Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: Diamond Black Geezer on 23 September 2014, 12:41:04
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Sit ye down comfortably, and I shall tell ye a tale.... Rang up local dealer, after a nut for the V6. The one that joins the cat section of the exhaust to the manifold. (it fell somewhere, can't find the bugger)
Two threads coming out of the manifold, meets flange-to-flange, and two nuts to 'old it all together. Seems simple enough. Apparently ''it's [the EPC] showing bolts'' ugh.
"Well the nut that goes on that thread then, would probably be the one"
"Ohh.... erm.... I don't know. Best bet is to come in."
Yeah, because that's why they invented telephones, so we can drive across the other side of town to be told face to face 'dunno mate'
facepalm. fiiiine.
So... Just looked on an online EPC thing and found the nut in about three minutes flat. (part number 90232266 should anyone ever require one and find this post :) )
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LOL
It's just a standard M10 or 12 isnt it?
Just get a big box full of assorted nuts and bolts. job done ;)
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Yup, that's it. It's an M10, i found out on the online EPC thing. :y
As the exhaust clip things are 87p + vat each, I thought I'd price one up while I was on the phone... unaware I'd start to go grey, by the the length of time I spent listening to very slow clicking of keyboard keys in the background and a quiet voice going 'durrrr' :D
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I have found in recent years that parts department staff are not necessarily trained mechanics like "in the good old days" and now rely totally on what info is available on the computer. If "the computer says no" that is the answer you get until you get them to swing the screen around with you describing what the part is, what it does, and then exactly the part out of all the others that you need! ::) ::) ::) ::)
You just cannot get the trained staff nowadays. That is the case with all services I deal with; you have to wear the hat of knowledge yourself when they rely on that bloody computer! ::) ::) ::) ;D ;D
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Depends on the staff, My former local dealer had staff that took such an interest in the cars they knew EPC inside out and worked with you to find things including enquiring with Vx etc.
The big chains though, forget it, the likes of Pendragon have dumbed down all departments to the point they are petty much hopeless.
Oh yes, the Nut in question is actually a special and nut a normal nut as it is not steel (its a copper alloy) with a stainless helicoil insert in it.
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You should try Peugeot dealers.Mate phones said his expert van was only indicating one way and he changed the bulbs but no difference,so i met him in Peugeot dealers car park and removed the flasher unit and replaced it with mine,,indicators working now,,so took it into parts department to be told"thats not for that van",i explained it was in the car park and i had just removed it and swapped it to check and his reply was "no yours is a black relay that one is grey".Getting a little miffed i asked him to try the part number in the computer t.o which he said "we dont go by part numbers now",brings out the black relay which is nothing like the one required and still insists i am wrong,so we left.Phoned a mate at a taxi building place that uses peugeots and his first words were"is it the grey one,we sell loads of them". :D
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You should try Peugeot dealers.Mate phones said his expert van was only indicating one way and he changed the bulbs but no difference,so i met him in Peugeot dealers car park and removed the flasher unit and replaced it with mine,,indicators working now,,so took it into parts department to be told"thats not for that van",i explained it was in the car park and i had just removed it and swapped it to check and his reply was "no yours is a black relay that one is grey".Getting a little miffed i asked him to try the part number in the computer t.o which he said "we dont go by part numbers now",brings out the black relay which is nothing like the one required and still insists i am wrong,so we left.Phoned a mate at a taxi building place that uses peugeots and his first words were"is it the grey one,we sell loads of them". :D
Ah hoody, yet another example of "the computer said no" it is black!! ::) ::) ;D ;D ;D ;)
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Haha, all good replies.
A few years ago I was offered a VOF93 (pretty sure we all know what that is?) when getting a few filter for my mate's DIESEL Elite. I stood there and pointed out that that is an oil filter for a petrol, and couldn't less resemble the oil filter for the Diesel.
As a member of the public you're not expected to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of your car/van/boat/computer/plumbing so when you ask the 'experts' they're sort of supposed to know, ideally. Imagine if he'd got home, done the oil change, to then look in horror at the complete wrong filter provided. As I say, three minutes of internet digging on the web found me the part number, as opposed to ten minutes of telephone call to finally be told 'bring it in'
Also thanks very much Marks DTM, I was going to buy the proper nut as a matter of course, without considering it may have special properties. That also explains why, after I removed it, it showed a bit of bruising/chewed spots. Obviously copper being a soft metal. (I am VERY careful when removing nuts/screws so as not to chew - though not careful enough, it seems for the thing to spring out of the socket and disappear without a trace into the engine bay! ;D :D )
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Dealer I use (closest to work when I'm in the office) is very good. Even so, I usually have researched the part number before I go in as it saves them having to flick through EPC.
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I usually get " Omega ? Is that a Vauxhall " ::)
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Sit ye down comfortably, and I shall tell ye a tale.... Rang up local dealer, after a nut for the V6. The one that joins the cat section of the exhaust to the manifold. (it fell somewhere, can't find the bugger)
Two threads coming out of the manifold, meets flange-to-flange, and two nuts to 'old it all together. Seems simple enough. Apparently ''it's [the EPC] showing bolts'' ugh.
"Well the nut that goes on that thread then, would probably be the one"
"Ohh.... erm.... I don't know. Best bet is to come in."
Yeah, because that's why they invented telephones, so we can drive across the other side of town to be told face to face 'dunno mate'
facepalm. fiiiine.
So... Just looked on an online EPC thing and found the nut in about three minutes flat. (part number 90232266 should anyone ever require one and find this post :) )
I'd buy a couple of bags full, drive back to the stealers & shove them up his arris! ;D
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Some years ago I phoned local Vx dealer for a part[forget what now]for the Senator B I had,after a while trying to explain what was what parts guy said best you bring car here so we can see what you're after.So off I went took parts guy onto car park opened bonnet and pointed the part out and said that's what I'm after.Well he had a good look then turned to me and said "Your car doesn't have those"!!!It was plain to see it was a factory fit part and not some aftermarket add on but he still insisted my car didn't have it!!
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The old boy in my nearest (TC) dealer is fantastic. Luck of the draw it seems
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I will add there is one guy, must be late 50s early 60s now, he's been there since the days the garages said 'Vauxhall-Opel-Bedford' on them. He's spot on, and will look briefly, poker face, and then say the part name, pause and mutter what he thinks is the part number - and more often than not will get it right first or second time. Just confirming it on the comp. No EPC, just knowledge.
And more often than not, when I've been in on foot and got one of the other blokes, he's happened to be walking past - glanced at the oily broken thing on the countertop and just gone "V6?" (or similar) Then turned to his colleague, mutter a special jungle-vauxhall-incantation and the guy's then been able to find it on the EPC.
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The old boy in my nearest (TC) dealer is fantastic. Luck of the draw it seems
TB, that the bloke with the moustache in Bristol Street, N'pton? He's a legend! Really helpful and now he knows my face sp i dont even have to produce my TC number :)
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I will add there is one guy, must be late 50s early 60s now, he's been there since the days the garages said 'Vauxhall-Opel-Bedford' on them. He's spot on, and will look briefly, poker face, and then say the part name, pause and mutter what he thinks is the part number - and more often than not will get it right first or second time. Just confirming it on the comp. No EPC, just knowledge.
And more often than not, when I've been in on foot and got one of the other blokes, he's happened to be walking past - glanced at the oily broken thing on the countertop and just gone "V6?" (or similar) Then turned to his colleague, mutter a special jungle-vauxhall-incantation and the guy's then been able to find it on the EPC.
They will be the ones who used to do battle with the microfiche and hence many part numbers used to get written down or memorised.......a habit/skill that seems to have been carried forward with the EPC setups.
I personally find EPC quote logical to use and find things, you occasionally get a few odd ones but not often
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They will be the ones who used to do battle with the microfiche and ....
Microfiche ........ the best thing to go in the bin. :y
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Yeah, like I say, I had no problem finding the part via the online EPC thing, I find it very easy to use. I was baffled really why the (clears throat) expert was having such a time of it.. and then doing the 'durr.... doesn't look like it has one' thing. Well I can safely say it was a nut that came off!
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Ah, but it would appear he was looking the number up under exhaust pipes not manifolds. Under manifolds EPC lists nuts and studs but under exhaust pipes it only lists bolts, my 2.5 has studs/nuts on one manifold and bolts on the other.
So he didn't get it entirely wrong but could use a bit more time or common sense to look further on ECP and to be honest the first time i was asked for studs/nuts it took me a little longer than normal to find them.
Problem we have these days is we just don't have new blood coming into the parts trade, kids either want to be a Tech or Salesman, nobody ever thinks of the parts trade. The ones that do come for interviews are hopeless and have a job writing there own name in the correct box on the forms.
Also there is no training for parts, you can give someone an over view of EPC and how it works but you can't train someone to know where very part for every car is listed, i've been in VX parts for twenty five + years now and i sometimes still think where the hell have they listed this part, also doesn't help that different people including those in the trade have different names for different parts.
What we do now is if we take on someone who doesn't know much about cars then we kit them up and put them in the workshop to shadow a tech for a couple of weeks so at least they get an idea of what parts are and where they go, not sure if other dealers do this as well, also it can be a confidence thing about asking someone on the phone to give a better description of the part and its placing.
So at the end of the day he may have been daft or it may have been the idiot who wrote the EPC page and put the part in the wrong place as to why he's having a problem. Also with a car this old it could have been someone had mucked about with it and fitted studs in place of. The best one i had was a guy on the phone wanting a front skirt for his front bumper. The car was an LS model so it wasn't factory and how he described it i couldn't find anything like it. I asked him to pop in so i could have a look and when he did it wasn't even a GM part.
If anyone wants an internship (no pay) for a month to see what its like on the other side of the counter/phone then let me know :y
Andy
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haha. Good thoughts. For future reference it's in the 'fuel and exhaus > exhaust manifold' bit (though he found the correct section still claimed it was still a bolt. Still, they've 7 nuts in stock, so I'm not going to complain)
Luckily (well... I say luckily :y ) I did my work experience at a Vauxhall Dealer, both sales and parts. I think the sales rep who took me on a tour of the parts dept shelves was a little surprised by this little 15 year old boy eagerly pointing and dusty things on shelves in dim light - "OOH! Mk 1 Senator/Monza series 2 Steering wheel!...Is that a wing off a Mk 1 Astra? It is!... Carlton GSi 24v tail lamp - because it's tinted..." etc...
Some years later, at Uni (I walked past a Dealer on the way into my building) I was inquiring about older parts. The guy then asked if I was able to identify a rear wing, which he thought was a Mk 2 Cavalier. I pointed out it was Mk 1 Carlton, and by the shape of the rear side window this was series 2 (sometimes gets called Mk 2 Carlton, then the '86-'94 model Mk 3 but that's splitting hairs). He wasn't sure. Anyway, next time I popped by they said yes, I was right, they found it and it was Carlton Mk 1 S2. I offered one afternoon to try and help identify any other bits, of which part numbers were lost/stickers faded/sticker peeled off etc... The answer came back "Oh, no. We have a system. We have it all on file, we have a computer which tells us." I politely explained that they didn't know what the rear wing was off. And I wasn't asking for a wage, just to help, rather than see late 70s/early 80s parts go in the bin. The guy just stared at me blankly.
Horse. Water. Drink. :(
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two excellent thoughts from andy and dbg. unfortunately prior thought is sadly lacking in nearly every trade/occupation I come across even as a groundsman working alongside/for teachers, we older chaps have had to think for ourselves over the intervening years and have learnt to resolve the problems, unfortunately the younger generations in general have not been taught to think about the (what if's) in life so when something goes awry an awful lot get lost with the problem !