The battery on my 06 VRS gave up the ghost, thought it might last a little longer than three and a half years. I went into Halfords, selected the correct one from their list and took it to the checkout. 'Would you like it fitted Sir'? Well my plan was take it home and fit it but I was a bit short of time so agreed to that for a fiver. The first thing the fitter did was to drop the securing bolt as it was removed, he really had no idea how to remove the battery. Brut force and ignorace. When the battery was out the one I had selected from their list was too big. They checked the list, found I had selected the correct one so out came the tape measure and another selected. HSBO75 is the correct size although a HSB096 is listed! Bloody good job I hadn't taken it home to fit!

Refitting the battery was a 'saga', the lost bolt which was a shoulder type bolt was replaced a plan bolt with 12mm head and no washer. What made matters worse was a 13mm socket was used to tighten it and rounded off the flats.

When I got home the battery wasn't secure, the 12mm headed bolt had almost pulled though the bracket. Got that bolt out and replaced it with the correct size head a a bloody great washer.

It really does call to question if the staff at Halfords have had any training at all and if they offer a fitting service they should make sure their staff are competant to do so.

I've never had to remove the battery, the day will dawn no doubt when the headlamp bulb fails and then I suppose I'll find out how easy or not the task is! Certainly if it does I won't visit Hafords.

i gota say, you get good and bad stores (what store was it you went to?) I personaly was never trained just shown by a member of staff then thrown in at the deep end to fix a battery and a bulb on a suburu now 3 years on still working part time to help pay for uni fees along with the accountant sandwich year!!! However i took a basic mechanics course and other course the company offered and now im very good, some cars you do get complications rusted bolts ect ect but it sounds to me like the fitter at your place didnt know what he was doing at all!! I Have helped train staff at our store (merry hill) and i always teach that brute force is never an option, and when loosening bolts try to finish them by hand so you dont drop them (did he even try to retrieve the bolt with the magnet tool?) Sheer ignorance is just mad, id hate to see what his car looks like if he changes stuff on it!

My sugestion is to write to customer services, Its staff like that that give the company a bad name!! Hopefully that will open up the issue and force better training (ive been keeping on to halfords that its gota change and just have a few dedicated staff fitting!)

Yeah, but on the Dave Halfords promo bit he just goes "One battery, fitted and checked [click] Try that!" and the car just starts!!!

You mean to say the Halfords promo are not being accurate!?

I love that i watch that and start yelling at the telly ITS NOT THAT SIMPLE AT ALL I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO FIT SOMETHING INTO A CAR AS EASYILY AS THAT! But i do go the extra mile

I especially like the "oooh, is it bad?" "No, just a scratch" [Pfffft from spray gun] "There, good as new!" [shiny bling....] "excellent"

Yh because unbenounced to anyone else halfords can actualy controll time and do exactly that in 5 secs!

Just out of curiousity, Does anyone know how much Halfords charge to change a Megane headlight bulb?

£5.99 with an inspection first to make sure you can do it, i can on a few megans (the ones where you dont have to take the wheel off) Basicaly the start of the new shape all the way up to a 57 plate (recently did 2 on a 56 plate (facelift shape with the new style lights) ive become quite adept at fitting stuff you cant for the life of you see so have to feel evrything, they are a massive pain in the ass tho!!

Edited 14 February, 201016 yr by lex2311

Jeez that's a bargain!

Not that I'd ever have a Megane!

I've done the French and Italian car thing!

Once bitten and all that!!

sure is mind you does take a while and your say there thinking "i could be earning £40 for an hour of labour in a garage"

So wrong battery in the infamous Halfords list of lies. Dropped proper bolt and fitted wrong bolt with wrong sized socket. Sounds about right. It also means there is the lost bolt rattling around somewhere in the engine bay.

I would take car to a Skoda dealer, have them retrieve the bolts, do any remedial work, and then bill Halfords for the work.

Feckin muppets.

I work for Halfords (for the time being) I've been there 2 years. You get no formal training for doing the bulbs, blades or batteries. But they tend to rely on the people in the store with some sort of car knowledge to actually get the jobs done. I tend to do most of the batteries and most of the difficult headlight bulbs - yes Megane's included - can normally do them within about 5 minutes. But no more difficult than a Rover 75 or a 2005-2008 Astra as they are the same, just turn the wheels and pop the bonnet for a bit of light - job done. I'm also IMI trained to do hardwires & stereo fits, Satnav's with hidden wiring or handsfreee kits.

But seen as Halfords is making all the Specialists roles redundant it means that 4 people are fighting for 3 jobs - Same in every branch in the UK - a lose of about 400 jobs and most of these people ear marked for redundancy are the ones who actually know what they are doing!

I especially like the "oooh, is it bad?" "No, just a scratch" [Pfffft from spray gun] "There, good as new!" [shiny bling....] "excellent"

I worked for Ripspeed for a year and it was hillarious, at the time there was an advertising campaign, “A wheel bearing for a mk4 escort on a Sunday? We’ve got it†or something along those lines,

And another was “A waterpump for an astra on a Sunday? We’ve got itâ€

When you checked stock there were hundreds of the advertised parts, as long as you had an escort with a duff wheelbearing or an overheating astra you were sorted, if you wanted HT leads for a golf you were buggered.

Man what a mission getting a battery changed. I would try and retrieve the bolt that's dropped too. Chances are it may have fallen down to the plastic tray underneath. Worth having a look.

Also: don't need to take battery out to change nearside headlight bulb on fabia. Have changed 2 without needing to take it out.

Yh theese job losses are daft, thankfully i am being kept on as a specialist fitter as i only need a bit of imi training and im qualified to fit evrything, My best advice is only get fitting done at halfords if its been recomended by a friend that way you can pinpoint the good stores! Oh and dont bother looking in the books come to the desk and ask the books are rubbish!!

I'd drop their Customer Services department a line. They can't do anything about it if they don't know about the problem.

How much did the battery set you back, out of interest?

Steve

As it was from halfords and the s indicates silver, I assume it was one of these for £119.99 (ouch) http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_734753_langId_-1_categoryId_165762

Yh theese job losses are daft, thankfully i am being kept on as a specialist fitter as i only need a bit of imi training and im qualified to fit evrything, My best advice is only get fitting done at halfords if its been recomended by a friend that way you can pinpoint the good stores! Oh and dont bother looking in the books come to the desk and ask the books are rubbish!!

Good luck with the Job! I'm on of the IMI Canbus trainers for Scotland and my job is still on the line!

Thanks for your replies. I don't want to reveal the branch of Halfords visited. It's not the fault of the staff but Halfords who have not ensured their staff are trained. In fact I find it quite appaling there is no formal training, it 's reasonable to assume that if a fitting service is on offer that the staff can carry this out efficiently and correctly. I will write to Halfords to express my concerns.

The engine management light came on today but the car is running fine so perhaps that's due to the battery change. I'll get it into the dealers and I'll ask it the can see the missing bolt lurking on the undertray.

The battery cost £105.99, it's a Bosch with a 5 year guarantee.

Thanks for your replies. I don't want to reveal the branch of Halfords visited. It's not the fault of the staff but Halfords who have not ensured their staff are trained. In fact I find it quite appaling there is no formal training, it 's reasonable to assume that if a fitting service is on offer that the staff can carry this out efficiently and correctly. I will write to Halfords to express my concerns.

The engine management light came on today but the car is running fine so perhaps that's due to the battery change. I'll get it into the dealers and I'll ask it the can see the missing bolt lurking on the undertray.

The battery cost £105.99, it's a Bosch with a 5 year guarantee.

Batteries are getting very expensive these days, aren't they? Hope yours has gold terminals and lasts for a thousand years!.

The battery cost £105.99, it's a Bosch with a 5 year guarantee.

This morning I went to start my Fabia - flat battery (though I last used it only yesterday without any problems.)

Called the independent specialist that I use for servicing and he was round in the van in 15 mins.

Started up using jump leads and then drove over to his workshop where he ran a test on the battery including a drain test to check for a possible reason for it to go flat.

Verdict was - a new battery needed.

Bosch with 5 year guarantee fitted.

Total cost including driving out to start mine, plus a professional fitting job on the new battery, (and no lost nuts) was £93.

After seeing what you paid I'm now much happier!

A suitable slogan for Halford's would be: "If you pay peanuts - you get monkeys...."

By the way, if anyone reading this is having battery problems and finds that their Alpine head unit goes dead as a result of low volts in the battery, if you remove the face-plate there is a tiny reset button which can be activated by holding the button in with a biro for a minimum of 10 secs to re-boot it.

Bob.

Does anybody have a definitive answer on what size battery the vRS takes? I've read the experience that Valiant has had with Halfords and the wrong size battery but both the Halfords website and this one http://www.tayna.co.uk/fitments/0/R12291/Fabia-Batteries.html suggest a larger size than he has had fitted.

I'm after a new battery as I think mine is on the way out (power steering fails to work for a few seconds when I start the car if it hasn't run for a while) and I'm getting seriously confused by all of these threads.

When it comes to fitting it's just a simple disconnect (-ve first), remove, replace, reconnect right? There's no hidden complications or anything?

Cheers.......

Edit: Guess I could just go and measure...............

Edited 15 February, 201016 yr by Hannibal

Up until two years ago I worked for Halfords and did so for 15 years, felt a lot longer believe me! I ran the "Ahem" Auto-Clinic or Parts Desk or whatever you want to call it along with one other fella and don't really want to blow my own trumpet but I'd like to think we did a really good, competent job. We had customers travelling from other stores to have parts fitted all because of our reputation. Anyway, just wanted to say that the staff training Halfords bang on about is non-existent nowadays, the company is cutting costs left, right and centre and all the experienced staff who knew what they were doing moved on. A lot of my friends are Managers or Deputies in Halfords and can't believe the way things are going.

One more thing regarding the fitting, I lost count how many times I was asked how much it was to have brake pads, wheel bearings and exhausts fitted in our store car park!

It's not just the staff which are sometimes a bit on the numb side!

The battery now fitted is a Bosch S5 it was exactly the same size as original. The Bosch batteries web site states it provides 30% higher cranking speed and a 30% longer service life. Certainly it does seem to crank over faster, not that it's ever needed much of spin to start.

I don't know if the size of batteries was ever changed on the VRS, mine is an 06. There is not one specifically listed for a VRS by Halfords, it's listed for a 1.9 td and that was too big. As for the cover, I've never taken it off but Halfords method is a bloody great screwdriver used as a lever on the securing clips. There are three securing points, one each side and one at the back. I've not had the chance to see what damage they managed to do as yet. I'm sure with the vast fund of knowledge here that a forum member will post the best method to remove the cover.

My Mrs' Corsa's battery finally died around Christmas. I started the car with jump leads but needed a battery fitting ASAP. Got it done at Halfords at Wadsley Bridge, Sheffield. ~£60 + £5 fitting. Started fitting as soon as I arrived, done 10 mins later. Extremely friendly, polite guy fitted it. He had a tiny bit of trouble getting the scuttle panel back on as it was snowing, incredibly cold and he'd been outside doing batteries all day (and it was an awkward bit of trim to properly re-locate) so I gave him a hand, but I'm sure he'd have done it himself given another couple of minutes. I was so pleased with the service I'd received and reasonable cost that I gave the guy a £5 tip.

Sorry to hear about the cutbacks.