Damn idiot mechanics
Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 8:50 am
Due to going off with the year 5 school camp all of next week up the NSW coast started checking out the Suzuki Grand Vitara for the trip.
I wasnt expecting anything much, it has only been serviced 10 thousand k's ago when mum was still alive and only has 72 thousand k's on the clock (typical pensioners car). I knew it was a 1998 model so static age could be an issue so was mindful of this in my checking.
All was going well until I noticed the front drivers side outer CV boot was gone.
Having absolutely no time to do both the boots on this drive shaft and wanting to change out the front and rear diff oils, the transfer case oil and the engine oil and filter I took the only logical step and that was to get a local mechanic at a reputable workshop to sort things out.
I even bought all the synthetic oils and the boot kits etc need to do the job.
Put the car in tuesday morning and picked it up in the afternoon. Not too bad on price at about $250 for the work. (all labour).
Did a bit of driving around town and came home.
Later in the afternoon took our son and his mate to cubs and got 1/2 a K down the road, heading for a stop sign going down a hill and there was a bonk/crack/bang sound and the brakes starting grinding. Now I firstly thought of 2 things. Firstly, blown a tyre or secondly, something had gone with the brake pads (I had asked for the pads to be checked) as they would have had to remove the brakes to get to the drive shaft.
Managed to stop ok with the brakes and the hand brake and went back around the corner to home using the brakes (gently) and the hand brake.
Transferred the kids to the wifes KIA and headed back off to cubs.
While driving back past where the incident occurred I thought the previous noise with the Zook sounded like something fell off.
Stopped and sure enough, there was a bolt on the road. A FRONT CALIPER BOLT !!!!!!!
Took the kids to Cubs and came back home. Took the logical wheel off (RH) and there it was (or wasn't) the lower calliper bolt was missing.
OF COURSE IS WAS MISSING, IT WAS IN MY HAND !!!!
Reinstalled it and noted the upper bolt was also on the way to falling out.
Checked everything else out like drain and fill plugs and the other calliper and all OK.
Long and the short of it all, called the workshop up the next morning and went off at them (in a calm fashion). The response was "the mechanic will be reprimanded" and many apologies, will call you back later.
I am still waiting for the call.
The wife put the story on her facebook account (not naming the workshop) and she had a heap of replies from people asking to be PM'ed with the workshops name. Some even guessed the workshop without us telling them.
Seems they have had similar issues.
One case was the workshop is having to replace this persons engine as they stuffed it
Is there some governing body I can report this to ?
This could have been a hell of a lot worse, I could have been actually at the Stop sign when I braked and gone through it, it could have happened at speed and locked a wheel up. Who knows.
Luckily the only damage was where the calliper rubbed on the inside of the rim when it moved as the lower bolt came out.
Lucky it wasnt the top calliper bolt that came out that could have changed things.
Any idiot (or otherwise) checks, double checks and triple checks critical path items like brakes, suspension etc.
Thanks for reading my rant.
I wasnt expecting anything much, it has only been serviced 10 thousand k's ago when mum was still alive and only has 72 thousand k's on the clock (typical pensioners car). I knew it was a 1998 model so static age could be an issue so was mindful of this in my checking.
All was going well until I noticed the front drivers side outer CV boot was gone.
Having absolutely no time to do both the boots on this drive shaft and wanting to change out the front and rear diff oils, the transfer case oil and the engine oil and filter I took the only logical step and that was to get a local mechanic at a reputable workshop to sort things out.
I even bought all the synthetic oils and the boot kits etc need to do the job.
Put the car in tuesday morning and picked it up in the afternoon. Not too bad on price at about $250 for the work. (all labour).
Did a bit of driving around town and came home.
Later in the afternoon took our son and his mate to cubs and got 1/2 a K down the road, heading for a stop sign going down a hill and there was a bonk/crack/bang sound and the brakes starting grinding. Now I firstly thought of 2 things. Firstly, blown a tyre or secondly, something had gone with the brake pads (I had asked for the pads to be checked) as they would have had to remove the brakes to get to the drive shaft.
Managed to stop ok with the brakes and the hand brake and went back around the corner to home using the brakes (gently) and the hand brake.
Transferred the kids to the wifes KIA and headed back off to cubs.
While driving back past where the incident occurred I thought the previous noise with the Zook sounded like something fell off.
Stopped and sure enough, there was a bolt on the road. A FRONT CALIPER BOLT !!!!!!!
Took the kids to Cubs and came back home. Took the logical wheel off (RH) and there it was (or wasn't) the lower calliper bolt was missing.
OF COURSE IS WAS MISSING, IT WAS IN MY HAND !!!!
Reinstalled it and noted the upper bolt was also on the way to falling out.
Checked everything else out like drain and fill plugs and the other calliper and all OK.
Long and the short of it all, called the workshop up the next morning and went off at them (in a calm fashion). The response was "the mechanic will be reprimanded" and many apologies, will call you back later.
I am still waiting for the call.
The wife put the story on her facebook account (not naming the workshop) and she had a heap of replies from people asking to be PM'ed with the workshops name. Some even guessed the workshop without us telling them.
Seems they have had similar issues.
One case was the workshop is having to replace this persons engine as they stuffed it
Is there some governing body I can report this to ?
This could have been a hell of a lot worse, I could have been actually at the Stop sign when I braked and gone through it, it could have happened at speed and locked a wheel up. Who knows.
Luckily the only damage was where the calliper rubbed on the inside of the rim when it moved as the lower bolt came out.
Lucky it wasnt the top calliper bolt that came out that could have changed things.
Any idiot (or otherwise) checks, double checks and triple checks critical path items like brakes, suspension etc.
Thanks for reading my rant.
Its also the boss, who allows this poor standard!