Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Kam’s Column - 13/08/02
Hello Again!
What a weekend! Derby victorious in the first home game of the season! Sheffield conquered, vanquished by our boys who will, I am certain, go further than ever before this season. The atmosphere in the staduim was electric, any more charged and I’m sure everyone’s hair would have been standing on end! What a stunning game!
Talking about electricity reminds me – if you’ve got an older car with electric windows, you might find that they are starting to judder. This can be caused by the grease starting to congeal, so bring your car into Kam before the motors seize! (This happened to a friend of mine last week, which is why I’m mentioning it now – he was not best pleased!)
This week has also seen the 25th anniversary of the death of the King. Uh huh, I’m talking about the one and only Elvis Aaron Presley. I’m rumoured to be somewhat of a fan, and I challenge anyone to find out a fact that I haven’t come across…
On the dowside to this week, the police are still searching for those two girls who have gone missing. As a parent myself, I can only imagine the anguish their parents must be experiencing. I, and all here in the workshops, fervently hope that the police find them, and soon.
Anyway, this week’s story concerns Mr Denson’s new shape BMW which, after only four years, had clocked up near intergalactic mileage.
“The problem Kev,” he said gravely, “is the gearbox. Once it gets warm, third gear howls – literally. I’ve tried two garages and two gearbox specialists and all have said that I’ll need a whole new gearbox. Would you take a look at it for me and give it your expert opinion?”
“No problem, Mr Denson,” I replied. “There’s a slot this afternoon with your name on it. Would you like a courtesy car to tide you over?”
“No thanks Kev – the wife’s been trying to get me into town to buy some new stuff for the house for weeks. She’s sitting in the car outside right now…”
Later that day, Shaun took the BMW out for a quick test drive.
“It seems fine,” he reported. “The gear shift is OK, and there isn’t any noise.”
I thought it best to give Mr Denson a call, and he reminded me that the gearbox needed to be realy warm before the noise would start. Here, I had two options. I could either send Shaun back out now – in workshop time – for a longer test run or get him to take the vehicle back home to Leicester tonight, bringing it back in the morning. Apart from the fact that I needed the extra hands in the workshop, it made better sense to have Shaun take the car home (we are all insured to drive every car that comes in) as we wouldn’t then have to charge for the time involved and so keep Mr Denson’s bill low.
“Kev,it’s Shaun.” I was just sitting down to a good Chow Mein when my mobile rang that evening. “That BMW, it sounds terrible!”
“Mmph” I replied through a mouthful of noodles.
“I’ll put it up on the ramp as soon as I get in,” continued Shaun. “It does literally howl like a hound-dog at you though!”
Sure enough, when I arrived at the workshop the next morning, I found Shaun there eager to start on the howling ‘box. Once it was up on the ramp, he drained all of the oil and found a rather large number of metal filings within it. Obviously, the lubrication level had got too low at some point causing immense gearwear. Usually this would signal the need for a new gearbox, but I had a cunning plan.
“Try this,” I suggested, passing Shaun a selection of Forte bottles containing gearbox treatment, oil conditioner and a seal conditioner. Once these were added to the regular high-grade oil, the noise ceased completely! It wasn’t a new ‘box job after all, the existing one needed a little TLC!
Mr Denson was delighted. “Do you realise that your bill is only about 10% of what I’ve been quoted before? That’s brilliant!” In fact, he was so pleased that he called us from Truro, where he had a business conference two days later!
It just shows that sometimes, a problem isn’t all that it can be made out to be. The Forte treatments that we use are the best on the market, and they produce a range suitable for every aspect of your car. So no matter what your needs, we’ve got something to do the job!
Until next week,
Dr Kev Allen. Uh huh.
What a weekend! Derby victorious in the first home game of the season! Sheffield conquered, vanquished by our boys who will, I am certain, go further than ever before this season. The atmosphere in the staduim was electric, any more charged and I’m sure everyone’s hair would have been standing on end! What a stunning game!
Talking about electricity reminds me – if you’ve got an older car with electric windows, you might find that they are starting to judder. This can be caused by the grease starting to congeal, so bring your car into Kam before the motors seize! (This happened to a friend of mine last week, which is why I’m mentioning it now – he was not best pleased!)
This week has also seen the 25th anniversary of the death of the King. Uh huh, I’m talking about the one and only Elvis Aaron Presley. I’m rumoured to be somewhat of a fan, and I challenge anyone to find out a fact that I haven’t come across…
On the dowside to this week, the police are still searching for those two girls who have gone missing. As a parent myself, I can only imagine the anguish their parents must be experiencing. I, and all here in the workshops, fervently hope that the police find them, and soon.
Anyway, this week’s story concerns Mr Denson’s new shape BMW which, after only four years, had clocked up near intergalactic mileage.
“The problem Kev,” he said gravely, “is the gearbox. Once it gets warm, third gear howls – literally. I’ve tried two garages and two gearbox specialists and all have said that I’ll need a whole new gearbox. Would you take a look at it for me and give it your expert opinion?”
“No problem, Mr Denson,” I replied. “There’s a slot this afternoon with your name on it. Would you like a courtesy car to tide you over?”
“No thanks Kev – the wife’s been trying to get me into town to buy some new stuff for the house for weeks. She’s sitting in the car outside right now…”
Later that day, Shaun took the BMW out for a quick test drive.
“It seems fine,” he reported. “The gear shift is OK, and there isn’t any noise.”
I thought it best to give Mr Denson a call, and he reminded me that the gearbox needed to be realy warm before the noise would start. Here, I had two options. I could either send Shaun back out now – in workshop time – for a longer test run or get him to take the vehicle back home to Leicester tonight, bringing it back in the morning. Apart from the fact that I needed the extra hands in the workshop, it made better sense to have Shaun take the car home (we are all insured to drive every car that comes in) as we wouldn’t then have to charge for the time involved and so keep Mr Denson’s bill low.
“Kev,it’s Shaun.” I was just sitting down to a good Chow Mein when my mobile rang that evening. “That BMW, it sounds terrible!”
“Mmph” I replied through a mouthful of noodles.
“I’ll put it up on the ramp as soon as I get in,” continued Shaun. “It does literally howl like a hound-dog at you though!”
Sure enough, when I arrived at the workshop the next morning, I found Shaun there eager to start on the howling ‘box. Once it was up on the ramp, he drained all of the oil and found a rather large number of metal filings within it. Obviously, the lubrication level had got too low at some point causing immense gearwear. Usually this would signal the need for a new gearbox, but I had a cunning plan.
“Try this,” I suggested, passing Shaun a selection of Forte bottles containing gearbox treatment, oil conditioner and a seal conditioner. Once these were added to the regular high-grade oil, the noise ceased completely! It wasn’t a new ‘box job after all, the existing one needed a little TLC!
Mr Denson was delighted. “Do you realise that your bill is only about 10% of what I’ve been quoted before? That’s brilliant!” In fact, he was so pleased that he called us from Truro, where he had a business conference two days later!
It just shows that sometimes, a problem isn’t all that it can be made out to be. The Forte treatments that we use are the best on the market, and they produce a range suitable for every aspect of your car. So no matter what your needs, we’ve got something to do the job!
Until next week,
Dr Kev Allen. Uh huh.
