Where can I get my car fully checked?

af_thefragile

I wanna be able to know everything (big and small) thats wrong with my car so that I can know what all things I need to get fixed or replaced on it.

So far the couple of places I had been to have been very poor.
I've been to a small-ish garage near me and they gave me a list of a few problems with the car but it was a very half-arsed job. The car is very rattley and vibrates and shakes at high speed, something the guy didn't mention a thing about. Neither did he say anything about the wheel alignment and tracking which was off at that time.

Then I took it to advanced pitstop thinking a bigger garage is gonna give me a better service and they've been fairly useless too. They said they did a full service and a 36 point check of my car and the car still pretty much feels the same. They did give it new brakes and discs (which squeak on braking) did the wheel alignment, balancing and tracking and a few more thing. Not only were they fairly pricey, the car has only improved slightly since I've been there. It's still rattley and still vibrates at high speeds. The gearbox/clutch makes grinding noises at times and it doesn't go into reverse easily sometimes, among the many other problems.
At the end I've felt ripped off by them for what I paid and the very little change it made to the car.

Now I thought a big garage would do a proper job but that doesn't seem to be the place. And now I'm looking for a good place where I could get a proper complete check of the car so that I can find out exactly all thats wrong with it. I still have around a grand left from my budget to spend on the car and I want it to be mechanically perfect.

I have plans of converting the car into a super1600 rally car and something on which I can learn about fixing/modifying the car mechanics. And so I plan on doing most of the fixes at home. But before I get to any of that, I first just wanna get an idea of what all is wrong with it so that I can plan on all the things I need to fix both myself and at a garage...

So do anyone of you know a good place where I could get this done, that won't do a half arsed job or rip me off?

Thanks.

ha-ya-said-what

af_thefragile wrote: »

They did give it new brakes and discs (which squeak on braking) .

Ya can't fault them on that, new brakes will squeak until they bed in.

mickdw

It sounds like your car might be just generally rough mechanically. Its all well & good looking for a list but how much detail do you want. You might need a new clutch or replacement gearbox to get the gearchange nice & smooth but seeing as the car is functioning, there are not many people who would bother with that.

It should be simply enough to sort out a vibration.
I would start by getting rid of one problem at a time. Vibration would be first on my list.
Its most likely twisted rims and/or worn bushes.

A garage cannot give you a specific list tbh. Is it one control arm causing the shake or does the whole front suspension need doing. For a garage to go through all faults in detail to give you a proper accurate diagnosis would be too expensive. Are they supposed to strip the gearbox out to find the problem with the gearchange? Are you prepared to pay for this?

af_thefragile

mickdw wrote: »

It sounds like your car might be just generally rough mechanically. Its all well & good looking for a list but how much detail do you want. You might need a new clutch or replacement gearbox to get the gearchange nice & smooth but seeing as the car is functioning, there are not many people who would bother with that.

It should be simply enough to sort out a vibration.
I would start by getting rid of one problem at a time. Vibration would be first on my list.
Its most likely twisted rims and/or worn bushes.

A garage cannot give you a specific list tbh. Is it one control arm causing the shake or does the whole front suspension need doing. For a garage to go through all faults in detail to give you a proper accurate diagnosis would be too expensive. Are they supposed to strip the gearbox out to find the problem with the gearchange? Are you prepared to pay for this?

Well, atleast I'ld like to get an idea about why the car is vibrating and no one seems to be giving me a decent diagnosis for this. I took it back to advanced pitstop again to get the wheel balancing and all checked once again. They said the wheels are balanced now and the car shouldn't vibrate anymore. But all they did was reduce the vibrations a tiny bit. The car still feels dangerous to drive at high speeds. If it was a twisted rim or something, surely the guys should have had noticed it while balancing the wheels...

And I don't want the guys to strip open the whole gearbox and stuff like that. I just want them to take it for a proper test driver so that they can see and hear for themselves what's going on with it and they can then tell me what the problem might be. I don't want an exact list. But atleast I wanna know if the vibration is due to the wheels or the suspension or the bushes or do is the problem with the gearbox or the clutch and i don't need to pay them ridiculous money for every check they do.

I've spent a grand on repairs so far and all I've gotten done is a "service" (which seems to have made no difference to how the car drives), wheel balancing and tracking (and the vibration still persists), new brake discs + pads (they didn't even bother changing the brake pipes), two new front tires, the timing belt and an idle control valve.
It had a broken heater control valve and stereo which I managed to fix myself.

Still got to fix the rattling and vibrations which could be due to worn out bushes or wheel bearings or wishbone or suspension.
I'ld wanna fix what I can myself (like, I could probably fix new bushes or wishbones over a weekend) so I only wanna get the big things done over at a garage. But I first need to know what I need to get done and I can't just get to know that...

I don't care about the clutch and the gearbox so much now. But I'ld still like to know if those noises are something minor that I could leave for later or if its something big that I should get it fixed immediately to avoid buying a new gearbox.

mickdw

So concentrate on the vibration. Try swapping wheels around. Try a couple of a mates wheels if they are standard ford fit on your car so you can rule out the wheels/tyres.
If still there, you need to look deeper. check drives & joints, check control arms, all bushes, check security of front subframe. If everything is made tight as should be, the problem will most likely go away.
Might not be a bad idea to give a ford dealer half hours labour to check for vibration cause. Seems you have spent alot already without success

Yawns

af_thefragile wrote: »

And I don't want the guys to strip open the whole gearbox and stuff like that. I just want them to take it for a proper test driver so that they can see and hear for themselves what's going on with it and they can then tell me what the problem might be..

Get someone you know who knows about cars to do this for you. If you want an exact list of what's wrong with everything in your car from a garage they will basically have to strip it apart and put it back together. If you have a specific problem then tell them that's what you want looked at. EG my front wheels seem to shake an awful lot at high speeds. Then they will check tracking, balancing right down to possible wheel buckle etc.

If you want to know the ins n outs of every nook and cranny then you are gonna have to pay a lot for it.

af_thefragile

Yawns wrote: »

Get someone you know who knows about cars to do this for you. If you want an exact list of what's wrong with everything in your car from a garage they will basically have to strip it apart and put it back together. If you have a specific problem then tell them that's what you want looked at. EG my front wheels seem to shake an awful lot at high speeds. Then they will check tracking, balancing right down to possible wheel buckle etc.

If you want to know the ins n outs of every nook and cranny then you are gonna have to pay a lot for it.

This is exactly what I'm looking for.
Unfortunately I don't really know anyone who knows that much about cars to be able to tell me what could be the problem.
Among all the people I know, I probably know the most about cars but as this is my first car, I don't have enough driving experience to say what could be wrong and all just by driving it or taking a look at it...

I might take it back to advance pitstop and tell them about the persisting vibrations. Try to get my moneys worth out of them! But I really doubt I'll be getting any more future work from them.

I just wanna make sure I make good use of the grand I have left to spend on the car and not end up spending it like I have so far getting very little out of it.

chris85

af_thefragile wrote: »

This is exactly what I'm looking for.
Unfortunately I don't really know anyone who knows that much about cars to be able to tell me what could be the problem.
Among all the people I know, I probably know the most about cars but as this is my first car, I don't have enough driving experience to say what could be wrong and all just by driving it or taking a look at it...

I might take it back to advance pitstop and tell them about the persisting vibrations. Try to get my moneys worth out of them! But I really doubt I'll be getting any more future work from them.

I just wanna make sure I make good use of the grand I have left to spend on the car and not end up spending it like I have so far getting very little out of it.

you seem to be assuming advance pitstop know everything. Bring it to a decent recommended indy mechanic.

Yawns

what car is it and how fast do you be driving before the vibrating kicks in?

af_thefragile

Yawns wrote: »

what car is it and how fast do you be driving before the vibrating kicks in?

Its a Ford Puma.
First when I got it, it was vibrating mad as soon as you hit 80kmph. It also was drifting a lot to the left.
Then I took it to advance pitspot and got all those things done. It was still vibrating at 80kmph, just not as bad.
So I took it back to them again. They balanced the wheels again and said its fixed. Well its not.
It doesn't vibrate at 80kmph now, the vibrations kick in at around 90-100kmph now but once over 110kmph, its pretty bad. Anything over 120kmph is dangerous, feels like the car is going to fall apart any moment.

challengemaster

What is "high speeds" - figures wise

if you're talking 60mph, thats a big issue
80+mph, you're a learner driver so you shouldn't really be doing those speeds , and its a light car so it'll vibrate at those speeds anyway. You should try sitting in a 1.2 punto at 100mph, its like a giant vibrator. :pac:

advance pitstop is the biggest pile of shíte in the country. You'd be better handing it to the transport minister, he'd probably have a better idea. Just do a search on threads and see..

af_thefragile

challengemaster wrote: »

What is "high speeds" - figures wise

if you're talking 60mph, thats a big issue
80+mph, you're a learner driver so you shouldn't really be doing those speeds , and its a light car so it'll vibrate at those speeds anyway. You should try sitting in a 1.2 punto at 100mph, its like a giant vibrator. :pac:

advance pitstop is the biggest pile of shíte in the country. You'd be better handing it to the transport minister, he'd probably have a better idea. Just do a search on threads and see..

My friend has a 1.0l Yaris and he regularly does 120-140kmph on motorways in it and it holds together fine.

My Puma, which is supposed to be sporty and all, feels like its about to completely disintegrate if I push it past 110kmph.

And I have realised advance pitspot is nothing but a big rip off and half arsed jobs. Which is why I'm looking for a good garage where I could get good advice on what to get fixed on the car and get the jobs done properly and thoroughly.

Like if they were to give it new brakes, I'ld like them to have the courtesy to replace the old worn out looking brake pipes with new ones along with the discs and pads. Its not like I wouldn't pay them for the brake pipes. Now if I want to change them, I need to remove the wheels, bleed the brake fluid and do all of that again...

Yawns

Some light cars can go high speeds without major noticeable vibrations, others cannot. My gf's mother cannot understand for the life of her why her pug 206 shakes and vibrates on the motorway at 100 - 120 kph but our liana can go to 140 - 150 before vibrating noticably. It just happens to lighter cars. They will vibrate at higher speeds.

Get a 2ltr a4 or focus estate 1.6 tdci and then you won't notice a thing at 120 - 160 kph

Yawns

I think it's more of a mental block in your mind at this stage. It was bad because the tracking was off and when you fixed this issue you assumed that all the noise would go away. in light of your recent posts the garages have done the jobs to the best of their abilities.

Another thing about my gf's mother was she had a radiatior prob, got it fixed but afterwards she kept finding faults with the car that wasn't there. One day she suddenly said "I've lost power steering, look! I have to turn the wheel much further to before the car turns. It was all in her head, nothing wrong at all, power steering was fine.

af_thefragile

But a Ford Puma isn't supposed to do that.
As I said, my friend boxy 1l Yaris does 140kmph fine on the motorway. While my sporty-ish Puma feels like its about to fall apart...

The 1.4l Puma has a 0-60mph time of 10.8s and a top speed of 180kmph.
And its supposed to be a really good handling car.
My Puma is seriously underperforming...

Its definitely not the wind thats causing the vibrations. Has to be something to do with the wheels or suspension...

challengemaster

and you're learning to drive so...none of that really matters anyway. That's with a professional driver behind the wheel... :P

if you really wanted, you could spend a lot of that 1k left on coilovers. if you were sure that its the suspension thats f00bar'd, and you'd have the benefit of lowering/better handling too. probably talking 8-900 tho...

af_thefragile

I'm gonna spend the 1k I have just on getting the mechanical bits in perfect working order. I'm gonna keep the car completely stock for now. Can't afford the raised insurance of a modified car.

All the modifying is for later maybe after 2-3years when I can save up some cash.

LookBehindYou

If the NCT is nearly due, get an nct on it, they check suspension etc.

Ok, that would drive me bananas too. It does sound like classic symptoms of wobbly wheels or tyres. NCT would be of no use for this kind of problem. First, to sanity check, does the car drive ok on twisty roads when under the "wobble" speed? Puma should feel really glued on the road at tight corners with minimum body roll. There should be no clonking noises etc from the suspension.

If step one is pass, I would re start with the tyres and wheels. What make are the tyres? If some linglongs you might have to invest on good tyres. Lift say one of the rear corners up using jack, don't use handbrake but choke the front wheels and leave on gear. Give the wheel a good spin and observe it while it's rotating. There wheel itself should look perfect when no sign of wheel buckle. The tyre should sit on the wheel uniformly (there's a line near the rim edge that should be similar distance from rim all around) and the thread should pretty much look uniform when rotated. Inspect the tyre for any visible defects e.g. bulges.

Now repeat this with all the corners. Rear corner is a good place to do this as your car is FWD so it should spin pretty easily. You can swap the fronts and backs and try them all at the back. Really need two jacks to do it though.

Good luck. Maybe borrow set of wheels/tyres from a fiesta that does not shake.

af_thefragile

samih wrote: »

Ok, that would drive me bananas too. It does sound like classic symptoms of wobbly wheels or tyres. NCT would be of no use for this kind of problem. First, to sanity check, does the car drive ok on twisty roads when under the "wobble" speed? Puma should feel really glued on the road at tight corners with minimum body roll. There should be no clonking noises etc from the suspension.

If step one is pass, I would re start with the tyres and wheels. What make are the tyres? If some linglongs you might have to invest on good tyres. Lift say one of the rear corners up using jack, don't use handbrake but choke the front wheels and leave on gear. Give the wheel a good spin and observe it while it's rotating. There wheel itself should look perfect when no sign of wheel buckle. The tyre should sit on the wheel uniformly (there's a line near the rim edge that should be similar distance from rim all around) and the thread should pretty much look uniform when rotated. Inspect the tyre for any visible defects e.g. bulges.

Now repeat this with all the corners. Rear corner is a good place to do this as your car is FWD so it should spin pretty easily. You can swap the fronts and backs and try them all at the back. Really need two jacks to do it though.

Good luck. Maybe borrow set of wheels/tyres from a fiesta that does not shake.

Well, I don't drive that fast on twisty roads, I drive at around 40-70kmph on the twisty roads and the Puma feels great there. Good amounts of feed back and it holds the road pretty well as well. It still might have worn out bushes though which is why it feels a little rattley.

The wobbling only comes in at around 90-100kmph which I only really do on big straight roads.

The car has two new front tyres. They're continental ones, fairly pricey.
The rear ones are some cheap budget tyres that came with the car. I'll try looking for any wheel buckle and all. Though the advance pitstop guys checked my wheels and they surely should have had spotted it if there was any problem with the wheels...

Lately I've also been feeling some vibrations through the gear leaver. I don't know if this is normal.

I'm quite busy right now due to college and all. But over the summer, when I'm free I'm gonna get to doing all the big jobs so that I can have a perfect car by the end of summer...

danmanw8

I'd say if you can not find someone professional who comes with a firm recommendation then put it through the NCT and you'll at least have a definitive list of what needs to be fixed.
I'm no expert but hope it's of some help as I had the same similar problem when i moved to a new town last year. NCT results did not make me happy but at least I knew what was wrong.

af_thefragile

af_thefragile wrote: »

Lately I've also been feeling some vibrations through the gear leaver. I don't know if this is normal.

I'm quite busy right now due to college and all. But over the summer, when I'm free I'm gonna get to doing all the big jobs so that I can have a perfect car by the end of summer...

Vibration if not excessive is normal. Do you think it's wise putting lots of cash into a rough car, you mentioned in another thread it has rust and from this thread it sounds that it has seen better days. There are very good Puma out there still if you are patient.

Regarding Advance, don't go there unless you are badly stuck