Mechanics behaving badly

[DannyboyDS]

Yeah there are t.v shows about animals being naughty, well now here is my thread about naughty mechanics.

TSK TSK

When I was 18 I had an old XE took it in for a wheel alignment, $1150 later I had a completly rebuilt front end, two weeks later I discovered they ahd forget to replace a few of the slip pins and such, I then required another wheel alignment.

Yesterday I looked at my girlfriends mothers car 1996 Holden Astra.

It was making a wierd howling noise, the breaks were howling and squeeking, it was insane, so I popped the drivers side wheel off, it seemed to be comming from that side, and they had incorrectly installed the metal clip that holds the pad down onto the caliper, yet they had done it correctly on the other side, the pad was bouncing around in there freely,a few large chunks had broken off.

Amatures.

We are yet to take that vehicle back, but believe me, they can foot the bill, To make it safer I have replaced the clip correctly, lets hope they cough up dough for a new set of pads.

[HRT 666]

Good luck getting them to cough up for the new pads, its crap when things like this happen. amatures is not the word that comes to my mind!

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Most of the time when things like this happen its when the shop over books their work. If the technician is rushed then mistakes are made. I'm not excusing them, there is no excuse for jeopardising a persons safety but there are sometimes reasons it happens. Inattentive supervision as well. You will find almost everyone on this forum has had a bad experience with mechanics.

[andyman]

i cant believe someone could be that careless not to pay attention when doing something serious safety wise, im worried sick when i do something like that,

atleast you know they didnt test drive the car after they finished, cause it sounds like they would of heard it lol

[vztrt]

Could be worse, could have had the caliper come off the rotor doing 80km/h.
This happened to me the night I got it back from the "mechanic", he rounded one of the nuts on the caliper. Mind you he kept going on about how he wanted the car to be safe.

[les82]

my old man got a service done on his commodore, picked it up and drove straight to Toowoomba.
pulled up in his brothers drive way and just so happened to look under the car, and there was a puddle of oil under it. The sump plug hadn't been done up properly and was hanging on by a thread.
He rang the mechanic up and all they said was, oh sorry we let the apprentice do that and must have forgot to check over his work.
imagine if he had of driven a bit further would of stuffed the engine and probably wouldn't of been able to prove it.

[Troy711]

best thing to do is get friendly with a regular mechanic

[DannyboyDS]

best thing to do is get friendly with a regular mechanic

A mate of mine a mechanic, hes a bit busy though and tbh I hate mixing friends and buisiness.

However I have booked the car with him, since it's not my car its my girlfriends mothers, I trust him so thats ok.

[JD]

my old man got a service done on his commodore, picked it up and drove straight to Toowoomba.
pulled up in his brothers drive way and just so happened to look under the car, and there was a puddle of oil under it. The sump plug hadn't been done up properly and was hanging on by a thread.
He rang the mechanic up and all they said was, oh sorry we let the apprentice do that and must have forgot to check over his work.
imagine if he had of driven a bit further would of stuffed the engine and probably wouldn't of been able to prove it.

my mum also had this, she got her car back the day before and she was driving to work and the check oil light came on, so she pulled over popped the bonnet and oil was everywhere and belive me she had some choice words for the mechanic.

[wrx884]

i was doin a 400+kms trip from my old town 2 perth in my old magna i broke down 20kms shy of my town returning from perth 1 nite didnt know wat was wrong with it i had lost all power 2 it, got it towed 2 the mechanics found out it was the main wire connecting from the battery to the alternator had been cut and sliced wat he belives mayb a rock or somthing? so i was driving 400+ home just on the battery with out knowin neways he replaced the alternator as it was almost on its way out and i had a lil system in it n thought y not new 1 would help.

That weekend i had 2 drive down 2 perth again i noticed my battery light was on and i was staring 2 loose power again i pulled into a lil servo bout 120kms outer town turned the car off checked all the connections on the battery ect.... was all fine jumped back in 2 start it she wouldnt kick over so had 2 get a jump start as i was doin so the bloke giving me a jump start noticed a wiring loom not plugged in n guess wat the wanker 4got 2 plug the main power wire from the battery into the alternator so i was runnin just on the battery again lucky thats all it was but i think wat Not_an_abba_fan said it was just a case of bein over booked and mine was a rushed job normally hes a decent mechanic but after that i didnt go back 2 him even tho he appologised and said he'd do the next service 4 free still not an excuse

[AttaBoy]

I'm lucky my mechanic is a good one!!

Simple, if they don't do the job properly then go somewhere else.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Even if you find a good one, somebody will have had a bad experience with him. Is that a reason to change mechanics? If they did a dodgy job on another car then surely it would only be a matter of time before they did one on yours. It's like everything, find what you are comfortable with and stick with it. Is you mum a bad parent because she forgot to put pickles in your lunch one day? Bad comparison I know but one bad day doesn't make a bad mechanic. Playing devils advocate here.....

[AttaBoy]

I know mechanics makes mistakes, hell, everyone makes mistakes.
But its depends on how often it occurs and too many times means not good!!
This is especially very important when it comes to safety items such as brakes, airbags, steering, tires/wheels etc.

But if you find your mechanic did something wrong especially on safety items you need to let him know as it could happen again to somebody else.

[calais_304]

Even if you find a good one, somebody will have had a bad experience with him. Is that a reason to change mechanics? If they did a dodgy job on another car then surely it would only be a matter of time before they did one on yours. It's like everything, find what you are comfortable with and stick with it. Is you mum a bad parent because she forgot to put pickles in your lunch one day? Bad comparison I know but one bad day doesn't make a bad mechanic. Playing devils advocate here.....

In my line of work one little mistake can cost thousands, we try to minimise any by going over the work we have done, if mechanics did this procedure im sure it could cut alot of silly mistakes getting out the door, like if a apprentice works on a car, the mech should go over everything he has done to make sure it's been done right, if it hasn't been done right the apprentice should then cop an earful and redo it. not enough time is no excuse nor is over booking thats just bad managment and personally i wouldn't trust a business that can't even manage itself.
i don't believe i have to pay full price for a half done job

[50LTRv8]

I got that fed up with a holden dealer in Canberra I refuse to take it back to them.

The repaired 2 headgaskets on my EF Falcon and both repairs failed after 20K (no hard driving at all)

2nd Headgasket replacement, did not change o ring seal in timing comer, Oil started leaking on to exhaust manifold and put a lovely smell through the car.

Failed to put on a sump plug washer leading to leaking sump

Failed to put dipstick all the way down on the tube, would have been a lovely mess to clean up had I not checked.

Do you want me to keep going?

[vlv8vic]

thank goodness it was the breaks and not the brakes. that would have been a real problem!

[lieos]

as said above every mechanic makes a mistake. im an apprentice mechanic and at my workshop (large prestige company dealership) not only does the apprentices work get checked but even the technicians. every car is fixed by a apprentice or tech. the appr or tech tests drives the car fills out job card submits for testin the car then undergoes final testin this makes sure the customer gets there car back safe. but even then if its sumfing small it may not be picked up and u r rushed for time ie you cant check every bolt over and over again but it all comes down to 1. dont rush mechanics there not superheroes and 2. the mechanics taking care to to complete the job carefully therefore not makin mistakes

[Low_VX_Taxi]

I agree with Troy711, My mechanic is more like a mate then anything BUT that being said:

My mum had a reco engine dropped into her car by my mechanic (japanese low milage toyota reco jobby) and a new radiator at the same time. The radiator was dropped when it was taken off the truck, so even tho it wasnt covered by the shipping insurance the mechanic paid for a new one (bloody expensive thing it was) then when we were travelling on holidays the engine heat gauge went up to the very top. the nrma came and took a look at the steam filled engine bay and the fan belt ?face plate? was missing 3 bolts (outta 4)! the aprentice hadnt put the bolts in so when we got back and told the mechanic he checked the head for damage (scanned for crackz etc) and replaced the head gasket oil and coolant, did a thorough inspection of all the components to make sure they were running 100% FOC!! People make mistakes.... its how the problems that result from mistakes are dealt with thats important.

[jules]

People make mistakes.... its how the problems that result from mistakes are dealt with thats important.

exactly. it's when you bring the car back and they try it on with "well that wasn't us!" that you know you need a new mechanic.