Poor Garage services

[johnnyb47]

Hi,
After enjoying nearly a year of trouble free motoring I got a warning light appear on the instrument panel.
It was the ABS warning light suggesting an issue.
The little Peugeot 206 cc was now not happy, and with it not having any ABS and an mot failure in store for the future I decided to get it sorted straight away.
After a quick scan with an OBD reader the fault pointed to the front drivers side wheel with either the sensor or the reluctor ring.
After a quick look I spotted that the reluctor ring had cracked.
With being busy at work ect I booked the car in to a garage local to my work place with the plan they could get it sorted whilst I was at work.
I told them days in advance what I thought the problem was and gave them plenty of time to order the £10 part to fit.
They said that it may not be a straight forward job to just replace the reluctor ring and that it would need a complete drive shaft.
Im no mechanic so I agreed, but I did ask the question as to why reluctor rings are sold if they cannot be fitted (a pretty straight forward question i thought)
They weren't very forthcoming with answering my question, so I let it go and put it down to with "just leave it to the professionals"attitude as I'm certainly no expert in such things.
Well this morning I dropped the car off with them.
I walked into the garage and they were all sitting there having a cup of tea before they started there day.
I was nice and polite,but they made me feel about as welcome as fart in an astronauts suit.
I tried to make small talk but was met with one word answer's.
Okay I thought ( they must not be morning people) and off I went ,but had a gut feeling this job was not going to be straight forward)
Fast forward to the end of the working day,I popped back to them only to see my car was still in the same place I left it.
After a 20 minute wait the boss came over to me, shoved my car key in hand and mumbled to that I either buy a complete drive shaft or take the car away ,he also said he won't even look at it until I agreed.
I looked at him and sarcastically said "well thank you for the friendly service you've given today and the fact you're communication skills are second to none towards your customers" and I walked off to my car laughing to my self.
I have never met such a bunch of miserable none talking bar stewards in my life.
Anyway next week my usual local garage to me is going to sort it out for me.
We had a friendly chat and he took the time to explain why it may need a complete drive shaft.He explained fitting a new reluctor ring to a crusty old driveshaft can sometimes end up breaking it.I will also be there to give him a hand if he needs it as he's a one man band with a lot of work on at the moment.
Why the other garage couldn't simply tell me this when I asked was beyond my.
Ahh well, you live and learn even in my ripe old years 🤣

 

[wiggydiggy]

I think once you find a good garage, you stick with them. My local is always busy, but friendly and reasonable. It's been going a long time under different owners but seems to have always been ok.

 

[Sharky]

I dread to think what customer service is with this one....

 

[johnnyb47]

Brilliant 🤣🤣

 

[Drago]

If the reluctor ring is available separately it's usually not a bad job to replace, on most cars about an hour, +/- a bit.

For such a relatively minor job time wise it might be easiest to just take it to the dealer who will be familiar with it.

 

[oxoman]

I think the problem comes with how much crud and rust build up there is and how it sits when new ring fitted. Some garages aren't capable of doing anything unless its new and shiny. Customer service should be number 1 for any business as failure potentially means no business.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I think I see the problem, yours is probably fitted with a reluctant ring - a very different proposition.

 

[fossyant]

Not being funny, even though it's possible to buy a new ring, in most cases you need the hub as well. In the case of pug's it's often a whole assembly, oh, and it will sh1t oil all over, as many French cars, removing the drive shaft means the gearbox oil also comes out.

It's a time saving thing. Quicker to change the lot. I had both hubs replaced on my Nissan when the reluctor ring failed. They had enough of an issue getting one hub off as nothing had moved for 15 years.

My local garage are men of few words but they do explain why. It's a faff dealing with old stuff and can cause issues. Better for you to replace the lot. You don't want to then end up going back to find the old drive shaft seal has leaked on refitting.

When people say 'its an easy job' - then you try going under a car in your 50's, fiddling about with old suspension components and try yanking bits off, tools or not. There will be plenty of swearing. I do most stuff on our cars, but won't touch suspension components. My son does it, but it's still a pain, especially when you are used to VW and the drive shafts when removed don't spill oil everywhere. My son was fitting some springs to a friends Citroen, and one drive shaft just popped out, and spilt a gearbox of oil on MY drive.