ferny
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 984
Club RR Member Number: 13
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Dec 19, 2020 16:09:02 GMT
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I'd be interested in your thoughts or opinions on the below.
A friend took his car to a garage because it was starting to wobble at the rear on the road, especially on corners. They advised that it sounded unsafe but couldn't find the cause from looking underneath in a pit with a torch. They suggested maybe the CV joints or suspension top mounts and to "be careful".
He's brought it round mine and I've asked a few questions and found out the clutch has been replaced about a month ago and the moving around sensation which has been getting worse started about three weeks ago. Common sense says let's look at what they've touched and as it's an MR2, let's look around the subframe first.
The bolt for the O/S control arm was almost falling out. It was honestly only held in place by the weight of the car pushing down on the half which was inside the bush. About an inch was sticking out into clean air.
Now, this work was done by a specialist garage and the check this week was done by a well established independent. Is this not a really scary thought for anyone else? We all miss stuff now and then, but that's a biggy!
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Last Edit: Dec 19, 2020 16:14:01 GMT by ferny
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Dec 19, 2020 16:30:58 GMT
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Thats bad, but not unusual. Why they wouldnt have double checked the bolts I don't know, only thought is if it was up on a 4 poster the subframe had dropped making the bolt seem tight? I don't think I would use that garage again.
I bought a very cheap Polo off my sister-in-law who works for the service department of a main dealer (not VW).
It had a dodgy gear change 1st-2nd, they had spent ages looking at it apparently and couldnt find anything wrong. I had it a few days and it was nearly undriveable so I popped it up on some ramps, 5 mins with a 10mm and it was fixed. The selector arm wasnt giving enough throw and just needed moving on the shaft. I'm in no way a mechanic btw.
She no longer has work done on her car's at work...
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Last Edit: Dec 19, 2020 16:32:29 GMT by joem83
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Dec 19, 2020 16:31:34 GMT
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It happens, no one died, move on, don’t use either again, end of.
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andyborris
Posted a lot
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Posts: 2,161
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Dec 19, 2020 16:42:57 GMT
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Not unusual in my experience, "just tighten those nuts, will you" is the sort of thing the lad is often told to do, he's young, easily distracted and gets a Cat meme on his phone. You can see where I'm going with this..... The worst I've had, was on a Volvo FM 460 Drawbar combination, just been serviced and loaded with 26 tonnes of paving slabs and as it's trundling round the M25, Monday morning the untightened oil sump drain plug slowly unscrewed itself, dropped 33 litres of fresh synthetic oil onto lane one and then seized! I then spent 3 hours watching a huge rush traffic jam, while I waited to be recovered. And the dealer tried to get out of the rebuild costs! In case you don't know what a drawbar is
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Last Edit: Dec 19, 2020 16:47:14 GMT by andyborris
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Dec 19, 2020 16:50:26 GMT
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Just because they do it for a living doesn’t mean they’re any good at it.
There’s many garages and specialists within the motor trade who earn their money correcting the mistakes and shoddy work of others.
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Dec 19, 2020 16:57:42 GMT
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Just because they do it for a living doesn’t mean they’re any good at it. Ain't that the truth.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Dec 19, 2020 17:04:47 GMT
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Just because they do it for a living doesn’t mean they’re any good at it. Ain't that the truth. You know who may have crossed my mind as I wrote that 😉
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Dec 19, 2020 17:29:13 GMT
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Just because they do it for a living doesn’t mean they’re any good at it. Ain't that the truth. It's not limited to the motor trade either.
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Jaguar S-Type 3.0 SE
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Dec 19, 2020 17:34:03 GMT
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It happens in every trade, we've had gas safe "engineers" in who I wouldn't let loose in our toilet. I used to work for Volvo T&B and Penta, the amount of times someone would skimp on a £5 sump plug and washer is unreal, TSB says they are single use.
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Dec 19, 2020 20:35:05 GMT
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Having just retired after 50 years of spannering, I can see the other side! i've made a few mistakes in my time, some I paid for, some I caught in time. And i'm more careful than most.
But look at the job, I've not done an MR2 clutch, but it's no walk in the park, probably better than 50 bolts to remove and refit in total. Being a specialist doesn't help, it makes you blase about it. It gets done quicker. Everybody wants done quicker, it's cheaper and you get your car back sooner. But a mechanic is not a machine, he's a human and humans screw up, especially when hurrying.
I'm not condoning this, but it is what it is and can happen to the best of us. At least nobody got hurt and nobodies pride and joy was destroyed.
The reason I am so extremely careful, is that I had a salutory warning experience when I was just a semi-trained lad of 18 (in 1972) A mate had a lovely Super Minx convertible, it had been his mums car before from new. A lovely lad, studying at uni in Oxford. He was home for the holidays and asked me to service it for him which I did. Mechanically it was fine, but the brakes were a mess, I had to fit pads, shoes, rear cylinders, a master cylinder kit a couple of flexi hoses and steel pipes, then bleed it all. It took me all weekend. 8 days later he was killed when he drove it into the back of a parked lorry in a layby on the A40 at 2am doing something like 50 mph.
So I then sh*t conkers, worrying i'd missed something for 3 weeks till the police had finished their report on the accident, anyone who knows will tell you the police go through a car involved in a fatal accident with a fine toothed comb. When the report finally came back, it said the car was in perfect shape - advertising I could live without - and their conclusion was he'd fallen asleep at the wheel and drifted into the layby and the unlit truck. His family were very good about it and I helped carry his coffin at the funeral. But it made a deep impression on me! Us mechanics carry endless lives in our hands every day of our lives. If we get it wrong, people can, quite literally, die. Not everyone, or even every mechanic, appreciates this. So next time you're waiting at the garage to get your car back, think twice before you nag the poor guy to hurry up!
Steve
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My eldest bought a focus from a ‘friend’, i do really use the word advisedly One of those mothers who put the pushchair into the road to see if its clear did exactly that, causing her to take fairly violent avoiding action She damn near lost control of the car, and hit a traffic island with a front wheel. I was working away so she took it into the local Formula 1 place to get the tyre and tracking checked They refused to let her drive it away, the steering rack was only held into the car via the column and track rod ends, and the captive nuts had the threads pulled out, with bolts that were too short to reach them anyway It had passed an MOT like that three weeks previous, before she owned it ‘Well it was ok when i sold it!’ Ex-friend 🤬
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Dec 20, 2020 16:19:45 GMT
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I've had it happen to me in the past, have bought cars with such issus and also helped fix cars with such issues.
It's curse word but it does happen more than you think
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,840
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Dec 20, 2020 16:28:14 GMT
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Mistakes happen, usually from distraction or assumption (that somebody else has done it). I build 4-5 engines a week at least, best thing I've learned is to tell people to 'go away' when I'm building stuff up and mark every critical bolt after fully tightening. The nagging feeling I get when I get home from work and ponder whether I tightened something up if I've been distracted is bloody awful.
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Dec 20, 2020 20:13:29 GMT
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I bought an Audi A8 back in October. Private sale and stood for a month, but MoT’d less than 5 miles previously.
There was a light clatter over rough surfaces from the front right although a suspension arm and TRE had been changed for the MoT. Jam nut for the TRE was at the wrong end of the thread and loose.....
It is true that it’s a bit of an odd-ball backwards thing but even so. Tracking miles out too. Tracking charged for on the bill......
100 miles from home or I’d have taken it back to them!
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend) 1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing) 1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Dec 20, 2020 20:23:28 GMT
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My eldest bought a focus from a ‘friend’, i do really use the word advisedly One of those mothers who put the pushchair into the road to see if its clear did exactly that, causing her to take fairly violent avoiding action She damn near lost control of the car, and hit a traffic island with a front wheel. I was working away so she took it into the local Formula 1 place to get the tyre and tracking checked They refused to let her drive it away, the steering rack was only held into the car via the column and track rod ends, and the captive nuts had the threads pulled out, with bolts that were too short to reach them anyway It had passed an MOT like that three weeks previous, before she owned it ‘Well it was ok when i sold it!’ Ex-friend 🤬 We recently sold my son's Polo to one of his mates. I told him everything wrong with it that I was aware of. This wasn't much to be honest, if I had the space I would have kept it. I was still a bit nervous for a week or two just in case something went tits up. If I sold something with a fault like that at all, let alone to someone I knew, I wouldn't sleep at night.
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Jaguar S-Type 3.0 SE
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Dec 20, 2020 20:56:48 GMT
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Thats flip side, I hate selling cars, and the last one was to my best mates mum. 2000 plate 206 1.4, we had it 2 years never put a foot wrong, sold it when we had our 3rd child. She bought it with 10 months MOT for 300 quid, did literally nothing to it apart from put fuel in, it was my fault when it then failed on a pair of droplinks up front. It was then my fault around 3 months after that when the headgasket popped, when she even admitted never having checked the oil or water whilst she had it. If I were to sell a car again it wouldn't be to someone I know, was made to feel guilty about that for ages.
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e30ben
Part of things
Posts: 66
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Dec 20, 2020 21:52:52 GMT
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Thats flip side, I hate selling cars, and the last one was to my best mates mum. 2000 plate 206 1.4, we had it 2 years never put a foot wrong, sold it when we had our 3rd child. She bought it with 10 months MOT for 300 quid, did literally nothing to it apart from put fuel in, it was my fault when it then failed on a pair of droplinks up front. It was then my fault around 3 months after that when the headgasket popped, when she even admitted never having checked the oil or water whilst she had it. If I were to sell a car again it wouldn't be to someone I know, was made to feel guilty about that for ages. I do not sell cars anymore due to be being squared up to on the roadside on a wet dark November night. The guy had terrible luck with previous cars as he told me on the 90 mph test drive on the ring road. Told him he breaks it it buys it! . The car was spot on as I’d had it years yet he claimed he found a fault when there wasn’t one and had it not been for his girlfriend I think I would have got a whack regardless. Shook me up, was in a state of shock when I told my wife what happened! Yes people miss things but I can’t think it would ever be deliberate.
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Dec 20, 2020 21:58:22 GMT
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Just because they do it for a living doesn’t mean they’re any good at it. Ain't that the truth. I take that applies to those doing Body work as well?
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Dec 20, 2020 22:24:23 GMT
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I take that applies to those doing Body work as well? For me it is those that swap in engines without knowing what the damn hell they are doing and leaving it in a state where the poorly welded "swirl pot" (it didn't actually function as one), was leaking fuel on to exposed battery cables. That was just the first thing in a list that eventually ran to two pages of A4. Luckily I found Custom Restore and EVERYTHING is either fixed or very nearly fixed now. Feast your eyes on what has had to be redone www.facebook.com/custom.restore/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2318348751543861&mt_nav=1&ref=content_filterAnd that isn't even all of it. Check out the most recent axle work at the bottom, the before pictures are pretty special.
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Dec 21, 2020 17:00:17 GMT
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Sadly these days , most garages , in particular the big ones have fitters not mechanics . I am a retired farmer then landscaper and I have sorted issues on cars that a garage could not find a fault. I've built my own car from chassis up and had tractor engines apart etc. Thoroughness is the issue
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