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*&%$£*s!!!! Rant over...have a nice weekend
Had the VW Sharan service by Croydon Volkwagon about a month ago and they recommended new rear pads and tyres. I said no at the time but they wanted
£150 just to replace the rear pads. The tyres are on the limit and will be replaced next week. I bought some mintex pads for the rear for about £20
and was charged £20 from my mechanic mate for fitting, total cost £40 and VW wanted £150!!! What got me really mad was that VW said the pads were
75% worn and when we removed them they were not even 50% worn. What a bunch if thieving ar*&%$£*s!!!!
Rant over...have a nice weekend
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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!
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
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.
quote:
Originally posted by Coose
Surely that's due to a seized caliper?
[Edited on 7/3/08 by Coose]
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]
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?
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!!
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.