Disappointing experience with WOF voucher

[Tagged]

This happened around 3 months ago just before I left NZ on uni holiday.

Bought a WOF voucher with A1 in quake city on i cant remember which website for $15 i think.

Failed the warrant due to what they say "old front springs" and they cant give me an accurate quote. Asked a few more times and they told me it would be around $750 to get a new pair put in including labour.

They said the problem is that my springs are too old and risks popping out when I go over bumps. I thought 750 was too much so I went to another garage recommended by many and was told that the springs are perfectly fine.

Went back to A1 and they showed me why are the springs were not safe by ripping it straight out of the shock bare handed screwing up some rubber pieces during the process.

Still not wanting to spend 750 i went to Ilam Toyota and was then referred to Mag&Turbo in town. Mag&Turbo said its an easy fix would only cost $185. But after checking the car out they said the springs were totally fine too, but just in case they've tighten it just a little more.

Went back to A1, they are still not happy about the springs, so I got them to call Mag&Turbo, finally A1 passed my warrant mumbling that the guy from Mag&Turbo is an idiot.

Is this what normally goes on when you buy WOF vouchers online???? This is only the second time I bought these vouchers and the 1st time was with Ford and it was fine. But this time it really took a FXXK load of time and annoying.....probably should just go with the normal $40 WOF next time LOL

btw long time no see TS, havn't been up here for around 3 months

[ch4ng]

What springs were you running?
Reason for failure would be the springs are not held captive.
Even factory springs have preload on them so at full extention you cannot just pull them off the seat by hand.

[Tagged]

oh yea thats exactly what I was failed for.

its running on Greentein lowering springs. But only lowered by a tiny little bit I think. It was done by previous owner.

The guy from Mag&Turbo told me so as well. when I told him the springs were yanked out at A1 he was pretty surprised.

However the spring wasn't yanked straight out though. The guy who did it twist and turned it a couple of times and the third time it came up along with some rubber cushioning. Then he said "see? this is whats gonna happen when you go over a bump!"

[rollaholic]

did the guy at mag and turbo put the car on a hoist and check for captivity? you shouldnt be able to pull them off the seat by hand like that.

[Elmo]

If he put more than a little tension on something hes going to far, a warrent is a NON invasive visual test, ie, if he THINKS he sees a rust spot hes not allowed to poke a screw driver through it.

That is not your average WOF tester, the guy sounds like he was being a prick!

Dont use them again in my opinion.

Ive got springs in my car that when jacked up turn, loosely, but they cant fall out, so they are still captive. (plus the guys are a bit leanient as they like my old girl!

[.:O4AGTZ:.]

Possibly bending the truth as you were using a voucher maybe to try get some more money out of you.

[Leon]

Two part answer here.

1) I'd be concerned if somebody could pull the springs out of my car by hand without pulling my car off a hoist in the process. So I think given the information we've been given, there is a good chance the guy is right, your springs were not captive and could have been a WOF fail.

The rubber spring seat thingy isn't attached to anything most of the time, so that it came out with the spring isn't a biggie.

2) the guy's quote to fix, and information he gave you about why it was a fail was a bit rubbish. I guess maybe his people skills / bedside manner isn't too flash.

[tsoob]

find a good local mechanic mate and always use him.

[crispy'86]

^
This

When it comes to checking suspension for a wof along with the mandatory ball joint check, on something that's had lowered springs fitted i always give it a close visual and grab the spring and see if it's captive. Obviously in some cases it's pretty obvious if it's uncaptive but pays to check to cover your own arse. I wouldn't go trying to twist the spring out just to be a c*&t and make a point of it, because a wof inspection isn't just a visual check. There are still some things that have to be checked by hand i.e. brake hoses etc

[xsspeed]

find a good local mechanic mate and always use him.

100% this

[YeMs]

find a good local mechanic mate and always use him.

100% this

Totally. There are some tools out there that will use every trick in the book to squeeze coins out of you. Realistically speaking a wof should take half an hour ( altho very possible to do it faster that is a realistic average ). If the shop charges $70 an hour ( once again average, we charge $100 an hour at toyota, but i know of people charging as low as $50 ) then technically they would have to charge $35 to cover labour, $5 to cover admin and consumables. So they have to charge $40 just to cover costs before even turning a profit. In reality a '$15 wof scheme' can only be an attempt at making money through dirty tactics. Take Tsoobs advice and dont buy rediculously priced sh1t because it is always to good to be true.

[xsspeed]

Back to the OP, I guess if it was me I would have a look at/get someone to have a look at your springs at full drop. I guess it could be quite possible that you don't have the correct Teins in for your car/model, resulting in non-captiveness. Would be worthwhile for piece of mind to 100% rule that out.

On the topic of WOF vouchers and 10 wofs for $XX, it's just a loss leader, they are looking to entice you and hope that if something stops your car from passing a wof, that you give them the work to fix it. How imaginatively they quote that work or even come up with what needs fixing, depends entirely on how unscrupulous they are.

[Bling]

Sounds about right. They make nothing on the WOF so will fail you on something and quote a silly high price. Never going to be worth any saving you think you're getting in the voucher. However, a legit place wouldn't fail you on something stupid. They would then hope that the good service they gave you would mean you go back to them for repeat service.

$750 to replace two front springs? What a joke.


Tagged, just hit me up first next time via PM, would always take a look for ya. The fact you didn't fail on brakes must mean we did an ok job of that install

edit: beaten

[Dunny]

i went to some crazy WOF place awhile back and almost exact same thing, told me rear shocks were buggered (they were KYB standard replacements) and only a couple of years old, then also said the rear springs are stuffed (again standard springs), did the same thing as you by grabbing the spring and turning it in the seat until it dislodged from the taper and said there you go. I thought what a pr!ck. I said ok, was about to leave with the fail sheet he said oh but we can fix all that for you , I was like nah it's cool I will sort it myself and bring back.

Went round to a shock shop straight away who do free shock testing and they ran it on their machine and gave me a print out all fine, also they put car on hoist and check springs also all fine. They wrote that on the bottom of the print out for me.

Went back like 15mins later and said here you go shock print out and shock shop confirmed springs all ok. He took a copy of the print out and then changed my WOF to a pass

Total idiot trying it on

[DRFTIN]

i wouldnt call every discount wof an attempt at them failing you on everything, just most of them
at work here we've recently reduced our wof by about $15, yeah its to attract more customers of course, but just in an attempt to gain the other work that comes with it. our mechanics are mainly too lazy to fail a car cos it means more work for them

[Tagged]

The fact you didn't fail on brakes must mean we did an ok job of that install

edit: beaten

oh yes haha I had the same thought when nothing came out wrong with the brakes! it was a funny experience when no one could find the right pads for such a common car hahahaha~~

[Tagged]

our mechanics are mainly too lazy to fail a car cos it means more work for them

LOL i'd imagine so since normally they get paid a fix amount? more work does not = more $$ for then haha~~

[Tagged]

oh and yes both A1 and M&T checked out the springs with the car on a hoist with the shocks hanging loose (full) extension~

[Tagged]

$750 to replace two front springs? What a joke.

oh yea just to a bit more accurate, they said a good pair of new lowering springs would cost around $240 which sounds fair to me. But then they told me it would be around $750 total. Which leaves about $500 for labour???? how long would it take to replace two springs???? if they do it purely by hand then ok I'll give it to them, however I think there are inventions these days called "MACHINES" haha~

[wordnz]

1 hour MAX.