Bad Day at the stealership

[terrybullwon]

Dropped my car off at 8.00am today (my day off) to have the camber and tracking done as there is no one else to do it on the island. Got given a vw polo that smells like fast food

It does 0-60 well i wont have it that long............. Phone call at 10am "your CV is gone", yes i know its on order with you. "Also your drop link to your arb has a split boot we can order you one it will be £126.50" "and there for we can not align your car" OK! Just do it any way........

Phone call an hour later " we cant align the front its seized solid! well ok free it, "the mechanic said it will take 3hours with a blow tourch"
And that will cost another £300

F*** this i am going to get my car back

will let you know how much they take me for

James

[Markarina]

best way to unseize or so my garage told me is to take the alignment bits of and do it on a bench lot easier and quicker

[Greg_S]

Sounds like a right PITA, you could change from front arms from less than £300!!

[Rusty]

best way to unseize or so my garage told me is to take the alignment bits of and do it on a bench lot easier and quicker

I did this. You can take the steering arms off at the rack on an ABY. 3B will have the battery in the way. Would never have managed to free everything on the car!

[s2driveruk]

personally i think all these things should be raised with Audi UK as complaints - their attitude to their older (i.e. older than 4yrs) is basically either a) screw you for money or b) f**k off we can't be bothered so we will wrap it up as pricing you out of the dealership....

Gets me really annoyed - they should just say Audi Servicing is for car owners with a PHH/fleet card to throw at the service reception and say just call me when you're done. They are blatantly not interested in joe public owning one of their cars...and their 'polite' way to filter is to have rediculous hourly rates for various tasks - essentially if they had not allowed the track rod ends to be covered in cr*p in the first place by designing it corrcetly then they wouldn't have the problem when it comes to alignments

[Jamo]

My Coupe took 6 hours to do. It cost me less than 3 figures.

Took the rods of the rack and did it on the bench / vice.

No chance of doing it on the car to risky with the amount of heat required.

[rs2315]

You got a good way of putting it s2driveruk. Couldn't agree more.
rs2315.

[terrybullwon]

Right, they wanted to charge me the full price of the alignment because they had "tried" to do it, I wasnt very happy with that and they said there is nothing they can do.
Ok but i am going to see my friend who is a mechanic (a very well know one on the island) he laughed lots, No sign of the audi garage having a go at the front unless they were using glass cloths to work with.

Cut a long story short, spoke to the manager and got it for half the price.....

[s2driveruk]

Right, they wanted to charge me the full price of the alignment because they had "tried" to do it, I wasnt very happy with that and they said there is nothing they can do.
Ok but i am going to see my friend who is a mechanic (a very well know one on the island) he laughed lots, No sign of the audi garage having a go at the front unless they were using glass cloths to work with.

Cut a long story short, spoke to the manager and got it for half the price.....

Did you get it half price after you found out they hadn't touched the car or before? I'd be seriously pi**ed if it was before and even more so after someone else had pointed it out.

[terrybullwon]

I drove up to see my friend and i sort of have free rome if hes not busy so i stuck the car on the ramp and i just play about. He had a quick look befor i left and said they must be joking "Go back and get your money back"

[s2driveruk]

I'd be leaving a reasonably urgent message to their Service Manager to call and discuss the 'work' that they tried to do to your car, thats disgusting. I had a similar conversation about our A6 with a local dealer who charged me for a new wiper and a couple of pieces of trim on the engine cover that I paid for but found not to be there upon closer inspection - their initial response, well we did fit them sir.....I did suggest that they give me a demo of the self changing wiper that magically within 3 hours of being fitted turn into an old one covered in water marks with a rough blade and have dead flies in it - oh and covered less than two miles

[terrybullwon]

suggest that they give me a demo of the self changing wiper that magically within 3 hours of being fitted turn into an old one covered in water marks with a rough blade and have dead flies in it - oh and covered less than two miles

Jobs worths, its not fair that they are only interested in the newer cars that they make money out of. Are money is as good as theres and a cars are much better imoa.

[volcano rs]

well they won't be charging me that kind of price my track arms are in stainless steel

[4WheelDrifter]

The first time I wanted the tracking done on my old cq20v, I took it to Pro-Tyre in Exeter. A guy there said he spent 30 minutes with the gas on my track arms, and couldn't get them undone. So I took it over to a mates garage, got underneath and undone them easy. Apart from the fact the guy at Pro-Tyre had rounded off the nuts.

The steering arms are a PITA to remove on a 3B. It's that damn battery in the way again. I'm considering some nice SS ones whenever the engine comes out.

[volcano rs]

The first time I wanted the tracking done on my old cq20v, I took it to Pro-Tyre in Exeter. A guy there said he spent 30 minutes with the gas on my track arms, and couldn't get them undone. So I took it over to a mates garage, got underneath and undone them easy. Apart from the fact the guy at Pro-Tyre had rounded off the nuts.

The steering arms are a PITA to remove on a 3B. It's that damn battery in the way again. I'm considering some nice SS ones whenever the engine comes out.

after 30 mins he probably loosend them up for you .give him some credit