I've had no end of trouble with the kids at Halfrauds over the years. There's one guy in there who drives a mini and they always drag him out to speak to me when I've been in for mini bits. And he knows no more than they do.

I once went in and asked for a solenoid and was asked if it was something to do with the brakes !!! :-/ "Goodbye" !!!

Also had an argument with some spotty 16 year old at Motosave who tried to tell me that I was trying to buy the wrong oil for my engine. He was on the verge of refusing to sell me it when I pointed out that "I built the bloody engine so I think I know which oil to put in it" !!!! Grrrr !!! Girls can do car stuff too - twit !!!

On a different note altogether - Gray used to work for Shell !

I have the same problem Carla. I don't know very much BUT I know the people in these places don't either so now I tend to get my advice on here so I can go in and appear to know what I'm talking about. I'm still tempted to take my car back to the garage where I tried to buy wobbly bolts who said 'I think someone's having you on there love' just to show them

Helz said:

I have the same problem Carla. I don't know very much BUT I know the people in these places don't either so now I tend to get my advice on here so I can go in and appear to know what I'm talking about. I'm still tempted to take my car back to the garage where I tried to buy wobbly bolts who said 'I think someone's having you on there love' just to show them

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tell them you got some straight S hooks as well

One of life's major irritations......being treated like a twit cos I'm a woman !!!!

When I took Monty for rolling road after building and dropping in the 2nd engine, it was so refreshing to actually speak with blokes who didn't treat you like a twit. The guys at the garage were brilliant, discussing what parts I'd used and making suggestions about increase in power etc etc. Very refreshing

I had the same problem with a guy who came to look at my central heating boiler. I'm no expert but I've got an idea of how these things work and the guy just treated me like an idiot when it was blatantly obvious to me that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Just to throw another spanner in the fuel discussion, the MPI Seicentos have knock sensors.

Awwwww don't throw a spanner at them, they might stop working Always good to know that Pete

Been tempted to throw a spanner at the Halfords 'assistants' before!

Only joking - a lot of them know the job from a text book rather than from years in the field. They have ben helpful before, but usually when it's just straightforward stuff for me.

Helz said:

Awwwww don't throw a spanner at them, they might stop working Always good to know that Pete

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My weapon of preference is a 12" adjustable spanner...nice and meaty

The flip chart books they have in Hellfrauds are useful. ie the ones that tell you what kinda fitting you need for a sidelight or which oil filter your car uses etc

I had to use the oil type one recently when changing the oil on my mums Yaris. The cars manual suggested that i could use any grade oil i liked provided i wasnt going below -12centigrade. Frauds book recommended 5W-40 so thats what it got.

QUALITY !!!

I think that halfords staff have to read a copy of max power to be able to have a job there, when goin to look for some alloys, i asked about a set of 14" rims. Spotty lad behind the counter types away at the computer and comes back with the reply,

"you cant get 14"s to fit a seicento but 19"s will go on with a bit of arch work"

knob head i just walked out of the shop laughing, they just have no idea.