General Old Faithfull (uno fire 93)

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General Old Faithfull (uno fire 93)

Seanlr

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Joined
Mar 29, 2006
Messages
117
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Location
Pretoria
Old Faithfull is what i call her because she has had 2 major accidents and various small ones, shes been raped by mechanics and driven like a F1 car by teenagers.

she was my uncles car and back then he was living next to the sea (durban, very hot humid and salty), he passed away and she was given to my mother who started asking the kids around the house to go 2 the cafe for her in it.
that of course led to them borrowing it from her.

my dad had a accident on a dirt road @ 30k's an hour (bakkie/pickup drove in2 him) damaged front left
I played harvey wallbanger in her and hit a wall @ around 45k's an hour taking out the wall and doing R12000 damage to the front left around 3 years ago.

I had it towed to my parents house where it stood for a month.
my father in law (2 be) sed he would help me fix it so i called the tow company and asked them to move it to my house. When they got there the driver told me a long and convincing story on how he can get it fixed for me for around R7k so i let him take it (bad move) the R7000 ended up @ R12000

when i went to fetch the car (3 months it took them 2 "fix" it), it would not idle and the engine was running very badly (i started the car around 4 times before they took it and it was running perfectly). he told me its problably just the timing thats out.

opened the hood there and noticed my battery had been replaced with a tiny one, asked him why, he sed there was no battery in the car when he got it (blamed it on the tow truck guys). I called them and they sed there was no battery in it when they got it, so how did i start it 4 times anyway?

got the car home opened the hood again 2 see what the prob was with the timing and it was perfect (timing light) so checked the carborator, they had swapped mine with another one with parts missing. they had swapped my boot cover with a broken one, they had swapped all my tyres with damaged ones (one wheel was even bent), my ashtray lid was damaged, the plastic covers which are by the steering wheel to hide the wiring had been swapped with damaged ones and these had been attached with black insulation tape. the sparkplug cables were swapped, my air filter box was swapped with one which had a hole melted in the bottom. Anyway there was also nothing i could do to get them 2 fix all this. I tried my best to get this sorted out and gave up in the end (police, lawyers etc, mech kept blaming the tow guy who blamed a 3rd party where my car was standing in the weather for around 3 months). so school fees

as i do not have the cash to go out and buy a new car i decided to fix up this one, got a lift to work for more than a month whilst i was fixin basics and getting cash together (remember i just paid R12000 on her) and spent another month driving around on smooth tyres.

got a 2nd hand carborator @ the scrap yard (R200) and between the 2 managed to build one up, gave it a full service (including breaks as they replaced the break pads on the damaged side only and this with 2nd hand pads) and since then me and my father in law have been the only ppl to work on her (besides things i could not do myself, eg wheel alignment done at places i trust by people i trust)
the following month i got a set of four 2nd hand wheels off a buddy who upgraded his uno's 2 mags (also bit of an upgrade 2 me as these were 16" and my last were 14").

so now im finally nearly back where i started with the car and will be asking many questions as i refuse to have her raped again.

lol lessons i learned from this.

mark all your parts (i use a UV pen and even my sparkplugs get a mark before i replace em) before allowing a car in2 a shop.
always look at the workshop and storage areas before allowing your car to be serviced or worked on there.
ask what parts they will be replacing and what brand they will be using.
leave a few coins in the glove compartment and cover them with some papers (interesting 2 see if they are still there when u get it back)
with tow trucks make sure you get a signed letter stating which common parts and what condition they are in which are in the car. (also take a photograph, get him 2 sign that)
And Lastly if at all you can rather do it yourself (Waay cheaper and interesting 4 newbies like me to see how that "horse" ive got under my bonnet really works.

anyways sorry about the long read (if u got this far) and excuse any silly questions i may ask in future.
 
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What a story! I really do feel for you...

Just the first paragraph built up a powerful image, which the rest of the story confirmed. It's horrible when you can't trust other people to work on your car... I've only given a car to a workshop a couple of times over the years, and it never ended as badly as that. It really sounds as though the good parts were 'raped and pillaged' off your car... in time, I think you'll replace them...

Of course I read this after posting replies to your other questions... but I think in general it will be best to start afresh (e.g. assuming that timing, etc. is probably wrong).

I think it is a very good idea to work on the car yourself (particularly as mechanics' establishments in Durban seemed rather 'variable' when I visited, dunno what it's like in Pretoria where you are now?)

So, good luck with it all,
-Alex
 
Reminds me when I had an MG Metro years ago. Went in for a service and came out in worse condition, serious steering pull to the left. Garage denied knowledge and said they could find nothing wrong. They swapped the tyres around saying that could be the problem and I found out at the MOT a couple of months later that they jacked the car up by the floor pan caving it in, by then it was too late. Anyway sold the car shortly afterwards and the guy who bought it took it to his local friendly mechanic and advised it was simple problem which would cost about £50 to fix.

I'm convinced to this day that they used my car as a donor for one of the garage chavs Metros. Utimately it backfired because my mother used the garage for all her companies servicing and repairs on their cars and vans. After this incident she stopped using them. :)
 
I think if a garage had done this to my car I would have torched the place, and the people in it :mad:

Not only is it a good idea to mark everything with a UV pen, but if you remotely suspect that the garage is a bit dodgy, I'd make sure I was there when the car arrived and then use a digital camera to take loads of pictures of the car and its parts.

That way you can compare the pictures when the car came back from them, and it will be obvious if anything has been swapped around. Plus if you take pictures of the car in the garage, the mechanics/ owner can see that you have photographic evidence of the cars state IN THEIR WORKSHOP before they worked on it. They'll have no excuse to palm the blame onto someone else then for missing/ defective parts (y)
 
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1986Uno45S said:
I think if a garage had done this to my car I would have torched the place, and the people in it :mad:

LOL the thought crossed my mind several times, but i believe that you get what you give.

anyways im almost there, shes almost back where i want her :) .

now its just time i need :bang:
 
I know what you mean about (some) garages i don't trust any of them for my uno but thats prob coz their so easy to fix!

Give my volvo to the pro's tho coz theirs too many computers n stuff in it!

I adjust my seat and have to reset the "service now" flashing computer thingy!!
 
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