It's like Christmas for my Felicia (as sad as that is)

[RobABarker]

Hi guys!

 

So, I've been having trouble with my Felicia, well, more trouble than usual.

 

Aside from the rusting arches and the variety of interesting / worrying noises the car makes I've had a couple of major problems.

 

The first came shortly after I had the clutch replaced, which was slipping badly. Everything seemed fine but putting the car in gear didn't quite feel right. 1 day later I was driving home and the linkage fell apart. After taking it back to the garage they said it wasn't their fault, but fixed it cheaply, but used cable ties to do so.

 

Fast forward a week and there was a knocking noise coming from the driver's wheelarch whenever I turned left. This was then accompanied by the ABS and brake warning lights coming on. It turns out that the ABS sensor wire had come loose and was flapping against the wheel when I turned, which wore through the wire and cause the sensor to lose signal.

 

Anyway, that's enough of the gloom because I just picked up a brand new linkage and sensor wire & sensor from the Parcelforce depot. Happy days!

 

I now have the fun of seeing what else will go wrong / come up on the MOT 

 

 

 

[skodanorman]

I think you need to find a new garage.  

[RobABarker]

I think you may be right, I know how hard the linkage parts are to find in the UK so I asked him how they fixed it. Much looking down and foot shuffling ensued when he said they put it back together with cable ties.

 

Speaking of their handywork with the clutch, it's now whining / making the occasional rattly noise in neutral when the pedal's up. I've got it booked into a different, hopefully better garage on Friday, so fingers crossed it's nothing serious!

[dohnjoe]

in my country it is mandatory for garages to either:

- allow customers watch (with the mouth shut preferably) the repair of their car

- watch on CCTV the repair of their car from the waiting room or online

so my question is: do you have any idea (aka seen it) what those greasemonkeys did to your clutch?

did they really change all used parts?

how did they have the nerve to claim it's not their fault for what happened post "repair"?

from your description they are crooks and ignorants.

the brute type that get a bigger hammer if parts don't fit.

[firefrank]

Listen to 

dohnjoe

[RobABarker]

Thanks for the input there Frank...

 

Unfortunately you're right Dohnjoe, I have no way of knowing what it is they did, and short of taking the clutch off again I can't check. This is made worse by me not having an inspection pit of my own.

 

While I probably could have asked to watch them do the work this isn't very common (at least among people I know) and will more than likely annoy the mechanics as they think you don't trust them, whether or not that's true is another matter.

 

Also, as garages are only open for a half day on Saturdays and closed Sundays they tend to be very busy on weekends, so it's easier to take the car in the morning before work and pick it up at the end of the day. Sadly I don't think my employer would be happy if I said I couldn't come in because I needed to watch my car being fixed :(

 

Safe to say, I took my car to a different (slightly more expensive) garage last time and I'm happy to say their work seems to be of a much higher quality