F1 Autocentres are money grabbing cowboys.

musafir05

Hello,

I was quoted by these cowboys £420 :mad: to replace a Catalytic converter which I brought from a salvage yard. The Catalytic converter was a genuine Mini part removed from a 2011 Mini cooper with only 5,000 miles on the clock. It only cost £125 which I was over the moon about, but the replacement cost had me in tears.

To cut the story short I was told by the manager that it is a highly complex job which would also require a coolant flush. I question him about the coolant flush and he wasn't able to give a convincing reply. Therefore I took my car to the local garage and got the job done for £50 inc vat. The local garage technician was in tears when I asked whether a coolant flush was necessary. :rotfl:

Any other stories regarding F1 Autocentres would be amusing. I would love to hear.

dacouch

I think they have either an official rep or an unofficial rep on MSE who tends to post on threads complaining about them.

Will be interesting to hear what he says if he does post

lincroft1710

A few years ago needed, 2 new tyres for my car, F1 didn't have the brand I wanted in stock, but let me have a slightly more expensive brand for the same price as the ones I originally wanted.

topdaddy_2

Coolant flush for an exhaust part? Interesting

londonTiger

f*****g hell. they'd don't even bother to come up with a convincing lie.

Why couldn't they jusat say all the parts will be welded together from the heat and will need specialist cutting to avoid damaging the rest of the exhaust.

Or the cars computer will need to be recalibrated to adjust for the new catalyst.

Or something else more convincing.

alleycat`

Don't know F1 from any other garage, so i'm not judging them on this one post, but if someone is going to make up pork pies they might as well be honest and tell you your wallet looks a bit heavy and be done with it.

colino

Perhaps the tech was knowledgeable about BMWs/MINI and they recommend the coolant is flushed and changed every three years?

arcon5

colino wrote: »

Perhaps the tech was knowledgeable about BMWs/MINI and they recommend the coolant is flushed and changed every three years?

You don't really think that do you?

musafir05

colino wrote: »

Perhaps the tech was knowledgeable about BMWs/MINI and they recommend the coolant is flushed and changed every three years?

I had the coolant flushed 3 months prior to the failure of the Catalytic converter.

musafir05

londonTiger wrote: »

f*****g hell. they'd don't even bother to come up with a convincing lie.

Why couldn't they jusat say all the parts will be welded together from the heat and will need specialist cutting to avoid damaging the rest of the exhaust.

Or the cars computer will need to be recalibrated to adjust for the new catalyst.

Or something else more convincing.

Even my local garage suggested it would cost no more than £120 if welding was involved. In the Mini's case manifold catalytic converter is held together with tough bolts which only require heating using blowtorch, removing and replacing. The job takes no more than 1 hour and all Mini one 1.4 edition have the Peugeot engine and manifold catalytic setup.

musafir05

lincroft1710 wrote: »

A few years ago needed, 2 new tyres for my car, F1 didn't have the brand I wanted in stock, but let me have a slightly more expensive brand for the same price as the ones I originally wanted.

I wish I had the same service.