Mechanic Thrashing My Car

[cefiro]

I dropped my car off to get fixed with differential problems, dude rings me today saying opend up the diff and its not the problem I have been looking for. About 1/2 hour later mate who works in the area told me he just saw my car sideways and having the shit strapped out of it. if I am paying the dude $440 to fix it (but hasnt fixed the prob) what should I do.

[Beer Baron]

not much you can do. he will just say he was road testing/diagnosing the problem. pay the bill, get your car, then never ever go back there again. just need to find somewhere that is good AND trustworthy AND respects your car.

[Sydneykid]

It's called a test drive. You have a diff problem and he is trying to feel for it himself. This is expecially important if a visual inspection has found no issue.

I think it is good practise and I would go there again.

cheers

[Bliksem]

This happened to me when I owned my old car (Mitsubishi FTO) I took it to a workshop to get a blue slip, luckily I took an odometer reading (something im in the habit of now) before I left. When I picked up the car there was an extra 50 or so kms on it. So I went back with a few mates at lunch time and politely asked the mechanic how many kms sound fair for a blue slip he said no more than 5-6. I asked him to explain how my car was returned to me with an extra 50, and he had no answer for me. I ended up getting the blue slip for free and he ended up blaming the apprentice. I guess I'll never know the real reason behind it and I wouldnt say I was happy with the result I got. However its definately something worth approaching them about. Ask them if it's normal practise for their workshop to take customers cars drifting or something.... then let them have it...

Edited July 5, 2006 by MintR33

[BazaR33]

I had a similar problem just recently, put my car in 4 a service and asked them to check out a miss problem, picked my car up and the miss was gone but i had a blown manifold gasket!!! Cant trust any1!!

[cefiro]

just quickly, you can putt the thing around in first gear and still get the same prob (dont need to strap it). My prob is miss treatment of my car, Thats not how I treat it on public roads in a bussy area. If your going to charge me a professional rate then act as your charge.

[HIPSI]

It's called a test drive. You have a diff problem and he is trying to feel for it himself. This is expecially important if a visual inspection has found no issue.

I think it is good practise and I would go there again.

cheers

HAHA BS

A decent workshop would respect your car. Surely he doesn't need to thrash it sideways around a corner to figure it out

[Sydneykid]

HAHA BS

A decent workshop would respect your car. Surely he doesn't need to thrash it sideways around a corner to figure it out

It has an LSD problem, how else are you supposed to test the limited slip action if you don't "slip it"?

cheers

[Liz]

This happened to me when I owned my old car (Mitsubishi FTO) I took it to a workshop to get a blue slip, luckily I took an odometer reading (something im in the habit of now) before I left. When I picked up the car there was an extra 50 or so kms on it. So I went back with a few mates at lunch time and politely asked the mechanic how many kms sound fair for a blue slip he said no more than 5-6. I asked him to explain how my car was returned to me with an extra 50, and he had no answer for me. I ended up getting the blue slip for free and he ended up blaming the apprentice. I guess I'll never know the real reason behind it and I wouldnt say I was happy with the result I got. However its definately something worth approaching them about. Ask them if it's normal practise for their workshop to take customers cars drifting or something.... then let them have it...

what I want to know is who in their right mind would want to drive a FTO more than 5-6kms?

[cefiro]

I hear what you are saying sydkid, the locking of the diff action was never a prob (its a mechanical anyway) I am getting clunking in the rear of the car on turning, in which I thought it was the diff but its not comming from the diff its something else. The mechanic knows this, he knows its locking fine in a straight line and on turning, as I said you can do this in first gear turning around a corner. You dont need to rip the shit out of it to acheive the results which are not applicable to my problem. I am a firm beleiver of treating whats not yours with respect.

Edited July 5, 2006 by cefiro

[someonestolecc]

I hear what you are saying sydkid, the locking of the diff action was never a prob (its a mechanical anyway) I am getting clunking in the rear of the car on turning, in which I thought it was the diff but its not comming from the diff its something else. The mechanic knows this, he knows its locking fine in a straight line and on turning, as I said you can do this in first gear turning around a corner. You dont need to rip the shit out of it to acheive the results which are not applicable to my problem. I am a firm beleiver of treating whats not yours with respect.

Agreed. I'd expect atleast some warm up and warm down before thrash.

I had the cefiro come back with mud splashes all over the engine bay and thermos when going in for some exhaust work.. W T F ?? Never went back there.

[BCNR33]

Just out of curiosity, would you guys expect a workshop to drive your car to redline (in a safe area with no cars around and lots of straight road) if they were installing a boost controller and setting up the gain levels etc... or if you had just had a new fuel pump fitted, or even if you had just had a misfire issue resovled?

[Tangles]

Id be MIGHTY pissed-off too.

There is no way a mechanic should drive a customers car like that, as it is Skylines get bad enough publicity. If a public member witnessed this, they could report you to the police etc.

[someonestolecc]

Just out of curiosity, would you guys expect a workshop to drive your car to redline (in a safe area with no cars around and lots of straight road) if they were installing a boost controller and setting up the gain levels etc... or if you had just had a new fuel pump fitted, or even if you had just had a misfire issue resovled?

Yes I would. But not hard and stay on the redline. I'd also expect them to test initially to the set BOOST max, then when all the settings were in THEN to the redline to make sure the same settings stay all the way.

On the other hand if you have a complex EBC that has tapers and different curves based on RPM you'd probably want it redlined a few times to make sure it was doing it's best.

Fuel pump and misfire issue probably in the first category.

I go with the theory that if you don't trust the bastard then you don't. For example the few people that have taken my car to the redline I trust with my car because that's what they do. Nathan at Grey Imports = no problem, Yavuz at UniGroup = no problem.. Randoms from forums like too_much_boost, DumHed, BHDave = no problem. And through service to the SAU community SydneyKid gets an automatic redline pass and he can even blow my 31 up

[BCNR33]

that's alright then,

so often I hear about people bitching that they're car was redlined and thrashed etc.. when in reality, if the workshop didnt do it they wouldnt know that there were issues in the top end and give you a car back that wasn't running properly.

Sometimes it seems that people are so quick to crucify workshops that they can never win.

my 2c

[Liz]

Just out of curiosity, would you guys expect a workshop to drive your car to redline (in a safe area with no cars around and lots of straight road) if they were installing a boost controller and setting up the gain levels etc... or if you had just had a new fuel pump fitted, or even if you had just had a misfire issue resovled?

but I guess with a workshop like ours (ps I was at wakie last monday too) it's quite easy for us to leave it up to them to judge what they should and shouldn't do where as the majority of people on here I'm guessing don't have that piece of mind in having a mechanic who knows exactly what's going on with their car.

[dan_the_man]

what I want to know is who in their right mind would want to drive a FTO more than 5-6kms?

HAHAHA

[THE_350GT]

I always have my douts about taking my car anywhere. There are a few selected places that I trust for like Zust, tyres, tuning as close frinds or family members own.

If I have to leave it somewhere I have never been before I wait around just to keep an eye on it. Don’t care how long it takes. That’s just me .

Don’t mind what they do as long as its justified in what their trying to find out or achieve but don’t abuse it by thrashing it around the block. That shit gets me cut.

MY 5cs

[R33-Lovr]

when some one is working on my car i usually stay at the shop with em till its finished, i work night shift so i got all day free, i personaly cant trust anyone with my baby, reason behind this, i took my first line to a car detailer about 2 yrs ago, and i was always carful taking the odometer reading, the detailing cost me about 220 when i picked it up it had 2Ks extra i had a go at him and ended up geting my m,oney back, i think thats one of the reasons i stay at the work shop you just never know what could they do.

[paulr33]

i agree, the only way to prove LSD is to cause it to slip.

nothern differentials use their dyno to simulate load and try and replicate LSD reactions but on the street is the sure fire way