Roadside rescue services, do they actually repair anything these days?

[sierraman]

I don't see how you could miss sell a battery? If the existing battery's failed and you can offer one, albeit at an inflated price, what's the problem there? You aren't in a position where you are regulated from offering advice such as in the financial sector

[hpi_matrix]

Had a Beemer 330d that was leaking diesel from an orifice and no longer starting, started looking for the tow eye after calling for help...no where to be seen....faaaaaaaccckkk. Guy came along, started the car on easy start and it ran long enough to load up.

[sierraman]

It now won't get out of bed without that little yellow and black tin sprayed up its orrifice.

[Rocket88]

We're expressly forbidden [on the threat of dismissal], to drive anything onto the back of a recovery truck...........always has to be winched on............

[sierraman]

Health and safety gone mad.

[scaryoldcortina]

I don't see how you could miss sell a battery? If the existing battery's failed and you can offer one, albeit at an inflated price, what's the problem there? You aren't in a position where you are regulated from offering advice such as in the financial sector

 

The issue is when it isn't a failed battery but one that is too flat to start the car because of other problems. I think WIlsonWilson recently got sold a new battery on the 405 and then discovered a courtesy light was stuck on.

[Rocket88]

Health and safety gone mad.

Apparently, back in the mists of time, some poor sod was driving one onto a slippery bed [much revs] his foot slipped off the clutch, and launched him and the car straight through the gantry and into the cab................oops.

[sierraman]

What happens if a winch fails one day then? Will you have to have a hiab then to make sure no one else is killed ever again moving a car onto a beaver tail?

[w00dy]

My only recent-ish recoveries were both contracted out a local firm and both times they managed to get me on my way again. The CX had a stuck accel cable  which took some work to free and then he followed me back 8 miles to make sure I got it home and the other was diagnosed as a failing fuel pump relay on my 300TE and was bodged with some cardboard and contact cleaner.

 

 

Given some of the stories form mates about the time taken by the big two to attend a breakdown I'm inclined to avoid them.

[Anthony]

We're expressly forbidden [on the threat of dismissal], to drive anything onto the back of a recovery truck...........always has to be winched on............

If my experiences over the summer are anything to go by, the Italian's certainly don't give a toss about H&S - they just told me to drive the car up onto the flatbed myself (or rather, gesticulated wildly for me to do so as I didn't speak Italian and they didn't speak English).

 

Slightly ridiculous having to flat bed a car because of a puncture of course, but that's the supposed progress of a modern with no spare tyre I guess...

[Jim Bell]

The issue is when it isn't a failed battery but one that is too flat to start the car because of other problems. I think WIlsonWilson recently got sold a new battery on the 405 and then discovered a courtesy light was stuck on.

Thats not true.

I was sold a battery, much to the derision of most of autoshite, then had a working battery. No courtesy light issues that I recall.

 

Thread here;

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/21601-peugeot-405-19td-going-home/page-5

[scaryoldcortina]

My bad. I must have remembered it wrong.

[Bobthebeard]

Owing to a FTP due to a flat battery, which had been weak for a while, the RAC sold me and fitted a battery to the Honda. It cost £75. Was happy with that TBH. The car was eight years old and on the original battery...

[cobblers]

When I bought a Toledo off Bollox and it predictably packed in on the A50 (I thought it was gonna be the crank sensor and took a spare) it turned out the problem was the coilpack.

They're £20-£30 from the usual places.

AA man had one on his van and charged me something like £140 for it. It was either that or leave me at the side of the A50.

I was hoping for a free tow home and if I'd have been a smart man I'd have disabled the car in some other way. 

I can't entirely moan as I was trying to game the system a bit, but a lot of people pay for breakdown cover so they're not left stranded, and not everyone can pay £140 on a debit card at the side of the road.

[SiC]

When I bought a Toledo off Bollox and it predictably packed in on the A50 (I thought it was gonna be the crank sensor and took a spare) it turned out the problem was the coilpack.

They're £20-£30 from the usual places.

AA man had one on his van and charged me something like £140 for it. It was either that or leave me at the side of the A50.

I was hoping for a free tow home and if I'd have been a smart man I'd have disabled the car in some other way.

I can't entirely moan as I was trying to game the system a bit, but a lot of people pay for breakdown cover so they're not left stranded, and not everyone can pay £140 on a debit card at the side of the road.

Sounds like a case for Watchdog!

[mercrocker]

I had a battery failure caused by a courtesy light in a Cadillac once.   One of the rear ashtray lights was staying lit so it drained the battery over a couple of days.   However, the AA or RAC didn't have a chance to mis-sell* me a battery owing to having to fork out so much for fuel I couldn't bloody afford to join.

[Pillock]

What happens if a winch fails one day then? Will you have to have a hiab then to make sure no one else is killed ever again moving a car onto a beaver tail?

Tilt the bed and reverse the truck really fast at the car.

[hairymel]

I work for the yellow team [recovery] the levels of twattery amongst the public are unbelievable..........woman moaning about snapped cam belt on a Vectra................."I only had it MOT'd last month"....................

 

i had a camchain 7/8ths! break on my exotherhalf's/babymomma's merc c230k and bash a hole in the front of the head. still ran but pissed oil out everywhere.

 

i had just fitted new and expensive plugs and welded up the front spring mount for its mot the week before.

 

i felt just as hard done by ,but my comments were a bit more anglo saxon 

[DodgeRover]

The AA guy who mole gripped a brake hose and let you drive it is not old school but a fool or chasing figures to keep management off his back.

 

Instant sacking if i got caught doing that and rightly so.

 

Still rac are on watchdog tonight for miss selling batteries,i am sure it will be edited to make us look like utter bastards it seems the bbc have got the knife out again for the rac.

Been told the bbc's expert previously failed a patrol entrance exam.

Not surprised they're in watchdog!

They came out to mother in laws merc after it had been parked up and the alarm had run the 6 month old battery flat, instantly condemned it and sold her a new one, merc has a lorry sized battery as standard, new replacement was under half the size and cranking capacity, I wasn't happy when I found out they hadn't just jumped it for her to drive home....dread to think what it cost, it's an own brand battery as well.

[wuvvum]

In the last five years or so I have called the AA out quite a lot of times.  I've only ended up coming home on the back of a truck twice - once when the water pump seized on the Range Rover (it took me several weeks to find a replacement so hardly surprising AA man didn't have one available) and once when the black Vectra C died - although the recovery chap spent a good 20 minutes trying to get it going (turned out to be a fucked crank sensor btw - it's now mended and in daily use with its lucky new owner).

 

Times that I can recall they've fixed me at the side of the road include:

 

-Flat tyre on the Saab 9-3, although that doesn't really count as I could have fixed that myself had the alloy not been welded to the hub).

 

-Mystery FTP on the LDV Maxus which turned out to be a blown engine management fuse due to a dodgy connection - AA patrol spent a good 20 minutes in the dark and pissing rain chasing wires round the engine bay with a multimeter, then when he got me going again (he also had to get under the van to whack the handbrake mech with a hammer as I'd pulled it on too hard and it had stuck) he followed me for 5 miles to make sure the van would keep running.

 

-FTP on the Norwich bypass in the Innocenti.  AA patrol turned up and proceeded to dismantle and thoroughly clean out the carb.  Put everything back together again, car fired straight up, and he sent me on my way with an advisory to purchase an inline fuel filter, which I duly did.

 

-Overheating and burst hose on a P12 Primera in London - turned out to be a stuck thermostat, AA man removed it and held it open with four tiny nuts, then repaired the pipe with self-amalgamating tape.  It was supposed to be a temporary repair to get me home, but was still in place when I sold the car.

 

-Non-start on the LNA - this turned out to be due to a dodgy earth to the coil (which AA man found fairly promptly) but was then exacerbated by me cranking the car over for too long and flooding it badly.  He cleaned up the plugs as best he could and then towed me a couple of miles up the road and back with his van - he reckoned the airflow through the carb would help clear the flooding, and bugger me it did - when he unhooked the car it fired straight up.

 

There are probably others I can't remember, but I've been fixed at the roadside more often than not.

[wuvvum]

Not surprised they're in watchdog!

They came out to mother in laws merc after it had been parked up and the alarm had run the 6 month old battery flat, instantly condemned it and sold her a new one, merc has a lorry sized battery as standard, new replacement was under half the size and cranking capacity, I wasn't happy when I found out they hadn't just jumped it for her to drive home....dread to think what it cost, it's an own brand battery as well.

The AA sold me a battery once (for a V6 Mondeo), but the battery on the car was utterly goosed - it'd needed jumping when I picked the car up from the seller's house, and when I stopped for a piss 60 miles later it was putting out 3 volts.  AA man jump started me and said he'd happily send me on my way, but if I stalled the car or it cut out on the way home they wouldn't come out to me again.  I decided to pay the slightly inflated price rather than take the risk.

[Jim Bell]

I had a battery failure caused by a courtesy light in a Cadillac once. One of the rear ashtray lights was staying lit so it drained the battery over a couple of days. However, the AA or RAC didn't have a chance to mis-sell* me a battery owing to having to fork out so much for fuel I couldn't bloody afford to join.

Thats doing it right.

[mrcitroen]

Do they carry batteries on board? Can't see them stocking every battery type on the vans. I watched the article and was more shocked at the cost of the batteries. Over 100 squid for a smallish battery. Obv priced as they are distress purchases.

 

I bought a Bosch silver 100Ah for the Alfa last year and only cost me 100 or there abouts and that's a massive bugger.

[Captain Furious]

Slightly off topic, but on the subject of batteries. I have two cars laid up for the winter, both have brand newish batteries <3 months old and both are flat already after being left for approx 2 months...natural wastage, because that's what old cars do, who knows, they didn't go flat when they were in regularish use so I don't think there is a drain. Does anyone use trickle chargers? I don't want to leave them flat all winter because they'll be goosed by summer, but leaving a battery charger permanently connected goes against every electrical instinct I have.

[Austin-Rover]

Had some right miserable buggers attend breakdowns over the years; the worst being one from the AA who must have uttered all of five words from when my car was winched aboard from the A55 at Conwy to dropping me off in Huddersfield. In fairness, the miserable ones did always provide the required service - just had a personality by-pass.

 

Only ever had one out-and-out cretin though, from a local recovery firm the AA sent out one night to Jct 22 on the M62 after the alternator died in my Maestro. I bailed out at the junction at the top of the hill as the lights got dimmer and the wipers slo-w-e-r. He turns up, I tell him the alternator's dead, he grumbles and goes to his truck and returns with a small hammer; taps the alternator with it and then declares the alternator dead.

 

However, the AA redeemed themselves earlier this year. The water pump on my Astra digested itself on the Manchester inner ring-road. The response I was expecting was 30 miles on a pole slung off the back of his van. What I got was a trip to Page's and a roadside water pump change and a new cam belt popping on.

 

 

 

 

[omegod]

^ Now that's good service !!

 

On the subject of batteries I make a habit of offering my trade card to anyone who happens to be in Halfords buying a battery, this week a poor sod I felt sorry for was buying one for his dizzler Megane, went down from 102 to 72 so he was quite happy   

[Barry Cade]

Slightly off topic, but on the subject of batteries. I have two cars laid up for the winter, both have brand newish batteries <3 months old and both are flat already after being left for approx 2 months...natural wastage, because that's what old cars do, who knows, they didn't go flat when they were in regularish use so I don't think there is a drain. Does anyone use trickle chargers? I don't want to leave them flat all winter because they'll be goosed by summer, but leaving a battery charger permanently connected goes against every electrical instinct I have.

No issues with this at all, my bike is permanently hooked up to a smart trickle charger. Bike batteries are much more fickle than car batteries. It's common practice and well worth it.

[Captain Furious]

Good to know, any particular recommendation for a charger? One that can do normal charging as well as trickle charging would be ideal. I've had a look and obviously they all proclaim to be gr8 at everything, but then some seem to have lesser publicised drawbacks where they won't charge a totally flat battery...irony eh

 

I seem to be strangely drawn to this currently

 

http://www.smartkart.co.uk/ring-automotive-intelligent-12v-8amp-car-van-smart-battery-charger-rsc408/?utm_medium=googleshopping&utm_source=bc&gclid=CjwKEAiAjvrBBRDxm_nRusW3q1QSJAAzRI1tazM7XtKXeOjFBzxHJyKD_mTe-O2OWJJ1PrxLPGndlBoCRAnw_wcB

 

I don't mind spending £50-100 as I feel a decent battery charger is something that's always been missing from tool collection.

[chodweaver]

While I've had some varied experience of the yellow and the orange, overall it's been positive. But I, like others on here have said, try not to call them out for stuff that I could have a go at myself, or that I shouldn't have left home knowing about. There have been plenty of situations in which they've quickly decided that at that time of night, and in that location, there's no hope of getting the required alternator/starter/bearing or pump and an agency beavertail is summoned to load me up and take me home, but there have been notable times when they have not, and got stuck in and pulled out a winner.

 

And, credit where credit is due, the high points:

 

when the camper snapped its clutch cable in Perth town centre, and being of an enquiring mind but little skill, I started stripping out the carpet and dash from the cab in an effort to find out where the cable had broken. After all of 40 minutes when the patrol arrives, he states that he would have called up a big rig and got me shifted home, but as I'd already made a start, he was more than happy to carry on, making up the cable inner that was needed and getting us on our way under our own steam within another 40 minutes - a temporary repair that held for four years before I got around to fitting the proper replacement (OF COURSE I kept the bits I took off - that's now MY temporary cable repair kit)

 

When unwanted rodent attention led me to be wondering why, at 7am on a dark winter morning having returned to the car after closing the garage door, the soles of my shoes were dissolving and I could smell a lot more unburnt petrol than is normal for such a cold start... the patrol that turns up was actually happy to be able to help someone with some interesting old chod and something that he could fix rather than drag off to the local Peugeot/Renault/Merc stealership* (other dealer networks are available), particularly as I'd already found where the half eaten half pipe lay, but just lacked the spare fuel pipe to effect a repair. Jolly banter, cups of tea and an only slightly delayed start to the morning commute ensued.

 

And when my mr2 mysteriously failed to start in Doncaster at 10pm on a cold night, the patrol that turned up was in a beavertail. Having failed to figure out why it wouldn't start, despite a healthy battery and no fuel delivery problems, he then used said beavertail about 5 times as an impromptu ski ramp to give the car increasingly vigorous launches until it caught. He then followed me to a garage, ensured it started again after I filled up, I plied him with coffee and sandwiches and he advised I head the 60 miles home without stopping again. It was only days later that I found this ftp was entirely my own fault - in previous work on the engine, I had completely missed the fact that I had disconnected the earth lead on the gearbox and it was only earthing the engine (and hence the starter) back to the battery when it felt like it as it was resting on the bellhousing - the reason it wouldn't start in Doncaster was cos of an almighty pothole that I had bounced the car through just before parking, disturbing the lead and breaking its tenuous connection. I was slightly surprised that he hadn't checked or noticed this, but then this lead is the other side of the engine from the starter motor. Big cajunas points to the patrol for his jump start antics - we were in the middle of a residential estate and it was 11:30pm by that time, though no-one came out to complain at us.

 

And lastly, for all those patrols that are free with their knowledge, I thank you - It'd never occurred to me that alternators have brushes that wear down, stick and generally fail to properly contact the commutator for a bunch of possible reasons (in this particular case on a (different) mr2 that had a crack in the alternator casing that was throwing out the alignment of all sorts of bits, including the brushes) - so when he explains after he has jumped the engine back into life, why it might be worth him giving the alternator a bit of a knock with a piece of wood and a lump hammer to get the ignition light to go out, I'm amazed, grateful AND enlightened because his ruse only bloody works. Plus I end up only being 30 minutes late for work and at the end of the day, I have a battery that he returned sufficient charge to, to start it again and get me home.

 

If the patrols that I have met that have taken pride in being able to diagnose and fix at the roadside or at my home, and imparted their knowledge freely and gladly, and been grateful for cups of tea and coffee and the odd sandwich, if they are old school and a dying breed, the world will be an infinitely poorer one for their passing.

[chodweaver]

Good to know, any particular recommendation for a charger? One that can do normal charging as well as trickle charging would be ideal. I've had a look and obviously they all proclaim to be gr8 at everything, but then some seem to have lesser publicised drawbacks where they won't charge a totally flat battery...irony eh

 

I seem to be strangely drawn to this currently

 

http://www.smartkart.co.uk/ring-automotive-intelligent-12v-8amp-car-van-smart-battery-charger-rsc408/?utm_medium=googleshopping&utm_source=bc&gclid=CjwKEAiAjvrBBRDxm_nRusW3q1QSJAAzRI1tazM7XtKXeOjFBzxHJyKD_mTe-O2OWJJ1PrxLPGndlBoCRAnw_wcB

 

I don't mind spending £50-100 as I feel a decent battery charger is something that's always been missing from tool collection.

I bought the Ring one with a battery conditioning function from Maplin some years ago - I reckon the RCB208 is the current (sic) model. It's overly sensitive, telling me a number of batteries are F05 (fucked), but it only does this is after it's done its best with them, often after piling enough charge into them to make them usable for further weeks and sometimes months.