been a member of the RAC now for two years and have had to call them out a a few times.
1st time my car was over heating,patrol man popped a radseal pellet in the rad and everything was fixed. i was impressed and he got on his way.
2nd time round i just picked up a car from a trader,driving it back on the motor way and started over heating. pulled over rang the boys in orange and about an hour later he pulled up had a 3 second check and told me he was 95% sure the haed gasket had gone. got car towed back to the trader and got a refund.
3rd time was 2 days ago on my 1997 mk3 golf tdi.it was chucking out smoke and over reving on its own then cutting out. patrolmen arrived in 10 minutes, done his walk round and smelt a few things and proceded to explain that the turbo seal had gone.
next day rang vw and told them whats happening and said what the RAC had told me.
they laughed and said there is no such thing as a turbo seal.
got my mecanic round today,plugged his computer in, pressed a few buttons and reset the ECU and everything is now all fine and only cost me £35. considering i was expecting to pay in the region of £500 thanks to the patrolmans prediction.
ANYWAY do these patrolmen actually know what they are talking about because the last two times they have been completly wrong and very far away from what is really wrong.
might move to the AA
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A bit OT, but who really believes you're still a "member" and not just another customer? They might still use that old fashioned terminology to make you feel warm and comfortable, like a club you want to join, but they don't treat people like members anymore - remember the old AA salute?
And, coming back to topic, that could be where it's all going wrong. To be fair though, the increasing complexity of cars makes it difficult to make quick diagnosis of problems with any kind of accuracy.
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I'd change VW dealer, their is a turbo seal & failure would give similar symptoms to those you'd experience.
So out of 3 breakdowns they got it wrong once! You say got wrong twice! You're obviously very hard to please!
Don't know about the RAC but AA Patrols are very well trained, both on internal courses & manufacturers, how do I know I used to work for them.
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if rac man shrugged his shoulder and said "dunt no mate its goosed ...."would you prefer that as an answer?,its nigh on impossible to diagnose a fault on todays engines without the time and the rac man wont have that as he will be off to the next breakdown.
i dont work for them but i guess it must be a hard job to please all the people all of the time :(
sorry..............
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My belief is that he RAC AA etc are not there to carry out maintainence or car repairs at the roadside.Your expectations are too great. They are there to facilitate simple repairs IF possible and if not either get you to someone who can or get you home/destination. They simply could not carry all the diagnostic kit or spares for evey vehicle on the road.
As most cars these days have a wealth of electronics and systems their capabilities are very restricted.
Likewise dealers have very limited stocks of parts and you have to wait until at least the next day.
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Fullchat
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First time you were well impressed , second time you "got a refund"(of what??),third time they were there in ten minutes and car was fixed for £35. Now, lets say you had not been a member of RAC and needed your car towed to garage 3 times - how much would that have cost? seems to me you got pretty good service.
OK, maybe wrong diagnosis, but it doesn't seem to have cost you anything and to expect perfect diagnosis by the side of the road (do you expect the RAC to carry diagnostic computers for all the cars they may be called out to?) is expecting a bit much. Main thing is that they "rescued you" and in total the cost seems to be £35?
I'm a member, only used them twice in last 15 years - once when daughter got a stone through radiator 20 mins up the motorway on a wet, cold, very busy Friday night and I set off to help her - RAC beat me too it! Last year in France , clutch cable went and they were great, they arrived within the hour, car towed to garage, hire car arranged for two days, taxi to pick up and return hire car and get to garage, car repaired etc - cost £28 in total. I didn't complain!
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Phil
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One colleague I used to know decided to scrap his car, a Volvo 360 on the advice of a patrolman. He decided to give it to another colleague for spares for his 360. apparently it lost all drive from the diff, and had to be towend home
When the recipient arrived with a mate who knew the model, mate duly got underneath the car, in full view of the doner and simply made an adjustment at the diff (can't remember what), and basically mentioned that its a simple problem to fix and the car was once again mobile!
The doner was to make a complaint to the company but I felt on hearing this story that he should have souced an opinion from another competent mechanic, rather than just taken the patrolman's view.
H
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A friend had an Audi 100 automatic the box stopped changing properly the AA said new box I went over to the car laid down and pushed the vacuum pipe back on ,the beer was free for the rest of the day.
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I have to ask: why was there a kebab present while Hugo's friend was having his car mended?
Nice of it to offer to make the complaint though. Do you think the RAC would have given him a chilli reception?
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