1 - car failed MOT on both lower ball joints in March, both joints where replaced took 8 hours to do the job and to press in two new joints, wow.
2 - June, car feels very "floaty" up front and rather unstable over cats eyes, especially on the passenger side, so in it goes for the lads to have a look, half an hour of pulling and soving on a ramp they come and tell me, passenger side axeial steering joint is worn, not to bad though, if it where to be tested toay we would pass it. did ponder that it is not enough to make car floaty, then off he went.
Changed front discs on that weekend, to find not a little play in this steering joint but a lot, AND the lower ball joint had poped its lower ring so the cup inside was loose and no grease in there, looks like it had been walloped into the hub with a large hammer.
Took it back to garage and questioned them on first why they had not spotted this on Thursday and 2nd why it ws like this when these joints where only fitted in March, they reckoned I had done this fitting discs to it, or ran over something in the road??? I decided not to use them again and fitted the steering arm and lower suspension arm myself, also two new front tyres, all finished two weeks ago
3 - TRACKING time, now I got this car 4 wheel tracked last year when I got it, so decided to get it done again, drove car to station after the weekend work and it was pulling left with the steering wheel slightly dipping to the left as well, due to the new steering arm and track rod end. left it there, picked it up that night drove it home with a straight steering wheel but pulling left still? turns out they had set it up as a Meg 2 type B, which is a hard top hatch, Est etc not as type E for the cabrio, tracking was all in the green, but wrong type and on the way back in the morning I checked tyre presures passenger was 28psi and driver was 32psi, informed the mit was pulling left, questioned the "type" setting and informed them of the differance in tyre presure, Mmmm we will have another look they said, picked it up in the afternoon, to be told it is all ok our tracking is spot on, you will have to live with it! I THINK NOT, refusal to pay was launched at them.
I took it to the place they use to track vehicles and spoke to the manager there, who looked very knowingly at me, took me through and we went through the logs for the wheel alignment, he was not stunned that they choose the wrong type, but showed me how easy it is to pick the right type along with all the set up measurments clearly it is wrong on many levels, we checked tyre presures again to find they where exactly the same as I had found them 28 & 32psi, so all they did for the recheck was clamp on the lasers get a reading and switch it off.
Re booked it last Friday, but they rand me to tell me on Friday they are not going to track it today as there is play in the driver track control arm, so it should not have been done in the 1st place as it will be wrong depending on where this loose wheel is pointing.
The trouble is this outlet has changed so when you now book a wheel alignment it is the bodyshop that do it, not the mechanics anymore, unless you know this you can not ask to bypass it, which I now have, I just can not belive:
1) why I was not told about both steering arms and the ball joint when I 1st complained about this Floaty car, even thought the lad murmed about this passenger side track arm not being enough to make the car floaty, he still did not go and look for more wear -scary! If I had not lifted that car to fit discs I would not have known about the lowwer ball joint or how BAD the play in the steering arm was.
2) why it was tracked on the wrong type, with unequal tyre presures, and again the 2nd time after the complaint and the pointing out of the differant types and presures, nothing was altered and why did they not tell me about the worn driver steering arm, this is all supose to be part of the 4 wheel alignment check, which was obviously NOT done! along with the tyre presure check.
This seems to be the level of workmanship we now have to put up with, it has become espcially bad after this recession, all they seem to want is your cash and just bung out the job as quickly as possible, right or wrong makes no odds as long as you pay up.
Same type of service from Tyre shopper and National Tyres, take your money do a crap job, BS you then ignor you.
Ball joints - take your money, bodge it, BS you, then blame you, then ignor you.
Tracking - do a crap job, BS you, and ignor you apart from threats of small claims court, well go for it as I have evidence in black and white on how it was set up wrong.
As an apprentice I was always told it takes just as long to do the job wrong as it does to do it right. they always use to tell me "that is your name on that car" as in Chris tracked this up runs straight as a dia, or, chris tracked this up, what a cowboy, works for so and so down the road, wouldn't use them; thesedays nobody seems to care what you think or the next person thinks, no pride in thier work anymore at all!
