Worst thing a garage has done to your car?

[KarlBristol]

Whats the worst thing a garage has done to your car?

Need a bit of cheering up so that I know its not just me thats got stung by garages! I avoid garages like the plague unfortunately come MOT time they have to be placed in the hands of someone else.



Took my car in today for its MOT and they jacked it incorrectly - buckled and bent one rear lower sill, collapsed the other rear sill, and also managed to create a split in the sill area. They then failed its mot because of this, and tried to state that it was like it before they got their hands on it!!!

They also tried to state that the sills were rusty - when a classic car restorer had fabricated them from scratch and welded them in literally 5-6 months ago at a great expense. THe car is now back in with my classic car restorer having both sills re-fabricated from scratch again!!


Would be nice to know I'm not alone in being scre**d over by garages! lol

So what's happened to you....

[Marlowe]

My otherwise mint 46k mile 52 plate Gen 7 Celica was being repaired after I lost control (at low speed!) on flood damaged road in motorway - steering rack was bent. Nothing major...

Get a call on the estimated day of pick-up to tell me there's been 'an incident'...

My car had apparently been repaired and was parked up next to the main bay entrance, ready for collection. An apprentice reversing a flat-bed truck into the bay had reversed my rear driver side wing (previously spotless)...

And, for reasons I've never really understood, carried on going. I understand if he didn't 'feel' a lot at low speed, but I presume he must have felt some resistance as the flat bed element of the truck tore through the rear wing of the car like butter, smashing the rear window, and carried on through the driver's side door and stopping only after it'd reached the front quarter of the car. The car literally had been torn down the whole side, with every window smashed.

The centre were the insurance approved (read, insurance insisted) accident repair centre, and were, needless to say, unable to even apologise. In my naivety I accepted their offer of fully repairing the damage, refurbishing the 4 wheels (usual 99+ Toyota alloy bubbling), but the car was never the same afterwards, even though, given it was fully resprayed, it looked great. I sold about 8 months later as it never handled the same afterwards - got asking price at least, but I knew they'd ruined the car that was my pride and joy.

Hope that cheers you up somewhat.

[KarlBristol]

OMG that is horrendous!!!

Have you got any pics of the extent of the damage?

I think my incident today pales into insignificance up to yours! lol. At least your place accepted reponsibility which makes it a bit easier I guess.

I hate garages with a passion, and always try to avoid them...

Cheered me up a bit mate - up to what it could be with mine its not the end of the world I guess - thanks

[MR2 Rich]

Used to use a garage for my MOT's well 2 MOT's then realised they were taken the p*ss. They never gave any advisories on MOT's they would just fail it and get the work to repair them.

My mate had an old beetle and instead of using the tool they should used for checking for rust they would just hit it with a big crowbar and then they say it was dangerous.

Now I only use 3 mechanics but mainly do my own servicing but 1 is the nicest old chap who comes out and never charges you much think its more a hobby to be honest.
The other mechanic is one of my best mates sisters boyfriend and does all my mates cars and is sound.
The only other guy I have used recently is a diesel specialist who is the only mechanic who has all the equipment that can test anything on any diesel even the main dealers use him.

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

Jeez... Garage that did my respray.. Bits missed, paint on windows, exhaust, wheels.. Oil on steering wheel, all interior plastics left laying in the footwell, bag of old rubbish/tedybears/coathangers left in footwell when I came to collect! 3 months down the line paint job was flaky in parts, bubbled, dull. RETARDS!!

[RikH77]

put my old cupra R in for arb bushes replacing with polybushes as was knocking

got car back with same knocking 2 days late - got underneath had refitted used oem bushes and not tightened anything up - then claimed they WERE the yellow poly bushes i supplied

didnt realise i was that colour blind

[l300mrt]

I have never taken my car to a garage because I used to work in one and I know what goes on and plus no matter where you go it will cost a small fortune
Everthing one my car has been repaired by me fitted by me serviced by me because I don't trust anyone else
Mot's are not a problem for me as one of my best friends is a mot'er
Only one problem I had with a garage is that I send it in for a service and they don't do a single thing

[badgerbob]

my mot last week.......air freshener that was hanging on my rear view mirror..... obstructing the view (within a swept are of the wipers blah blah blah)

failed on a few minor other bits but this made me chuckle

[4ndee]

There is dodgy garages, but I assure you not all garages are like that.

[Super_red]

There is dodgy garages, but I assure you not all garages are like that.

I've yet to have a good experience at the hands of a mechanic.

I recently, against my better judgment, bought a car that had had a recent head gasket repair. Unfortunatly there are not a lot of these that come up for sale so when I wanted one there was not a lot to choose from. Its a long wheel base 2 wheel drive Delica.

After its first long journey it started losing water but I paid enough for it that I was not to bothered and started looking for a new lump just in case. I started to look for the problem and it turns out they had fitted a preished pipe to the water way, not changed the cam belts, used cheap (read useless) glow plugs, snapped the injector leak off rail and to top it all off left a spanner and a socket in the engine bay, the spanner was just about to make its way into the belts!

The previous owner had payed a lot of money to have this work done and assured me they were a respecable garage. Leaving tools is a sin in my book and they were budget tools so not a respectable garage. The water pipe was in a shocking state and had been refitted to the engine less than 1000 miles ago. I was not even interested in taking up the warrenty and I fixed it myself, am now in France and it made the 500 miles here with no issue at all.

Most MoT garages are just trying to beat up some more money out of you, I took a Metro a few years ago and it failed, I started asking what I had to do to fix it, their answer was 'you can keep bringing it here and we'll keep failing it'. It passed the next day at a different place with just a new fuel filler cap, the other 6 or 7 items were deamed perfectly acceptable by a reputable place (moslty welds).

[tonigmr2]

Too many annoyances to mention (head gaskets not repaired, full tanks of fuel disappearing, tyres coming back on cords), but one thing really gets my goat. Why do garages nowadays always want to change your bloody wipers.

One lot changed them only 3 weeks after I'd changed them myself...they were a bit surprised when I refused to pay.

[John145]

Got the girlfriend's car booked in to get the oil and oil filter changed only, or so I thought.

They took all the brakes off to "inspect" and knackered the rears in the process and charged us for a full set of rear brakes and their time for replacing them! Complained, got 5% knocked off, complained more to ombudsman but decided it wasn't worth my time and gave up. Told the GF not to use that garage as I don't trust them after getting an MOT done there once...

[LuizeGT]

my car came out of the bodyshop from custom respray and kit fitting and straight round for mechanical work, up onto the lift and crunch.... the arm crushes my skirts that are blended to the car

[jimGTS]

best to you use MOT places that dont do any work themselves.
they literally just test only.

[dantheman]

i did some work experience in a garage. The worst thing that happened whilst i was there was that we had a customers car dropped of at the garage to have an engine change done. Why did it need an engine change? The car had been taken to another garage for a basic service and after 20 miles the engine siezed up. Turns out that garage did an oil change and forgot to refill it with oil!!

[Hez]

On my old mr2 (not the one i have now!), it went for the clutch changing and they snapped 2 subframe bolts and various others so they superglued them back in so i wouldnt notice, only noticed when i came to having my gearbox repaired 6 month later!

[RikH77]

best to you use MOT places that dont do any work themselves.
they literally just test only.

sound advice, exactly what i do

lass at works' other half just does MOTs - £35 mate rate soundo

[rev3turbo]

ive worked at a couple of garages.

Once we had an old woman come in with a citroen that was overheating, I was the one appointed to work on the car and found that the radiator fan was not kicking in when upto temperature allowing the coolant to start to boil.. £25 later with a new fan and all was well. A day or so later I see the "head mechanic" talking to the citroen customer telling her the job was done and that the head gasket had to be replaced as well as a head skim etc etc.. that'll be £350... I was fuming gave him a piece of my mind and left the garage shortly afterwards

other things he did were:
a mx5 came in for rear brake pads, he quoted the customer that it was just the pads at fault and nothing else would be charged, upon him changing the pads the pistons in the caliper were so seized he couldnt wind the piston back enough to put new pads in... so he put 1 new pad on the visable side and 1 old pad on the non visable side!

Like I say, I didnt stop there long!

[Moo]

Not seemed to have much in the way of luck with my 2 when it comes to garages. A few of the most annoying incidents spring to mind.

Garage 1 - Big time bodged a chargecooler onto my car and refused to accept it was a bodge and highly unsafe, EBC mysteriously stopped working while the car was in their care.

Garage 2 - Went for a wheel balance. They jacked the car up on my side skirts and crunch, both split. To be fair they accepted full responsibility and paid for the repair and respray.

Garage 3 - Scratched one of my newly painted side skirts, scratched a wheel and damaged a centre cap while trying to remove a rounded wheel nut, scratched the drivers rear quarter, scratched the rear centre panel, put welding holes in my £240 car cover, neglected to return various items of mine when car was collected. Amongst other things.

[Marlowe]

Got some pictures somewhere, will have a look - this happened 4 years ago so it will be on a old hard drive.

I forgot to mention the bit about them so badly fixing the driver's door that the glass never aligned properly with the rubber door seal again (frameless like MR2) - wind and rain were my best friends. Took it back at least three times before it became 'passable' but it never sealed as it had.

Glad it cheered you up though.