Monkfish
Member +
Some of you may have noticed that The Bitch is no longer for sale. Here's why...
On Wednesday on the way home from work, the Starlet overheated in epic fashion and shat the headgasket to bits. I had water boiling out of the rocker cover breather and she was running like an absolute pig. She limped the last 1/4 mile home. Once I got there I had to shift the cars around (There are 3 in the household) so I popped into the house to grab Uma's keys. The Bitch didn't want to start, but eventually did and erupted a plume of white smoke out of the exhaust. Awesome. She's now sat at the top of the drive and I haven't a fucking clue what to do with her now.
Anyway, seeing as she is now off the road it was time to get Uma sorted. She had been MOT'd about a month ago and failed on corrosion and emissions. This was at ATS. I had the welding done by a mate of mine for £100 (Garages had quoted nearly 3 times that) and a new lambda sensor set me back £68. I spent a further £45 on Wednesday evening servicing her and I managed to get her booked into Llynfi Lane Garage for around 12 yesterday as I already had a half day booked in work. Expecting her to pass and with the Starlet being off the road, I phoned Sky Insurance and had the policy swapped onto Uma.
I dropped her off at the garage and went back a few hours later to find that she had failed again. "What on?" I hear you ask.
This...
What you are looking at is a rear Spax lowering spring in no less that FIVE pieces. FIVE FUCKING PIECES! Llynfi Lane also found that most of the brake lines are corroded, the rear trailing arm bushes are totally shot, both bottom arm bushes are shot and several other fairly major issues and advisories. All in all, about £400 +VAT in labour to correct if I had them do the work. Nice.
If you were paying attention earlier you'd have noticed that I said she failed her MOT last month on corrosion and emissions, but not springs. Well, ATS didn't pick that up. Nor did they pick up the rear trailing arm bushes. Or the bottom arm bushes. Or the brake lines. Or anything else for that matter. There's no way in hell all of that has failed by her sitting on the drive for a month.
Check this out... (Linked as image is huge!)
http://m0nkfish.co.uk/Random/DSC_9362.jpg
That's 1/5th of the spring that is now sat by my computer at home. As you can see, the corrosion looks fairly old, meaning the spring was definately like that what she was MOT'd. The fact she failed anyway is, to me, mostly irrelevant given the fact that another garage picked up on some major faults that, lets be frank, shouldn't have been missed and could have cause a serious accident. ATS charged me £54 for the pleasure too. Had I taken the car back to them she may well have been passed when she shouldn't be on the road at all. Just thinking about the concequences had some of that spring come loose and fouled the rear wheel just doesn't bare thinking about.
Anyway, having had a rant about them to a few of my friends who have also heard of a few horror stories, they suggested I contact VOSA, which I did today. I was advised by them to take some pictures of the issues and email them in and they will investigate the garage. What the outcome of that would be I don't know. I'd hope they have their testing licence revoked or get fined.
So, now I have two fucked cars and no way to get to work easily. I'm looking about for a cheap run around, but that's going to be a clusterfuck with insurance and a pain in the arse havnig 4 cars on the driveway (5 when Mrs Fish comes around).
Fuck.
On Wednesday on the way home from work, the Starlet overheated in epic fashion and shat the headgasket to bits. I had water boiling out of the rocker cover breather and she was running like an absolute pig. She limped the last 1/4 mile home. Once I got there I had to shift the cars around (There are 3 in the household) so I popped into the house to grab Uma's keys. The Bitch didn't want to start, but eventually did and erupted a plume of white smoke out of the exhaust. Awesome. She's now sat at the top of the drive and I haven't a fucking clue what to do with her now.
Anyway, seeing as she is now off the road it was time to get Uma sorted. She had been MOT'd about a month ago and failed on corrosion and emissions. This was at ATS. I had the welding done by a mate of mine for £100 (Garages had quoted nearly 3 times that) and a new lambda sensor set me back £68. I spent a further £45 on Wednesday evening servicing her and I managed to get her booked into Llynfi Lane Garage for around 12 yesterday as I already had a half day booked in work. Expecting her to pass and with the Starlet being off the road, I phoned Sky Insurance and had the policy swapped onto Uma.
I dropped her off at the garage and went back a few hours later to find that she had failed again. "What on?" I hear you ask.
This...
What you are looking at is a rear Spax lowering spring in no less that FIVE pieces. FIVE FUCKING PIECES! Llynfi Lane also found that most of the brake lines are corroded, the rear trailing arm bushes are totally shot, both bottom arm bushes are shot and several other fairly major issues and advisories. All in all, about £400 +VAT in labour to correct if I had them do the work. Nice.
If you were paying attention earlier you'd have noticed that I said she failed her MOT last month on corrosion and emissions, but not springs. Well, ATS didn't pick that up. Nor did they pick up the rear trailing arm bushes. Or the bottom arm bushes. Or the brake lines. Or anything else for that matter. There's no way in hell all of that has failed by her sitting on the drive for a month.
Check this out... (Linked as image is huge!)
http://m0nkfish.co.uk/Random/DSC_9362.jpg
That's 1/5th of the spring that is now sat by my computer at home. As you can see, the corrosion looks fairly old, meaning the spring was definately like that what she was MOT'd. The fact she failed anyway is, to me, mostly irrelevant given the fact that another garage picked up on some major faults that, lets be frank, shouldn't have been missed and could have cause a serious accident. ATS charged me £54 for the pleasure too. Had I taken the car back to them she may well have been passed when she shouldn't be on the road at all. Just thinking about the concequences had some of that spring come loose and fouled the rear wheel just doesn't bare thinking about.
Anyway, having had a rant about them to a few of my friends who have also heard of a few horror stories, they suggested I contact VOSA, which I did today. I was advised by them to take some pictures of the issues and email them in and they will investigate the garage. What the outcome of that would be I don't know. I'd hope they have their testing licence revoked or get fined.
So, now I have two fucked cars and no way to get to work easily. I'm looking about for a cheap run around, but that's going to be a clusterfuck with insurance and a pain in the arse havnig 4 cars on the driveway (5 when Mrs Fish comes around).
Fuck.
