Back home again

Back on the driveway again and this time in a slightly more useable state. God bless small cars and cheap replacement parts!

I've used Aire Valley Workshop since we had the Lupo GTI, they're all ex-volkswagen service staff who realised when working for the local VW dealership that people were walking away from VW's labour charge and looking for an independent. They're good guys that can be trusted - this says a lot when you're looking for a good mechanic.

As for Allen Car Sales in Heywood (yep, I'm naming and shaming), this is their idea of an 'immaculate' car:

OSF Bottom Arm bush worn - replaced
OS Drive shaft inner bolts - fitted incorrectly, replaced
Leaking gearbox seal (a common weak-point on Lupos) - replace and levels topped up
Throttle body cleaned out
Oil breather and oil pressure switch - replaced
All four tyres replaced - as mentioned in previous post, the fronts and rears where different profiles, one front had a bulge, one rear had a cracking sidewall. It made sense just to change the lot.
Check and adjust tracking
New front discs and pads
Clean and adjust rear brakes
Clutch cable - wrong one fitted, now replaced
Adjust handbrake
New door trim clip (another Lupo weak-point)
There was also a bit of welding work to the notorious pedal-box (yet another Lupo weak-point).

Aire Valley were also kind enough to take this in as a 'hospital' job, working on it between other jobs, and as such I don't think they've charge every minute of labour.

I'm annoyed I didn't spot some of these things when buying the car, but as they said at the garage, they would have missed the same things. So if you can, when buying a cheap car, take a mechanic - or better still get the car up on a ramp.

Needless to say, the budget for lowering and wheels has now disappeared for a while.

So we're good to go. The daily commute starts next Tuesday - I'll report back soon on how things are going.