Guys,
Had a few issues with my Fiat Coupe 20VT so after a member of Alfa Owner recommended Duncan I thought I might as well give him a call and arrange a time to see him. He is based in Fishponds, Bristol which was only a few miles away from myself anyway.
On the phone he sounded very clued up and seemed to know an awful lot about both Alfa and Fiat (Especially Coupe's!), better than that though he was a really nice guy and managed to get me booked in for a few days later.
So anyway, today was that day, and as I stated there were a few issues with my Coop. One of them being slight play in the steering wheel, and the other being screeching brakes, another few points I wanted him to take a look at were defects picked up by the guys who serviced it at QAS: AA Nationwide Auto Center. (Bunch of Cowboys but that's another story, lol)
The defects picked up on by them were an oil leak coming from the rocker cover, and some corroded brake pipes. Serious stuff by the sounds of it, maybe so if they weren't talking out their behinds.
The oil leak is absolutely non-fatal and is a regular occurance on these when they are overfilled apparently, which is what has been done in the past by a previous owner. Just to verify this Duncan checked the oil and it was fine, all topped up correctly and spot on. He also checked the gearbox oil to make sure that was alright, which it was.
He then got the car up on the ramp to check out these 'DANGEROUS BRAKE PIPES' that had me worrying. After close inspection, he did notice some slight cracking in one of the hoses, but it was only outer casing cracking and the hose itself was alright and nothing to worry about.
He then took a look at the rear brake pipe which was apparently badly corroded and in need of changing ASAP according to QAS. He used a file to scrape what was only surface rust away and left behind a nice looking un-corroded pipe, So, brake pipe/hose wise we are all good!
Whilst it was up on the ramp he checked the wheels and suspension out to see if this would explain the reason behind the play in the steering wheel, along with checking the steering wheel out and top strut mounts he managed to deduce that it requires a new steering rack if it bugs me that much. To be honest, the play is extremely minimal and I have now gotten so used to it I'd probably not like the feeling if I did get it changed, lol
Duncan also removed the rear bump stops that were loose within the suspension coils for me, as all they were doing was getting in the way.
He then checked out all the brakes for me and said that apart from requiring new rear discs sometime in the near future they were all spot on. He rubbed some metallic based paste into the front discs (Which he believed were the cause of my screeching), apparently on the way home this should have rubbed a layer off of the brake pads and cleaned them all up. I had no screeching on the way home and hopefully this will continue forever, as it was a bloody nightmare, lol
He also checked out the exhaust that Long Life had done for me yesterday and said they'd done a decent job. Which I'm happy about!
Apparently I've done well and picked a good 'un with this Coop, which I'm ECSTATIC about!
There are dudds out there though, quite alot apparently!
Absolute top bloke and I'll be visiting him from now on if I require any work to be done on my car. It's good the way he actually explains and shows things to you unlike most other mechanics out there.
He was just finishing off a service on a brand new Alfa GT when I got there and it looked absolutely gorgeous! It was a JTD though so I was slightly disappointed, lol
He must have had around 10 Fiats there and 15 or so Alfa's.
So yeah, if you need any work doing to your Coupe then I highly recommend him.
Cheers,
Darren
Alfa-Net, Duncan Slade, 07968 488 942, Fishponds Bristol.
