E30 Zone

[rant]I've been slowly doing up an M20b25 for a swap and had trouble refitting the gearbox after fitting a new clutch. In the end I lost patience and took it to a local garage. Went to pick it up the next day and the box was attached but the guy said "did you know that someone had cut into the pressure plate and flywheel with a grinder?" WTF!!? He showed me this clutch - flywheel bolt which has also been partially cut through.



It's obvious what's happened, in removing the clutch to re-centre it the allen bolt head has been rounded and so the monkey doing the work decided to cut the head off, got half way through and then stopped when he realised he wasn't only cutting through the bolt. I told the guy this and he told me that was not possible and that the damage was already there when I delivered the engine! Absolute BS, I haven't been anywhere near it with a grinder and nor has anyone else, this is purely down to them but he insisted it must have been me and even went as far as calling me a liar . He then gathered all his "mechanics" who all said it was already damaged and that it was the first thing they noticed. If this was the case why didn't someone say something at the time and why re-fit a gearbox over a damaged clutch and flywheel?? I stood my ground and insisted it was done by them but as they pointed out it was my one word against their 5 and there's nothing I can do. Fucked off is not the word [rant]

Once a garage f&cked me over real good, I went back there one random night with a couple of mates and we drew giant cocks all over the place, with the inscription c0cksuckers & sh1t bags in bold capital letters.

Juvenile, stupid, satisfying.

Your story reminded me of this : )

I'm (almost) ashamed to say I'm considering similar retribution.

Name and shame the garage, internet reviews, local press etc etc. Get friends (or even anyone here if they fancy) to create fake negative reviews and tarnish there name forever on the world wide web... or as noted above draw giant cocks all over the workplace.

Sucks to hear can't imagine there's much else you can do about it though?

There's nothing I can do. I've contacted various organisations and have been told without proof i don't have a case

well looks like some cock drawing action is required, it must be quite common practice as my mates and i did exactly the same to a a garage that managed to totally bugger his engine, then try and say they hadn't even touched it

absolute pee take,

Ok, so if it was done before your visit to this "garage" , would there not be
some dirt, oil in the cut itself by now. Looks pretty clean from here.

get it touch with trading standards.

gooner1 wrote:Ok, so if it was done before your visit to this "garage" , would there not be
some dirt, oil in the cut itself by now. Looks pretty clean from here.

The metal is spotless Rob, it's obviously been done very recently. I fitted the clutch at least 3 months ago and haven't touched it since.

faze30 wrote:get it touch with trading standards.

I already did and they said that without proof I don't have a case.

diable wrote:Well 27 "mates" on here can verify it was o when it went in to the garage.

I think I need something more than just words. I do have pictures of the engine showing an un-damaged clutch but they're a few weeks old and it would be easy to say I damaged it myself between taking the pictures and giving it to the garage.

get in touch with trading standards mate asap

chances are if they have been unfair un deceitful to other people they will already be on the TS "radar"

i have always found the TS people very keen to have new cases to investigate. It's variety to them and keeps them in a job also.

i wonder if the garage also do cash jobs with no receipt as the VAT man could be interested in this if they do.

i would also write a letter to your local paper

shit in a box and post it to them every day for a month

jimbom30cab wrote:get in touch with trading standards mate asap

Do they have TS like ours in Holland?

We have something similar here, and also an organisation that's supposed to protect customers from cowboy garages, but as I said, without hard proof it's going to be tough.

diable wrote:Well 27 "mates" on here can verify it was o when it went in to the garage.

Even us Pompey boys wil back Ed up on this one.

in my book this call for some inconvenient pizza deliveries.

Name and shame these cooooonts

Nobby_N wrote:Name and shame these cooooonts

Autobedrijf Henk Griffioen in Weesp, don't go there! I've left damning reviews on every relevant feedback site I can find but it doesn't pay for the damage.

Gutting mate sorry to hear it, I have a 320i almost identical to yours couldn't bear to hear if that happened to mine though

Thanks. It's more the bare-faced cheek of it that fux me off more than the cost and inconveniance of putting it right, al though that hurts too. Probably a daft question but how inadvisable is it to use the engine with a 2cm long disc cutter scar?

It will probably be OK, since the 320i is a smooth engine, but the cut in the flywheel is the most worrisome aspect - you don't want one of those flying apart at 6,000 rpm!

Speedtouch wrote:It will probably be OK, since the 320i is a smooth engine, but the cut in the flywheel is the most worrisome aspect - you don't want one of those flying apart at 6,000 rpm!

All of which makes this question even more relevant.

" why re-fit a gearbox over a damaged clutch and flywheel?? "

My thoughts exactly, and when i put this question to them the reply was "because you asked us to"

Surely though, if they had accidentally done that damage, they would probably have just re-assembled it all and not told you about the cut through the clutch and flywheel.

My theory is the lad that did it was stupid enough to tell the boss after he did it just to cover his ass if it ever did come to light. Funny thing is I dropped into the garage just as he was tightening the last bolt on the gearbox, and he told me it went fine and we had a chat about the engine etc, you'd think he'd have mentioned that there was damage that needed looking at??

This is the engine, it's pristine, strange that the only damage on it happens to be on the part that they removed.




And here it is showing the undamaged clutch, although this was a while ago so probably not much use. The damage now is around the bolt at the 2.00 O' clock area,

Frustrating, but out of sight, out of mind, etc.; as long as it operates OK, it should be fine to use.

Can you draw on that picture where the cut is? From your description i'm not so keen on that being used.