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Car Service and Trust…

O.k… well I have been having some drama’s with my beloved car (Subaru Forester 2000 GX) over the last year. Yes my beloved Subaru has been giving me a drama. But most of the drama has not been with the car itself but with who to trust to get it fixed.

Firstly last year we had a clutch issue which meant that it needed to be replaced. Sigh, and a shit load of money later it was fixed.   But once it was fixed it took 2 more services and 1 slightly cranky letter to get it sorted. And yes on Friday the issue was correctly resolved by the people that did the original install.

I will rewind a bit now and name the two companies involved. Firstly I have been taking my car to Ultratune for over 5 years now and have not had any issues until this clutch problem arose. The problem was a chirp when you depressed the clutch pedal. Now, I know a lot about a lot of things… to the point that it annoys most of my friends when I drop information into most conversations. However the one thing I know very little about is cars. Yes, that is one of those boys things that I never got.

Anyway back on track… we took it back to Ultratune twice to try and get the issue fixed, and both times it would seem to be o.k for a while and then the noise would come back. So in frustration we took the car on its next service to Subaru and paid for the service with them and asked them to look at the clutch.

This they did, charging me $150 for looking at the clutch noise and told me that I needed a new clutch and fly wheel, and it was going to cost me around the $1500 mark. Oh FUCK I thought at which point I wrote to Ultratune. Now hat tip to them they were very apologetic on the phone and said bring it back in and we will have a look at it.

Now this is where it gets confusing to me. They fixed it… (and for FREE).. turns out it was the springs on the Thrust bearing thingy. Now this is the problem… Subaru were quite happy to bag Ultratune and would have been quite happy to fix my clutch. But see now they had made a diagnosis that was wrong. One that would have seen them replace the clutch and fly wheel. One that would have seen them fix everything and as a result would have most probably fixed the source of the noise. Of course for a fuck load more money that I would have had to paid, being none the wiser to the original problem.

So the question of trust is who. Do I trust Subaru who got it very wrong or do I trust Ultratune who only got it a little bit wrong, and managed to fix it.

I’ve got to go back for something else before I big driving trip at Xmas and it will be to Ultratune.