Old sayings still ring true
The time-honoured phrases ‘too proud to seek advice,’ ‘buy cheap buy twice’ and ‘a little knowledge is dangerous’ apply to this sorry tale.
One year ago, Worcester’s Mobile Mechanic quoted for a repair for an imported vehicle which needed a new cylinder head, but we lost out over price.
We told the owner of the repairing garage to ask for advice if required as we had all the technical data. His reply was they had it all.
Our quoted price was actually very fair and we lost out as the winning garage was not VAT registered thus their quote was cheaper.
The problem reared its head again this year when the vehicle had another over-heating problem. Worcester’s Mobile Mechanic was asked to investigate as the previous repairing garage had closed.
These vehicles need the coolant system bled properly. They also need, when renewing the cylinder head, a new four-way coolant pipe connector which is a force fit into the side of the head. The repairing garage had trouble locating the correct part and used a “T” piece and incorrect piping to try to bleed the vehicle. Doing it like this will not work as it is virtually impossible to remove the air with this set up.
Luckily for the owner he did not use the vehicle for any long runs as he had lost faith in it. Once we replaced the incorrect parts, we managed to get all the air out of the system. Then we noticed the valve clearances were incorrectly set - the vehicle had a rattling sound and did not run properly. When all of this was corrected the vehicle sounded and ran as it should.
In this instance, our remedial work, with VAT, was more than the difference from the quote from the original repairing garage.
Remember a poorly maintained vehicle is a breakdown waiting to happen, come to the experts at Worcester’s Mobile Mechanic.