Workshop broke my car.

At least it doesn't need a gearlock ;-)

Don't wake him.

I knew Tim & his car(s) in Dunedin, very fussy owner with a real passion for Fords - would guess that shifter was perfect before taking it in - likely that guy has broken it not used to 3 speed 'coon arrangement, drop into 2nd before selecting 1st is the general rule if it wont playball

Yeah the **how do you get it in to first** is a sorta dead give away.
2 sugars.and milk it in pal-must be damn bell tea drinkers-tell em they owe ya some speights and a matching colour coffee cup.

1st prize for assumption and wound-up-edness.Maybe you go by the principle of 'if it don't move the first time, get a bigger hammer', but sometimes it doesn't take much more than a little thought and care to avoid a problem.

In the case of our Chev, you would not find a cleaner more original one around I believe (due to the way it's been cared for over only 2 owners), but when the inspector tries to move the gearlever 2 feet when it only needs to move an inch - of course it's going to break no matter what! If you have no idea what your talking about in a particular instance, why try and argue the point based on assumption!

End of the day i'll post this for ole kazbanz.
Been around long enough to have replaced a few ol ford *coffee cups* meself.
Never been ruff enough to break one.
tis akin to wheels.I.E. don't be rough and tip er ova millie.
had WELL over 2 feet of air under an eckie inside front MANY a time.LOL. Favourite trick in my old 1600 gt (A tad and a feww weee bits removed from STD-*Fettled to the nth*) was to simply place the ole inside front ABOVE the kerb. LOL tight and tidy. and don't be ruff and tip er millie

If you're capable of fixing the problem, then why did you bother taking it to a mechanic in the first place!

my goodness man, did you read the post about how he used it incorrectly and not according to the 'instructions on the packet' as you put it! have you ever even driven a car with a vacuum gear change!yet we have no choice but to sometimes let novices 'test' our cars every 6 months!we've looked after that car in our family for nearly 50 years, but it was the mechanic that broke it - no bones about it and he was man enough to admit it! but for the record we sourced a replacement ourselves from America - of course things break from time to time and given his inexperience I was much more comfortable with fixing it myself.

just remind me where your garage is so i don't bring my grandparent's 1969 bmwwith 30000 kms on the clock in - you'll probably just tell me it's an underengineered piece of crap ready for the scrap heap because it's old and just walk away. or you'll try and abuse it like the workshop truck while you rip it around the block for a brake test! you come across as though you couldn't care less about someone else's pride and joy no matter what it is.

yes things do break and like i said a few posts above - who knows the real condition of the coffee cup in question! but again to make a decision without knowing either way specifically would just make anyone look silly.

it reminds me of a couple of things that happened to my Fairmont while my grandparents still owned it.they always had it serviced at the ford dealership here, yet they once managed to break the horn ring retainer off because the mechanic didn't know how to remove it! instead of asking how he just pulled it straight up and snapped it. even more remarkably is that they wouldn't source a replacement part but paid for it (it was the days before they were being reproduced).i still remember driving with dad through to roxburghto robbs garage to get the only one that could be tracked down in the south island at the time.

another time an apprentice was about to raise the car to rotate the tyres and forgot to put the handbrake on - cannoned it into the hoist post and wrote off the driver's door. they did send that to their shop to get fixed, and the terrible job they made of fitting an xy door to and xr is still apparent. i'd also be wary of letting someone else fix something if they didn't have the experience to avoid it in the first place - but then maybe fixing their mistake is exactly what that individual needs to learn! we all make mistakes at times, and i hate someone else having to fix mine.

so believe it or not there are mechanics that make mistakes and cock up from time to time either through carelessness, lack of experience or any other reason - don't pretend it doesn't!I worked for a short time at a workshop who's floor motto was 'deny all knowledge'.perhaps something you could relate to given your stance that mechanic always seem to know how to operate everything correctly despite the obvious!

part of the problem at the workshop is every day they get "Sin Shu" coming in and destroying the customers cars

Sin Shu has been known to cause stereos to malfunction while the mechanic replaces the rear brake shoes,

make the front suspension bushes wear out while doing a service

put dents and scratches everywhere, complete with rust on the bare metal, on a sunny day

break flimsy colum gear shifters while changing the oil.

the list goes on. every day customers will try and blame workshops for things that were already broken in an attempt to get free repairs.

we need to deport sin shu so this stops happening, but he's so busy hanging out with 'mr nobody' who was last not seen backing the courtesy car into the new cars on the lot

They where doing the exhaust you Muppet. I do almost everything on my cars these days because of workshops like these. I guess I should by a pipe bender to replace my exhaust every 20 years.

unfortunately you're probably right. and you'd probably have money left over too

I've got an engine stand bought for the same reason.

Have learnt over the years, when dropping a car off for whatever, service etc, I get them to come out and walk around the vehicle with me (most are not happy but I just tell them can take my work somewhere else - they are use to me now) we have a good look and when I pick up again we repeat the job. So far have had two free panel jobs on doors and rear due to "issues" that happened when they had the vehicle.

lol i think both those guys work in Tauranga servicing bmws - send immigration round now!

the only difference here is that the guy seemed to have trouble with the process of changing gear with the old column change setup, and then the part in question gets broke.our mk1 zody is similar - if 1st doesn't happen naturally try the clutch again, if still no go just slide up into reverse to get things aligning.you don't just lie across the seat and use the steel caps to get things moving. like sin shu!

yes these cars are old and don't compare to the engineering of today, but it's because of yesterdays technology and development we have todays cars - you can't have one without the other!

to use the age old art of assumption that seems commonplace here, i'll have to conclude the service guy in question has spent his entire apprenticeship sweeping the floor, changing sparkplugs and oil, and filling the sugar bowl in the smoko room. he has no real experience with fixing things but can lower a car four inches with nothing but a grinder in 7 and a half minutes.he would have to drive a lowered silvia with 19' wheels and a vintage car to him is 92 lancer.

but surely that would just be silly to assume!

lol as i stated we didn't 'toss our toys' but helped to fix it ( the guy was reasonable about how it happened - a concept i'm not sure you grasp judging by some of your posts!) so didn't get any free work done! and as i said, yes stuff does break from time to time. it's when it's through carelessness it's frustrating. if stuff didn't break you wouldn't have a job and i wouldn't have a hobby.

specifically our gear lever - a guy who has supposedly driven these in his younger days and knows how to use it then gets in and uses a gearlever in the wrong way is going to break it every time - i wouldn't put the new knob under that much pressure. you would know that though having experience with the system in question.!

you still make assumptions on the condition of said broken parts when you have no idea, so yes you are coming across as a totally arrogant grease monkey - glad you realise it. it's that attitude that will get defensive straight off rather than, 'let's look a little deeper into this' that gives tradesmen a bad rap across the board.

so criticise the guy, his choice of car and whatever else, but admit you don't know 100% what really happened so are assuming at best.ironic your falsely based assumptions lead to us being cry babies!

The funny thing is I have an XP Fairmont that has more or less the same problem I can see it is about to break so I don't let anyone near it. It has been like this for about 10 years and I can't find another (I don't use it that often so not top of my list). The one in my XW was mint with no sing of wear. I'm so sick of all these dumb ass workshops that think the moment something shows signs of wear I take it into them to "set them up" so they can pay for parts for my car.
What planet are you on!

Prettynormal of todaysworkshops, probably never even seen a column change . They are NOT the place to take classic cars . Forget compo just name the shop, do they speakengelish there !

the facts areyou were already having trouble with the gearshift!doint blame the garage !those old Falcon shifters are as weak as and obviously it was in need of some attention! reply by ex Ford mechanic with 40yrs experience

LOL bullshit only in a piece of crap with gearchangeissues

Yes, when I picked it up he said he'd never worked on something so old, Then the manager told me he's worked on a lot of "classic cars". prob' is they are both in their late 20's to mid 30's so think a 1984 Toyota Starlet is a classic.

also all the old school mechanics that keep telling me that they used to break back in the day all I can say is: 'there were bad drivers back then as well as today" da!

d'uh so you guys are both saying that it is totally 100% certain that there's no way the operator contributed to the problem despite you not knowing the situation in detail - only by generalisation! you've already been told he didn't know how to operate the column change so selective deafness much on your part! my experience is that lack of experience can break components that shouldn't necessarily break.

it seems you are unwilling to judge each situation individually on it's merits but rather throw a blanket approach that a mechanic can do no wrong in regards to old cars.what is the cutoff point for 'old underengineered' cars and components that aren't worthy of your time and effort!it's that blissful ignorance of the fact that all cars require different attention that leads to problems - it almost seems like you admitted to that a couple of posts back yet still ignore the fact in reality!

it's not like the guy wants the mechanic hung drawn and quartered, but a little bit of follow up and customer service perhaps wouldn't go amiss, and might help the younger guy learn a bit and avoid potentially doing the same thing again in the future - there's no harm in learning something new is there! or do you not believe in passing on your experience to the next generation too!

but by all means carry on with 'the customer is always wrong' approach.

I could probably drive the thing in my sleep (without breaking it), so it didn't cross my mind.

They're crap, it's broken before, you've fixed it, you've got a spare one - just put it in and wait for it to break again.

Had one break at ChCh while heading for Millers Flat to visit friends who owned the garage there, so had to stop at convenient spots to select appropriate gear from under the bonnet. Fixed it with 2 pop rivets and never touched at again.

Mechanic wrecked my bonnet lock-down while doing a WOF - was no good moaning coz he didn't know how to fix it, nor did he know how to operate it.

but still! they knew it broke on them surely! but they didn't tell you before you picked up your car!they just tried to hide the fact by not telling you, shocking!