S3 failed it's MOT :(

[themanthatcan]

Howdy!

Have just got back from the MOT station...in a courtesy car as my S3 was deemed unsafe to drive in it's present condition!

I had the suspension and topmounts replaced back in January after a front spring broke, and for the first few days it felt great. The topmounts then started creaking and the front end felt a bit bouncy, but I just assumed that was because it still needed to settle in. I took the car back in to the garage and they greased up the topmounts and things went quiet for a while. A week ago things started creaking again and upon inspection, on the nearside, the rubber cup which holds the bearing was being squeezed up through the hole which the top of the strut sits in (the technical term escapes me)!

Anyway wind forward to today and the car is booked in for it's MOT. I asked them to take a look at the topmounts again as I wasn't happy with things; they took one look and advised that it was going to fail on them! They checked their paperwork and it turns out they were sent the wrong spring plates, so the spring has been pushing up into the bearing and cup, and they reckon the whole lot could have popped through the hole at any time, sending the top of the strut through the bonnet!

They've had to reorder all the parts (the correct ones this time) and they'll be refitting it all tomorrow. It also failed on a split CV boot which they're replacing, and there were just a couple of advisories of a worn rear ARB bush and the headlight adjustment is slightly out.

All in all it's been an eventful afternoon but hopefully come tomorrow I'll have a roadworthy S3 again..one that handles like it should!

Andy

 

[S3 Rav]

hope you get it sorted all once and for all mate.

 

[Mr.G]

Sorry to hear your troubles mate, close call though i guess and you've been lucky.

Mine needs top mounts i'm sure. It's annoying as it feels loose and clunks over bumps.

I'm sure all will be ok tomorrow!

G

 

[Westy]

Will you be using said garage again?!

 

[vrbob]

Damn Andy you really are being unlucky with your S3....

well i know the garage that fitted your suspension quite well and lets just say that i won't be going there again with this or any other car i own (plus i don't think they would be that happy to see me either)

Hope you get it all sorted quickly and get a new MOT slapped on her ready for the RR day down at regal as i am keen to go for a little ride to check out your new (newly fitted) suspension.

Whats the coutesy car you got then??

 

[themanthatcan]

Thanks for the good wishes chaps

I knew of all the issues Rob had had with the garage when I took it there to have a new clutch fiited last year. They were the cheapest local Audi specialist by far though so I decided to take the risk and let them show me if their mechanical skills were any better than their diagnostic skills! Apart from the final bill being much bigger than quoted thanks to a few unrelated parts which needed replacing, they seemed to do a good job.

They also seemed to do a good job on the suspension and brakes, once again they were the cheapest quote around and everything seemed good when driving the car away. What worries me this time though is that a) they fitted the wrong spring plates in the first place and b) I know for a fact that the rubber bearing cup was poking up through the hole a month ago when I took the car back to them, and their main mechanic did nothing about it! Ok so I don't know how similar these spring plates are and how easy it is to tell if you've go the wrong one fitted, but even I noticed the cup problem.

Think I'll be using somebody else from now on that's for sure as I've lost what little faith I had in this garage. I'd rather pay a little more to get work done at a reputable garage than one who sends me off to drive round in a potentially lethal car!

It should all be sorted by tomorrow anyway, so fingers crossed I'll be all road-legal again ready for the RR day :thumbsup:

Oh and Rob, I have one of their 07 plate Polos..not bad little cars actually. I was hoping they'd have the A4 spare but no such luck this time.

 

[vrbob]

Ahh the old 1 litre polo's i remember my 2 weeks in them doing the daily commute was not the most fun. I was defo glad to be back in the S3 once Audi had actually managed to sort out my car for me.

Its a shame your experience with "the garage" has turned out bad too as i was kinda hoping for others sake that my 2 months of crap was a one off thing.

Good luck for tomorrow and i hope it all turns out ok. Personally if your not gonna go back there again i would make sure you go over the car quite thouroughly before you pay the bill or drive off as there were a few other issues with my car i wish i had spotted before leaving them to go to Audi.

 

[AndyMac]

I've switched from ABtech (who I presume we're talking about), to JKM in Pompey.
Don't know what's happened to them but just don't get a good feeling when I go there borne out, it would seem, by some of the experiences people have had on here with them.
JKM on the otherhand seem excellent.

 

[benr]

I am guessing they will fix it for free considering they have admitted fitting incorrect parts?

 

[themanthatcan]

Oh yeah Ben any corrective work will be covered by them. It's completely their fault and they've apologised several times already. They've shown me their original order form and it certainly shows that they ordered the correct part, but they clearly didn't check they had the right bits before fitting.

Andy - JKM are a bit far from me now I'm living on the other side of Soton, and they don't do courtesy cars. I like to drop my car somewhere in the morning on the way to work and then pick it up on the way home in the evening. Think I'm gonna go to Regal next time; Rob and I have a RR day there in a few weeks so I'll see if they know their stuff while we're there.

Rob - I'll certainly give the car a good check over after they've done the work, but they've been fine in the past.

 

[benr]

Good stuff. At least their not being ****** about it. I know some garages would be.
Good luck on getting it sorted properly. But stuff like this doesnt fill you with confidence.

 

[jojo]

Sounds bad, hope you get it all sorted soon, and that no long term damage has been caused to the chassis/strut tops.

 

[themanthatcan]

Got the car back tonight and it's soooo much better, and now road legal! The suspension feels much tighter and doesn't have the urge to dive into potholes that she did before..just eats them up now! Cornering is much sharper again as well..back to how it was when I last picked the car up!

On top of the topmounts, all she needed to pass was the CV boot and headlight adjustment to get through so not too bad at all really considering she's done 120k miles :thumbsup: Total bill was £145 inc the MOT itself.

Now to start saving for the H&R ARBS!!

 

[jojo]

Sounds good.

 

[grathies]

lol glad you got it sorted, good to see Abtech still fitting wrong parts

Having supplied bits to them when I worked at VW, its not a supprise things like that happen to be totally honest! Atleast its all sorted tho thats the main thing

 

[Spacecowboy]

Sounds like a lucky escape. I now know who not to go to...

 

[Nilz]

Phew, glad you got this all sorted mate, luckily you didnt have much grief sorting it tho, I know some companies dont care once you go out of the door after paying, so its good that they honoured the mistake and you are back on the road again..

Happy days!!!

 

[themanthatcan]

Admittedly I thought I'd have a fight on my hands and they'd try to blame the struts or springs which I'd supplied myself. Unfortunately for them (and the main reason I took it back to the same garage for it's MOT), the MOT highlighted that it was the actually part's they'd fitted which were at fault, so that had very little choice but to admit they were wrong and fix it!

I've just come back from a blast on the local roads and have a grin across my face like a chesire cat The S3 has never been so much fun to drive! I had some chavs in an Astra scream up behind me while driving through a local village and as we reached a large roundabout at the end of the village I stuck my foot down, threw the car round the roundabout and she just stuck like glue! All of a sudden the chavs were a speck in my rear view mirror

Really can't wait to get the H&R ARBs fitted! This Weitec suspension is such good stuff for the money! Unfortunately the rate things are going I'm going to have chewed through a set of tyres so quickly that the money I'm saving for the ARBs will probably have to go on some new 18" alloys and tyres first!