Rant So when does your service station/garage peev you off?

[Col_Klonk]

My Renault developed a power problem in acceleration, which I put down to the engine miss-firing.
The only problem was that it was intermittent, but still there if you push your foot hard into the corner.
Time for a service, so I took it the garage and asked for:-

- Plug, oil and filter change, plus brake pad, bearing (one was humming) check, plus a CV joint check/repack.
- I emphasized the engine problem as being most important (obviously).

I didn't put much faith in them solving the engine problem, but they did the other work and charged me for all plus replacing the plugs.. but never mentioned the engine problem.. it wasn't there ?
So I paid and off I drove... Ah all sounds good, car working fine and as I turned the last corner.. up 'popped' the engine.
Well just as I thought - I'll have to replace the Spark plug coils (it's a well known Renault problem).
So a quick squiz down the spark plug well and all I see it rust... "$RE%"£%$ - they haven't replaced the plugs.

Blood pressure red lines it... So calm down .. I'm just going to have to do this myself.
2500 Zars of spare parts and 2500 Zars of tools later..

So after running back and forth getting tools and spares.. Engine strip.. and clean up.

Yup!! we changed the plugs - these guys won't get a good reference from me !!! :blink:

I had to strip the whole back section.. to get the inlet manifold off.
A pain.. but WTH.. let's do it. Cleaned up and applied Gasket sealant, especially to the Plug wells which seem to collect water !!
(I'm not yet mad enough to draw perfect circles of sealant )

Inlet Manifold, new plugs and coils refitted..

Clean up throttle control.. this thing was a mess. I don't think it's ever been cleaned in any service :blink: - The cars 12 years old.

Throttle control refitted (no high pressure LHO pumps found :lol
I'll wait till tomorrow for the gasket stuff to dry before to refitting the air-filter contraptions.

All I can say, is that I'll again will be servicing my own cars from now on.
Certainly feel much better about this..ie no doubts

My only worry is the fuel injectors, but think it's more electrical than mechanical dirt. If so a re-strip and injector cleanup - hoping to avoid this.. maybe Murphy's sleeping tomorrow

:thumbup:

---------- Post added 04-24-16 at 03:28 PM ---------- Previous post was 04-23-16 at 08:11 PM ----------

All fixed and running so smooth... hardly touch the accelerator and it's at 80kmh...:thumbup:

 

[ADSWNJ]

Nice work, but why did you not take it back and complain to the service manager?

I figured cars became too complex to maintain yourself once they got computer diagnostic ports and the whole engine block was enclosed. Not the kind of thing for a strobe light and a feeler gauge any more!

 

[APDAF]

And don't forget planned obsolescence which makes sure that the car 'dies' after 10 years!
/sarcasm

 

[Notebook]

Feeler gauges, sparking-plugs! Complicated modern stuff, use hot-tube ignition, never goes wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDKui92iadQ

N.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

I figured cars became too complex to maintain yourself once they got computer diagnostic ports and the whole engine block was enclosed. Not the kind of thing for a strobe light and a feeler gauge any more!

Quoted for great truth... Though my cutoff is mid to late '90s.

---------- Post added at 07:09 ---------- Previous post was at 07:08 ----------

And don't forget planned obsolescence which makes sure that the car 'dies' after 10 years!
/sarcasm

Get a late '80s/early '90s Japanese vehicle... They run FOREVER.

 

[Urwumpe]

The only time my Volkswagen service drives me mad, are the really abundant customer satisfaction polls, calling me on the phone even for something as trivial as simply changing my tires.

On the plus side, they managed to find even very complex childhood diseases in my cars engine, which had been pretty tricky to catch, because they only get triggered rarely, from what I can tell after some research.

 

[Col_Klonk]

Nice work, but why did you not take it back and complain to the service manager?

It's a bit 'complicated'
It's a local garage which is not a renault dealer. The mechanic there is the brother of our char lady. She's been with us 16 years, and is honesty personified and we look after her very well. She does have problems in her family, so I thought it better to leave it as is, but not go there any more.

Had it been a genuine renault dealer I would have been in there banging on the counter, for sure.

I figured cars became too complex to maintain yourself once they got computer diagnostic ports and the whole engine block was enclosed. Not the kind of thing for a strobe light and a feeler gauge any more!

While low power system, computers, electronics have become 'throw-away stuff' like the old transistor radios. High power machines and electronics hasn't changed that much as the physics of such stuff is nearly impossible to miniaturise... so one still can use the old tools.

As long as one doesn't fiddle with the computer system the mechanics are very much servicable, which is what I banked on here.
After stripping/replacing and cleaning I just made sure that I reconnected everything in the correct places :lol:
There was no reason that I can think of, for the computer system to change the parameters... so it worked out ok...
Surprised me too, how smooth the engine ran... driving down the road thinking.. this cannot be so.. it's too good, better than before the problem arose!! :rofl:

 

[hutchison66]

older cars

I don't trust Garages every time I put a car in they don't do something I ask them to do, there's a lot to be said for older cars I have a 1986 Ford Capri and I charge the battery and she starts every time but my Mercedes AMG ML 4x4 has a warning little that comes on and they can't find the problem there's nothing I can't fix on the Capri but the Mercedes anything to do with the engine no way the Capri 40 minutes I have the Engine Block head off and the thing cleaned out big car companies don't want you to fix their cars they want you to take them to their garages they don't even want the local garages working on them that what TUV approved is about

 

[Xyon]

Get a late '80s/early '90s Japanese vehicle... They run FOREVER.

This is super true. I've said it a few times but my '98 Micra still starts first time every time and burns miles like it's nothing. A few minor spots of maintenance here and there but it goes brilliantly. They are the cockroaches of cars; they just keep going!

 

[Col_Klonk]

Mercs are so more expensive for servicing and parts :blink:

The old man (CEO.. RIP) of the last company I worked for. A German guy so Mercedes was the only car for him.
Besides his luxury merc, he also had a merc van, and every time it went in for a service he'd have a fit :lol:

The merc service costs would start at around 10K Zars (3x the normal ripoff :facepalm, but merc had the monopoly here.
:hmm:

---------- Post added at 08:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:15 AM ----------

The youngest kid is finishing Matric/Grade 12, and it's always amused me about the sizes (=$$$ over here) of the parents cars. about 80% of parents drive these monstrous SUVs.

Maybe they have the money to waste on such things, but I think it's more about display and ego. That school is all about $$$, and it must be costing them big time for the image upkeep.
Money that could be better spent ?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

I'm surprised that Mercedes hasn't implemented a NUSPI (No User Serviceable Parts Inside) policy yet... Or a clause in the warranty that if you attempt to fix it yourself at all, warranty is void.

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm surprised that Mercedes hasn't implemented a NUSPI (No User Serviceable Parts Inside) policy yet... Or a clause in the warranty that if you attempt to fix it yourself at all, warranty is void.

Should be the case anyway - only parts that are meant to be exchanged on a regular base should be exception to warranty. For example tires, lights and fuses.

The problem is elsewhere then: I could replace a defect light bulb in my car. But for accessing the light bulbs on the driver side and replace one, I would need to remove or at least move the battery out of the way. On the other side of the car, it does not look much better.

So: I am legally allowed to change the light bulbs, should I be able to reach them. :rofl:

Would I have designed a car, I would have placed the light assemblys on rotating hinges and just locked them in place from the inside of the engine compartment... but today, with modern LED and laser lights, you can't replace individual elements anyway, it is all integrated into one large expensive assembly.

 

[Fabri91]

Our Ford service hasn't given me any reason to complain, but the place were we used to have our Ka's tire changed really botched the tire rotation and balancing last time, after having changed hands: the car would pull noticeably left and vibrate once above 120 km/h.

That place has since gone out of business and when these tires are used up we'll probably buy a wheel-tire set and just change them at home like we already do for the Focus.

 

[Urwumpe]

the car would pull noticeably left and vibrate once above 120 km/h.

A Ka can really drive faster than 120 km/h? :blink: That's a joke, isn't it?

 

[Notebook]

Somebody was bound to do it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBKChiLVdUE

 

[Fabri91]

A Ka can really drive faster than 120 km/h? :blink: That's a joke, isn't it?

I'll neither confirm nor deny that it reached 169 km/h, as marked by GPS (on-board tachs always indicate a bit more than the real speed due to regulations).

 

[Urwumpe]

I'll neither confirm nor deny that it reached 169 km/h, as marked by GPS (on-board tachs always indicate a bit more than the real speed due to regulations).

I managed to get the full 190 km/h of my car lately, according to GPS over a longer period of time... thanks to having a nearly empty autobahn, no speed limit and a perfectly tempered engine after 3 hours of driving...

But driving that fast really cuts into the range of the car, if you have just a 36 liter tank volume (+ 5l reserve).

This weekend, I drove literally like a pensioneer and got below 6l/100km despite crossing the Harz mountains twice during the recorded interval. Never more than 130 km/h, never accelerate too much, if you already know that you are back at 70 km/h one kilometer distance later. And that with a lots of payload on the southward half.

(And yes, 90 hp is better than 75 hp, if you don't let the turbocharger stall on the way up)

 

[Fabri91]

By driving almost like a pensioner, as you said, the Focus manages under 5l/100km on the way to my grandparents (think Como-Stuttgart, more or less). Me reaching 203 (again, GPS and slightly downhill on a perfect road) after the Swiss-German skewed that a bit.

 

[Urwumpe]

By driving almost like a pensioner, as you said, the Focus manages under 5l/100km on the way to my grandparents (think Como-Stuttgart, more or less). Me reaching 203 (again, GPS and slightly downhill on a perfect road) after the Swiss-German skewed that a bit.

My next car will fix this. :lol: