The customer said wryly....

Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson

Permabanned
Joined
28 Nov 2003
Posts
10,697
Location
Shropshire
"I always like to get the most out of tyres and brakes before getting them changed"



S500 in today, both rear tyres in the photos, and one front was similar. Pads were caused by seizing front caliper pistons. Also on seven cylinders due to an ECU failure. Been like that for weeks. The baby on board sticker amused me greatly :)

s500_4.jpg


s500_3.jpg


s500_2.jpg

s500_1.jpg
 
infanticide is fine, and knowing some of the kids that I do, I quite understand it, but it takes a special kind of unimaginative parent to be the driver taking it to its demise this way :)
 
These people are out there, driving your buses, cooking for your kids, driving alongside you on the motorway.

Think about that for a moment.
 
Diddums said:
These people are out there, driving your buses, cooking for your kids, driving alongside you on the motorway.

Think about that for a moment.
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And they think the above is ok. Madness. As a boy racer(I’m joking) it frustrates me that I get shouted at for being dangerous on the road because my car is louder than a 1.9tdi next to me yet you see same people drive on wires, with no pads and probably with their lights out. My mate was rear ended on m25 by a Peugeot.. she has no meat on tyres and no pads left (wheel flew off so it was all in view) madness.
 
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Stu999 said:
Nice slicks! What was the dot code on them?
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No idea, didn't look. It's still here, I'll try and remember to have a look at them tomorrow before it's picked up.

I think one of the best I have seen was a Volvo estate where the owner said the brakes had become "poor". The rear brake calipers had started to seize, the pad friction material then burnt away, then the pad backing plates, and then the caliper pistons themselves lathed through what was left of the discs until just the outer rings of flat steel were trapped in the calipers and the drum parts of the disk that formed the handbrake drums were left turning with the hubs and wheels. The disc bits themselves were stationary.

The car actually had a decent handbrake efficiency, which was rare for those cars. The most amusing thing though was that it still had ten months MOT... Some place under the railway arches off Deansgate in Manchester. They probably wrote the certificate out in some billiard hall whilst having a beer and had never actually clapped eyes on the car.... :)
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Would I be correct in assuming that the tyres weren't Pilot Sports, Eagles or similar?
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I never looked, but that sort of tyre wear is either something rubbing or shot bushes causing the geo to be a mile out and / or moving around. To be honest I hate working on Mercedes of later than the seventies, IMHO they are now hugely overrated. I have got the same guy's 9800 miler from new SL55 AMG sat on the drive. Came to be stored "temporarily" for a few weeks, but now it's been here over nine years... Not moved an inch in the last six years. Never been off the property since he initially left it. It's going in the woods before the summer if he doesn't do something about it, the wife's going crazy.
 
Chris Wilson said:
I never looked, but that sort of tyre wear is either something rubbing or shot bushes causing the geo to be a mile out and / or moving around. To be honest I hate working on Mercedes of later than the seventies, IMHO they are now hugely overrated. I have got the same guy's 9800 miler from new SL55 AMG sat on the drive. Came to be stored "temporarily" for a few weeks, but now it's been here over nine years... Not moved an inch in the last six years. Never been off the property since he initially left it. It's going in the woods before the summer if he doesn't do something about it, the wife's going crazy.
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Is it not yours now?

I'd try to claim ownership.
 
got no pictures , but remember years ago when running a garage we took the odd repair for customers in .
this particular customer bought us a jag xjs in for a blowing manifold (v12 and a pita of a job) and would we look at the front brakes as his mate couldnt get the new pads in very easily and they were squealing.....
when we took the front wheels off, i noticed the front pads were new...(hurrah) however his mate obviously couldnt get the siezed piston back on the one side so ground the new pad too fit about half the thickness:(

new pads and freeing off sorted . when he came to pick the car up he started to moan and get agitated that we had charged him for rear pads...(those that dont know they are inboard on the xj)

kept telling me there were no rear brakes as he had had the wheel off with his mate and knew i was telling porkies.
luckily it was on the ramp so walked him through as regards where they were and also the fact that we had taken out the 3 pads ...yeap only 3 as the fourth was awol and i could only describe the three left as resembeling shims:)(worse that the merc above)

upshot was red faced he paid his bill and drove away. his wife popped in a few days later with a couple of bottles to thank us saying she could now drive the jag without worries and his mate got a flea in his ear.

by the way the car was from Birmingham and he drove it down the a38 to us ......hate to think if he had to do a emergency stop:(((
 
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