30 min job? It's a Citroen make that 2 hours!

rossnunn · Post by **rossnunn** » 24 Sep 2004, 02:46

That is how long it took to fit 4 new tyres to my ZX. 2 hours!
Some bone head had stripped the thread of one of the wheel bolts on the drivers side front, so the mechanic had to re-tap the thred, half way through, his Snap-on re-threading tool decided to Snap-off! leaving one half in the hub. That ment a strip of the hub to have it drilled out, then retapped > thhose bitss are hard ya know!. Then while rebuilding he noticed one of the caliper bolts had snapped, and to top it off the garage had a power cut for about 5 mins while one wheel was one the balancing machine!
Ahh the joys of Citroen ownership! - still only cost me £60, and they worked through till gone 6, so can't grumble

LeFrog · Post by **LeFrog** » 24 Sep 2004, 03:16

You're being a bit hard on Citroens. Could that not happen to any card in the world?

rossnunn · Post by **rossnunn** » 24 Sep 2004, 03:27

true, I think it was because I was jabbing fun at my mates rusty cavilier - what goes around n all that.

NiSk · Post by **NiSk** » 24 Sep 2004, 17:29

You're lucky he didn't charge you for the snap-on! Most garages would! And you car is not alone in breaking wheelbolts - I just finished changing a bottom ball joint on a mates Audi 80, tightened the wheel bolts up with a MANUAL wheel brace and ended up with half a wheelbolt in it! Same procedure - out with the HS drills, luckily the stud extractor worked this time - otherwise om my daughters Passat (same design) we must have changed at least a half dozen broken wheelbolts over the years.
//NiSk

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 24 Sep 2004, 18:00

Nisk, in this country, Snap-ons have an unconditional lifetime guarantee. Break it and it gets replaced. Free of charge. A very kind friend once enquired of me what I would rate as a good spanner. I answered him that I rated Snap-ons as jolly good tools. To my delight and surprise, he bought me a set for Christmas. I've never needed that guarantee and they are now ten years old.
Should one get mislaid, I become like a teething infant until it is found, cleaned and safely returned to my toolkit!

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 24 Sep 2004, 21:03

Not that I want to start a holy-war about tool brands, but...
Snap-on are very over priced, there are other manufacturors who produce tools that are as good with the same lifetime replacement guaruntee but at a lower price. You can argue that snap-on are better quality, but I know of better quality tools at better prices.
Compared to cheap rubbish, Snap-on are good quality but if you compare them to decent tooling (Britool, Elora, Facom, Sykes Pickavant and numerous others) they are nothing special at all.

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 24 Sep 2004, 21:17

Always remember have to have a tap 'spark eroded' out of a diesel cherry picker on hire once. Night shift came on, flat tyre. I know, not much to change all going well untill 'SNAP' as above. The stud had broken so far down the bl**dy hole we couldn't get at it with the drill and bit so we had this new piece of kit and I tell you the thread looked like new. No re-tapping required. 20min job for 2 turned in to 4 hours in the middle of winter at night. Ah thoes were the days.

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 24 Sep 2004, 21:57

I have a set of 5 Halfords own brand ring spanners, bought in 1976 when I got my first bike- a Yamaha FS1E [:)]( NBW51L, in that metallic gold colour ), and I still have them and use them now. I don't know who actually made them, but they have been damned fine tools over the years!!!!

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 24 Sep 2004, 22:27

I remember pulling a stud out of my mini's hub right before I had to go to work. I thought 2CVs, AXs and the like only have 3 nuts/bolts so what the hell. I think I drove around for about a week before I went the scrappy and got a stud. I'm still here and so is everybody I drove past. [I can sense I'm about to get a telling off though]