What's the worst workmanship you've found in your C?

[Stone0311 0]

Got some early hours in on the C this morning and found this wiring abortion left for me by a 'professional' installer, in true fashion buried under about 3 rolls of tape - whats the worst anyone else has found?

 

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[seanl82 23]

Well, at least it's soldered and had been insulated (even if somewhat badly!).

When I got mine, the stereo kept cutting out / going silent. Upon investigation, the speaker wires were just twisted together and had no insulation, so were shorting together as well as all over the body. There were remnants from 3 alarms that had been removed as well which had been left in various states of disrepair and parts dangling all over the place behind the dash and fuse box. I had to replace every internal loom as it was more work to repair than remove the entire interior and replace.

[Cressa 44]

Ha ha, this could be a good thread. 

The twat that badly fitted the New windscreen into the freshly painted car. It sat up in the corners and had dropped down.

I paid to have it removed,  re do the paintwork,  new seals then refitting... oh I wish you hadn't reminded me of this 🤬🤬🤬

The wan##r is still fitting Windscreens surprisingly!!!

🤣🤣

[tonedef 9]

We bought our first Corrado, a 1.8 16V about 27 years ago and soon after took it in for a service with around 55K miles on the clock to the local VAG dealership. I also asked them to do a cam belt while it was in as a precaution. When my wife collected the car they told her that it didn’t need the cam belt as recommended interval was 80K miles but that the power steering hoses were weeping fluid and should be changed for approx £350.

About 8 months later the cam belt snapped with approx 62K miles on the car, bending a number of valves. VAG absolved themselves of any responsibility as the previous owner (a former VAG technician with his own independent garage) had carried out a service on the car and as such VW could not verify the mileage, they also suggested that whilst they had advised us it was not necessary at 55K miles, we could have insisted the belt be changed. When I threatened them with the motoring press they agreed to carry out the repairs at cost, however when I collected the car it ran terribly, down on power and very thirsty, VW put this down to “bedding in” and said it would be fine after 500 miles. There was also a bolt missing from the cam belt cover but that was (we believed at the time) a minor issue, fixed with a new bolt.

300/400 miles or so later and still down on power, whilst seeming to use too much fuel, that unimportant missing bolt which had all this time been sat in the bottom of the lower cam belt cover rubbed it’s way through the belt which once again failed taking more of the top end with it. This time VAG couldn’t do enough, a master technician carried out the engine rebuild, all for free of course, and this time it ran fine from day 1. I asked them why they didn’t once again recommend another 500 miles bedding in but was fobbed off.

We kept the car for about four more years before trading it for the VR6 we still own, but in that time we never swapped the supposedly “weeping” power steering hoses nor topped up the fluid which surely it must have been losing???

VAG have not touched any of my cars since.

Edited March 6, 2022 by tonedef

[Keyo 47]

Mine was on a transit flat bed pick up - clutch change - few days later driving down the motorway and rear drive shaft fell off as they forgot to tighten bolts - disgrace. 

[seanl82 23]

11 hours ago, Keyo said:

Mine was on a transit flat bed pick up - clutch change - few days later driving down the motorway and rear drive shaft fell off as they forgot to tighten bolts - disgrace. 

Ha, reminded me we had similar to this on the 1 Series. Had a flywheel changed under warranty, and about a week later there was a knocking when pulling away that got progressively worse. Turns out they hadn't tightened the prop shaft up and there were only 2 bolts left loosely in place. The rest were bent to buggery rattling around on the undertray.

Edited March 7, 2022 by seanl82

[1xshaunx1 27]

Had my M3 serviced by the Doncaster main BMW dealer of the time. Picked it up dirty as hell, apparently their cleaning equipment was broken. Called at the petrol station to fill up, over shot the filler so reversed a little. The bloody back wheel fell off into the arch as the bolts had all come undone. Wheels falling off isn’t that dangerous on a fuel court, I was heading for the A1. 
phoned the dealer up and they recovered it. 
Got nothing from them for my troubles and they were taken over shortly afterwards by another firm. I was absolutely fuming but without throwing a lot of money and time at it what do you do. 
Sold the car not long after in exchange for my Crossfire from the Chrysler main dealer and vowed never to own a BMW ever again. 
Also they had over charged me for a test drive which service 2 includes so got £100  +back off of the £1000+ service charge. 

[fendervg 32]

Ha ha - usually my own, when I look at some repair carried out in the early days of ownership and blissful ignorance and end up asking "what eejit did this? Oh, wait, that was me!"

[fla 9]

1 hour ago, fendervg said:

Ha ha - usually my own, when I look at some repair carried out in the early days of ownership and blissful ignorance and end up asking "what eejit did this? Oh, wait, that was me!"

Been there, still doing that!

[_Matt_ 32]

Probably some elements of the recent respray / bodywork done. Paint is nice but I'm not happy with the drivers 3/4. The body shop didn't repair the fuel filler door area correctly and the door sits proud & they didn't bare metal the arch lip and there is rust coming back. I supplied two arch cuts to go in if needed but they tossed them in the bin and said mine were fine. 

It's booked in to a proper fabrication resto place in about 15 months time (waiting list). I have a new 3/4 from Classic parts to go in as needed and they will be basically bare metalling both sides on the lower sections and sills, making any repairs and I expect repainting the sides. It will cost me the same the again as I paid for the first respray. 

I look forward to posting the progress on my instagram account where the original bodyshop follows me 🙂

 

 

 

 

[Stone0311 0]

May have opened a can of worms here but it's good to vent
@MJA you triggered my memory...
Had a full respray about 5yrs ago, stripped it all down, door shuts etc - everything except the engine bay. Reassembled the car and went to put on the last item which was the badge they forgot to paint - car was the wrong colour
Later got my engine out, cleaned down every mm of the engine bay and took it to a 'better' bodyshop; colour looked better so started to run brake lines etc.
Noticed a small defect in the paint so undertook a repair with a mixed rattle can, spent a good bit of time in prep etc - job done.
Removed the masking and guess what - Bay was the wrong colour and different to the body
Transpires there are 3 helios blues with different paint codes but paint manufacturers don't all make the differentiation
Have since done the bay respray myself and will provide the paint when I get the body done (again)


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[_Matt_ 32]

Bodywork can be a nightmare and once you start you go past he point of no return if stuff isn't quite right.

I've learnt to make sure at least the lower sections of the car are taken back to metal and to only use restoration specialists. Place I had it done was a refinisher/painter/smart repair who had done old cars and I had looked at them in the flesh but clearly was only any good at painting over long lasting repairs.

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[_Matt_ 32]

On 3/5/2022 at 7:36 PM, Cressa said:

Ha ha, this could be a good thread. 

The twat that badly fitted the New windscreen into the freshly painted car. It sat up in the corners and had dropped down.

I paid to have it removed,  re do the paintwork,  new seals then refitting... oh I wish you hadn't reminded me of this 🤬🤬🤬

The wan##r is still fitting Windscreens surprisingly!!!

🤣🤣

God this brings back memories of my drive home from the bodyshop - awful creaking noise from the windscreen area and CRACK straight down the middle on the way home.

Lucky for me I got a replacement for free. The chap that did apparently had done loads of them for the local VW garage when the cars were newer but clearly had forgotten the knack. He said he put a support/rubber/something or other right at the point it cracked.

It has been a really enjoyable ownership experience. I try to keep my head straight though, it's not the car it's the people working on it.

[Keyo 47]

The UK has huge quality issue in most sectors these days. 

The main issues are poor management- especially amongst uni leavers with no time served on the front line so dont really understand the sector and the workings .  s i. e  70 s 80 s site foreman ex brickie (gets respect off work force and cant pull the wool over they eyes.  - now uni leaver never got hands dirty - easily blagged-  can not identify the foundations of  error and nip it in the bud. 

Staff that are not easily replaced so hard to reprimand 

Programmers have caused   generic havoc to customer service by computer says no and no individual problem solving or responsibility of staff. 

Lazy staff/ owners. 

Too many middle men. 

None specialised time served tradesmen that have learnt the proper way. 

Lack of quality apprenticeships and too many attending none specific vocational higher level education. 

All these combined have led to a  pretty toxic trade and service industry-  Im still on the tools to control quality but when I come off I will inspect every job but the hard thing will be replacing the scaffolders when they get fed up of me sending them back to a job and highlighting their errors- but an error in my trade can easily lead to a prison sentence if an accident occurs due to a fault in the scaffold which will primarily be me getting clink not the lazy so and so that did half a job.

I would say if you have not fell out with a builder or someone carrying out a big job for you then you have taken your eye off the ball , my last project here plumber got thrown off the job and so did the plasterer - dont hold back and let them convince you what is good for their short cut is good for you . 

The ironic thing is  life has  got so much easier with modern material and the work place in general but the standards have reached piss poor levels. Just look at the Victorian buildings - the tools they had - wages- and compare that to a micky mouse new build of today . 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Keyo

[fla 9]

Good point there Keyo.  The company we used to do our conservatory used a dodgy plumber to try and do a cheapo job in our extension.  'In my professional opinion' was his standard line.  Had to kick him off and get our own plumber to sort it out.  Cost us more, and the conservatory company refused to cover the extra on it, but thats another story. Actually loads more stories about these guys. Happy to share the name if anyone wants to know, btw.

Mechanics are really poor now and so many are untrustworthy.  Gives us home enthusiasts a bad name..

[1xshaunx1 27]

That’s all I’ve got to say about that!

[Keyo 47]

We have a culture now we want all and we want it straight away .  

Its a sad war everyone is someone son - one thing it has highlighted is how tanks and heavy armour is becoming obsolete-  you certainly dont want to be in a metal tub in the Ukraine at the moment,  sitting duck. As mentioned crimea - could of prevented this war if they started taking action then hitting the wallet- its also highlighted the failure of UK energy - we need to build some serious stations and get some big juicy filters . 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Keyo

[Crasher 3]

19 hours ago, fla said:

Mechanics are really poor now and so many are untrustworthy.  Gives us home enthusiasts a bad name..

I have been doing this for 40 years and I have to constantly study in my spare time to keep up but it is my life and I want to learn, if you are just an average person who isn't consumed by cars then it isn't going to work. Garages are finding it increasingly hard to find good candidates to train as the reputation of the job is so low that youngsters with the aptitude to work on modern cars don't want to know and the money is rubbish. This leaves employers with staff you just can't rise up to the challenges of modern mobile computers, sorry cars; the complexity is beyond belief and most people can't read a VAG current flow diagram.

[Dox 23]

To add to Keyo and Crasher, on one wants a job for life anymore, 2 - 3 years seems to be the average in the dairy industry I work in, they're just finding their feet / semi competent and off they go.

 

Years of computer games give them no physical strength or tecnic - even one who'd been going to a gym for 15 years! They all like the sick pay system, I bet Keyo has come across a few fairweather scaffolders too?

Edited March 9, 2022 by Dox

[Keyo 47]

1 hour ago, Dox said:

To add to Keyo and Crasher, on one wants a job for life anymore, 2 - 3 years seems to be the average in the dairy industry I work in, they're just finding their feet / semi competent and off they go.

 

Years of computer games give them no physical strength or tecnic - even one who'd been going to a gym for 15 years! They all like the sick pay system, I bet Keyo has come across a few fairweather scaffolders too?

The funniest one a came across was a guy in the early 90s when I was working for SGB - he was a body builder and even had a big image of himself on his car and the food sponsor energy whatever it is - so goes he lasted a day as couldn't handle the equipment as muscles he had never used- he  looked a bloody tortoise with a heavy shell useless. 

From my own experience have put three through college averaging 5 k which i didn't get back either in funding - not to bore you with but had this  birdcage scaffold going through the factory and it was x2 6 hour shifts over Saturday and Sunday when we could get into the line - so the one lad was saving for a mortgage I trained - anyway fluffed on a Monday morning after 2 weekends and had a tantrum and left the yard- well it was 500 gross for 12 hours work over 12 weekends- as if you wouldn't take that looking for a mortgage add that onto your weeks wage . So goes the 5 lads stayed on job were all over 40 long termers I drafted in from my days working at firms before I started off- they loved it and if one couldn't come in they refused extra labour to split that wage amongst them.  We put the side scaffolds up first and then the centre part was up and down every other weekend in till it reached the end- so the machinery and the staff could continue as normal and an alloy tower could be placed on the scaffold to paint the ceiling. I told the kid you dont know how lucky you are when I was your age I was doing cantaliver drop lifts for vodaphone (era of mobile phone growth and mast installations) every weekend when i was saving up and that was when they tube was all heavy gauge you snowflake. Picture below 92 in Brum  and Church next to the Villa stadium- aye crap money compared to today as well and charge hands were monsters and alcoholics but grafters. 

There is even worse then leavers they are starting firms that are shit scaffs and barely qualified and were wank scaffs- I can only think they must of grown drugs or insurance fraud to get the money to start off as they are mostly druggies and also never saved a penny in their life and in the Monday club- be loads of accidents as they have no standards or morals.   

Edited March 9, 2022 by Keyo