A8 Parts Forum - A day trip to Mackie's in Glasgow

The other day (Friday 26th April 2019 to be precise) I took my car in for a gearbox service at Mackie Automatic Transmissions Ltd (Mackie's) at 95 Causewayside Street, Tollcross, Glasgow, G32 8LT

I turned up at 8am, which was their opening time, and left the car for a standard gearbox service. The cost of the service was due to be £155 + VAT for my 5 speed ZF 5HP24a - the "bank account clearing" chunk of metal bolted to the undersides of the S8 D2.
The 6 speed box has a service cost in the £300+ range.
(you can read more about the gearboxes on Ian's thread here)

I took the car for the gearbox service for two reasons.
1. The S8 had received a gearbox oil change in the past according to some paperwork that came with the car, but I wasn't overly confident that it had been done or done correctly.
2. There was a slight whine on acceleration that I wanted diagnosing.

But why did I take it to Glasgow from the East Midlands? Well, I was up in Manchester for a film premiere the evening before so was halfway there, and I also got wind of a mini-meet in Glasgow, a town that I had live in twice before (Rutherglen). So the attraction to the other side of the border was quite strong, especially since I had heard good things about Mackie's.
I could have gone to Chester Automatic Transmission Centre but as I was to find out that day, Mackie's actually do some work for Chester Transmissions. The web address for Chester Transmissions is www.transcentre.co.uk. I wonder if they regret choosing that URL back in the day :rolleyes:

After leaving the car I got the bus into the city centre to visit some of my old workplaces but by 2pm I decided to journey back to see how things were faring. I had expected a call by then but as I hadn't received one, I thought I'd spend the afternoon in their waiting room.

When I arrived back I was greeted by a gent who, with a sharp intake of breath and a shake of the head, proceeded to tell me that there had been issues!
Apparently, the technician had struggled for a long while to remove all the corroded bolts holding the sump in place and was now cautiously drilling them all out to fit Helicoil screwlocks. In my innocence, I thought this just meant that I would have an extended delay. Little did I know that it would cost me a lot more than that :(

Anyway, I sat down and enjoyed the coffee until I saw a framed poster on their office wall behind the counter:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Well....... it would be rude not to
So after a little wait, I was called from behind the counter to start my tour behind the scenes :D
I was permitted to take some photos in various places and I listened intently to everything that was told to me. However, I have forgotten a lot of the valuable info imparted so instead I'll show you just a few images to give you a taste of what their operation is like.

First stop was the booking-in area (I soon found that the place was very compartmentalised).
This is where they book-in and inspect the gearboxes. To the right, just out of shot are the cleaning bays (of which there are many around the huge workshop) and behind me were racks of checked-in gearboxes waiting their turn for treatment.
There were quite a few from Kia and Hyundai as Mackie's have a contract with them.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

The next bays shown to me involved the stripping down of the boxes.
As you can see, they don't like working with anything dirty and I was surprised by the relative cleanliness (in terms of a workshop) of the place and the cleaned gearbox parts that they are working with.
The floor has these blue rubber(?) squares all joined together which were a little slippy underfoot but I guess are much easier to clean than concrete and much more forgiving on a part should it be accidentally dropped.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

After removing the sump and valve body (behind this bay)........

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

It's time to clean and recondition the clutches......

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

These clutches appeared to be rather complicated things to me +++
If you want to see how complicated they are, try looking at the first three posts on this other forum thread.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

You may notice in some images that some stainless equipment has a Mackie logo on it, like this diagnostic machine.
These are machines that John Mackie has developed over the years and are now made for other workshops.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

In this image, you can see a gearbox test taking place. This room was like a sauna!
The gearbox is wired up in a "life support machine" kind of way and put through its paces. It's a noisy place too!
Just under the "Danger Hot Oil" sign, you can see a dark metal plate.
These are custom produced by Mackie's with their own CNC machine and are specific to each type of gearbox.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Here you can see the rack of support plates that the gearboxes are attached to. Can you spot the 6HP plate?

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

This is one of the machines developed by Mackie's. It's a valve body diagnostic machine. Quite impressive.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Roll up, roll up! Get your torque converters here!

These toroidal chunks of metal transfer the energy from the engine to the gearbox.
"In brief, the torque converter is a type of fluid coupling, which allows the engine to spin somewhat independently of the transmission. It is responsible for pressurising automatic transmission fluid - a pressurisation that supplies the force necessary to shift transmission gears."
For those not used to this concept (like me), you can get a better idea in this video.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Here's one that has been cleaned and expanded for reconditioning:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

And this old thing is from a GM production line from a long time ago.
Apparently, welding the torque converter seems around the edges of the metal doughnut is not such an easy thing to do by hand if you want a perfect job doing. Who knew??

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

The all-essential torque converter balancing machine.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Sealed and cleaned (sometimes by sandblasting) before compressed air is blown into them underwater - like you would test a tyre underwater to make sure that there were no holes.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Next comes the dispatch area once things are all fettled and fine-tuned.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

If like me, you're a fan of The Proclaimers, you may be familiar with one of their songs called "Throw the 'R' Away"
It's about the Glaswegian guttural "r", pronounced at the end of words, which could be lost within a generation.

Well it seems that Mackie's are playing their part in this cultural change with their packaging.
Either that or they have such a contempt for anything European that they can't bring themselves to say the word.. ;)
(Hint: check the wording on the white box :ROFL:)

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Until now, all of the above had nothing to do with my car, as nothing required reconditioning.

Here is the technician who worked on my car, prior to him doing a test drive.

I asked him about the whine on acceleration to which he replied "what whine?".
And since driving the car since the service I can understand his reply as it is now without the whine (although he did do a test before the gearbox service so I don't know why he didn't spot it then as I told them about it ).

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

I thought I'd throw in a quiz question here....
Is that my car (D2 S8) on the lift in the foreground? Basically a bit of wheel and undercarriage.
Do you know the underside of your D2's well enough? :D
Or not? (MJ is excluded from this as this would not be a challenge for her).

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

So....
On to the oil change.
The machine that does the magic is called (by Mackie's) the "Hot Flush" machine.
I've seen it called the "slurpy machine" or the "pushy / pully machine" and other variants, but this is what it looks like in the flesh.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

And once that had done its job (and the sump was cleaned and fastened on with the aforementioned fasteners), the car was test-driven and I was back in the office for the bill.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

I was expecting £155 + VAT for the job but it was at this time, after all but two staff had gone home, that the subject of the "extra hours" work needed to be discussed.
"How much were you quoted??" said the foreman behind the desk.

"£155 + VAT" I replied

"For an S8??" he quickly responded...

"Yes. I was quoted £155 + VAT when I booked the appointment over the phone earlier in the week", said I, knowing that the person who had quoted me was Lisa Mackie, who was the only other employee in the building and was sat in the same office. She sheepishly did not look up from her computer screen.:tuttut:

The foreman muttered something about the S8 been more difficult to get to because "of the extra hardware" that needed to be moved out of the way. I did not have the knowledge to challenge him on that.

"And then there is the extra 5 hours that our technician has taken to drill and re-tap the sump holes".

Annoyingly I said that to spring such a thing on me at the 11th hour without consultation was a very poor practice (or words to that effect).
We finally agreed on me paying an extra 3 hours for the 5 hours of supplementary work, which at £75 per hour + VAT, brought the total bill to about £456.
An expensive day, what with the fuel and Travelodge, but a great experience topped off by a pub classic in a Wetherspoons in Helensburgh with some rather charming people.

And the gearbox appears smoother and definitely quieter +++

And finally, just in case you couldn't read the mantra on Mackie's wall in the previous image......

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1556828032

Too Much...or...too little
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make worse and sell a little cheaper.
The people who consider price only, are this man's lawful prey.
It is unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all.
But when you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought is incapable of doing the things you bought it to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.
It can't be done!

Aye, right!

(or as us Yorkshiremen say in fewer words: You buy cheap, you buy twice!) +++