General Blue Barchetta Project

[LittleRedB]

Give it a few weeks to bed in and you will really know the difference! Try braking hard from high speed a few times to help things along

I was bloody glad that I had the grooved discs on coming back from Devon on Tuesday afternoon. Traffic trundling along at about 70-ish, probably about 10 cars in a row when the w****r at the front spotted a police car dealing with a broken down truck and slammed his brakes on VERY HARD, the convoy of cars had a concertina effect with each car having less and less time to react. I was one car from the back and hard seem the car at the front hit the brakes so dug in hard, I managed to stop a lot quicker than a lot of the cars in front of me and steered into the left hand lane which was a stroke of luck as the girl following me disappeared into a cloud of tyre smoke and then re-appeared next to me with nothing more than a fag paper between us! Amazingly nobody hit anyone else and the c*** that caused the near pile up then just went on his way!

Note to all - power and speed is good, being able to stop on a ten p piece is better!

 

[nicholasb]

Nightmare. Failed the MOT. Apparently rear wheel bearings need replacing and are noisy (though I can't notice). Just getting a price. They say 3 hour labour. Does this sound right?

Wish I knew more as this is a garage I have never used before.

I know no-one wants to pay out at MOT time but I am spending money getting my flat ready to sell as I have baby on the way.

 

[LittleRedB]

3 hours for both sides is not too bad tbh, its possible to do it in less time but that is on the assumption that all of the bolts and sensors have not rusted solid!! I may have a rear wheel bearing for a non-ABS car in the garage, I can check it tomorrow. I bought it off a guy who had an autofactors and was closing down, he said it was for an ABS car but I am sure that it is not - I will check and let you know..........

 

[Alan.D]

Three hours is a little excessive IMO as it's basically one hub nut a couple of caliper bolts a couple caliper mounting bolts a couple of disc bolts and that's it, It comes off easy and goes on easy so no pullers or anything else required.

1hr should be enough for both sides. Just looked at my guide and I put down 25m per side.

 

[RnRollie]

ah, but in any garage they need at least one hour extra to sit around with a cuppa and a ciggy when you are not around
OR to wander around the car making sucking-air-in-between-teeth and tsk-tsk noises when you are around

 

[Alan.D]

Never thought of that

 

[nicholasb]

They have gone ahead and I will be getting the bill later. How much will the parts be do you think?

What would the signs be that the bearings are on the way out. I had the wheels off over the weekend and didn't notice anything. I have had the ood down for a week and noticed no noise. The man in the garage said the car was noisy.

 

[Alan.D]

My bearings were £46 (pair) a couple of years back not sure of the price these days.

 

[nicholasb]

Thanks Alan. Just want to brace myself for the final result. My B will get no mods from me for a while for its bad MOT behavior. I had convinced myself it was going to sail through.

 

[RnRollie]

They have gone ahead and I will be getting the bill later. How much will the parts be do you think?

What would the signs be that the bearings are on the way out. I had the wheels off over the weekend and didn't notice anything. I have had the ood down for a week and noticed no noise. The man in the garage said the car was noisy.

if there would be visible damage (eg ball or rollers dropping out) then you would have definately noticed by the way your wheel "snaps" in place and becomes bleeding hot to the point that it either saws off the axle or welds itself solid

but long before that it becomes clear by the noise which slowly but surely becomes louder than any other (driving/rolling) noise. Mine became louder than the Remus Stainless exhaust

It IS difficult to describe the noise thou, it goes something like whowhowhoooooooooooooooooooooooooOOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOO if you start rolling .. you *could* mistake it for the exhaust at cruisespeed

You'll hear the difference when it has been replaced (althou then you might hear squeeking brakes )
So, the first "mod" might be to take the wheels off again and apply coppergrease to the right places.

 

[Alan.D]

It IS difficult to describe the noise thou, it goes something like whowhowhoooooooooooooooooooooooooOOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[nicholasb]

Total bill £257.25 Money I don't really have. I will collect soon and see if I notice any noise difference. I certainly heard nothing out of the ordinary before. Could have done this cheaper if I hadn't left MOT to last minute

 

[Shelxs]

Total bill £257.25 Money I don't really have. I will collect soon and see if I notice any noise difference. I certainly heard nothing out of the ordinary before. Could have done this cheaper if I hadn't left MOT to last minute

Try leaving the MOT till 6 months after its due. Works for me...
xS

 

[LittleRedB]

Total bill £257.25 Money I don't really have. I will collect soon and see if I notice any noise difference. I certainly heard nothing out of the ordinary before. Could have done this cheaper if I hadn't left MOT to last minute

Bloody hell, that is a lot of labour!!! Ask for a breakdown and if they had any problems while they did it, that seems like a lot of money to me!

 

[Alan.D]

That's bullsh*t, is anything else added inc MOT fees etc?

 

[nicholasb]

MOT test price was included. The parts were about £70 odd.

I shall live and learn. I am sure my usual garage (Italian specialist) where I got the car would have done it quicker and cheaper.

It also failed on headlight beam which is odd as my garage fitted the light a since I had it and tested beam for MOT. Also I can't notice any difference in the noise and when Lui (my garage) tested the car after fitting new front brakes, he never mentioned anything - which I am sure he would. Not 100% convinced that the bearing needed replacing but then I am just sour because I had to shell out my money.

My girlfriend said its not bad as its the only money I HAD to spend on it over the year. Fair enough

 

[Alan.D]

Are you sure that they replaced them? the bearing noise is very distinctive so would have been easilly heard if faulty. I hope they are not taking the pi$$ although the price is certainly too much in my opinion. Maybe worth asking the garage that you know to check whether they have been replaced at all.

 

[LittleRedB]

Hmm, I agree with Al on this one - wheel bearings make a hell of a noise, if one (or two) were on the way out you would have noticed it and would have noticed the lack of noise once fixed!

 

[nicholasb]

I was a little suspicious so I asked to see the old ones. I can see they have been fitted so I just have to learn to only take it to a garage that knows how to work with the car. My usual garage fitted my new brakes in 30 mins so wouldn't have charges 3 hours labour. :bang:

 

[LittleRedB]

Don't beat yourself up, its a life lesson and best learnt with an invoice of £300 and not £3000!!!

I had a boss about 10 years ago who taught me this lesson by allowing me to make a mistake that cost us about £10k to put right. He was not happy that I had made the mistake but pointed out that in a couple of years time the same mistake was likely to have cost £100k to put right - it has stuck with me ever since which is why I rarely part with large sums of money without giving myself a couple of days to think about it!

Hard lesson to learn Nick but could have been worse, next time drive away - think about it, get a second opinion and then make the decision