March 2024 by Anthony Doull
M & S Autoservice, Daubs farm, Dunshalt.Michael, the mechanic, replaced the off-side driveshaft on my Honda Civic in December 2013. He would not allow me to take the car for a test drive, with the car battery, shorted, I think. It would not start. He insisted I pay him £270, £50 for the tow truck, £120 for the Drive shaft, and £100 for his time. With no other option I transferred the money to his bank account, and took the car for a test run on a nearby dual carriageway. It was ok at low speed but once getting above 60mph the front right side of the car started to vibrate. It was pretty loud so I immediately slowed and it stopped. This happened time and time again over the next few weeks. I tried to book it in with Michael, for diagnosis, a number of times, but each time he found a reason to postpone. From having to finish work on his taxis to picking his daughter up from school. Mid January, as the car was starting to jolt quite badly, when speeding up and slowing down. I took it to Leslie & Sons garage in Glenrothes, and the the lead engineer, John, put it up on the ramp, and to use his words said, the driveshaft is f****d. Anyway he went off on holiday, so Kerr at the next-door garage, Chucks Tyres, sourced me another second hand driveshaft, this time off a car that had only done 18,000 miles, for £120, and they fitted it for £60. I decided to take the driveshaft, Michael had fitted, home to take a look.There are rubber covers protecting each of the two joints. The outermost was rattling. On cutting through the rubber the shaft came apart. There are three locking knobs (for want of a better word) at the end of the inner shaft. Two are fine, but the third larger one is broken. The grease is green and looks quite clean, but I could find no trace of broken metal among the grease or in the rubber. It would seem that the only thing holding my driveshaft together these past two months was two jubilee clips and a rubber casing.Michael is funny and charismatic, but he is very slow and difficult to contact, which was frustrating.As for his ethics, he offered to change the gearbox (automatic) oil for £100. All of the other garages I've tried say always take an automatic gearbox to a Honda dealer for an oil change, as they are very tricky and prone to go wrong. As it turns out only £115 at Honda anyway.I did ask for a refund given what I have told you but it was not forthcoming. I think possibly a good thing as I can manage without the £270, and maybe some good will come from others knowing what to expect.
