garage help needed with Series 3

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westone

Active Member
Posts
415
Location
West country
Hello,
I sold my Series 3 to a good friend and he is having difficulties finding a garage to carry out routine work on it for him.

I am hoping somebody may know of a good garage within say 15 miles of Doncaster.

I hope you can help him for me....thank you
 
Thank you Blackburn I have passed the details to him.
I am amazed he is having a problem finding a garage.I thought they would be greeting him with open arms.
 
I know its no help, but why on earth would someone who needs a garage to do routine jobs buy a Series? Series have hours of "routine jobs" every week, its beyond me. The nearest i have come across is a guy I knew who bought a boat solely to spend his money before his divorce, he didn't even like boats.
 
rob1miles said:
I know its no help, but why on earth would someone who needs a garage to do routine jobs buy a Series? Series have hours of "routine jobs" every week, its beyond me. The nearest i have come across is a guy I knew who bought a boat solely to spend his money before his divorce, he didn't even like boats.
Click to expand...

i think this weekly on this forum!
 
Perhaps they buy it without really realising what is involved. A lot of people have this idea that Land Rovers are indestructible and never break down. The idea that the entire vehicle is all aluminium so they never rust also seems to still be very widespread.

Also, not everyone has space or equipment available to do larger more complex jobs on vehicles.
 
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Do you know what - maybe he/she just likes and appreciates having a Landrover and is not mechanically minded. Maybe he's an absolute ace with computers or building bridges or flying planes - none of which I can manage. Doesn't stop me from using my PC, driving over the Forth Road bridge or hopping on an A380 to go on holiday and leaving the maintenance to someone else. I have several mates who ask me to sort pretty simple things out on their classic cars as I have a decent workshop at the farm and they are not good with the old spanners. Ones a neuro-surgeon so I thought i would probably ask him for help next time I need some brain work!!!
 
All true of course. But its like my freinds dog walking business - it exists because people buy dogs and don't want to walk them. And they are brain surgeons and barristers and they may send thier children to a boarding school and not really know them. The point is that money can pay for all sorts of services, but some like bringing up children, walking your dog or tinkering on an old car are the essense of what that is about. Once you transfer that what are you left with? The dog that looks forward to the dog walker not you? The child that wants to spend Christmas with their nanny? The awkward conversation when someone asks about your Landy "I'll have to ask my mechanic..". I'm currently looking inot AI, robotics and care for the elderly. The conclusion? Just becuase you can transfer an activity (or automate it) does not mean you should.
 
I know someone, (won't say he's a friend), who works with his hands, (monumental mason) he's so good he has met the queen more than once, does war memorials, all sorts, so you'd think he'd be able to wire a plug, or do a bit of wood butchery but no, he don't.
He is into yanks, has two very nice ones.
But he will not lift a spanner, his attitude is "Why try and do it when I can spend the time earning the money it will cost to have an expert do it properly?"
There is a kind of logic there.
Personally I give work to trades to do only if I absolutely have to and always through gritted teeth. Unless it is a job I really hate!
Guess it is an ego thing, and some of us think we should be able to do anything any other spanner-monkey can. But this does lead to bewilderment and anger especially with all the electronics on modern vehicles!:)
 
Situations change though. I have had my S3 for nearly twenty years and in that time I have full access to a depot, she has been worked on in Polytunnels, parked up in a plant nursery, we used to have a garage and our road was so much quieter. Now we have retired the earlier options have gone and the garage had to go before it fell over but the biggest pain nowadays is the number of cars and pathetically poor parking in our road. The demographic has changed enormously towards the generally unsympathetic camp. She has a leaking injector pump at the moment which despite A star help on this forum I simply could’nt attempt. I have wrapped the pump up in a couple of towels secured by zip ties, avoiding the moving parts of course, and she is off to a workshop tomorrow. It will cost and it will probably hurt but it’s all she needs for another couple of years pottering around.
 
Stanleysteamer said:
I know someone, (won't say he's a friend), who works with his hands, (monumental mason) he's so good he has met the queen more than once, does war memorials, all sorts, so you'd think he'd be able to wire a plug, or do a bit of wood butchery but no, he don't.
He is into yanks, has two very nice ones.
But he will not lift a spanner, his attitude is "Why try and do it when I can spend the time earning the money it will cost to have an expert do it properly?"
There is a kind of logic there.
Personally I give work to trades to do only if I absolutely have to and always through gritted teeth. Unless it is a job I really hate!
Guess it is an ego thing, and some of us think we should be able to do anything any other spanner-monkey can. But this does lead to bewilderment and anger especially with all the electronics on modern vehicles!:)
Click to expand...

trouble is, in my experience, these ‘experts’ that hard earned is handed over to are usually anything but. I have learnt my lesson there and that’s why I do everything myself, and have taught myself over time. Experts don’t always do things ‘properly’.

EDIT: I had to strip and redo a triumph 1300 engine a mate had ‘rebuilt’ by an expert - honestly the standard of work was ****e and the carb wasn’t tuned at all.
I got my fingers burnt by ‘expert’ garages in the VW scene and the LR scene.

these experts can usually see those with disposable cash coming a mile off....
 
flat said:
trouble is, in my experience, these ‘experts’ that hard earned is handed over to are usually anything but. I have learnt my lesson there and that’s why I do everything myself, and have taught myself over time.

these experts can usually see those with disposable cash coming a mile off....
Click to expand...
I started mechanicing cos i couldn't afford to keep my car on the road any other way. Once you start, it just grows, and as you say you get to the point where you can see how much the guys in overalls are looking at your wallet first and your car second.
 
Stanleysteamer said:
I started mechanicing cos i couldn't afford to keep my car on the road any other way. Once you start, it just grows, and as you say you get to the point where you can see how much the guys in overalls are looking at your wallet first and your car second.
Click to expand...

yeah me to, I couldn’t keep my LR if I didn’t do all the work on it myself.
This site is an absolute god send for help though. Trust the opinions of a lot of people on here much much more than my local ‘specialist’
 
I do what I can myself and pay a local mobile mechanic to help me when I can't manage on my own. Its works well. My default option is always read the manual, post on the forum, then search you tube, then read the manual again now get what the job is about, then have a go. I was looking to get my old Perkins rebuilt and getting nowhere - labour £1k upwards and really no one interested. Did it myself in-situe - about £250 in parts and 3 days hard work but I know exaclty what's inside it. Its not just cars, I've spent too much on roof repairs and this week was the last straw - a quote for £8k "to fix it" when I know 90% of the roof is good, so I'm getting my fall harness out, overalls on and I'm going to find the fault.
 
Thanks rob1miles,
I understand where your coming from.I try to do as much a Is can myself both on car and house.
Its odd a lot of garages just are not interested in work on Land Rovers, except ones which are clueless.
 
I think the problem is how fast the costs mount up. I'm finding hub oil seals (even with new lands) only seem to last 2 or 3 years. They are £5 each but the labour would be at least an hour each, say £50, per wheel. Doing the tappets, once per year, parts cost £0 but its an hour labour at least, so that's another £50. Every year the drums should come off for a check and dust out, that's £0 in parts but 2 hours labour. The track rod ends should be greased (mine has that type) £0 in parts, about a hour of faffing about so that's another £50. Gearbox, OD and transfer case oil levels check every couple of months, £0 or an hour at £50, ditto the swivle levels every 3 months, it goes on. just doing the basics to keep a series running would be £100 diy or £1000 per year paying others. In 4 years the difference is enough to buy another series. I get that people don't want or can't to do their one servicing and minor repairs, but a series is such a high maintenance yet simple vehicle it really only makes sense to own one if you do the simple stuff yourself. When I need help with a gerbox change I could only find one person who was prepared to do it. He turned out to be great, but my expreince is garages don't want this work and "restorers" will charge the earth. I had an accident in a 25 year old Merc, it was agreed vlaue insurence, other drivers fault, full repair of £2500 approved. It was sent to our local MB approved body shop. After 2 months of faffing about and talking up how hard it was to repair they trailered it back to me with the £2500. I got the body parts the dealer said were unobtainable straight off e-bay.
 
Most garages seem to want easy money jobs such as changing tyres, brakes, exhausts etc.

From their point of view, why get involved in anything more complicated when they can still charge £60 per hour labour for the basic jobs.

Work on a Series may also involve real fault finding skills. They can simply plug the diagnostic machine into most modern vehicles, while also charging for the act of reading the codes.
 
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