What have you done to your car today?

[TW]Fox;27425699 said:
I doubt they would, it's not the service department doing the spraying so the labour rate will be far lower. They'd never get any insurance work if they charged that much!

What are you basing your doubts on, I'm well aware of the difference between the service department and the bodyshop:p

Jack Barclay - £1296 inc vat
Harwoods Southampton - £1188 inc vat
 
Partners 2010 Cooper S went in today because of a steering rattle and a washer jet not working. Apparently this is a great box casing oil leak and an oil pump leak, going in in February to be fixed under warranty. Are these common faults?
 
What are you basing your doubts on, I'm well aware of the difference between the service department and the bodyshop:p

Jack Barclay - £1296 inc vat
Harwoods Southampton - £1188 inc vat

My doubts are based on the fact even decent bodyshops rely on insurance work and no insurer would ever pay that. It might be Bentley and it might have better quality paint but spraying a bumper is still spraying a bumper.

Whenever I've had work done at main BMW dealers bodyshops the labour rate charged has always been a fraction of that I'd pay in the same dealers service department - under £40 an hour infact. I had a rear bumper resprayed by BMW a few years back and it was about £300. Whilst I appreciate it's BMW not Bentley exactly what would cost an extra £1000? It's not as if BMW are known for being bargainous!
 
X-Trail had new front shocks, drop links and auxiliary belt fitted yesterday

Bought the parts for £200 and had a friend do it all and sort the tracking for £140 cash.
Was going to attempt it myself, but would have meant buying spring compressors and a lot of hassle so best to leave it to someone with all the tools, a ramp, and access to any other parts had they been needed (car had hit a kerb-stone so I wasn't sure if there might be other damaged components).

Bit of an expensive bill to be landed at for this time of year, but the car now drives great on new shocks. At 120K miles, the old ones were probably well worn anyway.

Next project is going to be replacing the air-con compressor, but if it works out expensive, we'll just make do with opening the windows I think :p
 
Have had a terrible squealing coming from the idler pulley recently and finally got around to replacing it today. Changed the aux belt whilst I was there too. First outing of my Christmas present (Halfords advanced socket set) and it performed fantastically, can definitely recommend it.

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Have had a terrible squealing coming from the idler pulley recently and finally got around to replacing it today. Changed the aux belt whilst I was there too. First outing of my Christmas present (Halfords advanced socket set) and it performed fantastically, can definitely recommend it.

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That must be quite a rare E46 - has the optional iPad engine mount :D

Also looks very clean under there! I can never be bothered to clean the plastic covers in the engine bay!
 
With how useful it is for looking at guides, some form of iPad mount in there would actually be quite useful :p

Thanks, it's not had anything special done under there, just the occasional wipe down with a damp cloth. If I were keeping it then I'd get someone to steam clean the whole bay.
 
One of my wheels has been slightly buckled for ages, but a few months back I managed to find one on gumtree for £40 in mint condition, but the wrong colour. So, I got it taken to Lepsons and spent £lol getting the colour changed to match my ones, and took it back with me on the plane in a box filled with about 50 miles of bubble wrap. Sadly it wasn't enough to survive the baggage handlers.

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No big deal really, just annoying as the other wheels on the car are absolutely mint.
 
That sucks. Must have been quite a knock to chip it like that through packaging.

On another note, out walking the dog today and a young guy drove past me in a car exactly the same as yours. Looks in just as good condition as well :)
 
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Removed the tat from the new car.

Hah, glad to see I'm not the only one that doesn't like stuff like that. Bought an S-Max for the wife yesterday and the previous owner had put on grey union jack themed Ford badges and a union jack decal covering the whole roof. It took me quite a while with a hairdryer but I spent today getting that removed ;)
 
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