i am having the camshaft kit and lifters replaced and wanted to know roughly what i would be expected to pay for this job if done . Read more

car loses power smokes like mad changed ecu fuel error still comes up the error code comes up as crittical fuel error eepom? has any1 had the same problem? please help me my wife is going 2 kill me if i spend any more on this car! Read more

Recently my wife pranged both off side doors thanks to those stupid steel bollards that are only about a metre high and cannot readily be seen (Sainburys). I had to claim as it meant 2 new doors and a whole side respray, about £1800 quids worth. When I collected my car it looked great and still does, however that is not the problem. Ever since collecting it, every time I start the engine the computer flashes an audible and visual warning that I have a lights failure(Skoda/VW technology) All the lights work perfectly so the problem is non existent but still very annoying. I persevered for a couple weeks or so, thinking the computer glich will go away, no such luck. Then I had to return the car for the new doors to be adjusted. I pointed out the light failure problem and they said they would investigate. When I collected the car the problem was still there and they said they checked all the connections which are fine but could not cure the problem. They said they would book it into a main dealer for a dignostic check but if the fault was nothing to do with them I would have to pay for it all. I pointed out the fault was not there prior to their work on the car, so ergo they must have caused it however innocently. Also who decides who caused the problem? A stalemate at present. I now have to return my car again to have a door gaiter refitted and would like to confront them again about this problem. I really would like to know where I stand and would I be chasing shadows. They certainly contributed to the problem when they worked on the car as the problem was not there prior to that. Do they have an obligation to return my car in the same state of operation as when they received it? A little tester for the remarkable LucyBC me thinks! Any sensible comments welcome. Concrete

... Read more

Recently a rear leaf spring snapped on my ageing pickup truck...I thought it would just be a case of taking it to a garage, who would know exactly how to fit a new one, but no. I went to several different garages which were all baffled by what was before them. Some had no idea what to do and admitted as such, others had no idea what to do and tried to pretend that they did, but just couldn't, for a number of amusing excuses. In the end I found an ancient, tiny rural garage, miles away from home, who knew exactly how to fix it..."easy" they said, and easy it was.

80 miles away my friend was having similar trouble, his bedford CF would not start. He took it to numerous garages who had absolutely no idea and were again, completely baffled. One garage even refused to look at it as it was their policy to run a diagnostic check ON AN IPOD for all cars that came in, and they, obviously, could not do this on his van...In the end, he found someone on a Bedford CF forum who came to look at the van for free, turns out it was a knackered head gasket.

So my question is, do you think we have just been unlucky? Or is it the case that the majority of garages nowadays are unable or unwilling to deal with basic mechanical problems and are only capable or willing to change brakes and tyres and fiddle with computers?

P.S I realise that this sounds like a bit of an "In my day" rant, but I'm only 24! Read more

And what do you check?

I grew up with motors in the era of rotting hoses and worries about oil levels. Remember that feeling of an internally collapsed top or bottom hose? You became quite a specialist in palpitating the rubber - from different angles and in different places. A sort of `Doctor of Rubber` award should perhaps have been on offer from Dunlop - but you never got one.... Read more