Dr Kev. - Kam Servicing Network.

Hello Again!

As I'm sure that you are all aware regular reader, the legendary comedian Bob Hope died a few days ago at the impressive age of 100. I know that he had a 'good innings' (as I gather they say in swanky private cricket clubs), but I was really saddened at the news as I loved his brand of comedy. I have to say that some years ago, there was a hoax going around on the great man's birthday that he had died. I, believing everything that my good friends tell me, promptly called Mandy at home, sent a text message to my best mate and generally, in retrospect, made a bit of a fool of myself!

Apparently, the rumour came from Mr Hope himself - or is that just another tall tale that I was told?

This week's story is all about charging - both financial and electronic! Mr Shaw (name changed to protect his innocence) owns a rather nice four year-old Ford Escort that kept discharging the battery after four days. It was always on the fourth day, never the third or the fifth, which in itself was more than a little odd. Being a successful businessman, Mr Shaw spent much of his time hammering up and down the motorway, so had been to four separate garages around the country in order to get the problem sorted.

"But no-one has been able to do anything, Kev" he whined. "I've spent a small fortune trying to get this sorted, I've had four courtesy cars; three separate days of waiting on train platforms when courtesy cars weren't available and a multitude of bills with nothing to show for them! It's time to see if you really are as good with the wiring as you claim!"

This sounded like a challenge.

"No worries, Mr Shaw. If you could leave the car with us for a few days, we'll get the problem sorted for you. And of course, we have got a courtesy car waiting here for you to use in the meantime."

Typically, when the Escort arrived, I was up to my eyeballs with another job that had taken a little longer than expected, so I asked the ever-willing Glynn if he would mind taking a look.

"It's fine Kev, I can't see any problem with it at all. There's a clutch of new parts fitted" (at this point I looked at him quizzically - what had a clutch got to do with the electric system I wondered. Then I realised that I had misheard!) "and there seems to be plenty of charge in the battery. I can't find anything wrong with it."

Well, if Glynn said that he couldn't find anything, there obviously wasn't anything to be found. So I called Mr Shaw and suggested that we hold onto the car until the battery ran out - which it duly did three days later. We finally had a problem that we could see!

Since I had finally disentangled myself from the previous job, I took the opportunity to look the Escort over myself. Mr Shaw wasn't lying when he told me about the new parts that he'd had fitted. Under the bonnet sat a new alternator, new starter motor, plenty of new wiring and a new calcium sealed unit battery.

As soon as I saw the battery, the alarm bells started to ring. It wasn't that it was a dis-reputable brand - in fact it was one that we use ourselves - but it was the fact that it was brand spanking new and as such needs special treatment. There are different methods of testing the charge held by batteries; one for older units and one for newer. And, on closer inspection, it appeared that the previous garage had used the old method to test it! This meant that the battery had been irreversibly damaged and, when I tested it using our latest purchase, I could confirm that it just wouldn't hold charge. I checked with Mr Shaw before dropping a new battery in and, so I'm told, it is still charging happily a week later (unlike Kam - we didn't charge Mr Shaw for the inspection that Glynn carried out or for checking the car each day; as you know we won't charge unless we actually fix something).

In fact, I'm so confident that the problem won't reoccur that I have given Mr Shaw a personal Dr Kev guarantee! If the problem reoccurs with the new battery, Mr Shaw could find himself with a shiny new Rolls Royce...

I've had plenty of phone calls from your out there, regular readers, concerned about the men in white coats milling around Sawley recently. No, we weren't doing the oil and plugs on a UFO, and it wasn't the doctors come to take me away for offering such good deals - it was the council officials coming to inspect the plans for the extension that we're going to put on the Sawley site. It's going to be a big investment for the company and, once complete, we'll be able to carry out Class 7 MoT testing. We'll bring you more on the story as it comes in!

We've also been asked about Sunday openings. At the moment, we don't open on Sundays, but we may do sometime in the future. Afterall, everyone needs a day off sometime!

I'm also getting more people than ever coming into the workshop extolling the virtues of the Stunner tyres. Mr Shaw had a set put on his Escort while it was in (he'd only got 14000 miles out of his previous branded set!) and immediately commented on how much better the car felt. From Minis to Maseratis, the Stunners are performing much better than expected for everyone. In fact, I've got a set on my personal car - and as I have a wife and two small children, you can imagine that I only use products that I feel are totally safe. That's as good as a Dr Kev guarantee!
Until next week,

Dr Kev Allen.