Thread: Advise on Mechanics / Service centres

Fred Smith in Bayswater is close to you, he's done some work on my D1 in the past. Top bloke and his work is first class. He's a one-man band though, so he's always booked up.

(There was another thread recently about the free, no-nonsense 'entertainment' provided by Fred.... I'll leave you to find it...)

Ritters in Burwood are also good, have managed to fit some urgent repairs in for me at short notice.

AMV on Maroondah Hwy in Ringwood are also close to you, but I've never used them so can't comment.

Cheers,

Dan

If you want it done right you can't go past Fred Smith (Bayswater). He's very thorough. So thorough that he will probably find a number of other things that need attention - but not necessarily that they'll need immediate attention. He's a one man shop so if you're after speedy service then you might want to look elsewhere.

Awesome thanks guys - Voicemail left for Fred.

Any feedback on "outback4wd" in bayswater? Anyone used them?

if fred cant fit you in then i have used range-rov in rooks road quite a bit and they are very good

Originally Posted by Daner

Any feedback on "outback4wd" in bayswater? Anyone used them?

I called in to have a look around once when I was at the tyre place next door. Looks like a pretty decent place.
They specialise in pre-trip inspections and fit-outs so, as I was there, I asked them about checking over the D1...
The reply was along the lines of "they could if they had to, but would prefer not to", so I wouldn't bother if I were you.

To be fair to the bloke, at least he was honest and said they'd rather not work on it. Better to take it somewhere that knows LRs, rather than getting a crappy job done cos the mechanic has been forced to work on some "POS Landy".

ok so some feedback on Outback 4wd.

They welcomed by D1 300tdi. I found them very honest, very approachable, quick and easy to deal with. I queried with them if they didn't like working on LR's and they emphatically denied that was the case and welcomed all 4x4's

Will I use them again? most certainly!

in the end what I thought was going to be an 800-1k drop turned out to be 460.

Happy as.

R.

OK, that's good to know, happy to be wrong on this one! Like I said, it looks like a good place, the workshop looked pretty spotless and professional.
Maybe I just got the bloke behind the counter on a bad day

So what did you get done?

Dan

well I wanted;
*new harmonic balancer
*new timing belt and obvious timing redone
*all cooling hoses replaced
*Diff oils replaced
*and a good old inspection

I had been advised by another mechanic that the harmonic balancer and timing belt were shot. I did see a small wobble in the harmonic balancer but seen worse. Anyway, i took the advise on face value but opted for another garage/mechanic.

After booking it in, Outback called and said.
"dont need to change harmonic balancer and timing belt is good"

So they did the other work and a couple of other small pieces and provided a sound mechanical assesment of the engine which was a relief as I have a big trip coming up with the kids on board.

The one and only thing that has suprised me with my D1 300tdi is she doesnt leak from anywhere This is not a phenomenon i'm used to!

I suppose my message is that they could quite easily got on with the work i wanted done and billed me for it but instead they opted for the straight up honest approach of which i'm obvioulsy very happy about.

After I do the trip over the break, she'll be going back there for a bit more work. I want to open up the fuel rate a bit. I now it seems easy to do but if i try, i will no doubt stuff it up