris into Colchester Toyota as the steering felt wrong. After 30 minutes test driving and inspecting under the car he
told me that all looked OK, but he'd re-arranged my tyres as I had a bad mixture on the front (directional & non-directional). At the end I
asked what the charge was - zero, no charge. I was prepared to pay for the labour at least (and he was right about the tyres too).
You can imagine who gets my business these days!
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Jon Ison
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 11:01 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by zzr1100rick2
In defence of mechanics with service intervals getting further apart ie 20k or what ever they have to cover there backs as advising that things
have x amount of life left is a bit reliant on customers remembering
Yup, 20k service intervals, my pads failed 3k after VW service........
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Coose
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| posted on 7/3/08 at 11:13 PM |
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I'm with LBMEFM - can't you change your own pads?!?!
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
I always used to take my Yaris to the Ipswich Toyota dealers for a service. Didn't have any probs until a new franchise took over - last year I
took it to the Colchester dealers because I started to doubt the quality of the work in Ipswich.
About 20 minutes after dropping it off I got a phone call - "did you realise that the front discs were completely shot?" I didn't
ask them to replace them - that's an easy job that I could do - but when I took them off I saw that the inner face was totally rusted.
It was fairly clear that the Ipswich branch had never undone 1 bolt to lift the caliper and inspect the disc - as the Colchester branch had done.
Surely that's due to a seized caliper?
[Edited on 7/3/08 by Coose]
Spin 'er off Well...
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RazMan
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| posted on 8/3/08 at 05:17 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Coose
Surely that's due to a seized caliper?
[Edited on 7/3/08 by Coose]
I was thinking that too David - sounds like one pad is not contacting the disc so maybe a seized piston?
Cheers,
Raz
When thinking outside the box doesn't work any more, it's time to build a new box
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bimbleuk
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| posted on 8/3/08 at 08:42 AM |
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I bought a car off a colleage recently because it failed the MOT on rear drop links and yellowed headlights. He was told the headlights needed
replacing and the rear sub-frame had to be dropped to replace the drop links. The quote was £450, the car wasn't worth much more.
£8 each for the drop links and 20mins to fit. The headlights unclip and you replace the plastic lens with new. So say about £50 parts and a bit of
labour in reality
[Edited on 8/3/08 by bimbleuk]
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 8/3/08 at 09:41 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by RazMan
quote:
Originally posted by Coose
Surely that's due to a seized caliper?
[Edited on 7/3/08 by Coose]
I was thinking that too David - sounds like one pad is not contacting the disc so maybe a seized piston?
Possibly - but all I can say is, when I changed the discs and pads, the pistons moved back easily into the calipers, and the calipers themselves were
'floating' properly. There was absolutely no sign of anything seized or jammed. I forgot to mention that it happened on BOTH front discs,
on the side you can't see easily without lifting the caliper.
 
However, my point was that this problem hadn't been spotted by the previous garage. One reason I changed to Colchester was I had tried to
arrange a service and MOT combined at the Ipswich branch but they couldn't do MOTs on a Saturday (they out-source). So I had the service done,
and then took the car to an MOT tester that I know quite well. He knew that I'd just been for a service, and his comment was - "you do
realise that these wheels haven't been off for quite a while!". And you can't even look at the ends of the pads without taking the
wheels off...
I should also add that I've checked the discs recently at about 3000 miles after replacing the discs and pads, and there's absolutely no
sign of it happening again.
[Edited on 8/3/08 by David Jenkins]
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Jasper
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| posted on 8/3/08 at 12:52 PM |
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The answers easy - DON'T USE MAIN DEALERS OR NATIONAL CHAINS!!
I have a great local mechanic for my BMW, took in there recently as I have a shudder through the steering wheel under heavy breaking, all ready for
new disks and pads I thought. He checked them then told me NOT to change them yet as they still had a few thousand miles on them unless the shudder
got much worse.
So not only did he not rip me off, he didn't even want to take any money off me yet till the next service at least.
I never give his number to anybody as it's already a 2-3 week wait to get a car booked in and I don't want him to get busier!!
If you're not living life on the edge you're taking up too much room.
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02GF74
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| posted on 8/3/08 at 09:19 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
I have a great local mechanic for my BMW, took in there recently as I have a shudder through the steering wheel under heavy breaking, all ready for
new disks and pads I thought. He checked them then told me NOT to change them yet as they still had a few thousand miles on them unless the shudder
got much worse.
[/quote
That's Brian innit? Sadly he was sacked 2 weeks ago for not generating enough unnecessary work.
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