Had a customer with a Mk5 Golf. Poor idle and engine juddering pretty badly. It has been into a garage (not a dealer) to diagnose as its out of warranty. After replacing the injectors, injector wiring loom, checking compression, pumps etc etc they gave up and the customer brought it into us. I drove it into the workshop and found the issue straight away....

The dual mass flywheel has all but given up. All of the silicone suspension has flown out and coated the innards of the gearbox, bit of a mess to clean up. I contacted VW and they offered a 50% goodwill on parts and labour which I thought was good of them. Just goes to show we aint all rip off merchants, we know what we are doing and what goes wrong with them. Could have saved this customer a bundle if they had come to us in the first place.

Your on fire today mate

All these pics of destroyed turbos and leaking dmfs is making me feel a little queasy lol

feeling the need to go outside and check my car

I've been collecting them

But its true, they dont build dubs like they used to...lol.

DMFs , the biggest pile of Sh1te ever designed and fitted to a car

I agree, neither of my cars have em

:)I replaced a clutch on a 2005 Peugeot Expert a couple of months ago. I rang Euro Car Parts to order the clutch and a new DMF and was offered a kit comprising of a new solid [not DMF] flywheel and clutch kit. Can't remember the price, but I know it was reasonable. Is such a kit available for VW/Skoda cars?

And to be fair, you've probably snagged yourself a new regular customer for your dealership now Lummox! Fair play.

It's swings and roundabouts IMHO. You are clearly a useful kind of guy, but unfortunately not all dealerships have a Lummox.

I took my car to the dealer to diagnose a steering clunk and after two hours they couldn't tell me what it was but offered to change the column for me on the off chance that it was the fault. 20 minutes in the hands of an independent specialist and the fault was diagnosed as the steering rack.

Well done with the golf, looks like a fun job sorting that one!

Very true Phil.

I firmly support the use of dealerships but in example to the point you raise I use one 20 miles away instead of one 4 miles away or 10 miles away - for exactly that reason.

It's something which I'm often heard muttering about and that is that not all techs at dealers are interested in the product they work on or in fact interested in cars, something that enthusiasts often find hard to understand. To many of the techs it's simply a job for which they recieve payment for, end of story.

Thats the same with any place the offers services and goods to the public though.

It is always refreshing to hear that there are some people like me though that actually care about their job

I used a non dealer to try and diagnose my knocking from the front end of the car and they couldn't find anything.

It annoyed me that much I went to my local dealer and within 15 minutes of leaving the car it was as suspected ARB bushes.

Also they were cheaper than the non dealer.

Where would we all be without Lummox:thumbup:

Dealers prices aren't as bad as you tend to think either - picked up a new rear wiper blade for all of £4.09 yesterday! Of course, had it been changed as part of a service it would have been £20 including labour - therein lies the problem.

As a matter of interest, is it possible to book your car in for work by a certain mechanic at your place Lummox?

for all the undeserved bad press they get - SMF's are the only real way to go....

for all the undeserved bad press they get - SMF's are the only real way to go....

I am starting to see this vision.

You, Jason and gary* cant all be wrong

* there may be more members running smf but at this moment i can only think of 3

DMFs , the biggest pile of Sh1te ever designed and fitted to a car

Yep, number 6 coming up soon :(

:)I replaced a clutch on a 2005 Peugeot Expert a couple of months ago. I rang Euro Car Parts to order the clutch and a new DMF and was offered a kit comprising of a new solid [not DMF] flywheel and clutch kit. Can't remember the price, but I know it was reasonable. Is such a kit available for VW/Skoda cars?

Yes to the 1.9 TDI (VAG have a part number I'm told) and so far no for the 2.0 TDI, but I've heard there is one in the works.

Dealers prices aren't as bad as you tend to think either - picked up a new rear wiper blade for all of £4.09 yesterday! Of course, had it been changed as part of a service it would have been £20 including labour - therein lies the problem.

As a matter of interest, is it possible to book your car in for work by a certain mechanic at your place Lummox?

I suppose you could ask, better bet would be to contact said person and arrange with them to book it in.