Dodgy 'supposed specialist' garages!
Discussion
RANT time! My Tuscan has just developed a coolant leak. I suspected it to be a bottom rad hose as that was where it was leaking from, so bought a few parts from racetech yesterday to fix it this morning. After taking the whole front end apart to do the job, I've found the problem to actually be the radiator fins leaking. Why? Because the useless tw4ts that fitted the recon rad in 2010, who are supposed to be specialists in TVR, didn't put the bolts in the bottom of the fan carriers and just rested them on the rad! Cue - worn down fins! Useless can't be bothered to do the job properly cowboys!!! Its annoyed me as it this simple reason that a part has failed, not the part itself!
I had a similar thing when an ex-main dealer did some major work on my car. Among a number of varying problems, they didn't attach the bottom of the aircon rad so the top edge ended up wearing through my alloy radiator, meaning I had to replace it. I've had similar problems following work from a couple of well thought of main dealers in the past. The best was an MOT fail on three things a couple of weeks after a £2200 service.
FSH essential!?
FSH essential!?
FSH isn't worth the paper its stamped/printed on if the mechanics that do the job are shoddy and can't be arsed to do the job properly! Luckily I can do everything myself, so when I look at what's supposed to have been done I know to check if it has! It would appear this well known garage is used to telling a few porkies on what they've done however, and giving cars back to their customers not put back properly hoping they don't notice!
Thats becasue the people that did the service did the rad replacement! Mind you I've taken the car somewhere else to have it serviced since then (The previous owner used the aforementioned to service the car) and they didn't spot it, but then its not really something you'd really look aout for to be fair. However when actually fitting the rad/fans, you'd know why to do it right if you were any good at doing the job!
I've had a similiar experience with a new BMW 318 I had... The car was delivered with a spacer on the wrong side of the fan.. after about 6 months and a strange noise, I noticed one of the fans blades was broken off. Took to the BMW main agent who fitted a new fan, but didn't correct the postioning of the spacer. 6 months later on a hot Friday afternoon sat on the M6 junction 8 in the usual 20 mile traffic jam, my engine temp. sudden shot up , pulled over steam coming out .... this time the fan had worn a flat on the top hose and it finally went pop. Next time the spacer was installed correctly and the fan moved about 1" forward .
I have used a few specialists, some excellent and some .... lets just say they had 'room for improvement'.
However - even from the 'excellent' i find i still have things i need / want to do because they werent to my standard. Admittedly sometimes because my standard wasnt good enough and has been pointed out to me...but thats quite rare these days.
Im at the stage now where i feel comfortable to tackle the entire sevice schedule myself along with 90% of the upgrades and / ongoing maintenance.
For this reason, and knowing i will do the job right / well im going to service myself from now on.
I am a little concerned as to the affect this may have on the value...but at the same time i think if you document the maintenance well and keep that well organised, the actual car will speak for itself when someone looks over it should i ever come to sell, and anyone who is serious about buying a TVR should know what to look for, and if they dont they arent worthy of buying my car lol
I think its worth it to know that car has been maintained properly.
However - even from the 'excellent' i find i still have things i need / want to do because they werent to my standard. Admittedly sometimes because my standard wasnt good enough and has been pointed out to me...but thats quite rare these days.
Im at the stage now where i feel comfortable to tackle the entire sevice schedule myself along with 90% of the upgrades and / ongoing maintenance.
For this reason, and knowing i will do the job right / well im going to service myself from now on.
I am a little concerned as to the affect this may have on the value...but at the same time i think if you document the maintenance well and keep that well organised, the actual car will speak for itself when someone looks over it should i ever come to sell, and anyone who is serious about buying a TVR should know what to look for, and if they dont they arent worthy of buying my car lol
I think its worth it to know that car has been maintained properly.
Im working to the same principle as here as Robert. Im comfortable doing everything on my car myself, with the exclusion of say machine work to the head etc
My car had a folder with around 25k of reciepts, when I bought it. In the first year of ownership I still needed to spend around 1500 quid on parts without any labour. Some of the items over looked on a 12k service (at a ex main dealer) were shocking ie bottom radiator hose jubilee clip rusted to nothing which caused all the coolant to drop out on my drive way luckily
what people need to realise is the following:
a)The specialist is working on an hourly rate if they go to minute detail on every job the hours soon rack up and the cost becomes prohibitvely high beyond customer expectation. Working at home you can work at your own pace thoruoghly going through the jobs in minute detail. This doesnt necessarily excuse shoddy workman ship but you get the idea, they want to get the job done and the next car in. They have to turn a profit or they dont exist.
b)My car has an invoice for £49k when new. A 50 grand car has 50 grand running costs, but there now at price point available to a wider audience who are far less willing to accomodate 50 grand car running cost, hence your back to point a) where the specialist is trying to do the work at a cost acceptable to the consumer.
c)These cars arent that complicated, granted there are "design issues" and a certain number of the specialists have worked out how to remedey these. However these were largely quality issues and the parts they are using to remedy the quality issue are available to purchase over the counter.
I read stuff on here and people talk like it needs to go to someone who can work on the space shuttle or have it fine tuned like the hubble space telescope. Thats not to say I wont come up against something which im not instantly familiar with, but theres a large support group on here where someone is likely to have encountered the same problem.
In reality it's a failry straight forward setup, the most complicated bit being the chain setup in my opinion. Finger followers have been used for a long time along with independant throttle bodies.
Compared to the wifes TT its pretty basic, but effective in what it sets out to do. Theres no 60v ignition system.. no CAN bus setup to diagnose etc
If you have the tools and the space dont be afraid of sorting the car yourself. As long as you keep a log and all the bills for parts i cant really see it having a detrimental affect on the residual. Any new propsecptive owner can have the car inspected to verify the condition anyway.
Waffling rant over
My car had a folder with around 25k of reciepts, when I bought it. In the first year of ownership I still needed to spend around 1500 quid on parts without any labour. Some of the items over looked on a 12k service (at a ex main dealer) were shocking ie bottom radiator hose jubilee clip rusted to nothing which caused all the coolant to drop out on my drive way luckily
what people need to realise is the following:
a)The specialist is working on an hourly rate if they go to minute detail on every job the hours soon rack up and the cost becomes prohibitvely high beyond customer expectation. Working at home you can work at your own pace thoruoghly going through the jobs in minute detail. This doesnt necessarily excuse shoddy workman ship but you get the idea, they want to get the job done and the next car in. They have to turn a profit or they dont exist.
b)My car has an invoice for £49k when new. A 50 grand car has 50 grand running costs, but there now at price point available to a wider audience who are far less willing to accomodate 50 grand car running cost, hence your back to point a) where the specialist is trying to do the work at a cost acceptable to the consumer.
c)These cars arent that complicated, granted there are "design issues" and a certain number of the specialists have worked out how to remedey these. However these were largely quality issues and the parts they are using to remedy the quality issue are available to purchase over the counter.
I read stuff on here and people talk like it needs to go to someone who can work on the space shuttle or have it fine tuned like the hubble space telescope. Thats not to say I wont come up against something which im not instantly familiar with, but theres a large support group on here where someone is likely to have encountered the same problem.
In reality it's a failry straight forward setup, the most complicated bit being the chain setup in my opinion. Finger followers have been used for a long time along with independant throttle bodies.
Compared to the wifes TT its pretty basic, but effective in what it sets out to do. Theres no 60v ignition system.. no CAN bus setup to diagnose etc
If you have the tools and the space dont be afraid of sorting the car yourself. As long as you keep a log and all the bills for parts i cant really see it having a detrimental affect on the residual. Any new propsecptive owner can have the car inspected to verify the condition anyway.
Waffling rant over
m4tti said:
I read stuff on here and people talk like it needs to go to someone who can work on the space shuttle or have it fine tuned like the hubble space telescope.
Ha ha ha yep totally agree with you on this one! They REALLY are quite simple cars compared to some of the things I've got my spanners out for! Which is what annoys me when I come accros a failure like my rad bursting due to a half attempted job! Arghhh!!! Oh well...Gassing Station | Tuscan | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff