PrinceRupert's Cars - MG4 and TVR Tuscan

[Cento16v]

I'd take it somewhere for a second opinion for sure.

 

Sounds very odd.

[Shite Ron]

I would certainly get a second opinion from a trusted garage, no question.

Your post reads to me that they told you the car is shagged so they would like to buy it off you for a song to provide them with a decent car! 

[Bren]

Get it back. And never go back.

[PrinceRupert]

Yup thanks for confirming what I was thinking, will get it lifted to my usual guy.  Shouldn't have wasted my time with the specialist, over four weeks since I first called him to get a phone call telling me its fucked is rather frustrating.

[chodweaver]

I am minded to get it picked up and taken to my normal garage who I trust and asking for a second opinion. 

This.

I think he's trying to 'tuck you up', as my colleagues in sales used to say, when they came up against a competitor with a higher price

[Bren]

If it is fucked then he may want the car for it's bits. I am wary of specialists as in the past I have had poor experiences.

[wesacosa]

agreed with what others have said. even if he is right about some or all of it he sounds like a dick.  

[Erebus]

Why would he want it if it's such a shed and how did it pass the MOT with no advisories?! He sounds like a right chancer and at very least doesn't deserve your money for the shoddy way they've treated you. Take it to your trusted garage

[DirtyDaily]

I mentioned this in a previous post. EVERY X350 I have seen if the rear lower wishbone bushes haven't been done then they'll be completely thrashed. The subframe rot is potentially a killer. Knackered calipers could be your vibration driving. Its hard to say but it sounds like the garage has maybe over sold the problems if they have then offered to buy it and if the MOT tester is anywhere near worth his salt would of picked up on the thrashed bushes and or subframe. Its a tough one without seeing it as i could see it potentially being exaggerated or it could be true. A second opinion is a must and if you need someone to do the work cheap i could potentially give you a hand though if memory serves me well i think youre a bit of a trek from manchester?

[PrinceRupert]

1 minute ago, DirtyDaily said:

I mentioned this in a previous post. EVERY X350 I have seen if the rear lower wishbone bushes haven't been done then they'll be completely thrashed. The subframe rot is potentially a killer. Knackered calipers could be your vibration driving. Its hard to say but it sounds like the garage has maybe over sold the problems if they have then offered to buy it and if the MOT tester is anywhere near worth his salt would of picked up on the thrashed bushes and or subframe. Its a tough one without seeing it as i could see it potentially being exaggerated or it could be true. A second opinion is a must and if you need someone to do the work cheap i could potentially give you a hand though if memory serves me well i think youre a bit of a trek from manchester?

Thanks. I think it is worth paying a small sum to get it lifted and shifted to my usual garage for a second opinion. 

Sadly I'm a trek from Manchester, SE9.   I could definitely do calipers, discs, pads myself; stabilising links I gave up on as they were a total pain in the arse; banana arms I could do in theory but nervous of taking it apart and not being able to get it back together again; don't fancy doing brake lines myself and obviously not going to be replacing a subframe or fixing the engine oil leak (5 hour labour apparently) on my drive.   

[grogee]

Yeah agree, that sounds well shady. I'm not familiar with the caster arm. If it was 45deg off where it should be I would think the thing wouldn't drive/steer etc. 

All I would say is that having worked on a 2007 XK I was pretty shocked at the state of the subframes. 

There may well be no common components but having worked there I'd bet the same paint treatment (or lack of) has been applied to XJ subframes. 

I think the state of those determines whether it's economical to do the other work. 

How easy is it to get underneath on your drive? Or, maybe stick your head in at Garage #2 and get some pics of underneath?

[Missy Charm]

I'd take what the specialist is saying with a hefty pinch of salt, having had similar treatment myself when my car broke down.  The first mechanic it was recovered to took a real shine to the car, mentioned that his friend had one and then went into an extended routine about how the entire fuel injection system had failed, that repair would be impossible and then asked if I'd like to do some sort of deal involving swapping my car for some crap automatic thing he had round the back of the garage.  

Suffice to say I had my car trailered to a trusted garage who diagnosed the fault as a seized fuel pump and had it going again a day later for the princely sum of £150 odd.  

[PrinceRupert]

24 minutes ago, grogee said:

Yeah agree, that sounds well shady. I'm not familiar with the caster arm. If it was 45deg off where it should be I would think the thing wouldn't drive/steer etc. 

All I would say is that having worked on a 2007 XK I was pretty shocked at the state of the subframes. 

There may well be no common components but having worked there I'd bet the same paint treatment (or lack of) has been applied to XJ subframes. 

I think the state of those determines whether it's economical to do the other work. 

How easy is it to get underneath on your drive? Or, maybe stick your head in at Garage #2 and get some pics of underneath?

I have been underneath it plenty the subframe is a bit crispy but didn't seem totally rotten to me.  There are some pics earlier on.  I also inspected bushes and arms and didn't see anything that looked that bad, but im fairly inexperienced.   But nothing that looked obviously fucked.

[RichardK]

"Car's shit mate, I'll buy it to take it off your hands"

Yeah... right. I bet that £1500 includes labour at £100ish an hour and parts? So how fucked is that in real terms?

It drove fine and you've had the wheels off? Caster arm that far out would surely have shown up?!

[RichardK]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Yeah agree, that sounds well shady. I'm not familiar with the caster arm. If it was 45deg off where it should be I would think the thing wouldn't drive/steer etc. 

All I would say is that having worked on a 2007 XK I was pretty shocked at the state of the subframes. 

I thought XKs had aluminium subframes, you learn something new etc. - I know the steel XKs rot on the inner wings above the subframe, but that's the earlier one

[PrinceRupert]

I also wonder if he is just too busy and cba with me harassing him anymore so it's a "go away" diagnosis.  I really don't think it is as bad as he makes out.  He better not try to charge me a diagnosis fee when I take it away ...

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, PrinceRupert said:

I also wonder if he is just too busy and cba with me harassing him anymore so it's a "go away" diagnosis.  I really don't think it is as bad as he makes out.  He better not try to charge me a diagnosis fee when I take it away ...

Maybe, I've had a few of those 'four figure fuck offs' myself. 

Absolutely get stuffed if there's any sort of fee. You don't pay a builder to do an estimate do you? Nor did you agree to have any work done so it's keys please or trading standards etc. 

[PrinceRupert]

So my local garage is going to take a look at it - he said "I am sure it isn't that bad, get it recovered and we will take a look". 

I rang up the specialist to tell him the plan, and suddenly he was a little more circumspect - "oh I had the undertray off last night and turns out the subframe isn't rotten, it can obviously be put back on the road" blah blah blah.  He said he will send me some pictures.  When I insisted it was still going to my local guy, he said well if you do decide to sell let me know - I'll give you what its owe you (should never have told him it wasn't due me much as I had won it in a roffle, I am far too chatty ...).  So I don't trust him as far as I can throw him now.  

 

[DirtyDaily]

So my local garage is going to take a look at it - he said "I am sure it isn't that bad, get it recovered and we will take a look". 
I rang up the specialist to tell him the plan, and suddenly he was a little more circumspect - "oh I had the undertray off last night and turns out the subframe isn't rotten, it can obviously be put back on the road" blah blah blah.  He said he will send me some pictures.  When I insisted it was still going to my local guy, he said well if you do decide to sell let me know - I'll give you what its owe you (should never have told him it wasn't due me much as I had won it in a roffle, I am far too chatty ...).  So I don't trust him as far as I can throw him now.  
 

Think that's all the proof you needed.... someone trying it on because he knew you got it for nothing effectively. Lost himself some work there. Dumb dumb.

[PrinceRupert]

He phoned me back - oh I've now spoken to my MOT tester and sent him the pics and in fact the brakes wouldn't have failed but doesn't mean they don't need done, the calipers are probably seized equally on both sides hence why they didn't fail a break test, could just do the bushes on the front arms thats just 40 quid a bush and an hours labour, oh it might have a wheel bearing on the way out front left but it is only slight (something I forgot he said when I listed the myriad of faults yesterday ...), if you want us to do the work we can, don't want the mot tester saying we are just slagging the car off.  

Chancer.

[Missy Charm]

6 minutes ago, PrinceRupert said:

He phoned me back - oh I've now spoken to my MOT tester and sent him the pics and in fact the brakes wouldn't have failed but doesn't mean they don't need done, the calipers are probably seized equally on both sides hence why they didn't fail a break test, could just do the bushes on the front arms thats just 40 quid a bush and an hours labour, oh it might have a wheel bearing on the way out front left but it is only slight (something I forgot he said when I listed the myriad of faults yesterday ...), if you want us to do the work we can, don't want the mot tester saying we are just slagging the car off.  

Chancer.

Thought so.  

[PrinceRupert]

What a waste of four weeks, and 70 quid getting the car recovered.

[mercedade]

17 minutes ago, PrinceRupert said:

He phoned me back - oh I've now spoken to my MOT tester and sent him the pics and in fact the brakes wouldn't have failed but doesn't mean they don't need done, the calipers are probably seized equally on both sides hence why they didn't fail a break test, could just do the bushes on the front arms thats just 40 quid a bush and an hours labour, oh it might have a wheel bearing on the way out front left but it is only slight (something I forgot he said when I listed the myriad of faults yesterday ...), if you want us to do the work we can, don't want the mot tester saying we are just slagging the car off.  

Chancer.

 

[barefoot]

That is disappointing.

It's a bit late but I took my £300 XJ8 to David Marks in Nottingham. He did the work as requested, but warned me that the car wasn't worth spending much money on. He was a nice bloke.

[RichardK]

42 minutes ago, PrinceRupert said:

He phoned me back - oh I've now spoken to my MOT tester and sent him the pics and in fact the brakes wouldn't have failed but doesn't mean they don't need done, the calipers are probably seized equally on both sides hence why they didn't fail a break test, could just do the bushes on the front arms thats just 40 quid a bush and an hours labour, oh it might have a wheel bearing on the way out front left but it is only slight (something I forgot he said when I listed the myriad of faults yesterday ...), if you want us to do the work we can, don't want the mot tester saying we are just slagging the car off.  

Chancer.

Google review time. What an utter prat.

[RichardK]

FWIW if I had driven and looked at the car and thought it was rotten or worn out (I would expect far more noise from knackered bushes - and that's one of the reasons I get irritated by the whole 'it always has kanckered bushes' argument, because then garages like this say so even when they're fine) I wouldn't have roffled it, I'd have scrapped it. Would have yielded the same outcome pretty much...

Garages like this are why I don't take my cars to garages, though.

[DirtyDaily]

What a waste of four weeks, and 70 quid getting the car recovered.

Its actually really disgusting. This is why I always suggest to my friends/family that they bring there car to me before taking it to a genuine garage because of how untrustworthy they can be. I mean the whole subframe is rotten but the cover is in the way so I dunno... it takes literally sub 1 minute to take off on a lift and it's quite a small cover so you can see around it a lot of the time. Shocking behaviour.
Another example from a stealer is a neighbour ran over a rock of some description and knocked her secondary lambda sensor. This tripped a fuse and was giving multiple codes for both lambdas and also an evap purge valve code. Fiat didn't bother to diagnose and wants £200 for each lambda and £150 for for the evap and a few hours labour. I replaced the fuse for 10 pence, found the EXACT same lambda on auto doc for £45 and fitted it for £20. She went from staring down a £800 bill to sub £70. I think it's honestly borderline criminal for these garages to be doing this especially a 5 x markup on parts as generic as a lambda sensor which was a delphi.

[DirtyDaily]

FWIW if I had driven and looked at the car and thought it was rotten or worn out (I would expect far more noise from knackered bushes - and that's one of the reasons I get irritated by the whole 'it always has kanckered bushes' argument, because then garages like this say so even when they're fine) I wouldn't have roffled it, I'd have scrapped it. Would have yielded the same outcome pretty much...

Garages like this are why I don't take my cars to garages, though.

They drive very well on completely knackered bushes. I've driven 5 with knackered bushes and whilst you can tell the difference when you replace them (I've done it 2 times on my own and once on someone elses) you'd be surprised how bad they can be before you really notice it.https://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/6231bed7ae3c2/20211002_151858.mp4

[DirtyDaily]

They drive very well on completely knackered bushes. I've driven 5 with knackered bushes and whilst you can tell the difference when you replace them (I've done it 2 times on my own and once on someone elses) you'd be surprised how bad they can be before you really notice it.https://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/6231bed7ae3c2/20211002_151858.mp4

That video wasn't the worst either. Just the latest one I've done.

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, RichardK said:

FWIW if I had driven and looked at the car and thought it was rotten or worn out (I would expect far more noise from knackered bushes - and that's one of the reasons I get irritated by the whole 'it always has kanckered bushes' argument, because then garages like this say so even when they're fine) I wouldn't have roffled it, I'd have scrapped it. Would have yielded the same outcome pretty much...

Garages like this are why I don't take my cars to garages, though.

I feel your pain. I consider myself an amateur mechanic, but not as amateur as the service I've experienced at many garages. That's forced me to invest in tools and learn - often expensively - how to do stuff. 

Easy for me to say though, I have a lot of resources to help me - big (but shared) drive, garage, and a job with lots of free time. If just one of those things weren't available, I'd be struggling. 

Please name and shame this crook so we don't have to suffer at his hands. 

I look forward to a serious vehicle assessment from Garage #2.