Bought a Dolomite years ago. Found out the previous owner had used a few turns of plumbers' PTFE tape on the wheel studs to compensate for the fact that the threads were worn.
Directional Tyres
- Thread starter securespark
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Bought a Dolomite years ago. Found out the previous owner had used a few turns of plumbers' PTFE tape on the wheel studs to compensate for the fact that the threads were worn.
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I had a customer once bring their car in with a sound he described as sounding like a wheel nut rattling under the hub cap. Guess what? Yep!
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Before I took the Mitsubishi to the tyre fitter, me and number 2 son got 3 of the 4 locking wheel nuts off. Needed to move some tyres round so the rotation was correct. Couldn't shift number 4. The tyre fitter said he would charge 60 quid to get it off. Bit of a rip-off, but we needed it doing.
He did the tracking for 30-something quid, didn't charge for cracking off the locking wheel nut or the diagnostics, as it came back with a general misfire but wasn't specific.
Last time we checked out the check engine light, it was the coil packs. Another garage replaced them both, but the dash light would not clear. One of the new ones must have been faulty as when he put back the old coil pack, it cleared. But now it's back.
The breakdown guy who recovered Matt when he got the puncture said the brakes needed looking at, so the tyre fitter priced up front discs and pads at 300 which I thought was excessive.
I'll get the place that services the Honda to give us a price for the brakes and coil.packs.
He did the tracking for 30-something quid, didn't charge for cracking off the locking wheel nut or the diagnostics, as it came back with a general misfire but wasn't specific.
Last time we checked out the check engine light, it was the coil packs. Another garage replaced them both, but the dash light would not clear. One of the new ones must have been faulty as when he put back the old coil pack, it cleared. But now it's back.
The breakdown guy who recovered Matt when he got the puncture said the brakes needed looking at, so the tyre fitter priced up front discs and pads at 300 which I thought was excessive.
I'll get the place that services the Honda to give us a price for the brakes and coil.packs.
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Not sure I would use a tyre fitter to do brakes. No offence to tyre fitters, but horses for courses.
As it is such a life and death job, maybe there should be a separate forum for people who are qualified to do brakes, like the combustion chamber.
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Problem is, you don't need to be qualified.
Some of the things I've seen too. Grease on the face of pads. Pads in backwards. Caliper retaining bolts missing etc.
But anybody can "do" brakes
But, you need to be qualified to do some gas work and I wouldn't be surprised if some qualified people bought their qualification in Woolies.
I would have thought that perishables like brakes, tyres and exhausts, are part of a group of components that would be lumped together - training wise?
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Exhausts aren't highly technical
But brakes and tyres are big areas that most tyre fitters only know the basics of.
Depends how and where you train.
Fast fit type places have surprisingly good technical centres. So learn in house and do it a module at a time.
Apprenticeship, you’d learn off your boss and most garages didn’t really teach about tyres back in the day. They probably do now as more places sell tyres.
Poss just my experiences of tyre places and garages. Tyre place I use is mainly staffed by young lads, whereas the garage I go to has mostly older mechanics with decades of experience on all aspects of motor mechanics.
They do form some of the core units in a qualification that I train and assess.
Personally, I'd find it odd, if a mechanic specialising in perishables was NOT trained in all three, i.e. brakes, tyres and exhausts. To suggest that because a fitter changes tyres, he somehow is bereft of any brakes changing knowledge, is trés odd.
Years ago, we used to do a qualification consisting entirely of those three units. In conjunction with a local employment agency, we trained and qualified pre-selected/interviwed students in those three units and they were guaranteed a job with Kwik-Fit as soon as they passed.
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