Just blagged a freebie fix courtesy of Kwikfit.

My aircon has been a bit weak but usuable, but the last few hot days=20 have been silly.

So I went in for their =A344 regas, and if doesn't drop 10% no charge. Took a reading, nearly 30degrees celsius. Not good. Took it in, vac'd it down, charged it up. All good. stuck the probe back in with aircon on low, and it wouldn't go below=20

22c. Hmm he said. As that uses the auxiliary fans for extra air I suggest up=20 a notch to 17c. Temp comes down to 19.1c on the probe.

Hmm he said again. "Tony, I'm going to have to Free of charge this one"=20 and back to me "We normally get them coming in at this temp, and go out=20 at 4c".

Then he back it out and said "There you go, half a job, but no charge=20 sorry, but it actually quite pleasant in here now".

He got it down from 30c to 19.1c and even though they only need to=20 improve 10% they still didn't charge me. I think to earn one of those=20 "Specialist" black uniforms, they should include a maths exam. Still, as=20 long as don't aircon will be chilly.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

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Reply to
Elder
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He was probably mentally converting it into Kelvin, which would give an improvement of less than 3%, hence your freebie.

Reply to
Willy Eckerslyke

LOL. I know the vent temp should be a lot colder than the displayed climate temp so the "room" gets cooled, but coming home tonight, I had it set to 17, that was far to cold, 19, still too chilly, eventually settled for 20, although that was just the wrong side of comfortable. And I like a cooler rather than warmer driving environment.

So, I still win.

Reply to
Elder

No you don't as it isn't fixed. It wasn't repaired and you didn't get one over on the garage. If you knew anything about cars you would be able to do the repairs yourself without just talking about them and having a go at people in a garage. How sad, they must laugh when you go in, probably thinking, "oh here is the expert that can't fix his own car"! It works both ways, garages get some right idiots going in to see them and have to remain polite.

Reply to
Rob

You don't know the people at the garage in question. With a couple of exceptions - the aircon lad being one, it's an acheivement for them to manage to open the garage most days, they're that thick.

Reply to
Pete M

Firstly, learn to snip sort of correctly so that it doesn't look like Carl posting such s**te, then why don't you either

a) Post some useful, non-condescending advice

or

b) Fuck off

Mike P

Reply to
Mike P

The Mrs clipped a parked Jag whist backing up in the (MKII Escort based) kitcar many years ago. The wheel centre on the Jag caught the rim on our rear wheel and brought our car to a rapid halt, pushing the wheel forwards in the wheel arch, breaking one U bolt, bending the rim, rear AR bar and damper.

What we didn't realise (for a few hundred miles) was she had also wrapped the rear axle round the prop-shaft, bending the axle casing and giving the rear wheels a bit of toe-in. :-(

I took it into the place with the dancing boys and asked them to measure the 'tracking' of the rear wheels. To cut a long story short they all said it was impossible, so I just borrowed their gear and did it myself.

1.75 deg toe-in (mainly on the hit side) so I changed the axle casing and all was well again. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

p.s. I won't tell you how *they* suggested I fix it once they understood the problem!

Reply to
T i m

I'm still amazed anyone could A: Bend a Mk2 Escort axle, and B: bend it by just "clipping" something...

Reply to
Pete M

So was I! But on closer inspection when swapping the diff / half shafts over I noted this axle tube was only basically 'tin'.

Right. Near us is a bit of road that has become a single carriageway for a hundred yards or so because of the cars that park down one side. There is a protocol used by the locals where even though one side has right-of-way we still hold back at various points before the narrows to let vehicles through to keep the traffic flowing evenly.

In this instance she was going for one of these regular 'pull ins' before the narrow (but she would legally have had right of way) but the oncoming car didn't give her chance to get to it, so, being easy going she backed up to let them through.

What she didn't realise is the narrow bit of road she had just come through (cars parked both sides) had a slight joggle in it and the Jag was parked just before the peak of one of these on her offside. So it actually sat in the road at a slight angle to the general line of the road, it's rear sticking out more than the front. [1]

She reversed up (she's NEVER reckless so it wouldn't have been 'fast') but came in very shallow alongside the Jag (it being low and partly masked by the spare wheel and high head restraint on the Corbeau seat), our rear bumper made first contact about the middle of the N/S front door, ran along that then the rear door, front of rear wheel arch and stopped side-by side when the wheels caught each other. So although she was going fairly slowly she didn't have time to brake or come off the throttle because between (the silent) first contact and stopping it can't have been half a second.

She was really shocked and upset (first accident after many years driving) and I had to take her through it (as I have just done here) to help her understand how it all came about.

All the best ..

T i m

[1] Various cars have been hit when parked there over the years. *I* wouldn't park there for the same reason (it just looks way too vulnerable). We didn't push the point at the time as it was parked and she was moving (and the owners were very understanding, as they might well have been under the circumstances)? :-(
Reply to
T i m

On Tue, 13 May 2008 00:51:06 +0100, I waved a wand and this message magically appears in front of T i m:

I've done it myself with a Mk1 Fiesta, skidded on some ice and slammed the nearside rear wheel against a kerb. Axle got bent out of shape and needed a new axle.

Reply to
Alex Buell

but..... festers don't have an axle at either end. !!

when banger racing I always opted for a fully cast axle so as to avoid the easy bending of the pressed in thin steel tube that some axles have. likewise NEVER jack up under the diff, not on either type of axle, but especially not on the pressed in tube type axles, they can bend in the middle, I expect that a good whack on a speed hump can finish them off too.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

On Tue, 13 May 2008 08:55:49 GMT, I waved a wand and this message magically appears in front of Mrcheerful:

Yes they do - I've seen a long tube connecting both rear wheels underneath that's what got bent.

Reply to
Alex Buell

that is not an axle, it is a torsion beam

Reply to
Mrcheerful

On a Mark 1 it's a dead axle.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

I did win. I had a hot car, it is now a cold car. It cost me nothing. There was nothing to fix as it wasn't broken. It required filling. As I do not have the training or equipment to handle hazardous chemicals, I don't.

A and E wards are filled with people like you who think they can, then can't. The mark of intelligence is to know when you can, and know when you can't.

Reply to
Elder

I wish it was as easy as just filling with Freon. Sadly it requires expensive equipment. A vacuum pump to extra the old gas, along with anything else that has ingressesed into the system (air). Then needs the gas squirting in the correct quantity with a little oil to ease the compressor revolutions.

Oh, I so wish it was as easy as squirting in a bit of 134.

Graham

Reply to
Graham

I know. I bought what americans call a "death kit", can, hose, gauge to see if it was "just a bit low".

Using as per the instructions, the gauge showed borderline OK, but as soon as you hit the gas, it shot into danger (less than a second press).

That was when I figured use the pros. Their equipment now does it all automatically. Vacs it down, weighs the extracted, checks it holds pressure, then add pre-programmed ammounts of oil and gas.

Nothing for me to worry about. Either I sweat for free, get chilled for a price, or get an improvement for free. I got a major improvement and it happened to be free. Can't see how it could work better for a UK climate even with the current hot weather. Where I set it, I still have a couple of degress lower to go if it gets far hotter.

Reply to
Elder

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