12 hours ago, Dr Zoidberg said:

 

Aren't you a bundle of joy. It's hardly unreasonable for a company that sells and fits bulbs to politely offer to fit one for you.

 

My mother in law told me this week she called into Halfords to have a headlight bulb changed. The boy came out and said 'oh great, its the older model so its an easy job!

 

5 minutes and £26 later she was on her way. She is 80. whats a bulb from a local motor factor? £4.00 tops. I was absolutely fuming with her. She did say he checked the dipstick and coolant level. You cannot make it up. I usually take car of this sort of thing for her but I was away.

10 hours ago, VWD said:

I won't mention how some tyre places try to sort out seized up track rod ends - heat, which melts out the grease in the ball joint, meaning new ball joint in no time flat.

Or - as it turns out - you will mention it!

11 hours ago, VWD said:

Another firm, same sort of problem. And again, not Halfrauds, but another fast fit ( tyre) place. I picked up one van to replace an out of date lease one. Felt /looked/drove great, till I got it on the motorway. Then  ABS lights came on. Back to lease company, then Ford, and at 50, all that showed on the laptop was that one wheel was faster than others. But at70 - dash was like Blackpool. Ten next day- all became clear. I took the van to the tyre place and manager took one look and quoted "wrong tyre on the rear".  Somehow another branch had fitted the smaller radius of the correct size tyre on the wheel.

I won't mention how some tyre places try to sort out seized up track rod ends - heat, which melts out the grease in the ball joint, meaning new ball joint in no time flat. 

 

1 hour ago, JWvrs25 said:

Heat just makes the rod longer anyway so as soon as it cools down your tracking goes out again

Using heat carefully on seized track rod ends does NO damage at all, plus sometimes is the only way to do it unless you want to pay out and replace the tie rods and track rod ends with new.

 

Yes there are bead experience's with Halfords auto centre's, but please don't tar all the centre's with the same brush, use i work for them (last 5 years) and i make sure i do the job correctly, i use my own torque wrench for torquing up wheels as i know how it's treated, when i do tracking if i can't unseize the track rod ends i don't adjust it.

 

We are not all bad to use some of us centre's are very professional and do VERY good work.

11 hours ago, VWD said:

Another firm, same sort of problem. And again, not Halfrauds, but another fast fit ( tyre) place. I picked up one van to replace an out of date lease one. Felt /looked/drove great, till I got it on the motorway. Then  ABS lights came on. Back to lease company, then Ford, and at 50, all that showed on the laptop was that one wheel was faster than others. But at70 - dash was like Blackpool. Ten next day- all became clear. I took the van to the tyre place and manager took one look and quoted "wrong tyre on the rear".  Somehow another branch had fitted the smaller radius of the correct size tyre on the wheel.

I won't mention how some tyre places try to sort out seized up track rod ends - heat, which melts out the grease in the ball joint, meaning new ball joint in no time flat. 

 

1 hour ago, JWvrs25 said:

Heat just makes the rod longer anyway so as soon as it cools down your tracking goes out again

Using heat carefully on seized track rod ends does NO damage at all, plus sometimes is the only way to do it unless you want to pay out and replace the tie rods and track rod ends with new.

 

Yes there are bead experience's with Halfords auto centre's, but please don't tar all the centre's with the same brush, use i work for them (last 5 years) and i make sure i do the job correctly, i use my own torque wrench for torquing up wheels as i know how it's treated, when i do tracking if i can't unseize the track rod ends i don't adjust it.

 

We are not all bad to use some of us centre's are very professional and do VERY good work.

2 hours ago, Ju1ian1001 said:

 

Using heat carefully on seized track rod ends does NO damage at all, plus sometimes is the only way to do it unless you want to pay out and replace the tie rods and track rod ends with new.

 

Yes there are bead experience's with Halfords auto centre's, but please don't tar all the centre's with the same brush, use i work for them (last 5 years) and i make sure i do the job correctly, i use my own torque wrench for torquing up wheels as i know how it's treated, when i do tracking if i can't unseize the track rod ends i don't adjust it.

 

We are not all bad to use some of us centre's are very professional and do VERY good work.

Some context here. Halfords charge my sis £10 to change front wiper blades. If the guy who's doing that did nothing but for an hour that would be an equivalent chargeout rate of £300/hr.

By contrast I needed a new fog light bulb. It turned out the bonnet catch was seized, and my local garage had a journeyman and an apprentice spend 10 minutes helping me release it for no charge. The apprentice then changed the bulb for me. Still no charge, and they were even reluctant to let me buy a spray can of lithium grease so I could keep the catch and door hinges lubricated in future.

14 hours ago, JWvrs25 said:

Heat just makes the rod longer anyway so as soon as it cools down your tracking goes out again

AND, WHAT DOES HEAT DO to the grease inside the ball joint. YEP ,for the lesser spotted Halfrauds oink- it lets it run out, and a few months later ball joint FAILS. The only way to do this job properly ( to engineering standards, and engineering seems not to be in Halfrauds manual), it to heat ball joint, and replace with new. 

Ken, I use a garage like that, as my joints are not up to getting under the car. 

then I look back at a FORD place, where I took a van to have a headlamp replaced. No fault found, till I went past an apprentice, who pulled me up to tell me I had a dip lamp out. 

Edited 2 March, 20188 yr by VWD

On 3/2/2018 at 23:31, VWD said:

AND, WHAT DOES HEAT DO to the grease inside the ball joint. YEP ,for the lesser spotted Halfrauds oink- it lets it run out, and a few months later ball joint FAILS. The only way to do this job properly ( to engineering standards, and engineering seems not to be in Halfrauds manual), it to heat ball joint, and replace with new. 

Ken, I use a garage like that, as my joints are not up to getting under the car. 

then I look back at a FORD place, where I took a van to have a headlamp replaced. No fault found, till I went past an apprentice, who pulled me up to tell me I had a dip lamp out. 

I ain't no Oink, have been in the motor 22 years, if you use heat carefully on the THREADED area of the track rod end/ tie rod then you cause NO DAMEGE to the track rod end/dust cover or tie rod, the heat is applied in a very small area. its has been done this way since before i was an apprentice. In fact 99% of the motor industry use heat to unseize corroded/ rusted nut's/ bolts or thread's when penetrating fluid hasn't/dose not work. 

 

What would you rather do as a customer having tracking done paying roughly £30, have the tack rod end unsiezed with a small bit of heat and the tracking adjusted or pay £300 upward to have a complete set of track rod ends, tie rods and maybe rack gaitors and the pay for tracking again and the have the same problem happen again a few years down line (although if i did the job that woulden't happen as copper grease does wonders to stop this happening?)

 

I kmow what i would do

 

 

Some of us oink's as you called me have not always worked for Halfords, i was trained at a rather good independant garage to some very high standards that i have NEVER let slip, as said in my previous post, don't tar us all with the same brush.

23 minutes ago, Ju1ian1001 said:

I ain't no Oink, have been in the motor 22 years, if you use heat carefully on the THREADED area of the track rod end/ tie rod then you cause NO DAMEGE to the track rod end/dust cover or tie rod, the heat is applied in a very small area. its has been done this way since before i was an apprentice. In fact 99% of the motor industry use heat to unseize corroded/ rusted nut's/ bolts or thread's when penetrating fluid hasn't/dose not work. 

 

What would you rather do as a customer having tracking done paying roughly £30, have the tack rod end unsiezed with a small bit of heat and the tracking adjusted or pay £300 upward to have a complete set of track rod ends, tie rods and maybe rack gaitors and the pay for tracking again and the have the same problem happen again a few years down line (although if i did the job that woulden't happen as copper grease does wonders to stop this happening?)

 

I kmow what i would do

 

 

Some of us oink's as you called me have not always worked for Halfords, i was trained at a rather good independant garage to some very high standards that i have NEVER let slip, as said in my previous post, don't tar us all with the same brush.

I work in an independent Rolls Royce and Bentley garage and we use an oxyacetelen torch on seized bolts etc including track rod ends on threaded area as you say. I can say I personally have never seen "grease melt out" and the next time the car comes in for its service the TRE is still perfectly fine and functioning. My gripe was that they did not do this when it was seized to set the tracking correctly.  

2 minutes ago, retro said:

I work in an independent Rolls Royce and Bentley garage and we use an oxyacetelen torch on seized bolts etc including track rod ends on threaded area as you say. I can say I personally have never seen "grease melt out" and the next time the car comes in for its service the TRE is still perfectly fine and functioning. My gripe was that they did not do this when it was seized to set the tracking correctly.  

Some Halfords depot's can't as they don't have a technician who is trained/qualified to use oxyacetelen, so don't have the equipment (boc won't supply the equipment to the depot's as a few years back in one of the north country's depot's an apprentice was using it and left it unattended, not only id the resulting fire take out the depot but also took out one of Jaguar's main leather supplyer's as well). that maybe why or may be a useless depot as lots are.

 

Me depot's does (2 tech's trained, i'm not my ticket has run out, but the tech's help me out here, will re qualify soon though)

Julian 1001- et al, I'm relying on advice given to me by an old mate ( of over 50 years experience in the motor trade), in one fast fit place, when I was told that my track rod end was seized and it would need heat to free it.  I took my car away, and heated track rod end off,  and replaced it. If your place wants £300 to replace them, I'd be looking elsewhere. I can say oinks with proof, as my son did a few weeks experience in one fast fit place ( no names - no lawsuits) , and  he shuddered ( from his experience working with me and from practical experience)  of how the blokes did jobs, He was told "this is how it's supposed to be done", and "this is how we do it". 

What a lot of folks do not realise, is that back in the old days us blokes who fitted telephones were required to service our vans, and if we were interested, we got training from the mechanic in charge.