Monday, July 21, 2003
Kam’s Column - 21/07/03
Hello Again!
I'm sure you will be delighted to know, regular reader, that I've finally managed to extricate myself from all of those fantastic wiring jobs that you all sent into me. Many thanks to Dr Raj for filling in while I was dabbling with diodes and wrangling with the wires!
I had an absolutely brilliant weekend, possibly the best that I've had for a long time. No, Derby didn't win the Cup, nor did Owen decide that he wanted to come over on a free transfer. I spent the weekend being wined, dined and rubbing shoulders with celebrity - and it is all thanks to you out there!
Basically, you know that we are a Delphi Clutch and Brake fitting centre and, because of the size of our customer base, we were chosen to spend the weekend in the Delphi Suite at the Grand Prix!
So, there we were - yours truly along with some of the lads from the workshops - proudly displaying our "VIP Access" passes and who should we find standing right beside us? None other than the Terminator himself, Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Naturally I asked him if he would like to come and do some promotional work for Kam, but I very quickly found myself talking to the lapels of his rather large bodyguards!
Of course, one of the great things about being at the GP with Delphi was that it really drove home just how good their products are. They make parts for the axles of the F1 cars as well as some of the braking components too. That means that whenever we fit a Delphi part to your car, you are getting the same level of technology as Ralf or Michael get on their vehicles! Now that really is impressive.
Once the day's racing was over on Saturday, the Delphi company directors asked for a bit of hush, and presented Kam with an award for the best supplier in this area!
Factors like the size of our customer base and customer retention were taken into consideration, and Kam came out on top (not that we were surprised)!
Back in the workshop on Monday, it was time to flash my 'Access All Areas' badge... I mean get down to work! Mr Foster (name changed to protect his innocence) had brought his Mazda 626 into Heanor, complaining that the brakes were constantly squealing.
"It's driving me mad, Kev," he said while trying to extricate an earplug from his left ear. "I have to wear these things" he pointed to the now freed plug, "just to get myself around town! Even the neighbours' dogs are howling when I drive past!"
I didn't like to say anything, but we knew that something was coming our way when we heard all the hounds in the area making a commotion street-by-street; we could have tracked Mr Foster's progress to the metre had we had the time!
"Don't worry Mr Foster," I said, "leave it with me and I'll personally guarantee that your car will never squeal like that again."
"I might just hold you to that, Kev - I've taken it to three separate garages and haven't had any improvement whatsoever. Good luck!"
It wasn't too hard to diagnose the problem. Once I'd whipped the wheels off, it all became obvious. The previous pads and discs that had been fitted to the 626 weren't of the best quality (that was putting it nicely!) and they were badly worn. Additionally, the poor quality had meant that little fragments of the pads had become caught in the actual braking mechanism, causing it to catch and squeal. This was a job for Delphi!
Once I had spoken to Mr Foster to check the cost of the new items, I offered up a set of Delphi pads and discs to the car and had them attached in no time at all. The test drive was totally silent (apart from me humming along to the radio of course) without a hint of noise from the brakes. As you can imagine, Mr Foster was delighted - especially when I gave him a Dr Kev guarantee that the problem would not reappear during the life of those pads and discs! I don't think we'll be seeing him again until the next service - unless he forgets to refill his coolant (something that I checked quickly while the car was up on the ramp). But none of you would ever forget such a basic thing, would you regular readers?
In the midst of all the GP excitement, the world has naturally kept turning and it hasn't escaped my notice that some heat is being turned on the Prime Minister over the death of Dr Kelly. I have a feeling that this matter is going to run and run, especially once the conspiracy theorists get their teeth into it...
That's it for another week, when I can assure you that I will be back (having spent time in the proximity of the great Austrian I have had the chance to perfect my accent for those all important 'Hollywood Theme' evenings)! Have a quiet week!
