The best [zb] you've been told by the mechanic ;-)

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Ok, let’s start the ranking.

My entry is well known scottish authorised Mercedes service.

I’ve been there last week to pick up our sprinter after regular service. I noticed some noises coming from the front suspension. You could feel on the steering wheel that something is loose there. I have finally to get some technical dictionary, as I know perfectly what is it, but I just cannot explain that in English. I would risk that this is some kind of suspension pin getting loose, that’s common in sprinters and if you won’t fix it (which takes about an hour and it’s cheap and easy), your wheel will have some free movement and it won’t keep the direction you need, so soon after you will have to replace much more parts in your suspension and also your tire will be ripped to the wires.

I came back to the office and told the girls there, and my boss, who just happen to having chat with them, about the problem. They send a mechanic to check it for me.

He asked me to move the steering wheel when he looked into the wheelarch and then he said:
Oh, I see youre right, but this is normal. This is because your van is brand new and it will need some time before it settles down…

(for the note: the van is 60 plate, yes, but it already done nearly 30 000 miles…)

On the side I have a bonus one. In place I used to work, we had our lorries from Ryder. One of this lorries were constantly pulling to the left. I check the presure on the tires and everything I could, and noticed that the tire gets worn unevenly. So I guessed that this was wheel allingment. Reported to the boss, he send me to the garage, I told them, they were like “You won’t telling us how to do our job” They took it for a test drive and told me “nothing is wrong”. I insisted they checked, so they rised the van up, the guy hunged himself from the steering rack and said “nothing wrong”. I then took a trip to London and off course it was wrong. So on my return I came to the garage again, the same outcome. I called my boss, he came, he demanded to speek with the garage manager. The garage manager told him “Technically there is nothing wrong on the technical side which will cause the lorry to pulling to the left”. My boss’s answer to it was “So please call the lorry shrink and ask him to convict the van to go straight line”.

Finally, they did wheel alingment, and the lorry was right after that.

And in the category “foreign entry”. I’ve seen reportage once on Polish TV. The guy bought a brand new citroen car from the Polish dealer. He found that car is not actually brand new, it was crashed and then repaired and sold to him as “brand new”. He came back and sued the dealer.

The TV crew went with him to the dealer office and recorded the conversation.
The customer: How it is than that this brand new car leaves four tracks behind instead of two?
The Citroen Dealer: This is actually normal feature in this model.

note: It wasn’t Citroen SM, it was C5 :slight_smile:

2

Was told my car was a mess except for the brakes which where ‘borderline’. Which was encouraging seeing as I had replaced the pads myself 3 days earlier. Money grabbing ■■■■■■■■■■■■ monkeys

3

Had the same new discs ,calipers and pads says the so called mechanic £320+vat and labour on a 1995 bmw worth about £500.Mate takes a look 1 new caliper later £70 right as rain!!! :unamused: :unamused:

4

i;ve been told many times by fitters to " let it develope " on one occasion it was the head gasket :open_mouth: you could hear it chuffin like a train … :smiley:

5

This morning my wife took her 2 year old Fiat 500 in for a service.
They rang her up and said that the rear washer wasn’t working and would she like them to look at it?
“How much will that cost?”
“£45 + parts”
“Don’t bother I’ll get my husband to look at it”

When we got it home it was working fine. Guess what, it was cold last night. In fact it was freezing last night!

No prizes for working out what the problem was.

And to top it all; Fiat dealer price for oil - £14.90 litre :open_mouth:

6

Ian58:
This morning my wife took her 2 year old Fiat 500 in for a service.
They rang her up and said that the rear washer wasn’t working and would she like them to look at it?
“How much will that cost?”
“£45 + parts”
“Don’t bother I’ll get my husband to look at it”

When we got it home it was working fine. Guess what, it was cold last night. In fact it was freezing last night!

No prizes for working out what the problem was.

And to top it all; Fiat dealer price for oil - £14.90 litre :open_mouth:

can you get me some of that? i wish i could get it at that price :unamused:

7

orys:
Ok, let’s start the ranking.

My entry is well known scottish authorised Mercedes service.

I’ve been there last week to pick up our sprinter after regular service. I noticed some noises coming from the front suspension. You could feel on the steering wheel that something is loose there. I have finally to get some technical dictionary, as I know perfectly what is it, but I just cannot explain that in English. I would risk that this is some kind of suspension pin getting loose, that’s common in sprinters and if you won’t fix it (which takes about an hour and it’s cheap and easy), your wheel will have some free movement and it won’t keep the direction you need, so soon after you will have to replace much more parts in your suspension and also your tire will be ripped to the wires.

I came back to the office and told the girls there, and my boss, who just happen to having chat with them, about the problem. They send a mechanic to check it for me.

He asked me to move the steering wheel when he looked into the wheelarch and then he said:
Oh, I see youre right, but this is normal. This is because your van is brand new and it will need some time before it settles down…

Just a generic front end suspension set up for you Orys. I suggest you are probably thinking about the ball joint. A worn joint can make the steering feel “vague” and will rip the tyres eventually. At worst they get worn and pull out of the cups when they fail! There are tie rod ends and control arms, both fitted with these joints.

8

Wheel Nut:
Just a generic front end suspension set up for you Orys

Thanks a lot! :slight_smile: Now I can know what I am talking about… Well, that sounded stupid. I mean now I can let the others know what I am talking about… Is that any better? I can explain to others what I mean…

Man, that’s tricky one :slight_smile:

9

The abs light on the truck is staying on all the while, “yeh mate thats normal, its nothing to worry about” :unamused:

On the abs theme, I took my bike for its MOT how do you test the abs on a motorbike I asked, his witty reply was, ride it quick on wet grass and hit the brakes, If you land on yer ■■■ its not working. :laughing: :laughing:

10

Trev_H:
The abs light on the truck is staying on all the while, “yeh mate thats normal, its nothing to worry about” :unamused:

Well, I had better, but it wasn’t mechanic, this was my supervisor in McLellan’s Transport

“Off course that ABS light is on,that’s because our vans are of the lowest specifications and therefore they aren’t fitted with ABS at all” :smiley:

11

A few years ago I was told by another driver that one of our trailers did not have ABS fitted and that was why the light was showing. When I suggested that since there was a socket for it on the trailer and therefore it must be fitted he offered that they had to have somewhere to put the cable :laughing: :laughing:

12

Trev_H:
The abs light on the truck is staying on all the while, “yeh mate thats normal, its nothing to worry about” :unamused:

On the abs theme, I took my bike for its MOT how do you test the abs on a motorbike I asked, his witty reply was, ride it quick on wet grass and hit the brakes, If you land on yer ■■■ its not working. :laughing: :laughing:

VOSA won’t take that view of it!

13

Hiya… and they say fill in a defect book. you say what wrong. the fitter comes up with a 1000 reasons why your wrong…
on the other hand we had a agency driver working with us. the first week he had a 6 legger volvo (quite new)on the second
week a artic. the regular driver of the six wheeler said did you have the 6 legger last week■■? yes was the reply.have a look
at this, the oil is only just on the stick!!!. the agency driver said well all the oil is in the sump not on the stick.
John

14

44 Tonne Ton:

Trev_H:
The abs light on the truck is staying on all the while, “yeh mate thats normal, its nothing to worry about” :unamused:

On the abs theme, I took my bike for its MOT how do you test the abs on a motorbike I asked, his witty reply was, ride it quick on wet grass and hit the brakes, If you land on yer ■■■ its not working. :laughing: :laughing:

VOSA won’t take that view of it!

Don’t worry, I didn’t take that view of it either and parked it up till the faulty brake sensor was fixed !

15

The seal in the cab tilt ram went on my mates fh xl, you know, the model that double man crews spend weeks away in, he was told he had too much stuff in the side lockers :unamused:

16

A “mechanic” once tried telling me adblue is injected into the cylinders when you turn the engine off to clean them!!

I’m just glad I did my time as a mechanic and don’t have to trust anyone else to fix things on my cars. Same as anything though, some are good some are bad.

17

Yes. I have very good scottish garage in Glasgow, the guys really know what they are talking about and they do not rip you into some unnecessary expenses.

As for the other mechanisc: well, I have to tell that if it’s coming to the car fixing (and other related things) I am only a bit better than Pat and Mat from that old Czechoslovakian animation:

But some of them seem to think that I am not only bad in car fixing but I also had my brain removed…

18

haha that cartoon was great Orys :smiley:

19

took 8 wheeler for pre test inspection was told no problems will pass first time, half hour later holding a pink slip and staring down the barrel of a public inquiry. no brakes on three axles,track rod ends loose(new had just been fitted) and incorectly fitted head lamp bulbs.

20

on the flip side to this is getting a driver looking over you shoulder telling you how to do your job saying i used to be a mechanic :neutral_face: yeh well done mate now leave me to do my job as the bedford TK’s you used to work on are ■■■■ all like the ones nowadays :imp: :grimacing:

mr bodd:
took 8 wheeler for pre test inspection was told no problems will pass first time, half hour later holding a pink slip and staring down the barrel of a public inquiry. no brakes on three axles,track rod ends loose(new had just been fitted) and incorectly fitted head lamp bulbs.

thats shocking :exclamation: