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what have you done to your car today ?
- Thread starter seatcupramad23
- Start date
Getting the nut off the top is all I really need - I've been spraying it with penetrating lube since Sunday. The driver's side came off yesterday, but that was already spinning and just needed a jack underneath it. I'm sure it'll loosen up if I keep spraying it.
The garage thing is a bit weird. I suppose in every job, you're going to have people who are there just to go through the motions and pay the bills. Brighton's awful for this kind of thing though - it's full of middle-class people who don't care and can afford to pay for whatever repair the car needs, and so the garages either bend you over, or they do a terrible job of it - or both. Let's not forget that five years ago, I got charged £367.99 to have a new alternator fitted here. That hurts when I look back on it now - I could probably do that in an hour or two now.
He's a nice enough guy at this garage, but his attention to detail is really bad, and when I think about it, the only thing he has that I don't and could do with is a lift and a rattle gun - and the time to do this stuff, given he's getting paid for it.
The trouble is that on the flipside, if I go to a performance garage, they don't want to touch a sixteen-year-old MK1 - they think it's just making their garage look grubby - they want to do be working on that BMW M3 or an Audi A3 V10 or something - so they quote me £1,000 for a simple job in the hope I'll just go away, and if I stump up that cash, it's beers all round for them.
So, yup, no wonder I'm doing all this stuff myself.
Is it the same everywhere, or just here?
Oh the tales most people here could tell.
Like the garage who replaced a gearbox for me under warranty, collected car, drove it, went for 5th, wouldn’t have it, tried again, nope, turns out they’d fitted a 4 speed box so I had to pay extra for the 5 speed it should have had.
Or the garage that did work on the front left suspension but had neglected to tighten up the tie rod end which was fun to find out at speed as the car decided to change lanes of its own accord.
Or the garage who did an engine swap after the original snapped two cams in quick succession. Said “Here’s your car, all fixed”, took it away, within a few days the oil light came on on a long corner, pulled over n stopped, engine hot seized on the spot. Their response? We told you to bring it in (they hadn’t)
Or the garage who said my sump was cracked and leaking on the Leon which, along with a couple of other bits for MoT, would’ve been £700+. The ‘cracked n leaking’ sump is still on the car btw n has never dropped any oil or been mentioned on any MoT since.
But have found a garage who now does my MoTs and they’re pretty good. I just do everything else.
Like the garage who replaced a gearbox for me under warranty, collected car, drove it, went for 5th, wouldn’t have it, tried again, nope, turns out they’d fitted a 4 speed box so I had to pay extra for the 5 speed it should have had.
Or the garage that did work on the front left suspension but had neglected to tighten up the tie rod end which was fun to find out at speed as the car decided to change lanes of its own accord.
Or the garage who did an engine swap after the original snapped two cams in quick succession. Said “Here’s your car, all fixed”, took it away, within a few days the oil light came on on a long corner, pulled over n stopped, engine hot seized on the spot. Their response? We told you to bring it in (they hadn’t)
Or the garage who said my sump was cracked and leaking on the Leon which, along with a couple of other bits for MoT, would’ve been £700+. The ‘cracked n leaking’ sump is still on the car btw n has never dropped any oil or been mentioned on any MoT since.
But have found a garage who now does my MoTs and they’re pretty good. I just do everything else.
We bought a new jeep last year. Well two years old. 25k miles. Clutch was slipping. They replaced it under warranty, pinched the loom when putting the subframe back so had it again another week. Tried to put o2 and lambda the wrong way round then didn’t tighten the oil lines on the turbo so it was dripping onto the mani, I told the guy in keep what was wrong after they’d sent my wife away twice saying it was all in her head. I had to take it too them in pieces to show them.
All sorted after that
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So far I've not had any really major problems with garages - most of the issues have been when I've taken the car in somewhere and as I'm talking to them, I start to realise that I know more about fixing this car than they do. I understand - obviously I'm going to know my car better than someone who works on Fords, Vauxhalls, Renaults and the like, but there have been times I haven't had the tools or the time, and it's a horrible feeling trying to explain the idiosyncracies of my car and the mechanics are looking at me like I'm telling them to jack the car up to change the air filter.
One of the things I hate more than anything is dishonesty, and that covers not telling me something as much as it does lying to my face. When I had my MoT retest done at Kwik Fit, they nicked my battery cover. The guy behind the desk there had a MK1 and was obviously missing his. They probably think your average punter isn't going to lift the bonnet from one year to the next, but I was cleaning my EGR the next day, so having a bright blue Bosch battery on display when it was normally under the cover just really got to me. Even worse when they told me they wouldn't have touched it. After an hour, they called me back and told me they'd "found" it in a cupboard, and then said when I picked it up that they had to take it off to fit something to the battery terminals. For an emissions test?
A few years ago, had my nearside rear lock module replaced. Had a call from the garage asking me "it is the front door you want changing, isn't it?". When I get the car back, everything seems fine, but at the time I wasn't taking passengers, so it wasn't until a few months later I gave my mum a lift and when she opened the door, a couple of Torx screws fell out of the door, and the door card fell off. They'd taken the front door apart, then thrown it back together without the bottom screws, or hooking the top of the door card over the top of the door. Worse still, this was done in the middle of winter, so I didn't think to open the windows until it got hot. The window stayed in place - they hadn't replaced the peg and dowel, so there was nothing holding the window in the carrier.
Same garage charged me a fortune for diagnostics when I brought the car in with a flashing light on the dash. I forget which one it was, but if I remember, there's a light on the dash that flashes when your brake bulb has blown or something. I've got no idea what they were doing all that time, but they charged me for it. Just tell me if you can't do something - when I find out you've screwed me over, there's no chance I'm going back.
One of the things I hate more than anything is dishonesty, and that covers not telling me something as much as it does lying to my face. When I had my MoT retest done at Kwik Fit, they nicked my battery cover. The guy behind the desk there had a MK1 and was obviously missing his. They probably think your average punter isn't going to lift the bonnet from one year to the next, but I was cleaning my EGR the next day, so having a bright blue Bosch battery on display when it was normally under the cover just really got to me. Even worse when they told me they wouldn't have touched it. After an hour, they called me back and told me they'd "found" it in a cupboard, and then said when I picked it up that they had to take it off to fit something to the battery terminals. For an emissions test?
A few years ago, had my nearside rear lock module replaced. Had a call from the garage asking me "it is the front door you want changing, isn't it?". When I get the car back, everything seems fine, but at the time I wasn't taking passengers, so it wasn't until a few months later I gave my mum a lift and when she opened the door, a couple of Torx screws fell out of the door, and the door card fell off. They'd taken the front door apart, then thrown it back together without the bottom screws, or hooking the top of the door card over the top of the door. Worse still, this was done in the middle of winter, so I didn't think to open the windows until it got hot. The window stayed in place - they hadn't replaced the peg and dowel, so there was nothing holding the window in the carrier.
Same garage charged me a fortune for diagnostics when I brought the car in with a flashing light on the dash. I forget which one it was, but if I remember, there's a light on the dash that flashes when your brake bulb has blown or something. I've got no idea what they were doing all that time, but they charged me for it. Just tell me if you can't do something - when I find out you've screwed me over, there's no chance I'm going back.
Somebody nicked my osf skirt cover, now making another one. Bet the bitch was gutted when he saw I made that one also hahaha.
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That’s cool.
Did you make a mould for it?
Badger5 Custom Map + TIP,
3”Custom exhaust, FMIC, Bosh 550’s, BC Coilovers, ARB’s +loads more.
These horror stories are exactly why i started doing my own work (even if i make mistakes, at least i can track it down)
Its funny when i got my car and knew nothing, i had a reliable mech who had one of these cars, but after 6 months i'd learned enough to know he was feeding me bullshit here and there to save himself the work. Like telling me you cant buy injector cups without a whole new manifold (?!) 4 pound each from the dealer lol.
I hate to say but i dont trust many people to work on my car except me now
**** you, you ******* piece of ****. And the horse you rode in on.
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Time for a cuppa tea.
**** you, you ******* piece of ****. And the horse you rode in on.
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**** you, you ******* piece of ****. And the horse you rode in on.
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Well done mate.
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Going to stick it on eBay - "Condition is used".
Seriously though, thanks so much for your help, advice and moral support. Looking at all the stuff I've done on this car, this was probably the job that stressed me out the most. In the end, I was prepared for it to snap, and I'm just glad I was able to sort it. If I didn't have this forum, I'd have been at the cash point right now, taking out £160 for the garage to probably do exactly what it was I just did.
Part of me wants to hang the bugger on the wall now.
Seriously though, thanks so much for your help, advice and moral support. Looking at all the stuff I've done on this car, this was probably the job that stressed me out the most. In the end, I was prepared for it to snap, and I'm just glad I was able to sort it. If I didn't have this forum, I'd have been at the cash point right now, taking out £160 for the garage to probably do exactly what it was I just did.
Part of me wants to hang the bugger on the wall now.
lol my solution to draining the catch can without ripping my hands to pieces
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lol my solution to draining the catch can without ripping my hands to pieces
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Combi boiler tap and a bleed nipple? Inspired...
**** you, you ******* piece of ****. And the horse you rode in on.
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Lol
feels good doesn’t it when you get the parts off that’s been a pain in the ass Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Spent the entire friggin day back tracking on some of the work I'd already carried out and created a big space behind the head...
Seriously that was bloody painful!
The plan for tomorrow is to get it all back together with the AET380 turbo, port matched Chinafold & new Badger5 V.2.2 80mm TIP.
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Seriously that was bloody painful!
The plan for tomorrow is to get it all back together with the AET380 turbo, port matched Chinafold & new Badger5 V.2.2 80mm TIP.
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No pal just a plastic clipboard, bloody hot water and some bending cutting
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Alternated between spraying it with penetrant and drilling it out in the end. Thought I'd be able to just run a 9mm drillbit down the middle, but had no access really so just ended up ragging the drill from every angle, convinced I was going to end up with a stump flush with the subframe. In the end, I was tapping the chisel in from the left to try and pull the dogbone off the snapped bolt, and I got that creaking sound where you know something's happening, and then it just dropped off. It totally caught me by surprise. Vice grips on the leftover bolt, but I could have just spun it off with my fingers. You can see the bolt was properly caked.Lolfeels good doesn’t it when you get the parts off that’s been a pain in the ass
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Brand new Febi dogbone arriving tomorrow with any luck, and will install that and the driver's control arm as soon as I can.
The nearside ball joint is still fighting me though. I've sprayed it and tapped the knuckle as I was doing other stuff on the car today, and it still doesn't want to go. I'm sure if I just had a little more length on the spanner, it would go easily, but I've got nothing that would go on the end, and the only thing I can think of now is either heat - which worries me because it's close to brake lines etc. or to just take out the CV bolt and get the breaker bar on the top of it.
I thought you had done that to keep the big turbo off the breaker. Should go really well with the hybrid setup still.Spent the entire friggin day back tracking on some of the work I'd already carried out and created a big space behind the head...
Seriously that was bloody painful!
The plan for tomorrow is to get it all back together with the AET380 turbo, port matched Chinafold & new Badger5 V.2.2 80mm TIP.
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I'd like the drivability of the k04 but the power of a gt30! Cant afford either tho!
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