Car repairs reasonable - welding and shock absorbers

colino

Don't use KF, find a friendly, local, recommended repairer. Around £100 per corner is fair. Just get one done now, its hovering in banger territory, so don't waste money on it, even brand new cars can have struts from different suppliers on either side, an old car could have had multiple, non-coincidental changes too. Doesn't necessarily need the wheel alignment done, if its not bad now and isn't scrubbing the tyres, nothing a decent tech will do swapping the strut will radically throw it out.

jeffsmith

colino wrote: »

Don't use KF, find a friendly, local, recommended repairer. Around £100 per corner is fair. Just get one done now, its hovering in banger territory, so don't waste money on it, even brand new cars can have struts from different suppliers on either side, an old car could have had multiple, non-coincidental changes too. Doesn't necessarily need the wheel alignment done, if its not bad now and isn't scrubbing the tyres, nothing a decent tech will do swapping the strut will radically throw it out.

The one advantage with going with KF at the moment is I can get a discounted retest.

AdrianC

jeffsmith wrote: »

The one advantage with going with KF at the moment is I can get a discounted retest.

That's a really small benefit for a huge risk.

jeffsmith

AdrianC wrote: »

That's a really small benefit for a huge risk.

Is the risk because it's KF in general, or my particular situation? I have see a lot of bad press for KF, however a couple of family members and colleagues have all had successes at different branches. (I don't think I'll be returning to this particular branch next year though).

jeffsmith

How much would you expect to pay for replacing drop links on the front suspension? Apparently the rubber seals have split.

KF have quoted ~£40 for parts and labour. (They originally quoted £150 for both, but have said they'd lower the price to £40 as a gesture of good will - not sure what for...) This is while replacing shock absorbers. On ebay seems to cost ~£10 for a pair.

OddballJamie

jeffsmith wrote: »

How much would you expect to pay for replacing drop links on the front suspension? Apparently the rubber seals have split.

KF have quoted ~£40 for parts and labour. (They originally quoted £150 for both, but have said they'd lower the price to £40 as a gesture of good will - not sure what for...) This is while replacing shock absorbers. On ebay seems to cost ~£10 for a pair.

Wonder what else they will 'find'.

Moto2

jeffsmith

KF told me that the split rubber on the drop links would cause a MOT failure. Can anyone confirm if this is true? Surely it should have been noticed in the initial MOT.

AdrianC

jeffsmith wrote: »

KF told me that the split rubber on the drop links would cause a MOT failure. Can anyone confirm if this is true?

Yes.
http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/htdocs/m4s02000409.htm

And, yes, it probably should've been noticed. But it wasn't, for whatever reason. Now it has been...

I wonder what else'll be noticed?

Netwizard

jeffsmith wrote: »

The one advantage with going with KF at the moment is I can get a discounted retest.

You should get that from most places: https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/retests

As said by almost everyone else on here, KF like making up "problems" for extra business.

Get the car down to a council run MOT place