A rubbish way to spend and evening

well, yet another minor issue,

set off from work yesterday, just got on the motorway and teh ignition light comes on.....

so, 50 miles from home I decide I'd rather try and get a bit closer than just give up here. Off with all non essential electrics, radio, climate, heated seats, dimmed the dash lights as far as they go, luckily i have silicoln wipers so no wipers needed as it was just spitting rather than full on rain.

kept it in 4th to keep teh revs up as I reckon that as it wasn;t teh belt it may be putting a bit out and more revs is likley to help rather than hinder.

got ~ 25 miles and just as I was coming to teh 1 mile to Charnock Richards services teh critical battery warning fires. thinking I'd rather wait in teh relative safety of the services with a coffee than on teh hard shoulder I pulled in. as I did stuff started shutting down, ABS came on, gearbox hit limp mode etc. managed to park by teh doors of the cafes etc.

so, 4:55 rang the RAC, " alternators borked, batteries flat, need a flatbed to take it home, 4wd, automatic, can't be pulled etc"

"we'll be with you in 45 mins sir"

6:10 he turns up in a transit....

" I was expectinga flat bed"

"oh, they always send one of us first to see if we can fix it"

opens bonnet, " err where is it?"

" down there somewhere, thats why I asked for a pick up "

" see what you mean mate, I'll call it in for a lift, you aren;t in teh middle of nowhere so will be under an hour, they'll call you with an ETA"

off he trots....


30 mins later no call so I call them

"can you tell me how long its going to be and why no ones called me?"

" err the contractors having computer problems, he can't get hold of his driver, shouldn;t be long now"

8pm, phone rings

" Mr E, sorry, just got hold of teh contractor, his system is back now but his driver is about an our away and is teh closest we have to you."

"I'm not happy, its now 3 hours since I called in needing a truck"

" We'll get him there asap, I'll call you at 9 to make sure he's there"

9 pm..... 9:15pm... no call, tries calling them, in a Q for 15 minutes when he finally arrives.

Car loaded, taken home, gets home 10:25.......

RAC now in full complaint investigation mode.


So having to WFH I start tracking down the quickest way to get a replacement, place in preston ( 20 mins away), " yep, we've got one in stock, 150 quid sir"

I decide to take teh car down to teh garage to make sure its not just a wire come loose, start up, set off, after 100 yds sodding light goes out!!!!

I decide to get it checked over anyway and it appears its putting out between 8 and 12 volts intermittantly.

they can fit teh new one this affy if I get it.....

" Hi Mr Alternator place, can you give me teh postcode as I want to come over and collect it?"

" oh, its in stock but at our Sheffiled depot....."

WTF doesn;t stuff go smoothly with anything related to this car!!!




So got to now Work from home again tomorrow and collect it so they can fit it on friday.

[PsYcHe]

Bummer... Seems to be a couple of alternators gone recently.

Though, I suppose it's only to be expected with the crap weather and dark commutes that we stick a whole extra load on it.

[thebluewhale]

Christ, you're unlucky Ian.

I can't believe the nightmare you had with the RAC.

I've recently binned the useless RAC for the slightly less useless AA .

Hope you get get it sorted soon and it doesn't hurt the wallet too much.

Steve

[Oli18]

ah mate, that is truly frustrating to hear, let alone go through.

I hope it get sorted alright from now on.

-Oli

Cheers guys,


And to update the whole sorry tale I went over to Preston to collect the new one

returned and dropped it at the garage only for them to look at it and say


" its the wrong one!"

ring the electrical place, no others listed on their system.

Mine is fixed with 3 bolts and has 2 circle bolted connectors, teh one supplied has one bolted connection and one plugin and is a two bolt fixing.


so, the garage now have to remove mine to get the part number ( unless MR Conan has it to hand? ) so they can see if they have that model in. At worst they say they can re-con mine in 2-3 hours if I drop it off.

[gninnam]

Such a sad tale

Hope it all works out for you in the end my friend

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Pick one Ian.

If your gonna change get a 150Ah one.

I have the car back!

They alsways say a measure of how good a company is shows when there is an issue and how they deal with it. All I can say is West Lancs Auto Electics show up as an exceptional one.

Took my dead one in this morning at 9 am, they didn't have one in stock ready to go so had a bloke lined up to recon mine there and then. We went shopping into Preston and at 11:15 a call to say it was ready.

collected it when we finished shopping and they refunded me a tenner for all my messing around.

they also told me exactly why it had broken ( some oil inside it had effecteively turned into a grinding paste and worn through some parts) and to check for any oil leaks nearby

so hats off to them for pretty much perfect service.

Car now back on the road. I almost feel like running a poll now as to how long before something else breaks!

[thebluewhale]

Result!

About time.

Maybe worth a nomination in the selected suppliers?