Being the owner of an old Hymer, in January 2023 I had the cambelt changed by a recognised garage in Bulwell, Notts. I'd been meaning to fo it for quite some time.
From booking the work in to having the work done, took several weeks. In that time the garage changed hands. And the new owner and his staff seemed very able. Indeed, they were expanding and had got the local large courier companies work--with plenty of cambelt work undertaken. They assured me that the Fiat "copy" cambelt was just as good as the Fiat original. And so had the original garage owners, having had no come back ever on a cambelt over decades. So I went ahead.
Come December 2023 I had covered only some 1000 since the cambelt was fitted. And it broke, causing serious damage to the upper half of the engine, all on Boxing Day, 100 miles from home.
There is of course no way of knowing if it was the belt or the installation being tightened incorrectly. Either way, I wish I'd had a Fiat belt. Then I wouldn't have this "What if?" In my head.
As I was being towed back to London the recovery driver told me of a great garage that his boss uses for all his recovery vehicles. They were efficient, professional and did a first class job. He suggested that yhe work shouldn't take much more than a week. The garage owner confirmed as much on the drivers phone speaker. So before reaching London and my regular garage, who would have taken perhaps 3 weeks, we detoured to the new garage just off the London Road, near junction 7 of the M11.
I won't go into details, but they had my motorhome for just over 3 months. They were hard to reach and hardly ever picked up the phone. But the work has been done, hopefully correctly, at an originally detailed cost of £5200, which they say they had reduced by £500 due to the delay I had experienced.
On visiting the site to collect my Hymer, several recovery vehicles were dropping off vehicles. The penny dropped, the recovery drivers are on commission to get unsuspecting types like me, to this "garage" where english is barely understood or spoken.
And I said this to the guy who took my money, and he didn't disagree.
And then there was the VAT invoice. The limited company name on the invoice was, and never has been, registered at companies house. I'm not completely daft, I always check things like this.
When I mentioned this to the garage "owner", my payment was reduced to £4500 after a bit of a rant by me.
There's a moral here somewhere, and I think it's simply don't trust anyone, sad as it is.
And the recovery driver seemed such a nice guy!
From booking the work in to having the work done, took several weeks. In that time the garage changed hands. And the new owner and his staff seemed very able. Indeed, they were expanding and had got the local large courier companies work--with plenty of cambelt work undertaken. They assured me that the Fiat "copy" cambelt was just as good as the Fiat original. And so had the original garage owners, having had no come back ever on a cambelt over decades. So I went ahead.
Come December 2023 I had covered only some 1000 since the cambelt was fitted. And it broke, causing serious damage to the upper half of the engine, all on Boxing Day, 100 miles from home.
There is of course no way of knowing if it was the belt or the installation being tightened incorrectly. Either way, I wish I'd had a Fiat belt. Then I wouldn't have this "What if?" In my head.
As I was being towed back to London the recovery driver told me of a great garage that his boss uses for all his recovery vehicles. They were efficient, professional and did a first class job. He suggested that yhe work shouldn't take much more than a week. The garage owner confirmed as much on the drivers phone speaker. So before reaching London and my regular garage, who would have taken perhaps 3 weeks, we detoured to the new garage just off the London Road, near junction 7 of the M11.
I won't go into details, but they had my motorhome for just over 3 months. They were hard to reach and hardly ever picked up the phone. But the work has been done, hopefully correctly, at an originally detailed cost of £5200, which they say they had reduced by £500 due to the delay I had experienced.
On visiting the site to collect my Hymer, several recovery vehicles were dropping off vehicles. The penny dropped, the recovery drivers are on commission to get unsuspecting types like me, to this "garage" where english is barely understood or spoken.
And I said this to the guy who took my money, and he didn't disagree.
And then there was the VAT invoice. The limited company name on the invoice was, and never has been, registered at companies house. I'm not completely daft, I always check things like this.
When I mentioned this to the garage "owner", my payment was reduced to £4500 after a bit of a rant by me.
There's a moral here somewhere, and I think it's simply don't trust anyone, sad as it is.
And the recovery driver seemed such a nice guy!
only one I've ever fitted.
