I hate getting others to work on my cars!

[shanegtr]

I'm a bit peeved at the moment and feel like having a whinge. There's a dam good reason I work on my own cars - on the rare occasions that I get someone else to do something they always seem to stuff something up. Got my disco in to do a rear wheel bearing now. Seems they have managed to damage the new bearing putting it in. May be Monday before a replacement gets here. Trouble is I had planned to leave to Tom Price on Sunday night as i start a new job there on Tuesday. So probably going to have to organise a last minute flight up there or a last minute drive the way things are going.

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[shanegtr]

Oh and to top it all off I was hoping to have it ready so I could pick up the kids from school, but we obviously missed that boat since the mechanic is a 45min drive from home. Lucky in a way that we have good friends there that can get our kids from school but dealing with an upset missus ain't much fun either

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[bobakers]

And that's just it. You reasonably expect that you are paying for a competent technician but most time they either just don't give a crap
Or are simply incompetent. Understand your desire to do your own work but sometimes it's either the lack of time or specialist tooling and you just have to hand the job over.
I'm just lucky that I have a very good Indy here in Sydney but I still always cringe when I get the bill.
Hope you get it sorted
Bob

[shanegtr]

Normally I tool up to do any job I need. Since I don't normally goto mechanics I don't mind spending the money on tools. Unfortantly lack of time prevented me from doing it this time......

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[cafe latte]

Never mind working on my car, often I m not keen about letting some people in it. One bloke halls his fat butt crushing my leather seat on top of itself trying to get in creasing it. Another when I arrived to pick them up had an egg sandwich in their hand I was like you are joking!! My own missus has a super annoying habit of scuffing her shoe on the sill on the way out. Off road scuffs and marks happen, but I dont want to accelerate the wearing process. I can tell the missus 1 million times and she just cant or does not want to listen. Like I ask can you use the door handles to close the door not hard, but for her seems impossible.. Another person working on my car now that really is a stress..
Chris

[scarry]

Never mind working on my car, often I m not keen about letting some people in it. One bloke halls his fat butt crushing my leather seat on top of itself trying to get in creasing it. Another when I arrived to pick them up had an egg sandwich in their hand I was like you are joking!! My own missus has a super annoying habit of scuffing her shoe on the sill on the way out. Off road scuffs and marks happen, but I dont want to accelerate the wearing process. I can tell the missus 1 million times and she just cant or does not want to listen. Like I ask can you use the door handles to close the door not hard, but for her seems impossible.. Another person working on my car now that really is a stress..
Chris

I hear your pain,sometimes i think i have a teenager around the place:mad::D:wasntme:

[PhilipA]

Like I ask can you use the door handles to close the door not hard, but for her seems impossible.. Another person working on my car now that really is a stress..

And you are still married????LOL

I have the attitude now that on every major job the mechanic will make at least one error or omission so I have a look at everything around the job area.
Latest was new clutch in Honda Jazz. No air cleaner clips were done up and the hose clamp onto the throttle body was undone.

Now I have got to a stage that I am not criticising this as it is understandable over an 8 hour job that the mechanic may be disturbed and I sometimes do it myself. As long as the mistake is not major then I am pretty happy with the job.

Although I was ****ed off once when I had a maxi drive fitted by a well known specialist and they left one set of wheel nuts untightened. Interesting clunking on way home until I checked and there was the one where a specialist left my transfer case empty after doing a rear main seal.Lucky the old BW went 100Kms Ok with about half a cup of oil.

I do object when the mechanic treats you like a cretin and does something negative like say your trans is low on fluid( maybe) then dilutes your expensive synthetic and says the fluid is dirty , then says the hoses need replacing as there is red drool at the ends and quotes unasked $700 to do the job.
Anyway lighten up and remember happy wife happy life.
Regards Philip A

[Nomad9]

Hi There,
The ironic thing is that when you come to sell the vehicle purchasers put such a high value on "dealership servicing" admittedly there are some real cowboy owners out there who don't have a desire to do things properly just cheaply. Personally I try to do everything myself and either buy the special tools or make something to suit.
I'm guilty myself one of the first things I look for is service history and I get my wifes Astra serviced by the agent.
Cheers Marty

[cafe latte]

Hi There,
The ironic thing is that when you come to sell the vehicle purchasers put such a high value on "dealership servicing" admittedly there are some real cowboy owners out there who don't have a desire to do things properly just cheaply. Personally I try to do everything myself and either buy the special tools or make something to suit.
I'm guilty myself one of the first things I look for is service history and I get my wifes Astra serviced by the agent.
Cheers Marty

What I do is keep a detailed record of everything I do on a car while I own it and I keep a folder with every single receipt in it for every filter etc. I rebuilt the engine on my F truck for example I have the receipt for the engine center finishing the liners and all the receipts for rings, bearings pistons etc with some pics. The problem with home servicing is there is no real proof about what has actually been done, but if records are kept the dealer service is not really worth that much more.
Chris

[Grentarc]

I'm a bit peeved at the moment and feel like having a whinge. There's a dam good reason I work on my own cars - on the rare occasions that I get someone else to do something they always seem to stuff something up.

Reminds me of when I was 17 with my first turbo car - going up a hill, I suddenly lost all power and had to stop on the side of the road, car wouldn't idle properly either. Called NRMA roadside assist... NRMA guy looks around, can't see a problem, so goes and grabs a big shifter, and proceeds to bash the AMM (which on that car is platinum wire type) with a fair bit of force! I decided then that I no longer needed his help and got a tow home from my father, where we found it was in intercooler hose had come off.
I was lucky that he didn't actually break something!

[cafe latte]

Reminds me of when I was 17 with my first turbo car - going up a hill, I suddenly lost all power and had to stop on the side of the road, car wouldn't idle properly either. Called NRMA roadside assist... NRMA guy looks around, can't see a problem, so goes and grabs a big shifter, and proceeds to bash the AMM (which on that car is platinum wire type) with a fair bit of force! I decided then that I no longer needed his help and got a tow home from my father, where we found it was in intercooler hose had come off.
I was lucky that he didn't actually break something!

Mum broke down years ago back in the UK and the RAC came out to assist. Mum also rang dad who arrived after the RAC bloke had started work. My dad told him to bugger off as the RAC guy was swapping the spark plug leads round and trying the car again and swapping them again is some misguided attempt at fixing the car. Not sure what he thought he was going to achieve..
Chris

[shanegtr]

:mad:looks like a replacement wheel bearing won't get here until mid next week at this stage. great.......

[scarry]

:mad:looks like a replacement wheel bearing won't get here until mid next week at this stage. great.......

You might get one quicker off fleabay:o:p

[Ben_Vapid]

Hah just went through a similar thing. Had someone add some wiring for a dual battery monitor in my car and tracing their work, they've basically just shoved the wiring under the battery dust cover and slammed it shut. I now need to go back over it and clean it up (cut a groove in the cover and add a grommet probably).

[rar110]

I've given up on the two local auto leckies. One is honest but does average work at best and the other just speaks rubbish or lies I can tell which.

The last work given to the honest one was to fit a tow pro. I worked out where to fit the head unit, put in a draw cable from front to back, bought extra cable length to reach, pulled off dash panels to show where to fit the controller. I got it back with a chip out of fake wood panel around the control switch, the cable under the carpet instead of using the draw cable through the sill cavity, the sill plate plastic catches mostly bent as the plate wasn't fitted properly and the unit doesn't work properly. I went back to get it rectified. As far as they are concerned all good but want it for a day with the trailer when wasn't satisfied. I didn't go back and they didn't get paid.

I didn't have time to fit it before. Now I have to find time to undo the mess and fit the thing properly. I see that chip every day.

[NomadicD3]

I'm a bit peeved at the moment and feel like having a whinge. There's a dam good reason I work on my own cars - on the rare occasions that I get someone else to do something they always seem to stuff something up. Got my disco in to do a rear wheel bearing now. Seems they have managed to damage the new bearing putting it in. May be Monday before a replacement gets here. Trouble is I had planned to leave to Tom Price on Sunday night as i start a new job there on Tuesday. So probably going to have to organise a last minute flight up there or a last minute drive the way things are going.

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And sadly Shane, I think we are in the worst major city in Australia for rubbish landrover mechanics especially the D3/4. I understand your thinking entirely having had the D3 for 6 years now, I have all too often been where you are. The one thing that may help in the future is the only faultless D3 mechanic I've found in Perth is Dave Dover he works out of the UK centre at Wangara. He's the only Mechanic in Perth that gets to work on my car now. Apparently the other guys there are supposed to be good also but I can't speak from personal experience. Of course the only problem with Dave now is that he's so busy it's hard just to get hold of him let alone book a job in at short notice.
Apart from that mate, take a deep breath, remind yourself that everyone makes mistake and punching people dosen't help LOL:Rolling:[tonguewink]

[Marmoset]

Not much use to you now but Dave did one of my rear wheel bearings last year without any issues. He's done the things on mine that I can't, anything else that can be done by me usually is.