Why do garages always WRECK cars?

fred246

RichardD1970 wrote: »

What's a VW Galaxy?

It's a Galaxy made almost entirely from VW components. It does have a Ford badge stuck on it afterwards. When I bought it I paid £16K cash. It was going to be my first car to be serviced by a garage. I joined the Ford Galaxy forum. Because the engine is A VW it needs PD oil to VW505.01 spec. People were having all sorts of problems getting garages to put the right oil in. The best place to take it was a VW Garage but a lot of them would not service Galaxys. An independent was next best as they might use the correct oil. Ironically the worst place to take the new Ford was to a Ford main dealer as they always just put in standard Ford oil. I decided the only way to know it was serviced properly was to do it myself.

Muscle750

You want to make sure that the driveshaft splined bolts have been replaced as they should be, Ive seen a instance of where they werent and worked /left loose and the driveshaft departed from the flange and went straight throu the gearbox casing plus they should be torqued to a specific point

arcon5

Sounds like you overfilled.

Can't see a garage topping up oil without telling you on a clutch change!!

fred246

arcon5 wrote: »

Sounds like you overfilled.

Can't see a garage topping up oil without telling you on a clutch change!!

Yes this was strange. The other damage I suppose was to be expected. It seems garages are finding more and more sneaky and unexpected ways to WRECK YOUR CAR.

fred246

Actually I wondered if a garage does a general check over of a vehicle before it leaves the workshop and they would have overfilled the oil then. One of the reasons I insist on servicing my own vehicle is to make sure it has the correct oil and is never under or overfilled. Garages commonly overfill with oil.

AdrianC

I find myself wondering if you're one of the people who regards the minimum level notch on the dipstick as the correct one, and the garage's "overfilling" was actually to the maximum notch.

fred246

I am quite capable of reading a dipstick thank you.

Rain_Shadow

fred246 wrote: »

I am quite capable of reading a dipstick thank you.

They are usually quite easy to spot.

salubrious

As someone else pointed out, you'll get the apprentice doing a lot of the strip/rebuild work of this nature especially in the bigger garages who have these young kids in as cheap labour - Do yourself a favour and use a garage that only employs time served mechanics. You'll probbaly pay more though

And no, there is no need to even remove the dipstick to do a clutch on a FORD galaxy let lone add oil or change it blah blah blah

Johnmcl7

fred246 wrote: »

When I do a job on a car I disassemble everything carefully, fix the issue, and then carefully re-assemble so the car is the same as it was before the repair. I don't think garages exist that will do that quality of repair. Maybe they're not given enough time. Apart from the bodywork I don't think the average person would realise what damage had been caused. It will just lead to further problems in the future. Maybe then they'll get further business from the damage. The oil filler clearly says overfilling will damage the catalytic converter. Maybe they want to fit a new one of those in future. I don't think they're a bad garage, they're just normal for UK garages. I wonder if they would repair their own cars to my standard? Could I pay a higher labour charge and ask them to pretend they were working on their own car?

I've been using the same mechanic for many years and he's very conscientious - he did actually damage the car once (a minor sensor cable) for which he told me when I picked the car up, apologised and had ordered the replacement part which he fitted next week.

None of the other work has led to 'further problems' and the mechanic has a reputation for being very careful about his work. My current car went to him first because the main dealer had quoted thousands for work that was needing done and unable to diagnose a second issue, my mechanic fixed both issues in a couple of hours for a fraction of the price as he correctly diagnosed the issue. While I think there's plenty bad garages out there particularly main dealers I think it's very wrong to arbitrarily then decide all garages must be like that and make up reasons why.

John