Poorly trained chimp with spanner!!

R

Rover-tragic.

Member
Greetings all,
Since having the first lot of engine work done on Winston the only real mechanical issue has been the onset of over-heating in traffic. The radiator has been flushed and checked, the car is nicely tuned but still gets hot. I felt that the original mechanic (a right "Geezer" who swore on his "Mother's eyes" that he had done hundreds of these cars) was a bit hefty in the cost department so I found another chap who deals with Triumph racing cars but seemed quite adept at other English vehicles. He did some work for me at a reasonable rate and in good time.
But this is where he really helped out..... The previous mechanic (I use this term in its loosest possible sense) has claimed that he removed the inlet manifold to check the heater bypass pipe and declared it to be "sound as a pound". It turned out to have more holes than a PG Tips tea bag and was subsequently replaced by the new mechanic. The overheating persisted. The new mechanic has then pointed out the biggest FUBAR of the lot, Bozo the Clown Mechanic had put the fan on back-to-front!!!! This is obviously not going to help the cooling system and means that I am going to have to have the radiator out to rectify the problem. :evil:
I don't particularly want the ape with the tools to put another finger on the car so will do it myself.

Do you good people feel that I should insert a garden gnome in the offending moron or let sleeping dogs lie??

RT.
 
Unless you have a viscous fan fitted, it shouldn't be necessary to remove the radiator. (Even with a viscous you should be fine) The 4 bolts can be undone with a 1/2" ring spanner and the fan can be lifted out. (Removing the fan shroud helps) It also shouldn't make that much difference having the fan fitted backwards. It will still suck, just not quite as efficiently.
 
Rover-tragic. said:
Greetings all,
Since having the first lot of engine work done on Winston the only real mechanical issue has been the onset of over-heating in traffic. The radiator has been flushed and checked, the car is nicely tuned but still gets hot. I felt that the original mechanic (a right "Geezer" who swore on his "Mother's eyes" that he had done hundreds of these cars) was a bit hefty in the cost department so I found another chap who deals with Triumph racing cars but seemed quite adept at other English vehicles. He did some work for me at a reasonable rate and in good time.
But this is where he really helped out..... The previous mechanic (I use this term in its loosest possible sense) has claimed that he removed the inlet manifold to check the heater bypass pipe and declared it to be "sound as a pound". It turned out to have more holes than a PG Tips tea bag and was subsequently replaced by the new mechanic. The overheating persisted. The new mechanic has then pointed out the biggest FUBAR of the lot, Bozo the Clown Mechanic had put the fan on back-to-front!!!! This is obviously not going to help the cooling system and means that I am going to have to have the radiator out to rectify the problem. :evil:
I don't particularly want the ape with the tools to put another finger on the car so will do it myself.

Do you good people feel that I should insert a garden gnome in the offending moron or let sleeping dogs lie??

RT.
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You have got to be specific about what sort of mechanic you need, one that is expert at working on your car or one that is expert at working on your wallet!
As KR has said your fan should still have been working, I dont think the V8 cooling system is that marginal to be causing problems from a reversed fan. Has your heater matrix been flushed? or cleaned. Is the timing correct? according to RPi the timing gears from factory can be so out of whack that what the gear reads may be far away from the correct running point, this I suspect could contribute to heating issues.

Graeme
 
Hello RT,

Sorry to hear of your experience of the chimp with the spanner. Unfortunately this happens all too often with many mechanics completely useless when it comes to having any ability at all. I discovered this many years ago and so set about teaching myself to do just about everything.

In my travels though I have indeed found some truly excellent mechanics. The Service Manager at my local Land and Range Rover Centre is outstanding as is the gent who rebuilt my transmission. The latter does the transmissions for all the Land and Range Rovers at the centre.

Ron.
 
I was particularly impressed with the mechanic who managed to leave the cap off my brake reservoir... few years back, and the garage is now out of business which is probably a sign of mistakes like this.
Rich
 
They're everywhere! :eek:
We had a customer a few years back with a 420 Jag who came in moaning how low his engine oil was. We could have cost him a rebuild etc etc My Dad had serviced this car since the early 70s. He explained to the owner that if the oil had vanished he should have checked where it went, (look for a puddle in the garage, signs of leaks etc) or call us ASAP, as it never needed top ups betwen services as a rule. Turned out he drove into a friendly local village type garage who checked his oil for free, told him how shockingly low it was, then poured in several pints of over priced sub standard lube and sent him on his way, after slating the last people to check his levels of course.
We opened the bonnet to find the oil filler had been left off and was jammed into the sound deadening blanket as it was sitting threads up on the rocker covers :LOL: There was oil mist and spillage from the filler and the level was now dangerously high :roll:
You can't trust some garages, end of :)
The owner sort of apologised after a while :LOL:
Find someone good, or recommended and stick with 'em :wink:
 
As a master tech/foreman I hear and see the aftermath of this type of complaint all too often. Partly down to the colleges fast-tracking students through motor vehicle technology, the result is usually fitters and not thinkers. Saying that there has been bodge-artists around for years. Personally I would like to use his legs as a trampoline, you should complain in a big way. This effects all the quality guy's out there past and present, if you fail to complain that particular 'mechanic' :roll: will contine to effect the trades reputation directly or indirectly.
 
Re. gnome insertion: When encountering sub-standard mechanics putting on a show, I try to consider the fact that a) the person has to live with themselves and very, very likely feels much worse than I do on a regular basis from the fact that they actually have to pretend to have done what they have not, and b) there's usually spousal exposure and often an entire family suffering the person in question, so I tend to walk away feeling mostly settled about my lot. 8)
 
I totally agree with point b) however on point a) I tend to find these people have no "guilt gland" and generally couldn't care less about their standard of work or the consequences thereof.
 
webmaster said:
I totally agree with point b) however on point a) I tend to find these people have no "guilt gland" and generally couldn't care less about their standard of work or the consequences thereof.
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I agree totally.

I have had problems finding a decent garage to look after the Audi.

I went to one who specialised in German cars and they tried to repair a bad starting problem by changing the temperature sensor. Good move as the temp sender was telling the computer that the engine was hot and failed to enrich the fuel supply. Unfortunately they changed the wrong one and then fitted the sensor for a later model as well.

This caused the temp sender to run low and would only register between 60 and 70. I took it back and pointed out (Politely) that they had changed the wrong one and they got very aggressive, very fast. The boss man then went on to state that the sender was correct and that the car was only reaching 70c :shock: This was caused by the water pump failing :shock:

This was also the man who told me that the secondary air system was low on pressure on one bank and put it down to the air pump failing. He wouldn't listen to the argument that the pump running low would cause both banks to run low not just one. I changed the split pipe and fixed it myself for £28.00, he was quoting £450.00. During this conversation I asked what the secondary air system did, and was informed that it pumped air into the inlet manifolds to heat the engine up quicker :? I checked this with him several times before he started getting angry and we concluded that it did indeed pressurise the induction system. I apologised for not believing him but was just confused that this little tiny pump was there to pressurise the induction system, when the car was fitted with two hulking great turbochargers which did the same thing.

There's a lot more to this than what I have written here but basically these people and messing around with some very expensive machinery and have no understanding about it at all. It is a bit worrying that there are a lot of very heavy and very fast cars around here looked after by not just one, but a whole team of chimps.

Richard
 
Sympathies Richard, when people get aggressive over appropriate, knowledgeable queries there's no patience to be demanded of one. Hope you've a better VAG centre to approach not too far away.

I totally agree with point b) however on point a) I tend to find these people have no "guilt gland" and generally couldn't care less about their standard of work or the consequences thereof.
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Usually I find most people will experience or endure a moment of truth during which point a) will reliably kick in... Granted, that'll most likely be too far off in the future for my use, but it can often settle my irritation gland so I can move on to something better (given a choice!) :D
 
I have to say I've really good and really bad experiences with pro mechanics over the years. We had a guy in Brooklyn who looked after our mk2 golf and was amazing. Never over charged, always meticulas with his work, but famously grumpy and never suffered fools gladly. Unfortuntaely he passed away a few years ago. When he did there were piles of lowers left outside his shop by us locals. I had rotten experience since then and had to teach myself something about modern cars to avoid the bad ones out there.

I have decided that I would rather break my own cars than pay someone else to do it. On the whole I enjoydping the work. Even on my Saab with a modern fuel injection system.
 
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