Reply With QuoteI imagine the main dealers have the trainees? Once they become any good they move on? That’s a bit like the dental students I teach. No way I’d let ANY of them near my teeth.
Luckily for me I’ve got an absolute expert looking after my Land Rover
The owner of this vehicle bought it new back in 2013 and has never had it serviced or repaired outside of the dealer network.
About 3 main dealers have work on this vehicle in that time and he believes that this repair was done under a JLR extended warranty back in 2019/20
Attached pics are the front anti-roll bar on a full fat Range Rover 4.4 TDV8. As you can see the anti-roll bar bolts to a small section which then bolts to the aluminium subframe with 3 bolts per side. Its well known in the LR world that the front bolt is open to the atmosphere whilst the 2nd one in is blind, however all bolts on the fixing can break so when dismantling a small amount of heat and penetrant needs to be concentrated on the back of the fixing just to get it moving.
Finding this broken bolts last week made me realise how bad my profession has got especially when you consider that this is the work of a main dealer! I just can believe how anyone could leave a bolt missing from a suspension component and be able to sleep at night. This has clearly been done when removing and not snapped afterwards as the threaded section left was fully home and essentially the head a small amount of the shank is missing. Took me about 3 hours to drill this out starting from 3mm to 10mm in 1/2 mm increments. Cant say i relish another any time soon.
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Last edited by Franky Four Fingers; 2nd February 2024 at 18:32.
I imagine the main dealers have the trainees? Once they become any good they move on? That’s a bit like the dental students I teach. No way I’d let ANY of them near my teeth.
Luckily for me I’ve got an absolute expert looking after my Land Rover
Last edited by trident-7; 2nd February 2024 at 19:40.
That’s bad. I can imagine some bozo with a windy gun shearing the head off.
Is it fair to assume that a dose of copper grease or similar during initial assembly would prevent this type of problem?
Absolutely…they certainly go back together that way if it comes to me.Originally Posted by walkerwek1958
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Handsome as well, so I'm led to believe.
That might be stretching it a bit.. Some funny bloke is looking at mine next week (or the week after)
Must be the “other” one
Posts like this kill me, I know independents are so much better than main dealers. My experience with main dealers has been terrible, but everyone wants main dealer service history.
I get the basic services done at the main dealer and any additional work at an independents.
A Porsche main dealer replaced the wiper blades on a Macan I owned at the time.
Like lots of cars, one blade is longer than the other and they managed to fit them the wrong way round...
It does make you wonder.
Simple things like that i actually find more worrying, if they cant get something like that right then what else is going on?
Surprised they didn't do the super glue "trick" with the head...
Do you use regular or reverse drill bits ? We had good success getting snapped studs out of motorbike engine blocks (2 stroke Yamaha so a lot smaller and less corroded) using reverse drill bits but wondered if they worked on that sort of problem ?
After my experience with a Porsche Centre absolutely nothing would surprise me. The whole "main dealer service history" is a total sham.
Invest in some stellite or good cobolt drill bits, the would go through that bolt like butter.
I wouldn't normally give main dealers the benefit of the doubt, but there is the possibility that the vehicle had been used as it was marketed to do and the bolt snapped, bolts snap on race cars all of the time.
Last edited by adrianw; 3rd February 2024 at 11:45.
No they wouldn't touch this issue, they are so badly seized in the housing what with the 2 different types of metal, open to the atmosphere etc. You have to resort to the drilling/tapping or nut and a bolt
We've got some cobalt drills however drilling upwards and trying to maintain the correct angle on every cut is the issue, added to that the human factor of running out of steam.
Posts like this make me realise that before you find a car you need to find a good independent and if it’s something like a JLR or Porsche you really need to find a good independent who specialises in the brand you’re buying before you find the car. Scary stuff.
I would have probably used the other bolt hole to make a drill guide and maintain the angle, to stop my arms falling off. Someone above mentioned motorbikes, recently my son in law brought his GSX750R round with 5 exhaust bolts broken, of course he denied it was him, took a whole evening to drill and re tap them.
It's a bit like large scale dentistry then
slightly less pain
My F-Pace is due for it's first service in the near future. To be honest I've never had a problem with the work done by the workshop yet at the dealers with any of the other cars I've taken to them, but I dread it anyway.
There's always a problem. From no loan car (which was booked 4 wks prior), to waiting 2 1/2 hours to be told they haven't started on my car yet do I want to re-book. I really like JLR cars but the level of service at their dealerships would be better suited to Moskvitch or Trabant.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I’d had forgotten all about your experiences with Porsche, that was a true shocker of a time for sure.
The dog chewed part of the rear seat belt in my 1 series. It failed the MOT on it. The item was about almost £200 but the labour was ridiculous. Most doctors don't get paid that an hour. Anyway it was booked in, I waited there as they're too tight to get a taxi etc for me. The whole thing including the jobs before for others took almost 4 hours. Got home and found out they put the seat belt the wrong way around and left panel removal tools on the seat. I know I should have checked, but it's not too far away. Went back and spoke to mechanic and he was saying that it's basically a conveyor belt system and they only get a set amount of time to do each job, so rush them. It's really disgraceful, especially for the cost.
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