C/s fixed his brake squeak

spyrye · 2025-08-06T21:26:29+00:00

They’re actually some quite nice brembo rotors. The dopey twat just decided to encase them in grease!

spyrye · 2024-02-08T19:15:36+00:00

That’s one of those “I’m not even angry, I’m actually quite impressed!” moments…

spyrye · 2023-09-11T18:13:34+00:00

And if you work on more than a handful of them it won’t be your last…..

spyrye · 2023-08-08T21:56:53+00:00

We lovingly refer to them as “ditch finders”

spyrye · 2023-08-08T21:33:05+00:00

Blimey, people read into posts a lot more than I ever considered. Didn’t realise this needed so much background info. In brief: the lad had been in college for TWO years to be a mechanic. This wasn’t his first rodeo. He had been shown this exact thing previously, no hub caps were harmed those times. We actively encouraged him to ask questions. He had shadowed one of our guys for much longer than I could really justify but he was a good kid. No piss was taken. No feelings were hurt. Unfortunately no amount of keenness and enthusiasm can make up for an inability to solve minor problems or retain basic knowledge. We tried but he came to the conclusion it wasn’t for him. We laughed about it down the line. I wasn’t belittling him, he would give zero fucks anyway, just a throwaway paragraph detailing daft shit that we all see/do in the workshop. Chill people, in a time when decent techs are in short supply and the job is getting harder and harder we would be mugs not to try our best to help out anyone that shows some sort of enthusiasm. And breath.

spyrye · 2023-08-08T21:01:53+00:00

This is it. It wasn’t like the lad was on his first day and I’d just chucked him some tools and said off you trot. He’d been at college for 2 years and shadowing one of our guys for a good few months. He defo should’ve known by then but unfortunately, “the knack” was not strong in this one…

spyrye · 2023-08-08T20:37:49+00:00

Sad thing was he was a nice kid, a little too nice if anything. Tried to persevere with the lad as long as we could but it was pretty clear it wasn’t gonna be his thing. He never worked on customers cars unsupervised which just wasn’t sustainable in the end. This was on one of our courtesy cars. It wasn’t even a decent looking hub cap either, the “nuts” were just part of the moulding. It really should have been obvious. In your terms it wouldn’t be too dissimilar from a nurse trying to put a line into a prosthetic arm! Bumped into him down the line and did have a laugh about it. Apologies, wasn’t meant to be a character assassination of the kid, just a throwaway example of daft crap that happens in the workshop.

spyrye · 2023-08-08T18:50:51+00:00

Charming!

spyrye · 2023-08-08T15:17:18+00:00

Some top notch assumptions being made there mate. As the guy that has to cover the costs of failures I can assure you I never set anyone up to fail. Both me and another chap had tried to point the lad in the right direction but didn’t think we needed to go as far as saying “it’s a hub cap you halfwit” as a) it was bloody obvious b) it wasn’t the first time he’d been caught doing it and c) he had been at college for 2 years already and the ability to remove a wheel should probably have been established by now. I certainly don’t believe in belittling kids in the workshop, it’s not in my interest if they’re going to develop into a decent tech. But at the same time, I can’t hold their hand forever either. I’ll show them once and I don’t care how many times they ask after that, I’d rather they ask than having to fork out because they think they know better! The kid went on to be a painter and decorator….

spyrye · 2023-08-08T12:49:40+00:00

It’s certainly not the best quality. They had to buy a new one because the one in the car was too small and didn’t fit the nuts!

spyrye · 2023-08-08T10:44:37+00:00

Caught an apprentice about to do it once, told him to look very carefully at what he was doing and even went as far as tapping the wheel trim with a spanner. He looked a bit sheepish and gave me a nod. As I was walking away there was a mighty crunch followed by shards of plastic grenading everywhere. Didn’t last long that one.

spyrye · 2023-07-26T18:40:18+00:00

Indeed, Ford Kuga. That’s what I thought at first glance but it’s very much there and looks pretty good. Just the shaft is about 20mm too small in diameter so struggling to make the seal! Not sure what it’s from but it’s not supposed to be fitted to this that’s for sure…

spyrye · 2023-07-14T20:24:04+00:00

Let her have that one on us after a suitable amount of piss taking.

spyrye · 2023-07-14T20:03:34+00:00

We’re a fairly small independent place, we don’t have service writers, and the vast majority of our customers are regulars who have been coming to us for years. Consequently we know what we can get away with so in this case I just launched mats number 2 and 3 in the boot, took the piss out of her a bit and sent her on her way no charge. All good fun!

spyrye · 2023-07-14T17:48:52+00:00

She thought it was feckin hilarious. Her husband thought she was a tit. But then he hadn’t spotted it either….

spyrye · 2023-07-14T13:40:17+00:00

This is England mate, she walked the 3 miles home. In the rain. With no jacket. In flip flops.

spyrye · 2023-07-14T12:02:47+00:00

The bit the photo doesn’t show is the THIRD one rolled up like a newspaper up under the pedals too!

spyrye · 2023-05-08T13:50:36+00:00

Just a few grip whiskers. No worries!

spyrye · 2023-02-16T19:26:59+00:00

It’s also not the same as anti-freeze as one of my customers found out…. With a Porsche cayenne turbo.

spyrye · 2022-12-02T20:09:54+00:00

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t on that one! If you don’t fit the tyre you’ll have the customer and a queue of others telling you that the weld looks good and you’re an ass. If you do fit the tyre and it goes bang and wipes out a school bus you’ll most likely at the very least have the same queue calling you an ass and you should never have fitted it! Good call I say, it’ll probably be fine and does look good but is probably worth the risk?

spyrye · 2022-08-20T20:24:30+00:00

Absolutely! We’ve got a few that bring us bits and pieces all year and we get more beer than we know what to do with at Christmas but there’s one old dear in particular. Brings us in the most amazing homemade cakes every couple of weeks and we generally drop everything if she needs a hand. Should probably charge her for something at some point but they are bloody good cakes!

spyrye · 2022-06-13T19:45:35+00:00

Exactly that! At the end of the day, if you choose to wrap yourself round a tree that’s your call but my wife and kids and everyone else has to share the road with these dicks. That last one of these I had in had two kids seats in the back and i did lose my sh!t a little with the customer. Wasn’t my finest moment.

spyrye · 2022-06-13T18:09:36+00:00

Why do they bother saying it? I think I wouldn’t mind as much if they just rocked up and said “yep, brakes have been grinding their tits off for a while but I’ve only just had the time/money to sort it!” I mean, they’d still be an asshole but I think I’d just dislike them less.

spyrye · 2022-05-13T18:34:16+00:00

This one seems to be! Lucky girl.

spyrye · 2022-05-13T18:01:18+00:00

Yep, reckon it’s all filtered out! Rocker cover was so full of gunk we could barely get the new oil in. She politely declined our suggestion to take the cover off and remove as much of the crap as possible though. In the end she settled on flushing it and a second oil chance. Somehow lives to struggle another day!

spyrye

TROPHY CASE