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[deviator]

I apologise if this is a little vague, but forums can be a little close-knit and I don't want to say too much until I am certain of which way to go.

A friend brings me a car which has just had various bushes/brakes done by AN Other. The reason it came to me was vague handling and a knocking noise. I said, it'll be something stupid, leave it with me. To cut a long story short, I've spent a few hours on said car. Why? Well it appears nothing has been done right. Most of the bolts are not tightened or torqued correctly, I can live with the odd mishap, but it became easier to list the bolts that were correct. The biggest and most dangerous fault was the ball joint on the wishbone. This is an after market part fitted to a standard wishbone. The problem I noticed was there was an epic amount of slop, to the point I would consider beyond dangerous. (Please note the full fault list was massive, but I'm only concentrating on the most dangerous). It appears that the standard ball joint (with press studs) had been chopped out and a new part fitted. Fine, that normally would be good. However, the 3 bolts/nuts fitted had been fitted upside down, so the excess thread was dangerously close to the hub where the other side of the ball joint mounts. When I got to this part, I could move the entire ball joint by hand  In my mind this has either hit the bottom section of the hub and worked loose or never been tightened enough. I removed the nuts/bolts, they were very loose, to find only 5 washers, I expected 6. The biggest concern was the thread on the bolts was flat due to the slop. It was PURELY the nylock nuts that stopped this being a potentially major accident. (The fault list I found covered a full A5 side, I'm just picking the one fault at the moment). I replaced the part completely and used thread lock, (the replacement nuts were slightly oval to enable a lock, but I still used thread locked as a second measure).

I ring the 'mechanic' that did the work, no answer. I leave a message saying 'Hi this is Dave, Deviator from forum [retracted] , I'm not sure if your remember me? I was wondering if you could do me favour? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop repairing cars. I'm working on [retracted]'s car and it's outright dangerous. My family and friends have to share the road with the cars you fix.' I have never felt strongly enough to do this sort of thing before. I later discover from the cars' owner that not only has he paid good money for this job, but this guy works as mechanic for a company local to me.

I carry on working on the car, spanner checking anything this guy has been near. I then send a text message to both of them outlining the problems discovered. The reply my friend got was laughable, 'I don't own a torque wrench', 'the bolts on the ball joint were that way around when I got it.', 'I had a family emergency' etc, etc.

Now I've been fixing cars for over 15 years as a hobby. I still consider myself an amateur mechanic. However, if I didn't own the right tools (or couldn't buy/borrow them) or wasn't sure - I wouldn't take on the work. I've been taught by a lifelong mechanic and I still need help from time to time, even though I've done engine swaps, engine conversions, clutches, gearbox swaps etc. Even then I know I can pick up the phone and get help/support from many people in the trade, the problem I have is this guys attitude, he didn't own the problem, he blamed tools/time/it was like that way before rather than saying sorry,

I'd never wish to take away a persons livelihood/job but this person is obviously not capable of doing the simplest tasks to a safe standard. I feel strong enough to drive to the company he works for and talk to the manager - the level of danger was that high in my opinion.

He hasn't/won't talk to me, as such the last message I sent him read, 'By you own admissions to [retracted], you don't have the tools or knowledge to repair cars. Please stop before you kill someone.'

Sorry for the long description, but am I being a overdramatic? Or do I need to speak this guys boss and take his job away?

[tigers_gonads]

Have a word with your friend.
At the end of the day, it is his car so really, it his decision what to do with the fault list but if it was my car, i'd destroy the bastards reputation on whatever forum you are talking about 

All in my opinion of course 

[biggriffin]

If it was a large national chain, you would have named names.
Also there isn't a mechanic about who hasn't forget to tighten, up something, its called human error.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Sorry story to read, really. As far as I'm aware, there's no formal qualification required to 'be' a mechanic, which of course leaves the door wide open for any old idiot to repair cars, and of course someone who's a genius with a spanner to do so equally.

In my experience everyone's got 'a really good garage/bloke they always take their cars to' and they're always highly delighted when they find a whole list of problems with their car they have fixed, for a good price. And I'm the same, there's two boys who've been at this 20 years longer than me who I defer to for advice and help when I need it.

It's for the very reasons you list that I do as much as I possibly can on my own car, because I simply don't trust anyone to work on her other than me. And if I cock up, then it's my fault, I can live with that. If it's beyond me, then I'll ask for help, sure. Safe to say the guy who's done this work will be perfectly safe in their opinion of theirselves as a good mechanic, and not see anything wrong with the standard of work they've done.

As per tiger's testes' post, speak to your friend, explain your findings, and leave it in his court, if he is ok with that standard of work on his car, then you cant physically sneak into his property at night and start torquing up things while he sleeps, unfortunately. And I'm not sure where honest feedback ends and outright slander begins, legally speaking; so I respect your decision to keep everything anonymous at this stage.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Also I'd like to add/expand a little of biggriffin's point - when I bought my girl, Pissy from my old man there was/is a list of things I wasn't happy with regarding standard of work and bodges etc... I'm not going to be catty about my own dad and list them, but nevertheless there was stuff which I wanted/had to to redo properly.

However, a 'rubbish bodge' - as I see it - which has lasted 8 years isn't perhaps as 'rubbish' as I'm giving it credit for. I've got a very pedantic, perfectionist standard of things. Without trying to make excuses for the guy, an old-school mechanic who may try and wind the throttle butterflies open to adjust an Omega's idle is wrong, it's under ECU control. That's a bodge by Omega standard, but by 1978 Victor standards it's perfectly good. As I say, not trying to make excuses for the guy, I'd be fuming mad if that'd happened to me, and may not have been as tolerant and calm and professional as yourself, deviator. 

[minifreek]

TBH its not really any of your business to go and talk to the mechanics manager and get him sacked....

Have a word with your mate, and leave the ball in his court....

If it was done as a foreigner then maybe the mechanic might be a bit more careful next time, as he won't want it known that he does foreigners - thus taking business away from the place he works etc...

I understand your anger towards the fella, but we all make mistakes Dave...

I remember buying some 'performance' camshafts for an X20XEV off someone on a forum, they didn't know to also supply the matching lifters too....

[STEMO]

I don't imagine that this kind of thing is that uncommon, perhaps not to that extent, but I'm afraid it happens.
That's why we all have kittens when we have to walk away leaving our car in the hands of a stranger. After a service or repair, I'm straight under the bonnet.

[ted_one]

There is only one person that I DON'T trust to work on safety critical items on my cars....yes it's ME!! I actually know my own capabilities and they can be rated as utterly useless,I therefore have always put my trust in certain members on this forum who have helped no end in keeping my cars in a good state of safe fettle and also the forum's broader membership who contribute their various practical tips gained from their own experiences from working on their own cars.....works for me

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Good point! Of course that's just it, if that person you trust is a good one - and by and large they are - then you're very much in safe hands. I think mechanics must fall into the same field as builders, plumbers, car salesmen, IT etc. people have a perception they're all out for get you, overcharge you, and give you shoddy service and work in return. Which I'm pretty sure, the rate of mechanics who do a lousy job is no higher a percentage than airline pilots... well, may an exaggeration, but you see what I mean! 

[deviator]

Thank you for the level headed responses, I was fuming last night.

I'll leave it in the car owners hands.

[ted_one]

The other thing I meant to put into my last post which in a way illustrates the point about people setting them selves up as pukka mechanics, and I can relate this to my son's company who run a similar operation to Kwikcrap,and they have a quite a few young guys working there as mechanics,and looking at them I don't think that they have lived long enough to have attended the various factory courses that would make them confident and competent to work on the large array of cars that are booked in on a daily basis. I have had work done there on my cars on occasions in the past, but not any more!! and have always worried as to wether the work was done as we would expect it to be done by one of the guys on here.

[Kevin Wood]

I sincerely hope that this work wasn't carried out by anyone offering themselves for work on this forum. 

If it was, myself or anyone else on the admin team, would appreciate a heads-up.

You imply that the work was carried out by a member of some forum. I feel the administrator of the forum concerned should be given a heads-up, by yourself if the owner of the car would rather not do so himself.

Whilst it's great to be able to put people into contact with others who are keen to help them out on a forum such as this, it would be terrible for the admin team, and anyone else involved, if negligent work like this caused someone to have an accident, or worse.

[deviator]

I sincerely hope that this work wasn't carried out by anyone offering themselves for work on this forum. 

If it was, myself or anyone else on the admin team, would appreciate a heads-up.

You imply that the work was carried out by a member of some forum. I feel the administrator of the forum concerned should be given a heads-up, by yourself if the owner of the car would rather not do so himself.

Whilst it's great to be able to put people into contact with others who are keen to help them out on a forum such as this, it would be terrible for the admin team, and anyone else involved, if negligent work like this caused someone to have an accident, or worse.

Kevin, this has nothing to do with OOF or the fine members here at all (in the respect of, he's not a member on here - as far as I am aware). The forum bit is really a red herring, I knew the guy from that forum many years ago, I don't think he goes on there anymore. I was only mentioning it to him, so he knew who I was and knew my past knowledge and experiences.

Dave

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Actually (must have misread it) I got the impression this was someone on this forum, too  Glad it's not, we don't need any more faecal matter hitting the turbine blades! 

[deviator]

Actually (must have misread it) I got the impression this was someone on this forum, too  Glad it's not, we don't need any more faecal matter hitting the turbine blades! 

Good point, I don't want people thinking that.

Kevin, please could you edit my first post to make it VERY clear this is not an OOF problem, or relating to anyone fixing cars on here.