Tales from the Garge.

[Motu]

I haven't had to deal with her yet,but she was in today,quiet and not aggressive.I think I'll do a 50/50 as most suggest,she has to know she is at fault and that I am bending over backwards by doing either the clutch or labour free...it's not often the cards are all stacked in my favour with these sort of disputes and I'm loath to back down...It was finished dead on 4.30 today,I'll deal with her tomorrow.

One thing I've found with immigrants is that they are loyal,once you have earned their trust,you have it for life,and you have their friends come along too.One Eastern European who I helped in the early days still comes back to me even now he's out of my area - he is now a lawyer,most likely always was but unable to practise,he apprieciates that I spared the time to see to his needs when he didn't know our country.He doesn't bring all his work to me,but I think he wants me to know I'm his prefered mechanic.

I don't what happened to the work today - for the last couple of mths the industry has been quiet,we have been starting the day with 10% booked and picking up work as it comes in,not what I like,kinda scary,and you tend to take on anything that comes in the door.It's monday and I've got damn near the week booked out already,8 cars in the shop and 4 in the lock up yard,one a Grand Cherokee,not the sort of thing I want on public display overnight.

[Motu]

Ok,so we did the 50/50 deal,fee clutch and she paid for the labour and towage,so I don't loose out on this one - I better give BNT some more of my custom eh? That was bloody good of them to do that,they had no reason to back down on this,same as me.Sometimes it feels like we are one big happy family in the motor trade,helping each other out...anyway,thanks Garry from BNT Onehunga.She knows she was at fault and got off lightly - in fact she came back with a bottle of wine - 'my husband he makeah this his self,you likeah' that's as much an admission of guilt as I'll get.So she takes off up the road in 2nd,slipping the clutch the whole way! She knows there will be no 2nd time.

Another one tried a comeback today - on friday we did a rear main seal on a Isuzu Mu,when we split the bell housing a couple of litres of engine oil came out,so the clutch was soaked too.I flipped the rear main out with my thumb nail,incorrect intalation at some stage.A bill of over $1100,and today he's back with it still leaking oil from the same place.I'm kinda nervous as you'd expect,but it's just a leak from an oil connection -I make him pay for that one and he's a bit disapointed.

The Jeep Cherokee is an intermitant no start - I haven't done much diagnosis for the last year...when my mother got ill I just flagged that stuff away,you need a clear mind and I didn't really have my brain in gear at all.Being American it has a 16 pin OBD2 connector,but being out of Japan it is not OBD2 coming out,my scanner is not talking to this one.We have fuel pump but no injector pulse or spark in the no start condition - these two are usualy powered up by the same relay so I start looking for a common power source for ign and injectors.I'm lucky on my first try - the ASD relay...auto shut down relay...it cuts out power to the ign and injectors,it's the same rely as the wiper delay relay...a quick swap proves my diagnosis.Half an hour tops,I'm not usualy this lucky...but I have to charge more than half an hour labour for such work,you don't find a fault on an unfamiliar car without a little experiance and hard won knowledge to back you up.The relay come stomorrow,let's hope it really is the fix.

[James Deuce]

All Good.

Please to hear about a bunch of happy people, especially you. Wasn't expecting that, you cliquey XLV riding grease monkey.

Nice work.

[Blakamin]

All Good.

Please to hear about a bunch of happy people, especially you. Wasn't expecting that, you cliquey XLV riding grease monkey.

Nice work.

Maybe he's been drinkin the "wine"

Dont spill it on the cherokee, Motu... it'll take the paint right off... maybe the metalwork too!

[Edit] Not so bad, wish ya had of told us it was a red!... not quite as caustic as the mediterranean whites... best mates dad made some beautiful ones... still dont spill it tho, it might feast on ya concrete

[MOTOXXX]

all's well that ends well.
You've handled the situation very well and it shows with the bottle of wine. She knows that she is at fault and her and the husband are in the mindset that nice mechanic giving them something for nothing.
Hope more work comes your way from the result.

[Dr Bob]

I'm sorry I missed this the other day, have been busy at work. But I guess my advice would have been *not* to go through with this. If she has the same problem in another 5000k then you may have set a precident. What do you do when she comes back? According to the consumer guarantees act she is accorded the same rights on the replacement as she had on the first one, if she is truly doing something bad with her driving then she will be back. However, there are mitigating factors. You have the original reports and you have advised her that it was her unique driving style that caused the premature failure of the clutch. I suggest that you record your conversations in a diary (as an annotation in your workshop schedule should be sufficient) and these can be provided as evidence. Otherwise, if you lose the conversation then your actions alone can provide the basis of determining your fault.

[Motu]

The Consumer Guarantees Act - was this a National or Labour doing? National I think,dunno why they would put into action an act that would disadvantage businesses so much.I spend my days not thinking about doing the best for my customers,but thinking....if I do this is there some way they could turn it around against me? I will walk away from people in difiuclties rather than enter the minefield of Comsumer Rights.

She's not coming back,she knows that much!

[The Pastor]

When she comes back for the third time, cut her brakes, old people dont survive minor accidents to well

[MOTOXXX]

yea if she came back with another fried clutch it would be a bit sus.
probly doesnt help having all that traffic up there with all the stopping and starting. took my old type r integra to auk and got stuck in easter traffic. i sweat my left leg was huge after 2 hours on the motor way

[FzerozeroT]

can you get temperature stickers, in the food industry they're used tosee iffoods thaw out during shipment, if you stuck one to the back of the flywheel/clutch plate that had an activation of ? 300 ? degrees then that would be evidence enough for court, and also maybe help explain it to her.

[Motu]

This one happened about 5 years ago,it was so over the top it was even funny at the time...

Nearly every year around sept time we get a bit quiet and I tend to take on jobs I shouldn't.One day a guy who worked part time for me rung and asked if we would take on a job he wasn't prepared to tackle at home - turbo's on a Nissan 300ZX.I didn't see any reason why not,but told him to tell the customer we would do it around other work,it was going to cost a shit load and I wanted my money.The customer was ok with it,he knew it was a big job and had the money to spend.

If you've ever seen under the bonnet of one of these things you would know we had a task on our hands - there is a hell of a lot of shit jammed into a small space,no room to put a hand into anywhere.Right - no way was I losing on this shitter,we were going to charge for every last minute and every hose clip,no matter what! So I set my mechanic to the task - 12 hrs later we had the turbo's in our hands,sent to my turbo guy and one was totaled and a new one fitted,the other took a rebuild.While we had the engine out it was a good plan to fit a new water pump,cam belt and tensioners (one tensioner was $650 alone!) all the water and fuel hoses under the inlet manifold were replaced too.Then we put it back in and fired it up - clouds of smoke as the turbo had filled the exhaust with oil,we ran it for about an hour,say 3 20min runs,to bleed the cooling system,check turbo oil feeds,remedy a few water and oil leaks,cycle the cooling fan.It was running well,but a bit noisy in the valve gear,common in the modern OHC motor.Time for the road test,and out of the shop it goes,right on my time allocation and parts costing - success....


20mins later my mechanic walks back in the door...???....um,where's the Nissan? ''it's at the top of the hill,broken cam belt'' WTF!!!! rant,rant,scream and stamp my foot,this can't be happening! possibly the worst thing that could go wrong ever,and it has! Lucky I wear slip on work boots or I would have strung myself from the roof beams.I'm shattered by this,but life goes on - we get the thing back in and start the investigation as to why it broke it's cambelt.The inlet camshafts have seized - I do several midnight oil days working on this myself,we have other work to get through as well.I strip it down to the block and find we have no oil feed to the heads - they have a restrictor jet in the block.This is an import,and every joint is smeared thick with orange silicon sealer,we never touched any of this,but I think some has got into the engine and blocked these fine passages.We take the motor out and fit it to a stand - I crank it over fast by hand and nothing comes out of the jets - after a bit of work we get some success...but I'm backing out now,I want this thing to go the a reconditioning shop for a total strip and tank soak with open oil galleries,there is too much of a risk with this orange crap everywhere inside.The customer says - but then they will find this worn and that worn and it'll cost mega bucks....so he finds a used engine.

It turns up in a trailer - known history,a good runner that was rear ended,gauranteed.Ok,so in it goes,transfering all the new stuff onto the replacement motor.This one fires up and all seems good - but no oil pressure...SHIT!!!! I do some more stupid hours of my own time,but just can't get the oil pressure up,it's pumping,I can get it for awhile,but then drops away.I'm racking my brains on this one,but can't figure how a motor with good oil pressure can loose it (I done the basics of course,relief valve etc eh) Time to call in my back up.

The modern motor car has got just so damn complicated that us poor mechanics are all out of our depths,at some stage - but we have the internet! Just as us motorcyclists can talk about our bikes,us mechanics can talk about cars - The iATN (international automotive technitions network) was the first internet forum I joined,there are over 40,000 techs in over 120 countries all helping each other fix cars - wow,that's what it's all about eh,a community of mechanics,millions of years of experiance,every possible problem has been seen,sometime...I get emails every day,and check on the site everyday to see if I can help anyone with a problem.So I put in my request - why can't I get oil pressure in my Nissan...in a couple of days I have many replies,and one sets me on the right track.Nissans have a very small clearance between oil pickup and the bottom of the sump,a very small dent can block it.And yes,the sump does has a small dent,it's been on a trailer of course.


So we pull off the sump - We aren't going to pull the bloody motor out again,so drop the suspension and front Xmember and a couple of hundred other doo dads and pull the sump.Inside I see the mark where the pickup has been touching the sump,damn,that guy was right after all,right on the money! I measured the dent against the original sump...2mm was all it took to block the pickup.I'd say atleast 50% of the cars on our roads have dented sumps,sure it can cause problems with oil presure,but this dent was almost not visible.So on goes the original sump,suspension in and lets get this damn thing out of my shop!

What the hell to do to recover the lost time on this one? I charge for all the parts of course,but some serious labour has gone into this job,not all of it recoverable,none of it my fault,but it has to be something I can track and account for.The total cost for the job was about $9000,including the replacement motor,which he paid for,$3000 I think.And still,I lost about 40hrs of chargable time on it.My only consolation is that my mechanic rarely takes all his holidays,I have to force him just to take a week off - A weeks holiday pay for a holiday he never took.I have kept the old motor and turbos,they are still under a bench somewhere - I was hoping he would go away and forget about them,then I could sell it and recoup some money.But he's still a regular customer! He knows and aprieciates what I went through on the job,he still brings this piece of crap back for WoFs,servicing and any other small job,he likes and trusts me and my approach to work,he says he must come and pick up the old motor some day,so I daren't sell it.Bugger! I just hope it dies a good death one day,by which time 300ZX twin turbo motors will be worthless!

Shit happens eh?

[badlieutenant]

suk story well written motu. might book mark this one for the next crap day when a reality check is needed

[toads]

The Jeep Cherokee is an intermitant no start - I haven't done much diagnosis for the last year...when my mother got ill I just flagged that stuff away,you need a clear mind and I didn't really have my brain in gear at all.Being American it has a 16 pin OBD2 connector,but being out of Japan it is not OBD2 coming out,my scanner is not talking to this one.We have fuel pump but no injector pulse or spark in the no start condition - these two are usualy powered up by the same relay so I start looking for a common power source for ign and injectors.I'm lucky on my first try - the ASD relay...auto shut down relay...it cuts out power to the ign and injectors,it's the same rely as the wiper delay relay...a quick swap proves my diagnosis.Half an hour tops,I'm not usualy this lucky...but I have to charge more than half an hour labour for such work,you don't find a fault on an unfamiliar car without a little experiance and hard won knowledge to back you up.The relay come stomorrow,let's hope it really is the fix.

hmm, intermittent fault, I hope it is the relay, this is one of the reasons Pete stopped working in a garage and chose to opt for fleet maintenance instead, people have no idea how difficult it can be to accurately dianose something, particularly an intermittant fault. I get it wrong sometimes too, I was diagnosing a computer fault over the phone that for all intents and purposes seemed to have a faulty monitor, I asked if it had been unplugged at any stage, and was told absolutely not, seeing as it was still under warranty I suggested getting the shop it was purchased from to look at it and get it done under warranty, it turned out the monitor had been unplugged and it was only partly plugged in, nothing wrong with it, the owner was pissed off with me, for putting her crook, I was pissed off with her for not telling me it had been unplugged. The shop of course charged her. Such is the reality of dealing with the public and their machines!

[Motu]

Diagnosis,yeah,a tricky one - no one wants to pays some one to waste their time and money getting nowhere.One way that I've used a few times is to sell diagnosis time in advance - say,we will scan for codes and clear,check basic tune and sensors,for $*,if we haven't found the fault by then we will do $** more diagnosis and report again,of course we do not guarantee success.They don't like that,but I don't like spending 16hrs and charging 1 hr for the repair,the customer is happy with that though,but not the reverse.Some Mitsubishi's lose all drive,the trans selects no gears - some trans's were pulled for repair until it was found to be a blown interior light fuse,of course the fuse box only says interior light,not trans power.Embarrassing for the first guys to find out before it became common knowledge.

Intermitents are the worst,I like it when they come in on a tow truck,although sometimes they start straight up and we have to start all over.When they cut out it's a mad scramble to find what is wrong before whatever electronic component cuts in again.Gone are the good old days when we could look at something and say,yeah,she's fucked mate.

I lost my original storage program for my DSO when I went to XP,I can't transfer files,and my new data storage was lost with the reformat.I'll start again with some interesting things and post them on a thread,to show what we can see and what can go wrong.I need to start my self training again,without any grounding in electronics I have had to learn these thing to suit my brain as it stands,I think in pictures and my DSO and graphing meter show me what things are happening inside these unfathomable electronic boxes.

The Jeep was repaired with a $30 relay,I jacked up some outlandish charges to try and pad out my 1/2hr to a couple - but he would of been charged 3 or 4 times that at the Jeep agents and been happy with it,but would say I was a rip off artist who didn't know what I was doing if I charged the same...aaah well.

[avgas]

Also there are those illusive 10 and 12mm spanners and sockets. The times the tool kit, socket set etc falls down and makes a fucken shambles on the floor.
I remember my younger days when i had a few paddock bashers i was fixing up - Note: dont cross the terminals of a battery with a spanner thats in you hand