supervisor has been in that role before i started work there 12 yrs ago and unbelievable this same guy regulary turns up at work intoxicated and then drives cars in that state ( needless to say this was once of my official greviences with the manager) i know you guys are going to say call health and safety and i know your right but i feel the manager should do his job and take action emediately when this staff member goes to work like that but he doesent and he is fully aware, sometimes even made comments to myself about him stinking of alchohol , at the end the day though this is the guy on more money and supervisor role and after 26yr there still is not capable of doing half what i can and do perform

i forgot to mention i have already contacted acas and they are going to look at reconcilliation based on me doing duties of a manager without reward while other members of staff were better rewarded for a far lesser responsibilty , also i have been a key holder for a long time but this was because some years ago i was also a roadside breakdown/recovery staff memeber so had to have keys to drop of cars on the forecourt when outside workshop opening times, however this role ended around 4 yrs ago due to changes in the company but i was told to "keep hold of the keys becuase u might need them" , obviously this was always his plan to end up expecting me to open up at times, it wasnt everyday i open up though and the day in question that it was opened late was because the manager himself was late so just because he was running late he took it out on me for the premises being opened late !!! how could i be held responsible when it is not my duty to open up?

I exhausted all possiblities of trying toresolve the issue though and also due to never being made aware of company greivance policies i have in the end had to take it upon myself to try to resolve in the way that i have ( first verbal meeting with no joy then a formal letter of greivance again with no joy), the other member of staff has been in the compnay for 26 yrs and has the role of supervisor but as i said this role for him is actually beyond his capablities so whilst he got more money i didnt and yet did his job and mine, 4 yrs ago i brought up the problems and told the gaffer i may have to resign then if problems cant get resolved and at that time he virtually pleaded for me to stay and promised if i satyed then he would ensure problems would be resolved within 3 months but from then till now nothing has changed, unfortunately its not a simple case of me just refusing to do tasks ( that would be the easy way out of the problem) due to the nature of the business and the fact that the manager would just go out at any given time i ended up with no choice but to do the managers job for him as i was the only one capable, but as i have said he has taken advantage of this and simple end up presuming thats what i should do, there is no written agreement or contract in place, some of my greviences also relate to health and safety at the premise as these rules are broken on a regular basis and i wasnt happy with that, infact aorund 7 weeks ago one employee ended up injured and off work because he was being expected to do a job that the workshop is not even equipped to deal with and at the time the manager told me to do that job but i refused stating we was not properly equipped and he is expecting us to carry out jobs in a dangerous manner just so he can get an invoice paid ( like is said i was right and before you knew it someone was injured on that job and ended up off work) i went to see the manager on saturday aswell, bearing everything in mind and what i had put in my letter to him ( my job title is vehicle technition) i actually asked him what my job title was and strangely and wierdly aswell as making no sense whatsoever his rely was " your job title is "statutory" , i would love to know what the hell he was supposed to mean by that and obviously i told him he should lookup the meaning of the word " satutory"

i believe the discrimination comes into play becuase of equal pay??? i a lesss money than those above me and yet i do there job aswell as my own and they DONT do there job, P45 is expected tomorrow, i also put in writing my greivences and was met with no answer or even trying to resolve and i believe managemant has a duty to least attempt resolution so without even attempting then is this not as good as saying, "live with what you do on the pay you get or bye bye" ? i couldnt possibly do anymore to resolve issues but manager just completly ignores all the time, also when he made comment another employee about me losing my job he was actually refering to me being late opening the premises that morning and yet i have no obligation whatsoever to open the premises, also i feel it is very wrong he should make such a comment to a fellow employee and yet say absolutely nothing to me ! is this acceptable behaviour for a manager?, it also goes to support my theory that he wanted my job ended anyway, over the years i have witnessed many time staff come and go and i have seen first hand how the mangers attitude is towrds them when he wants them out and recently that very same attidute has been directed towards me

anyone at all got idea's on this one?

Ok Guys, i have been working for same employer for 12 yrs, over they last 5 or 6 years i have been left to deal with tasks that are not in my job description ! to be blunt i am techincally on the bottom rung of the ladder but have been expected to stand at the top without my permission or any form of contract to do so it had reached a point where customers themselves thought i was the owner of the company as all dealings and company decisions would be left to me aswell as being expected to open and close premises again without ever asking if im happy to do this or and form of written contract technically i have been lumbered with big responsibilites and plenty of stress from the job even though my job title still left me at the very bottom of the ladder and still on the wages of being on the bottom, i have never been rewarded for all the extras duties i was stuck with even though i have repeatedly raised the grievence with the managing director his attitude is to ingore anything you say simple because he wants to offload his duties onto me and half the time hew ould just go out and leave me stuck with it all, making things worse is that another employee does have job title of supervisor and is paid more than me for this role but he is not actually capable of the role so i end up stuck with his duties aswell !!!, recently i had to take time off due to a back problem and whilst off and with precious time to myself for once it started me thinking about all these problems again so i went to see the manaher to raise my greviences yet again with the hope that things can be sorted for when i get back to work but to be honest i was met with him pretty much ignoring again and no interest in talking about it, i then said that i may have to consider leaving under constructive dismisal as i had been left feeling that he wanted my job ended anyway but not issue redundancy ( he had def changed his attitude towards me in recent months and even at one point commented to another employee that i wont have my job much longer) it appears that just because i was asking him for a correct job title and sensible money to reflect that then he thinks it ok for me to be gone after 12yrs faithful service. After the meeting with him i wrote a letter explaining my problems and gave it to him, he has not responded to it so technically i believe at this point in time i no longer have a job and tomorrow i am supposed to pick up my P45 from him although technically i have never given him written notice to quit and he has not technically said i have been dismissed either, although it was me that asked if i was getting p45 from him and he said yes so does this meen he is dismissing me?? and altso with all the problems involved would this come under discrimination? as i was on less money and yet did one of the most demanding jobs there and even then was against my will but was simply left with no choice but to get on with it, also can someon clarrify, i worked 5 and half day week ) 441/2hrs) can someone say if overtime should be paid for anything over 37hrs ( there is no written contract of employment so obviously this would put me under statutory employment laws) although at one time my gaffer did try to get me to sign a contract but i refuse as the contents pretty much signed my life over to him according to what was in it lastly can someone confirm based on my working hours my holdiday entitlemnt would be 51/2day x 5.6 ?? is this correct? the manager alsways claimed we get 28 days a year and that includes banks holidays and that is what all employees have been taking but i need to know if the manager is doing people out of time they are allowed

in responce to Car Expert above, even though i have my own gripes with the AA i am actually going to defend them ( a little bit) on the above post, i work as a Mechanic , MOT Tester and roadside assistance mechanic and our company for many years ( untill recently) were contractors to the AA i few years ago the EU decided that us guys in the breakdown/recovery industry should comply with the wrorking time directive aswell as Tachograph laws in similar fashion to HGV drivers, now this all seams well and good for the driver as it ensures he gets proper rest breaks etc, howeve in this industry ( meeting the needs of the public 24/7 this created major concerns for a sensible way to deal with a 24/7/365 work patern because the only feaseable way to do that would be to treble staff numbers overnight so 3 shifts could cover 24hrs, not surprisingly due to costs this never happened so it meant that there would be certain times where cover maybe either very difficult or not available in some circumstances and of course this has a knock on effect for those motorist that need assistance much wrok would then be sent to contractors from the AA but even the contracor had the same problem in how to deal with it one point in the law dis state that a recovery agent can operate within 60 mile radius of there own base without the need to use a tachograph and thereby meaning that driver can operate for a longer period of time when on shift so now it has become commonplace for the recovery industry to adopt this practise to try and fully utilise the satff they have but the downfall of this mean your vehicle being transfered along the route to other contractors so the drivers dont go out of ther 60 mile boundary, If there is a few hundred miles to cover then this means multiply transfers takeing place just like what happened too you, i must also say your car will have never been left anywhere unsafe as when this happens the vehicle will allways be put into safe storage if it has to be. sometimes if you are really really lucky you do get taken all the way without tranfers but thats usually because your lucky enough to have broken down where there is someone willing to drive under tachograph but not many do that now this is an industry wide problem so its not just the AA at fault here, this happens now with all breakdown clubs and is the direct result of the EU working time directive and there imposing Tachograph Laws upon the Recovery industry so try not to be too hard on the AA on this occasion as its not entirely there fault this time

if turbo failure is proved you really shouldnt pay anything and i would be very surprised if your problems are not from turbo, they can tell if turbo is knackerd in an hour or so , i cant see why they dont, im a mechanic and thats all it would take me,

did u get a warranty for the work? u should have

you can always go down that route of going after the trader but if finance company come for the car dont let them have it on the grounds that you have a financial interest in the goods ( trust me), do it right and the title will go to you

go on the autotrader website and lookup the cars you like and maybe print some off with there details and pricing and that way a garage will possible at least try and price match for you if they want a sale , cant give advise on which garage though as there are so many but steer clear of places like carcraft or similar as although you would think it, there business really lies in credit agreemants rather than actual car sales ( thats where they make there money and the consumer pays high for it), family run firms are usually quite good as there more likely to listen if problems arise but any credit agreements should be scrutinised before siging so you understand exactly how much you pay back ( dont let the window price or monthly payment fool you ) its also good to sign credit agreements by post and not at the garage itself because signing the deal at the garage makes you lose some of your rights, if you find a car you like also find out how long they have had the car for sale ( if its been there sometime its because nobody wants it generally and you have to ask yourself why dont they want it), also ask for all paperwork relating to the car so you can see what work has been done to it and at what mileages, while you have the paperwork maybe even take a sneak at the name and address of the last owner on the log book and then after all this DONT commit to anything no matter how good the salesman seems or tell u someone else is coming to look, go home and think for a few hours first as its easy to get caught in the moment of a nice looking car with a salesman telling every reason why you should have that car! , and while your at haome you can take 5 mins to find the number of previous owner and then try calling them to ask there opion of the car, and after all this you can even ask AA or RAC to have an inpection carried out on your behalf ( they do charge though) even if you dont want to have an inspection done you can tell the salesman that you do just so you can see his reaction ( if its a bad car he might try and say its not needed or they will inspect it for you for free etc) if the car is a good one he would simply say he has no problem with any inspection being carried out on your behalf, one little trick i alsways say to people is ask if you can have tthe car for a short time ( half hour or so, just like a road test) and then take it round the corner to the next nearest workshop and ask them if they can put car on ramp and give it quick look over for you , most cases it would be free or maybe a small drink for the guys, that way you would have in independant view on the car

in most cases i should ahve thought you would experaince some drop in oil level over a 3 month period so i agree on that one but i think that was what the engineer was refering to when he wanted reason to inspect the oil ring though ( thats what alfa asked at least anyway), the above post is quite correct though so let them carry on with anything they want to do and then dispute at time of collection under soga if they havent already footed the bill

thats good advise up above, if you do have details in a written email an estimate is axactly that its an estimated guess of cost and thats why a written quote is much better because thats the actuall cost of repair so where possible always try to obtain a quote although not many like to quote incase of changes although they can always contact you in that scenario to be fair to you if you have written email stating that " worst case scenio would be £1000 on top of price" then i see little reason why you should pay anymore but you have to consider what they actually wrote and wihin reason any amount could be disputed anyway, i would say for now stick to your guns at least for a while, theres no harm in trying if your successful

difficult really because the worse case scenario you speak of is only a verbal thing, on the other hand if you had asked for a written quote ( not estimate) then maybe that would have been different , in fairness to the garage i am sure they would have refused to give an accurate quote due to the nature of what you wanted ( build a kit car), not something anyone can quote with any degree of accuracy normally, im sure as you say they kept you updated with detals etc as this was a long time on the build but surely in that 6 months you could of asked at anytime how thing are with the billing???, to me it sounds as though they were given the go ahead at the start just get the job done and its not really uncommon to run into problems that might coost more with such builds, perhaps it might have been better to keep track of your expenditure during the job so you could raise issues straight away at that point?

dont bother chipping it, yes you will gain more power but why do you need it?, that car will do more than you want it to and alot more, i really cant agree with all this chipping of cars ( im a mechanic) and the way i see things is that cars are designed with performance and economy in mind aswell as the tolerances of all componants of the car ( a case in point here is one customer was going through driveshafts like they was out of fashion due to having his bhp pushed up to silly levels) the driveshafts couldnt take the extra torque produces through the drivetrain, that was an audi A4 , keep the car as it is and be happy with it and then after keeping that £700 you got back you can by me a pint for saving your driveshafts, lol

im sure the block exemption rule should apply here ! if your lease says your responsible for maintenance i dont really see any reason why this cant be carried out according to schedule whether its audi approved garage or not???, if they start forcing people to pay dealer pricing then im sure this go against the block exemption rule so maybe thats why they chose not to pursue it in the end but of course there alwasy going to try and get you to give them money, i would have liked to have seen this one go to court with the defence of block exemption applying and therefore invaliding there claims for lack of servicing

whilst these do have known problems with egr it is also possible that the coking up of cylinders can happen if the car doesent have chance to purge the carbon usually if driven only short journeys or only kept at low revs (slow drivers) this inturn can then clog up everthing else related including egr and pipework etc, the same can also be said if there was an oil ring issue because the oil could then be getting burtn in the cylinders and creating execcessive carbon build up with same end result, also you mention just pouring oil in the cylinders to see if it leaks??? its doesnt work like that, you have bothe compression rings and oil ring on pistons, the oil ring could be worn or broken but that would not show by pouring oil inot cylinders because the compression rings mayb perfectly ok thereby keeping the cylinder in a sealed conditon, the actual oil ring is simply a scraper ring that does what it says on the tin, it scraps the oil downwards back towards the sump when the piston is on the return stroke, even with the cylinder head still on car you can carry out a full compression test and get good results from that test but still have a broken oil ring, i think you will find that alfa are asking for the stripdown to ensure this problem hasnt resulted from a broken oil ring and really visual inspection is the only true way to do this ( even if nothing obvious found though its good practaise to replace all piston rings at this point)

surely the whole point of this is to keep the status of the vehicle as "classic" and oriiginal, look at the flip side of the coin, some people could take a vw camper and slam a V8 engine in there and jack up rear suspension, big wide wheels, and a full mobile disco going on inside, but currently this vehicle would have status as classic and may qualify for free taxt aswell, but you tell me if this vehicle is still a classic when it is in this guise??, personally i dont think so and the term " classic" in my book means originality aswell as historical, im not really surprised this turns up in the vw forums because after all there are so many of these campers and beatles now that ar far from the origianl vehicle they once was as they have become a favourite for doing them up with modern trends, im sure for those people that choose to really keep them original and classic will have no issues with this scheme as the whole point is to allow them to gain there free tax and classic status , some people may disagree with me here but it actually sounds quite a good idea to me, ! keep our true history as it should be and divide it from an old vehicle made into something it was never intended to be !!

i know how i would deal with this, i would inform finace company that i have a financial interest in the vehicle ( which i would have) and offer the car back to them in return for settling my finacial interest in the said vehicle ( full purchase price i paid plus any servicing and other work since carried out) i would then inform them that after discovering they also have an interest then it would be to my own benifit to park up the said vehicle ( to lesson the risk of accidental damage) and that this would incur charges on the vehicle at a daily rate for the safe keeping of the car, given all info they will then have they will have to decide if there financial interest is a worthwhile one and knowing they would have to bring a court case (costing them) to resolve it really wouldnt be worth there bother as your financial interest will most likely far exceed theres and so they will end up giving title to you, ( this is my take on the matter but i will let you decided how i drew the reasons for doing it this way)

Surfer you giving wrong advice im afraid !! if you take modern cars to old school mechanics they are usually the ones thats struggle not us modern guys, the electronics on cars these days ( with all there pulses and signals ) have the old guys completely baffled by it all and there is no such thing as go back to basics and find a fault in 10 mins, problem is the cars have gone beyond being basic in the fist place so where are the basics to go back to ??, and as for the modern guy putting it on a diag machine and then that machine not showing anything does not mean thats the end of the job if you know what your doing ( both mechancally and with correct use of the diagnostics machine) i have seen so many peeple carry out a code read and just because it says no fault found it is then assumed there is no fault but there are many things to check on diagnostics including live data which is only as usefull as the guy that is reading it ( he must be knowledgable in interpreting those reading aswell as graph data and programming data aswell) these are all things that the old school guys usually have no understanding of at all , to those guys a circuit is 12 volts and two wires ( positive and earth) and thats where there knowledge ends in most cases , oh how easy it would be if it were like that today instead of pulse generated signals and various resistances to deal with, i am one of the ones that undertand the modern diagnostics and i would never say to a customer ( no fault codes found) and then leave it at that, i probly wont find faults in 10 mins either but tthe way it is these days very few faults can be found in that time by anyone, dont knock us guys that do diagnostic work when some of us do know the field and continually learn ourselves as we are constantly bombarded with ever changing designs and systems of the modern cars, i am sure i can show the old school guys a thing or two and in respect for them im sure they could aslo learn me a few things too

adjusted properly???? haha, so many times i hear that and there is no such thing as a car with adjustable clutch anymore,, cars are not made like that now and havent been for about 30yrs

I cannot accept that a gearbox should baulk and let out a fair old crunch when trying to change gear and the clutch is pressed to the floor. ????? dont sound like gearbox fault to me ! i should be looking at possible problem with clutch master cylinder or slave cylinder issue ( this would also explain problem still present after the ne w gearbox was fitted) first thing though is to have them bleed the clucth system to ensure there is no air trapped in fluid especially as you say when the car has been left standing for some time !!

helios is absolutely correct above, wouldnt it be nice if a part failed for example every 11 months for the next 15 yrs so the owner never actually paid for replacements ! , queensclose do you see the logic now as to why it dont happen that way?? if you go and pay for a part and that same part failed 3 times in warranty period the actually warranty will only stand from the date the firt time it was fitted and thats all regardless of time or mileage that the last part has covered

i also forgot to say ! as i am knowledgable about cars ( just as that dealer should be) if someone said to me the turbo is a suspected fault then personally i would NEVER attempt to drive that car 130 miles , infact i would not even drive it at all and would recommend recovery only from where it is along with telling any recovery driver NOT to start the engine at all to load the vehicle, the reason for this is simple , because a turbo fault can and in alot of cases result is causing excessive damge to the engine aswell as running risk of emitting high levels of smoke out onto the road impairing other road users view ( whitch would also be illegal) , with this in mind you might also want to point out that the dealer chose himself to drive the drive AFTER being informed of a turbo failure and therefore took his own risks in casuing further damage to the vehicles engine

why do they say its the particulate filter???, that works similar to a catalyst in many ways ( im simplifing this there for the benefit of people here), what you experianced is classic signs of turbo failure, the turbo seals can fail allowing engine oil directly into the combustion chamber so the engine then runs directly on oil ( remember a diesel engine is designed to run on oil because thats what deisel is), anyway one this seal bypass occures in the turbo the engine revs will rise very quickly due to oil effectly pourinng into the chambers and the faster it goes the more is taken in and within a few seconds can rise till the rev counter is going off the scale and even if you remove key from ignition it will continue running ( because oil ahs direct route into cylinders) usually the engine can run either untill all of it engine oil is consumed so its no longer recieving a fuel source or sometimes head gasket failure occures meaning drop in cylinder compression so oil can longer be compressed enough to fire, the only way of stopping an engine in this case is by stalling it but even that can be difficult and most wont realise that anyway, YOU have all classic signs of this problem and i have seen results many many times over the years and can happen to any deisel car ( servicing has no bearing on trying to avoid the problem as the turbo is a non serviceable item) on occassions we see sign of oil leak around turbo or inside pipework which we then report to owners that it may the beginning of a turbo related fault but then its upto them if they want further investigation but its certainly not part of service schedule though, sounds to me like vauxhall avoiding obligation to repair under the warrenty period as they should do, stick to your guns and make em sort it for you