cossieracer

I've had extensive work done on my cossie. I got it back with all work done so i thought. Ok so i had to do all the hoses up as they were all loose and my coolant drain out. I then had to remove all the tools snips, scissors, ties you know the usual left behind the fire wall. Drove it for a while at it ran nice until the back end started to fish tail and i felt like the passenger now and again. I also noticed a noise in 1st & 2nd gear then it would go away, so mentioned that when i took it back to Said garage. They fixed the steering issue and the noise seemed to settle down.H
then went off to Austria and I have to say D who did the setup did cracking job it ran & sounded awesome and ive never known anyone do better, so I write this with a heavy heart, however D didn't do any of the other work which was a shame as I wouldn't be writing this.
Just as I got into Austria it was clunking, first I thought my diff but the sound was right near my gear box!!!!! ends up on low loader and back home. This time I took it to another garage, we went for a test drive & both suspected possibly the diff, then jack it up to find diff was fine hmm we both thought the only thing left was the gearbox. They removed the gearbox and sent it off to a specialist as a unit. The one thing we all agreed was no leaks and when they opened it NO GEARBOX OIL. YES I WAS INVOICED for it by the previous garage so like an idiot I stupidly expected them to actually PUT THE OIL IN which they did not. The result was not good I had to pinion set 2nd 3rd 2nd gear synchro, bearings seals for linkage and transfer box including back to back main shaft seal. If only the oil I was charged and paid for was actually put in everything would have been fine. Finding these parts has been a massive issue & I rang everywhere. Finally have the box back expensive mistake but can now crack on. But hey where are my anti roll bars???? yes youve guessed it I was given a box back of my original parts from the first garage as they were all good and on the box list are the Drop links but no front or back anti roll bar!!! How on earth did it pass the MOT??? so my question is What would you do?? remembering during all this we have 2yrs of lockdown & difficulty in getting the required gearbox parts & anti roll bar. would you make a claim against the garage responsible??? Thanks in advance

haz87

Have you actually spoken to the garage about any of this? That would absolutely be the first thing to do.

Trying to follow the timeline is a bit of a 'mare but if your suggesting you've had the car back since before Covid kicked off and you've only really got things fixed now, I don't think you're going to have much success based on time alone.
I would have been straight on the phone to them as soon as someone identified no gbox oil.

Sounds like this garage is a joke tho. Mistakes happen, even costly ones, but how you can be missing suspension parts etc on top is mad. Not sure where you are actually based, but if its in the UK get in contact with the DVSA as they'd love to hear the story and would investigate the MOT side of things.

Good luck!

haz87

By the way this comment "you know the usual left behind the fire wall" - you make it sound like its expected. If thats the case, I'd seriously look at the kind of garages you're using. Any mechanic with a few brain cells protects their tools at all costs and wouldn't be sending them away lying in customers engine bays..

cossieracer

Hi thanks for getting back. So what was meant to initially happen was for me to pick the car up and they were going to go through everything carried out as a lot of work was done. I get there the car is waiting in the customer carpark but the mechanics had left, so much for going through what they had done. I drove the car home some 25 miles and let it cool down before turning the engine off. I popped and raised the bonnet whilst waiting. My son was with me standing by the fire wall drivers side and he said something shiny caught his eye, that's when he pulled out the snips and I said omg what next not actually expecting anything but then the scissors then the cable ties. Then I turned engine off and noticed the expansion tank was quite low, which could have meant that all the coolant hadn't returned and settled yet but I did notice a wet spot under the engine bay. It soon became obvious that EVERY HOSE that had been replaced the jubilee clips were not done up.

I did get straight on the phone to them and they were like oh and??? what the hell do you say to that they were not interested at all. Didnt know what to say after that, even when I pointed out the fact that had I not looked in the engine bay I would have ended up with a siezed engine.

When the car became difficult to handle feeling like the passenger and not the driver I Phoned them again and the car was booked back in and on the way to the garage the clunking started so I said they need to rectify that too. Steering issue was the rack and pinion were just about going there own way { this was all meant to be sorted in the initial brief}

So I get it back and it drives better but now and again the front and back end would just go into a oversteer especially going around a round about or should I say coming out of the turn on a roundabout. I phoned them and they said as I had a new Grp A adjustable rear beam it would need bedding in and the geometry reset after a good 3-500 miles. So I thought fair enough and the clunking sound went away. So I thought all was fine.

Moving on to the gearbox and covid. I decided that I was not going to take my car back to the said garage as Id lost faith so went else where to get a proper diagnosis as to was was making the clunking, thinking it may be the front diff but surprised to find it was the gearbox. It was then that I was going to get it fixed elsewhere and inform the garage of that being my intention as I'd lost faith and that I would be seeking compensation for the gearbox repair at the very least. It didn't even cross my mind that it would be a almost impossible task to get parts, Of course with Covid the garage in question never took call during lockdown. I then go to be one night with Covid and wake up in intensive care some time later and still recovering.

I still cant get over the fact that they removed my anti-roll bars, didn't put them back on yet gave me a MOT certificate and I'm willing to bet that all this uncontrollability is due to the fact that these very important part were not re-installed. A definite MOT failure and i'm lucky to still be alive.

YES I will contact the DVSA thanks

cossieracer

I agree, and I have moved on. they used to have a very good reputation in the South West. The only guy still worth his salt is the one who does the remapping, he's really good, as for the rest they should either give it up or go back to school especially when they fail to reinstall safety parts like the anti-roll bars. DANGEROUS

Marc sierra

iTrader: (1)

You keep mentioning anti roll bars, as in plural. I can’t imagine the front anti roll bar on a Cosworth missing, as it is needed to keep the keep the front suspension together. If it would be missing I’d expect the whole front suspension collapses the first time you brake a bit hard. The rear anti roll bar can be missing without huge impact. But if that was missing the car wouldn’t be oversteering at any opportunity, it would actually be understeering. Or are you running something non-standard like compression struts and a front mounted anti roll bar on the front?

cossynut2

When you own either a 3 door, Sapphire or Escos you have to deal with a garage that are specialists in them and have the knowledge and skills required, end of!! You unfortunately have taken your car to a garage which sounds like they don't give a toss!!! Not tightening up hoses , not putting anti-roll bars back on and not putting oil in the gearbox is almost beyond beleif!!! Name and shame them to warn anyone else to avoid them at all costs!!! I have owned my 2WD Saff for nearly 28 years and for over 20 years I have only trusted Richard at Tremona Garage in Southampton and Julien Godfrey in West Sussex to do work on it. Never had any issues and I have complete faith in them to do a first class job!! I hope you have now got your car sorted by someone you are pleased with.