It never stops. Clever boy here assume that after the Big MOT, the garage had aligned the suspension following the install of the lower arms.
Nope. three months down the line, the front tyres are ruined - properly. New boots, tracking and balancing and it's sweet as a nut (it was better after the lower arms were put on due to the fact the bushes were whole, hence me not realising...) but I'm £160 worse off. That's what I get for casually inspecting my wear pattern with a half turn of lock rather than checking the full width - I was down to the canvas. Spotted on Sunday, fixed on Monday (IE last night, this morning - I'm not cheap when it comes to the important stuff!)
Eight degrees of toe out to the left, two to the right. Garage asked me if I'd crashed it, it was so far out. Pointed out the MOT work, and they understood.
This is on top of the poorly refitted exhaust, and the broken clutch position switch which was tucked away out of sight, I might add.
Furious about that, but best thing I can do about it is not to get lawyered up and fight the garage for the £160 it owes me, but to hit them where it hurts, in the wallet - my dad is no longer going to use them (he had his own doubts - the above confirmed them) and he's going to tell his friends - half a dozen of them go there for servicing and MOT - and no-one at my work will touch them with a barge pole any more - a couple of my lot used to take their cars there.
What pisses me off the most is that it was utterly, utterly avoidable - if they had aligned the car properly, if they had
told me to get it aligned if they coudn't, if I had been keeping closer tabs on the wear (I pride myself on being smarter than the average punter mechanically - which admittadly isn't saying much, but you get the drift), then I could have had £160 for better things. Like a stainless steel exhaust that I've been telling myself I can't justify. Fvck.
Courtyards Car Centre in Scarborough - avoid avoid avoid.
On a more positive note, Boro Tyres in Scarbados might not be the cheapest Emporium of Zorsts and Rubber, but I genuinely can't grumble at the price, or the speed of the turnaround - called 'em in the morning, they held a slot for me for 'around lunchtime', car dropped off at midday, call ten minutes later asking if the car had been crashed or summat to throw the tracking out so badly, new tyres fitted, balanced, aligned by half past one. Aye, might be twenty or thirty quid pricier than KwikFit or a mobile install after purchasing on BlackCircles etc, but I didn't mind given the quick turnaround, good communication and genial, friendly attitude.
I was a bit pissed at the £300 bill for four boots last year (they remembered the car - hence wondering if I'd crashed it!) but this time, hands up, very pleased with 'em.
Might get than Mintex exhaust next month and have it posted to 'em to cheer me up - put some money onto something that I want, rather than something I need
Oh, and on an ever more positive note, by
Christ does the Puma have a pointy nose once it's set up properly - I now understand the meaning of the term 'chuckable' in it's fullest sense. Proper accurate in the bends, with real adjustability.
I dare say as I'm not scrubbing a total of ten degrees when going in a straight line, I'll probably see an improvement in MPG, too....