fishsponge's ongoing thread of problems!

[fishsponge]

Overall, I guess my questions are these...

How did they take the caliper off without undoing the top two bolts? Basically, they took it off by only undoing the two on the side, apparently.

Where are all the grease points underneath? Prop shafts and UJs... what else?

How did they check the amount of grease or oil in the swivel balls? Or did they simply not bother checking?

Makes me wanna scream out of sheer frustration, this does... lol, you spend 9 hours tackling something yourself, having spent £70 on tools to enable you to do it, only to fail and then have to try and get lifts and borrow people's cars to get to work the following week.

You then take a day's leave from work, limp it go the most reliable, trustworthy garage in the area at 30mph with the wheel squeaking constantly for them to basically only do half the work despite you booking it in for all of it and willing to pay for all of it.

You then get home to be told that the part the garage said was fine is actually f*cked and you could have had it done at the same time to save money, but you didn't because the garage said it was fine!

I didn't really have the £214 to spend on this in the first place, and I certainly don't have any more money to spend on a swivel ball replacement now.

And if they say the swivel ball is fine and full of grease, but it clearly isn't, then the diff probably isn't either, and nor is the other swivel ball.

And if they didn't check those parts, the probably didn't check the back either.

So what the hell did they do?!?!?

I'm probably going a little over the top here, but after such a struggle to do something so simple, my confidence in the best garage around is shattered and I'm kinda back to square one. Depressing......

 

[Mr Noisy]

Hi mate

Yep must have bent the brake pipe. It's not necessarily a problem to do that, but it certainly is lazy/bad practice (at best) and wouldn't have been done that way by a dedicated land rover garage. Not something you can really complain about though, an RAC man did it to me once, I just counted to ten and looked away!

Grease points are three on each propshaft, one at each end uj and one on the sliding section on the shaft.

Maybe on some of the steering rod ball joints also.

Look for scratch marks and evidence of disturbance around the diff pan fill plugs, the swivel hub fill plugs, etc etc.

Cheers

 

[fishsponge]

... and wouldn't have been done that way by a dedicated land rover garage.

Well, guess what... this was a dedicated land rover garage - Nene Overland in Peterborough. There's another one close to me as well, but I've only ever heard fantastic things about Nene Overland, so went there!

I'll have a look for disturbance around everything. Trouble is, I won't be able to until Saturday now ...and if it rains in the mean time, I won't see anything because it will have washed away most likely. Argh!!!!!

 

[The Mad Hat Man]

it wont take yu long to check some of it....
look at the prop shaft ends (the UJ's) that will take yu all of 5 minutes to find the grease nipples and see if they have been used

 

[Mr Noisy]

Bloody eck im suprised, I thought nene were a quality shop aswell.

We musn't cast the blame just yet until it's for sure, but I'm be very interested to see why they reckon that swivel is ok!

Just dive under your car with a torch fish, why can't you do that tonight?!

As said above though, maybe you could now drive to someone local whoknows more about the subject...?

 

[njh2]

....this is why i suggest ten mins with the torch......

No, grease isn't expensive.....

What i'm tring to say is that it should be apparent that they have been in there......but (and as many will agree with) most of the car owners on the planet do not have the first clue how any of their cars work, they don't care and when so when it stops they get it fixed or throw it away and start again......

The garage you took it to just may not be that up to date with Land Rovers and don't expect you to know or find out what special attention they need.....(my local garage is very wary of our Mazda Bongo....yes really!) so i have to deal with spares ordering and anything major, he just mot's it for us......if you havn't , go and have a butchers with the torch.....maybe grab a picture and let us see..

Nick.

 

[fishsponge]

Bloody eck im suprised, I thought nene were a quality shop aswell.

We musn't cast the blame just yet until it's for sure, but I'm be very interested to see why they reckon that swivel is ok!

Indeed. I've heard Nene overland were as perfect as they come! And you are right - i'm sure the work they've done is first class, but I have had many "seeds of doubt" sown from the forum tonight.

Just dive under your car with a torch fish, why can't you do that tonight?!

Mainly because I don't own a torch and it's too windy for a candle. I could use the iPhone light, I suppose, but it's kinda crappy...

Also, even if I find no disturbance, if I phone them tomorrow and say "you didn't grease anything, it seems", they'll just say "we did, where's your proof"? Lack of disturbance is kinda proof, but it's a bit of a grey area.

 

[njh2]

......oh!...... Nene overland.........Well that s a shock to be fair.......

 

[fishsponge]

The garage you took it to just may not be that up to date with Land Rovers and don't expect you to know or find out what special attention they need.....(my local garage is very wary of our Mazda Bongo....yes really!) so i have to deal with spares ordering and anything major, he just mot's it for us......if you havn't , go and have a butchers with the torch.....maybe grab a picture and let us see..

The garage was Nene Overland in Peterborough, and they are a dedicated Land Rover garage! They know I adjusted the bearings myself and have done some other work too, so they know full well i'll know where the grease points are etc...

I think i'm going to get changed and crawl underneath it in the dark, at -2 degrees C and try to take some photos.

back in a bit.

 

[fishsponge]

yes, people - Nene Overland greased everything (theoretically), replaced my wheel bearing and said this swivel ball was ok:

 

[njh2]

Hmmmmm.........that is no good.......it doesn't do it's job any more. Is this the first photo?

Waiting for the rest..........

 

[paul_c]

Its probably better to crawl underneath a car when its -2 deg C than +2 deg C, it won't be so muddy on the ground....

 

[paul_c]

The level/fill plug looks suspiciously untouched by tools. I'd have thought your expensive underseal treatment would have worn or marked, with a spanner on that plug.

 

[njh2]

Hi......i think this is before it went.....

 

[Mr Noisy]

Hi Paul!

I thought that yes, but then I thoughtmaybe this picture was taken before the work was done.

But yes in that picture certainly there has been no filler plug removal.

The only evidence is how shocking the ball is!

 

[fishsponge]

OK, just got back in...

photos on my iPhone were terrible. in fact, they were impossible, so gimme a while and a video will be online! the photos with the flash didn't give any depth, so it's impossible to tell a bolt from a flat surface.

Anyway, in summary...

The grease nipples on the prop shafts (1 on each), and on the UJs (1 on each) have grease around them. I therefore assume they have been greased.

The differentials both have oil around the filler cap, so I assume they have been checked and/or topped up. God knows how they got in there without removing the diff guards though, as the holes in the guards don't line up with the filler plug! you'll see this in the video.

As for the swivel ball, it'll take a lot of effort with the scourer & wire wool, but to my inexperienced brain, it looks like the rust could be removed. it's not that pitted, really, just has a light surface covering that eats in perhaps 0.5mm at most.

I agree though - it should be kinda wet where it's been pulling the grease/oil out of the swivel ball past the seal.

Oh, and even now, the swivel ball filler caps (assuming they're the ones in the front near the top, kinda pointing at the back of the headlights) haven't been touched. they have not been removed or even had a spanner on them, it looks like. You can all make your own mind up in the video soon though.

Why would they do that?!? Why would they fill up the diff, tell me the swivel balls are fine and full of grease, but not even check? They're supposed to be the best Land Rover garage around!

Watch this space for the video shortly...

 

[Mr Noisy]

Exciting!!

All sounds good apart from the swivel then!

 

[fishsponge]

unless they just scraped some waxoyl off the filler plugs then sprayed some oil at it!

I really don't know how they'd have got it undone with the diff guard in the way... there's only about an inch gap there if you're lucky!

Anyway... two of the photos did come out... the swivel ball filler caps, luckily!

 

[davek0974]

**** me! I thought you were away with this one Fishy!

I have heard of Nene and thought they had a good name, I'm a bit shocked actually. I would have thought they would have changed that swivel just to make money? Even if it is just a bit pitted, it's probably shot, my ones have only a few pits here and there and they leaked oil bad enough for me to fill with one shot.

In that picture it looks to me like the top portion of oil seal is missing, might be just a bad picture though. If the fill and level plugs have not been cracked open, I would take it back (if possible) and complain as you paid good money at a supposedly reputable shop, told them what you wanted but didn't get it.

 

[davek0974]

unless they just scraped some waxoyl off the filler plugs then sprayed some oil at it!

I really don't know how they'd have got it undone with the diff guard in the way... there's only about an inch gap there if you're lucky!

Anyway... two of the photos did come out... the swivel ball filler caps, luckily!

Ain't no way they have been undone.

That swivel looks good from here, 'tother one is shagged I reckon.