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Meet Poppy, Dave's 1st gen MINI Cooper S Convertible


Dave
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On 9/4/2022 at 5:09 PM, AJCivic said:

Looks great Dave, looks like you might have been only a few minutes away from me :-)

lol just noticed in your profile you're in Cumbria mate! Wish i'd knew, could have popped over to see your civic! We tried to cram in as much as we could so visited quite a few towns and villages. Off the top of my head.......Windermere, Bowness- on-Windermere, Keswick, Ambleside, Lakeland, Grassmere, Hawkshead to name a few!

On 9/4/2022 at 7:22 PM, dr_broon said:

She's keeping you on your toes for sure mate.... Good that she was up for the run down to the lakes though - love it over there. 8-)

Yeah, she was ace, and Gayle and me have decided we need to visit the lakes for a wee break at least once a year. Absolutely love it and we're so chilled out there!

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And the drama continues with Poppy! Only two weeks after getting her new O/S top strut mount replaced, the brand new one went last night with a catastrophic failure! Luckily it was as we just pulled out of our drive, so just drove her straight back in. Her a loud noise then the steering was making noises when turning it left/right. Absolutely raging and will be calling the garage that did the work tomorrow morning. Could have been a lot worse if it had happened when we were touring the lake district a week ago, hate to think what would have happened had it gone on the narrow twisty roads. Nowhere to really pull over there safely too, most corners are blind bends. Even worse, Gayle and I had our granddaughter out in the car the 1st week after it was fixed. My question is, does anyone know if it is safe to drive it the 7 or 8 miles to the garage? I have no idea myself so looking for advice. Pics below show the extent of failure, and last 2 pics are of the pass side one for comparison to how it should look.

10-9-22 two weeks after fitted new top mount gone.jpg

 

10-9-22 two weeks after fitted new top mount gone2.jpg

 

10-9-22 two weeks after fitted new top mount gone3.jpg

 

10-9-22 two weeks after fitted new top mount gone4.jpg

 

last 2 below are of the pass side for comparison

pass side as comparison.jpg

 

pass side as comparison2.jpg

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/11/2022 at 3:43 PM, KiNK43 said:

Blimey that could have been nasty as ya say. With load on it cornering etc. Nightmare. What's it made from?

Swiss cheese by the look of it mate!

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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!

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Here's what greeted us!

new mount number 2 sits too high.jpg

 

passenger side shows how it should be sitting.......

pass side as comparison3.jpg

 

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.

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Wow that's mad Dave. What a s**t show!

Not really something you'd want to fail at motorway speed is it. Bunch of clowns by the sounds of it. 

I also don't know where people get off talking to customers the way they do sometimes aswell. Disgusting. 

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