Disappointed with New Motorhome Quality Standards (74 Viewers)

[enark]

I have an interesting story on build quality... going up the motorway last year to the Lincoln show our front electric windscreen shutter gave a bang and dropped down to its emergency stop points.... gave us a hell of a fright... the motor still whirred when the switch was pressed but nothing happened... so contacted our sole dealership in Newark and said it needed repair, only to be told....
"Sorry Sir they are not a repair item we will have to order you in a whole new shutter/blind assembly".. "Oh OK i said but surely it might be something simple"... "No sorry Sir we don't repair that equipment.. I will have to order a complete unit from Germany... that we be approx £1600 to get for you.
So being really cheesed off at that and not willing to give in to that sheer exploitation I felt, I spent two days dismantling all the panels and surrounds to get at the unit and operating mechanism, and what did i find?

When the van was built and the electric roller mechanism was installed the ends had to be located in square brackets fixed to the side of the van.. they should be fixed/held in place by split pins... lo and behold some bright spark had neglected to fit the split pin in the motor end .. the mechanism had worked loose over time and it had dropped out with a bang creating the whole problem..
I replaced the missing 20p split pin, put everything back together and its worked perfectly ever since.
I have since always wondered if the dealership would have found and admitted this and only charged me for the 20p repair or just pulled it all out and charged me the £1600 for the new unit..

Well done you.

I too have carried out small low cost repairs that a dealer would certainly have made a meal of…and charged. Recently a failed auxilery belt on a car, dealer wanted £200 to recover, then £500 to replace, Euro Car parts sold be one for £20 which took an hour to fit.

The satisfaction is well worth it.

My view is its part of the motorhoming hobby - light maintenance and repairs.

Oil changes is another, i am never really convinced garages actually bother, but know when i do it, its done correctly….and saves a £100 +