Mr Clutch

[egg]

Dozydustman and I were students in Canterbury at about the same time, but we can't have known each other - he'd have seen me dribbling on his 205.

Uni of Kent? I was there 95-99.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Uni of Kent? I was there 95-99.

I was, yes - 98 until I quietly slipped away. French and random humanities.

 

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[dozeydustman]

Yes I was UKC as well 1997-2001 reading Chemistry. Didn't pass hence my career choice now. Bloody hard degree. Had more drools over the Simca I owned for a couple of months than the 205!

But I digress. Big chain garages have their place if you have a regular commonplace car that is current, for something unusual or over 10 years old I find they're just rip off merchants. For me they are the very last resort for something I can't do myself and a trusted local is busy. Thankfully my grandpa was in the trade for 40 years and taught me a lot of what I know now motor-wise. He didn't trust big chains either.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Yes I was UKC as well 1997-2001 reading Chemistry. Didn't pass hence my career choice now. Bloody hard degree. Had more drools over the Simca I owned for a couple of months than the 205!

 

But I digress. Big chain garages have their place if you have a regular commonplace car that is current, for something unusual or over 10 years old I find they're just rip off merchants. For me they are the very last resort for something I can't do myself and a trusted local is busy. Thankfully my grandpa was in the trade for 40 years and taught me a lot of what I know now motor-wise. He didn't trust big chains either.

Neither of us contributed to their pass rate then! I'd have dribbled just as much on a Simca, to be fair.

 

Back on topic, I took a BX to the Kwik Fit on Wincheap for a new exhaust once, to be told that they couldn't do it because the rear hanger had fallen off - which, you'll all be unsurprised to learn, is entirely standard on an old BX.

 

Just weld a hanger on, I said, it doesn't have to look nice and it'll probably be stronger than the original.

 

Cue looks of total horror. Welding? To a car? That's far too dangerous, we'd never do that.

 

Chain garages=bad news imho.

 

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[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Please don’t use Transmech rubbish.

[dozeydustman]

I can get a 3 piece transmech kit from ECP for £35......done one before and don't recall much pain after so may have a crack to maximise profit 

 

 

Transmech sell recondition clutches. Previous experience with recon clutches is they last a couple of years before needing replacing, often not from the friction material being worn, but the diaphragm losing its springiness so it drags. Spend a little more and get a decent one with a cylinder & release bearing as well, as that will probably be shagged too.

[twosmoke300]

Luk if possible

[sierraman]

For such a big pain in the arse job, you'd want to put decent components in. That said if I was chucking a new clutch in to flog it on, I'd just whack the cheapest plate I could find in, sod swapping the csc.

[twosmoke300]

Always change the csc! Bloody good chance it will leak within days of changing the clutch otherwise

[Kiltox]

I don’t think anyone suggesting changing just the plate can get high and mighty over the brand of said plate

[Shep Shepherd]

I took The Volvo to my local branch of Mr. Clutch for an MOT one morning in 2005, which I strongly suspect was 'bent', due to the car being in exactly the same position on their forecourt as I'd left it when I collected it later in the day. Since then, I've avoided them like the plague.

[sierraman]

I don’t think anyone suggesting changing just the plate can get high and mighty over the brand of said plate

If it was your own you'd do the lot and put a Sachs or a LUK plate in, swap the CSC and possibly the crank end seal. If you were buying old cars with bollocksed clutches to flip on through bumtree you'd spend the absoute minimum.

[Kiltox]

Speak for yourself - theres too many arseholes badly bodging bangers to want to add to them.

[beko1987]

Kwikfit headington re-gassed the merivas air con like a champ! Ok it took them 3 hours but it was the hottest day of the year, their place was ice cold itself so I drank as much free coffee as I could without being sick and Amy stopped complaining about the air con not working.

 

And there ends my only experience!

[Hendry]

I remember a story in the Sun years ago about a guy with a Lada Riva he'd paid £300 for and took it into Kwik-Fit for one of their free brake checks and it needed £670 spent on them, the Sun was doing its usual sensationalist rubbish about how it was shocking the car needed double its value spent on brakes and how that wasnt right and I just thought just because a cars value decreases doesnt mean parts and repairs get cheaper. 

 

Kwik-Fit and the like always seem to only ever have the most expensive brands in a particular tyre in and a budget or cheaper one needs ordered in, I remember my dad going in on a Sunday morning maybe 10 years back with his Vectra taxi needing a tyre, and needing it that day, and Kwik-Fit were one of the few places open, he was planning to work that day so needed the tyre, went in and they did the usual 'weve only got premium tyres, £140 each' bearing in mind this was for a Vectra C with 215/55/16 tyres, he was like nah its ok ill leave it, and the guy genuinely being shocked like that tactic usually worked on people, in the end my dad chose not go to to work because it was cheaper to not earn that day that pay for the tyre and be able to work as he wouldnt have covered the tyre cost. 

 

Can also remember my uncle in about 2005 having a Rover HHR 414S he'd had from 2 years old, it was due an MOT and a workmate had checked it over and done the work for the MOT, including a leaky rear shocker, rear brake shoes, and rear brake wheel cylinders leaking, and it needed a tyre, tyre was the only thing the guy couldnt get, so uncle says its fine i'll nip into kwik-fit round the corner from my house, cue the predictable 'you need a rear shocker its leaking, plus your rear brake shoes are worn' (amongst others, making out an 8 year old car was a rot box) uncle says thats funny, can you show me because theyve just been replaced. Fitter made his excuses, fitted tyre and never utter a word about anything else on the car. 

 

Only fast fit place i will use, even then only for tyres, is Farmer Autocare, they are almost run like individual companies though and the guys are pretty spot on in the local one, friendly, banter etc. 

[Sir Snipes]

I remember a story in the Sun years ago about a guy with a Lada Riva he'd paid £300 for and took it into Kwik-Fit for one of their free brake checks and it needed £670 spent on them, the Sun was doing its usual sensationalist rubbish about how it was shocking the car needed double its value spent on brakes and how that wasnt right and I just thought just because a cars value decreases doesnt mean parts and repairs get cheaper.

 

Kwik-Fit and the like always seem to only ever have the most expensive brands in a particular tyre in and a budget or cheaper one needs ordered in, I remember my dad going in on a Sunday morning maybe 10 years back with his Vectra taxi needing a tyre, and needing it that day, and Kwik-Fit were one of the few places open, he was planning to work that day so needed the tyre, went in and they did the usual 'weve only got premium tyres, £140 each' bearing in mind this was for a Vectra C with 215/55/16 tyres, he was like nah its ok ill leave it, and the guy genuinely being shocked like that tactic usually worked on people, in the end my dad chose not go to to work because it was cheaper to not earn that day that pay for the tyre and be able to work as he wouldnt have covered the tyre cost.

 

Can also remember my uncle in about 2005 having a Rover HHR 414S he'd had from 2 years old, it was due an MOT and a workmate had checked it over and done the work for the MOT, including a leaky rear shocker, rear brake shoes, and rear brake wheel cylinders leaking, and it needed a tyre, tyre was the only thing the guy couldnt get, so uncle says its fine i'll nip into kwik-fit round the corner from my house, cue the predictable 'you need a rear shocker its leaking, plus your rear brake shoes are worn' (amongst others, making out an 8 year old car was a rot box) uncle says thats funny, can you show me because theyve just been replaced. Fitter made his excuses, fitted tyre and never utter a word about anything else on the car.

 

Only fast fit place i will use, even then only for tyres, is Farmer Autocare, they are almost run like individual companies though and the guys are pretty spot on in the local one, friendly, banter etc.

Tom Farmer, founder of Kwik-Fit, isn’t it? I use to work at Kwik-Fit near Manchester and the other staff were all ex-main dealer old school (I was the youngest at 25 by so margin until they got a boy in). Never any shadyness but I think I was lucky to be at a good one.

 

We did get in the local paper though (the MEN) when a brake calliper got sent out loose. That was the supervisor trying to do 5 jobs at once & answer the phone. He got suspended and reinstated a few weeks later. Didn’t even move him; it was like it never happened. He was life long KF, probably still there now, 10 years later.

[sierraman]

Speak for yourself - theres too many arseholes badly bodging bangers to want to add to them.

I know what you are saying but are the typical Gumtree buyer of a £800 car going to be fussed if you've fitted a shit transmech clutch and reused anything serviceable. It'd likely last the car out either way.

[dozeydustman]

More bad reviews

 

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?62168-Mr-Clutch

[Talbot]

I took a BX to the Kwik Fit on Wincheap for a new exhaust once, to be told that they couldn't do it because the rear hanger had fallen off - which, you'll all be unsurprised to learn, is entirely standard on an old BX.

 

Just weld a hanger on, I said, it doesn't have to look nice and it'll probably be stronger than the original.

 

Cue looks of total horror. Welding? To a car? That's far too dangerous, we'd never do that.

 

Chain garages=bad news imho.

 

 

My memory is definitely fading.  Was that something I welded up in the end?  I can definitely recall doing a reasonable* amount of welding on one of your BXes.

 

 

 

Thinking back to looooong ago, I'm sure I recall an incident in a fast fit place once where the mechanic fitter greasemonkey total twat in the workshop was trying to fit an exhaust which was contacting the floor by using a clubhammer to beat the floorpan of the car away from the exhaust.

 

IIRC I wasn't even a driver at that point, but recommended to my father that he might like to go elsewhere for whatever work was being done.

[SierraMikeHotel]

 

 

My memory is definitely fading. Was that something I welded up in the end? I can definitely recall doing a reasonable* amount of welding on one of your BXes.

No, it was before I knew you in person I think. It went to Medway Citroen for that.

 

They also totally failed to notice a dirty sticking caliper on that car but were willing to replace the brake pads under warranty every week when they'd burned through.

 

This would have been my first BX, a dark grey TXD that I think might be still about.

 

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[Steve79]

Can only speak of previous experience with the bristol branch years ago. Bunch of idiots who wouldn't know a clutch plate from a frisbee!

 

Royally fooked the gearbox i had in my mk1 clio 1.9d back. Took the box out, drained it of oil and never topped back up. Got about two miles down the road before it started whining and by the time i'd got it back there, i'd lost 3rd gear.

 

Dicks then tried to change me £700 to fix it saying it was my fault!

 

Picked up a 03 Polo cheap 2 years ago that would randomly not go into gear and had hell of a rattle from the box. Had a receipt for a "brand new" clutch kit fitted by same branch less than 100 miles before. Told previous owner the box was fooked and would cost a grand for a replacement.

 

Took it back to them under warranty and lo and behold, transmech shit. Two springs and a thrust bearing gone. Made the f**kers put a luk in after that FOC.

 

you have been warned

[vulgalour]

Should've given them the Princess to sort out.  Would've been worth a giggle at least.

[twosmoke300]

I haven’t done a princess clutch but I’d have a red hot crack at one of those over a trafic/ c4 Picasso / freelander clutch I reckon

[vulgalour]

NOW you offer!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I remember a story in the Sun years ago about a guy with a Lada Riva he'd paid £300 for and took it into Kwik-Fit for one of their free brake checks and it needed £670 spent on them, the Sun was doing its usual sensationalist rubbish about how it was shocking the car needed double its value spent on brakes and how that wasnt right and I just thought just because a cars value decreases doesnt mean parts and repairs get cheaper.

 

Kwik-Fit and the like always seem to only ever have the most expensive brands in a particular tyre in and a budget or cheaper one needs ordered in, I remember my dad going in on a Sunday morning maybe 10 years back with his Vectra taxi needing a tyre, and needing it that day, and Kwik-Fit were one of the few places open, he was planning to work that day so needed the tyre, went in and they did the usual 'weve only got premium tyres, £140 each' bearing in mind this was for a Vectra C with 215/55/16 tyres, he was like nah its ok ill leave it, and the guy genuinely being shocked like that tactic usually worked on people, in the end my dad chose not go to to work because it was cheaper to not earn that day that pay for the tyre and be able to work as he wouldnt have covered the tyre cost.

 

Can also remember my uncle in about 2005 having a Rover HHR 414S he'd had from 2 years old, it was due an MOT and a workmate had checked it over and done the work for the MOT, including a leaky rear shocker, rear brake shoes, and rear brake wheel cylinders leaking, and it needed a tyre, tyre was the only thing the guy couldnt get, so uncle says its fine i'll nip into kwik-fit round the corner from my house, cue the predictable 'you need a rear shocker its leaking, plus your rear brake shoes are worn' (amongst others, making out an 8 year old car was a rot box) uncle says thats funny, can you show me because theyve just been replaced. Fitter made his excuses, fitted tyre and never utter a word about anything else on the car.

 

Only fast fit place i will use, even then only for tyres, is Farmer Autocare, they are almost run like individual companies though and the guys are pretty spot on in the local one, friendly, banter etc.

 

Are you related to Tolstoy?

[xtriple]

There's a place very local: 'Torquay Transmissions' who are fantastic. Been going for decades in an under the arches sort of place but can fit clutches/gearboxes in minutes! Took my sons Mondeo in for a new clutch and they had rung home to say it was done before we got back ourselves. They did loads of work on my old 560 Merc including putting a new gearbox in (and took the old box as part payment for a later rebuild) and they are always cheap and really bloody good. In fact, a lot of the local garages book cars in for gearbox/clutch work and then take them to Torquay Transmissions and charge their rate instead of TTs rate!

 

Only downside is: it is a proper old scholl type place that stinks of gear oil (Yukk!) and is filthy dirty as are all the mechs and the are cobbles on the floor and mud so it does not appeal to 'modern' car buyers. It is a well kept secret but they are fabulous.

[sierraman]

National tyres are usually OK in my experience, if you go in for some tyres that's what you'll get, not a damning report on the sorry state of the car.

[dozeydustman]

^^ as above I can recommend Gravesend Transmission Services in Kent. They do clutches as well (well, 9 years ago they did!). Turnaround on most jobs is well under a week, clutches normally done in a few hours and they only use OEM or decent branded parts such as Borg & Beck. Keep a good supply of ready to install reconditioned 'boxes on the shelves for common cars as well.

 

They were the only place locally that were willing to do the clutch on dad's old 505 estate as it had a torque tube. Used them three times myself in the past for 1) doing the synchromesh in my immaculate-ish 51k mile Samba back in 1996, (which got written off 3 weeks later by a road sweeper lorry   ) and 2) rebuilding the 'box and overdrive on my first Scimitar. 3) Fitting a clutch to my Felicia in 2009. Reasonable rates as well, and they don't mind tackling older stuff if parts aren't made from unobtanium - A friend of mine used them a couple of years back to rebuild a Peugeot BE1 on his early (C-reg) 205GTi. 

[dozeydustman]

National tyres are usually OK in my experience, if you go in for some tyres that's what you'll get, not a damning report on the sorry state of the car.

 

 

Mrs D took her car there to have a set of Dunlops she had ordered (in an online BOGOF offer) fitted to her car (before we lived together) at the Bognor Regis branch. They talked her into some shitty budget brand (Excelum?) because her car was "old and didn't need a premium product" (Mrs D knows nothing about cars so is easily led).Worked out £30 more expensive, the car handled like a dog and held the road like it was icy even in dry weather.

 

I went absolutely apeshit at them and demanded they fit the tyres that were ordered. They did but I had to fight to get the extra £30 back as "the Dunlops were no longer on offer"

 

All these big chains are run as franchises, the main office says "We'll stock in the workshop parts made by this brand, and special orders will be from this list of brands. No deviations". It's then up to that branch's manager to ensure things are done to a high standard, probably why there are so many conflicting reports around the country.

[Skut]

Mr Clutch doesnt seem to be a thing in Scotland. Apparently the only one in Glasgow closed years ago and became Applerow motors only for it to host a gangland shooting.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7263239.stm

 

Only done one clutch. It was the Y10s with Fiat FIRE motor and gearbox. Steep learning curve but I managed it and its still in there now.