Car problems

[cromertech]

Just got in to work after getting my car recovered to a garage on a low loader. Suspension snapped yesterday evening luckily while I was still only doing 20 mph having just turned out of my road.

 

Had a bit of hassle with my recovery company who say they will only take the car 15 miles from the house. Now, I live in the middle of the Norfolk countryside, so how many garages do you think there are in a 15 mile radius that I would trust to do this work on my car and who would give me a courtesy car?

 

That's right none. So I've had to pay an excess just to get to a garage I use regularly.

This seems a little silly to me as surely they should take into account the location.

 

To top it all off when I do finally get to work I have a list of jobs as long as my arm that someone thinks should have been done this morning.

 

Anyway hopefully the car will be fixed by Monday as I've been told this is quite a common problem.

 

It's nice to vent

[Chris_in_notts]

but why take out a policy that only covers 15 miles when there are no garages within 15 miles?

 

you should of signed up with the AA and left it 24 hours and claimed lol

[Sirbendy]

AA? Don't make me howl. You could have pushed the car to a garage by the time they got to you.

 

I was a member for 25 years, I had no complaints UNTIL...

 

Car went for MOT, passed. Went shopping, came out, driving home and BANG, the rear axle locked up. Both rear brakes totally exploded, car unmoveable. In the middle of nowhere. I'm disabled, missus was heavily pregnant. Called the AA..explained.."We'll be with you in an hour".

 

OK. An hour passed. I called again..."3 hours tops". Right. That soon became "As soon as possible", and finally it became "can you leave the car somewhere safe and we'll get it tomorrow?".

 

I went decidedly mad over the phone at them for that, and they got told to cram their ruddy service up their arses. We ended up staggering to a friends house (which really fooked my legs, and did the missus no favours - it was a LONG way), he drove us back to the car in his Xsara, with a toolkit that included a lumphammer.

 

Lets just say I eventually got the wheels turning again, and had the car towed to a local garage by the Xsara, who said "ooh, bad luck..". £350 later and all was well, but I'm never going back with the AA again.

 

Not to mention the time I had to call on them with a previous car, and the guy spent an hour trying to get the engine to start. I'd already changed the EFi System, fuelpump, cam sensor etc before I called them. He diagnosed a "failed engine, total goner", and left.

 

It was a chafed wire to the crank sensor..no signal to the ECU = no fire of the plugs = no go. Once I spotted and fixed it, it fired up first flick of the key.

 

Now with Greenflag - when the ECU of this Astra popped, he diagnosed it first time, and said "This'll get you running", and popped out a rely and replaced it with a paperclip. Instantly the fuel pump cuts in, and off we went. ECU was diagnosed by a refurb firm as "intermittent, failed quad driver module", which drives the earth switching for various circuits including the fuel pump. FAR better than the AA.

[michael2k6]

With any company like that i think it depends who you get at the time. There simply aren't enough good mechanics that genuinly care enough to go around.

To put things into perspective, 3 occasions with the AA...

Once i emptied the mini of fuel under the bonnet somewhere. Back in the day when i was 17, knew nothing.

He dismantled the carb and cleaned the float out at the side of the road, put it all back together, recommended a carb refurb and suggested the kind of places that might do it, roughly what i should be paying so as not to get ripped off, and put a few quid of fuel in. Then followed me the 3 miles home to make sure it didnt get clogged up again. He also checked all the way along the fuel line to look for a filter and recommended i fitted one.

 

Another one was where i was waiting for a beavertail with a focus with no bearing, and a guy was calling at the services with anothe rcar on a beavertail (no passengers). They can fit two cars on each truck that size. When he pulled in near me i assumed he was coming for me so i went and had a word. He cancelled the other which was an hour away and went 30 miles out near the end of his shift to drop my car off at Ford for me and take me home, to save me waiting for the other one. Top bloke. (That was cylinder head gasket)

 

Another one was when i had a problem a couple of miles away from home one night. I limped home, got them out. They put it on a beavertail, took it to Ford. We left it outside and posted the keys with a note, and a voicemail telling them what the story was (company car anyway).

 

He then took me to an airport for a 24hour car rental jobby and put me in one. They wouldnt give me one without the paper licence and my company insurnace. AA bloke found the details for my insurance company (work) and got their 24 hour hour helpline to fax me one over directly to the hire place.

 

I absolutely cannot fault them, when i've used them on work or personal policies. There have been other occasions too.

[mtdmitchell]

Just got in to work after getting my car recovered to a garage on a low loader. Suspension snapped yesterday evening luckily while I was still only doing 20 mph having just turned out of my road.

 

Had a bit of hassle with my recovery company who say they will only take the car 15 miles from the house. Now, I live in the middle of the Norfolk countryside, so how many garages do you think there are in a 15 mile radius that I would trust to do this work on my car and who would give me a courtesy car?

 

That's right none. So I've had to pay an excess just to get to a garage I use regularly.

This seems a little silly to me as surely they should take into account the location.

 

To top it all off when I do finally get to work I have a list of jobs as long as my arm that someone thinks should have been done this morning.

 

Anyway hopefully the car will be fixed by Monday as I've been told this is quite a common problem.

 

It's nice to vent

 

you need to change to these http://www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk

[Gibbo]

I've always found the AA patrolmen to be decent. My gripe with them is the administration and the "continuous renewal".