My fiancee had a puncture a week ago. After getting a new tyre she told me that her Pug 106 was pulling to the left constantly, plus the steering wheel was shaking at 60MPH.

 

I told her to take it back for a re-balance. After this was done, the shaking reduced, but the pulling to the left persisted.

She took it to a "AA/Halfords Service Centre" for a service and an investigation into the pulling - the "mechanic" told her that ALL 4 wheel bearings were worn, plus the nearside driveshaft needed replacing.

 

She went in there as a lone female - she came out of there in tears. She was told the work would cost around £1,000 - the car is barely worth that, we are currently buying a house so every penny counts.

 

The fact that all 4 wheel bearings needed replacing set the alarm bells ringing - how unlikely is it that all 4 would need replacing at once? The car is a '91 "J" plate, but has covered less than 60k.

 

I felt a second opinion was needed; we took the car to C S Wood, where our old forum member "PhilZ" could check it out. After a thorough inspection and a test drive, he came to the conclusion that the wheel bearings were fine and the only problem with the driveshaft was that the boot was a bit worn. The pulling was probably due to the tracking being out of alignment; this is to be done tomorrow as Phil does not have the necesarry kit.

 

Firstly, a MASSIVE thanks to PhilZ at CS Wood - this forum is full of great people, who look out for each other. Long may this continue :bow:

 

Secondly, I wouldn't touch an AA Service Centre with a barge pole - we are going to report this to their head office. I'd be very interested to see how they came to the conclusion that £1,000 worth of work was wrongly diagnosed.

 

Thirdly, a message to female Z owners; Diane/Anita etc - don't let untrustworthy garages take you for a ride just because you are a lady. I know you are no doubt wise enought not to, but just take care!

 

Cheers,

Dave

Not just women, I used to find a certain company, (men in blue overalls jumping) coming up with the excuse, all your disks and pads are worn, hundreds of pounds please. Then to find out from a mechanic friend, they were fine.

 

 

Barry.

From the same place I was told that my discs and pads needed doing. He did take me and show me on one of those tools which measures the thickness of stuff. He said that they where below recomendations and they gave me a quote of £400 to do them. I said no, and got new pads and discs from Halfords on the way home and an hour later they where all on. Cost about £60.

fookin robin bstards!!!!!! I hate garages, all except c&s wood of course, Phil, Steve & co are all top notch fellas, I cant recommend them enough as long as they are still in business I will be taking my cars there, I even take my shitty clio daily runner there as at least i know i'll get an honest verdict. Good places are very hard to come by these days and the hour trek to get there ( for me ) is well worth it!

fookin robin bstards!!!!!! I hate garages, all except c&s wood of course, Phil, Steve & co are all top notch fellas, I cant recommend them enough as long as they are still in business I will be taking my cars there, I even take my shitty clio daily runner there as at least i know i'll get an honest verdict. Good places are very hard to come by these days and the hour trek to get there ( for me ) is well worth it!

 

Hear Hear!! Once you find a good one, stick with it :dance:

Aye Phil is the man, he done my autobox last week and even done extras labour free :bow:

 

Top man top place :dance:

Sorry to hear that Dave,but at least she was not ripped off thanks to a trader that was honest.

However this does happen a fair bit when ladys take a car to a garrage on their own:(:(:(

Yep it's cack to be honest!

Phil at C&S Wood is a top bloke - he's sorted me out at short notice a couple of times and always does a bang up job too. He wont do work thats not needed and I've noticed a couple of things he's done for free while he's been doing the other work.

 

Highly recommend him.

fookin robin bstards!!!!!! I hate garages, all except c&s wood of course, Phil, Steve & co are all top notch fellas, I cant recommend them enough as long as they are still in business I will be taking my cars there, I even take my shitty clio daily runner there as at least i know i'll get an honest verdict. Good places are very hard to come by these days and the hour trek to get there ( for me ) is well worth it!

 

where r c&s wood located ?

OK Mods - with the sarcastic comments removed.

 

If you have the time, then always get other garages to quote for work before you commit to anything.

 

Happier? :dance:

Having worked in the trade for over 25 years, I have to agree its all true, and that makes me very sad, techs who dont give a toss and are bonus driven to extreem, managers who encourage rip off britain and want to glean every penny from the unsuspecting, usually trusting customer. Big manufacturers try to be all about customer satisfaction and right first time, but even thier franchised dealers piss it up the wall in the name of profit. I have actually resigned from firms because of thier less than savoury practices. If you find a dealer who returns the trust you place in them - then tell someone else so they can benefit, same goes for bad ones. A good garage that is honest and truthful is very hard to find , but once found is worth its weight in gold.

Aye Phil is the man, he done my autobox last week and even done extras labour free :bow:

 

Top man top place :dance:

 

Oo you queue-jumper you! :D

60k Service on my Saab

 

Saab £700

Local garage £209

 

and they did everything that saab would have done , would have done it myself if i did not need the service stamp :rolleyes:

I once had a Rover company car and I had to get it booked in for a service and MOT at the main dealer.

The dealer called me back a few days later and said they would have to put the job back a couple of weeks as they were too busy.

I needed the MOT done urgently for my tax etc so I rang them and said I didn't want an MOT anymore, just the service.

 

Took the car to my local MOT station and it passed no problem as it was it's first time at 3 years old.

 

When the car was in for a service 2 weeks later at the main dealer I arrived back at the office to find my boss fuming.

The dealer had called my boss to say it failed the MOT because it needed new pads, disks, shocks and new suspension bushes all round!

Unfortunately my boss gave the go ahead to £1300 worth of work!

They obviously never cancelled the MOT as I'd requested a few weeks earlier and did it anyway!

 

I had an interesting discussion with them on how it had already been passed by another garage and why they were taking the piss because it was a company car and we would just pay the bill.

They refunded half the cost in the end but it still never needed doing in the first place.

 

Tossers!