Dave

Yeah, either will be a hassle but we're deffo going ahead with it. Not letting them get away with it. Happy to say though since East Coast did the job correctly she's been driving sweet as a nut! Handling the daily duties while DD hides in the garage awaiting her ABS fault to be fixed and get her MOT ready. Poppy's actually a decent car in winter, traction control, LSD and the must have item (taht all uk cars should come with imo.....heated front and rear screens!

Could be the brushes in the motor itself have worn down, don't think it sounds like the linkages.

haha, thats cool as! I did this years ago with the seat from a Civic MB1 SR, was comfy as hell! Mind you, that MB1 seat would probably be worth something now, was in mint condition too. Can't remember if I ever took photos of it or where it ended up! Interesting about the metal fatigue though, one to watch out for. Seat may also have been in a crashed civic? Hard to tell really but best to check ours to be on the safe said. Ta for the heads up mate and totally rocking that chair! (hehehe, see what I did just there!)

yeah really is the worst customer service and the worst car repair (or should that be NON-repair) that we've ever had. ATS Galashiels are shockingingly bad, worst Garage ever! Deffo going to take the f*ckers to court, stupid little boys that they are!

Soooo, fitted the new sensor....bloody light now flashes a code for that one and also now the N/S/R sensor!! Checked and the voltage going to them is 4.6 so think they are getting the right power, but the code shows it could be a power issue. Faffed about with the wiring loom that goes from the rear to both sensors, then pulled the ecu fuse on DD to clear any errors that it might be storing even with the battery disconnected. Turned her on, boom, light off!! Took her for a test drive, light came on when we got out the garage Continued with the test drive and light eventually went off.......only to come back on about 3 mins later. So deffo thinking it's a bad connection/broken wire on that harness. She's back in the garage and will stay there till I can find the energy to fix her. Had so much going on with the house just now and also Poppy Coopers problems that I'm taking a break from fixing them just now!

Here's what greeted us! passenger side shows how it should be sitting....... Whole mount is sitting way too high, and deffo not right. Noticed they'd also put paint on all the bolts this time, I suspect so they know if it's been removed to be inspected. Decided not to use the car and took it to East Coast, a MINI specialist. They showed that the rubber mount wass taking the whole weight of the car (when car went up on ramp, the mount dropped right down!). They then took videos/pictures of dismantling it and removing the strut from car. This showed the following: Spring not seated correctly at top or bottom cups Grease cup missing from top mount (they had fitted a cheap sealed bearing mount whereas the BMW Mini part has a seperate cup). Mount is so weak you can push the rubber up with your hands. They concluded that parts have been fitted wrong (spring), and that a very cheap aftermarket mount has been used which is different from standard spec. They have now fitted yet another top mount bearing (from BMW Mini) and bought a replacement grease cup (again from BMW Mini) and have rebuilt the strut. Spring is properly located this time and mount looks like it did when she left the factory. They concluded that the mount they fitted, and the fact the spring wasn't located properly, would have failed very soon. Getting the shoddy work done by the little A-holes at ATS rectified has cost me a further £192. We are now in the process of getting an email drafted with our findings and photos etc and will be sending it to ATS HQ. We will be giving them the option to refund all costs incurred from them and also the cost incurred getting it fixed to compensate for the time we were left without the car. If they don't play ball, we're taking them to court. Absolutely disgusting company to deal with from start to finish. Just glad to get the car back on the road and in a safe condition to drive. Hats off to East Coast who have been brilliant throughout this whole thing.

So update time again. Caqlled the garage and spoke to Luke, the so called manager. Had to get Poppy trailered to the garage (ATS in Galashiels, STAY CLEAR OF THEM!) which Luke said I would have to pay for it they found their part had failed because of another part on the car. Could see right away what was coming, they were already building up their excuses, and the attitude on the phone was shocking to say the least. Car got picked up, but I took photos of the strut prior to it going and spring etc looked fine. They called back later that day and said broken spring which had caused their top mount to fail. So I was liable for the cost of a new spring, another new top mount and the cost of the recovery truck. Told him I was not happy and asked for either the email address for complaints or the number for ATS complaints dept to which he replied "Don't know what it is, google it yourself"! Finally emailed them and when I got no response, I called. Got soe gormless twat on the phone who said "oh yeah, can see that came in on Monday (this was now wednesday) but it's not been dealt with". Their way of dealing with things seems to be they email the garage concerned, then they stand by whatever the garage emails back. End result is they wouldn't budge, but offered to replace their failed part at no cost (which to me admits their part was shit in the first place!). Had to agree and we've paid for the repair and the recovery truck. They then had the car for 3 and a half weeks! Kept fobbing me off on the phone, Luke being a tosser basically. Finally Gayle called and said she wanted an exact day it would be ready and not a "maybe" day. Went to collect it and the tossers had left the pass window down by about a cm, to let the pouring rain in and soak the floor/ carpet. Drove it home, totally raging, and popped the bonnet. OMG!

Swiss cheese by the look of it mate!

Loving watching the build on this Jake, I wouldn't have the confidence/knowhow myself to take an engine down to the bare block and build it up again bit do love watching it happen. Hats off to you mate and keep up the amazing work! Any idea when it will be back in the car. Be interested to see what the differences are driving wise/any gains over previous build. Deffo my fav VTiS, such a stunner of a car in every way.

LOL I wouldn't have even got it past the door!! Be like "and where'd you think you're going with that? Garage is over there!

Just wondering if you could maybe clean them up/treat the rust then cover the inside of the lense with that tin foil tape (not sure what its called)? That way it would still be reflective?

How's the mods with the deck going mate @Mickg

Its bad crack that they are getting away with actually selling this pathetic excuse for fuel! E10 is utter crap. Destroys rubber fuel lines, damages injectors...........no wonder the gov is loving it. They get older cars off the road (so helps them meet their totally unrealistic emmisions limits), they get tax on all the cars going in for repair. Win win for them as usual and all part of the plan to force us into EV's. The refurbed injectors with the stainless steel filter sound good though.

Ahh, damned rust! Did you manage to get the paintwork on the roof sorted after the bike rack incident? Surprised the arches have started to rust though. Is a lovely looking car and stunning cars inside these!

jeese, how much are the injectors mate? Do you need to buy a complete rail?