The MOT and a service was due on Jan’s 5 this month.
She/I’d also noted an intermittent grating from the rear brakes over the last few days and I’d noticed deep disc scoring over recent weeks.
Booked her (the 5 not Jan!!) in to Hawman’s Garage in Saltburn-by-the-sea for a full service, a rear brake overhall followed by an MOT. The service included a full oil and fuel system flush at just £26 (£13 each) extra.
All in £265 including all parts, labour and the MOT charge,
Technically you can drop the ‘in Cleveland’ tag as Cleveland doesn’t exist anymore…Redcar & Cleveland replaced it. However…according to the post office, we (I live in New Marske) can adopt the ‘Yorkshire’ tag on our correspondence!
Interesting to hear about the garage in Saltburn as servicing in the Tees area is pretty poor. I try and do all of my own servicing on the MX5 but leave the Saab servicing down to Alexanders in Thornaby who over the past 7 years have been superb for a main dealer - they are still small enough to give persoanl service in my experience.
Not quite sure but they used to be part of North Yorkshire until the Boundaries Commission started messing about, I think. . I think that they would like to be in North Yorkshire though. [:D]
Would it be a good idea if we had a ‘members recommended’ area for garages and workshops we’ve had good dealings with?
They seem to be more and more rare these days, whether it be price or quality of work…
Anyone in Ripon / Boroughbridge I can personally recommend Canal Garage, family run, reasonable prices and good workmanship.
They’ve got my NA for MOT at the mo and including having to put the cat back on for the emissions and welding new metal into the cills the bill is still under £200! Knowing I like to work on my own car they even rang up to see if I would like the new sheet metal waxoiling to prevent corrosion starting on the journey home before I do the painting…now thats service!
Mine also passed yesterday with no problems. The handbrake was getting a bit weak again (it failed on this last year) but I used the trick of chocking the wheels and pumping the brake pedal 100 times with the handbrake off - this forces the little auto adjusters inside the pistons to do their job. They seem to get lazy after 10 years or so, and eventually you need new calipers.
Mine just passed with no work to be done just a comment that front pads will need doing soon… not bad for a 16 year old car with 118000km on the clock [:D]
They changed my rear dampers recently and only charged £170. Andy, the owner is a great guy and one of the “old school” mechanics, not just a “part swapper”. I would reccomend this garage very highly.
