Let me tell you a little story...

[hms]

I recently acquired an 03 Elise, well if there is an itch, you have to scratch it! One shock was misting, and apparently to the previous owner it had gone through the last 3 MOT's like that. Bit crashy on bumps.

Went to WIM, where else, and started the alignment.

Pete had trouble getting the locking nut off, the locking tool rounded off in the process, so one wheel off. Looking at the bolts that held the camber shims inplace, they were solid also.

At that point, Pete decided to cancel, as we couldn't get anymore wheels off and if the camber bolts were damaged we had nothing to replace them with so the car would be undriveable.

 

So, new locking key, 'Do you know the number sir?' Cue £25 + VAT for an archive search at Lotus to tell me the key required. New key £36 + VAT.

 

Sometime later...

Get all the bits in and go back to WIM this morning. Thought I had booked time in to get the wheels off, then if that was OK I would book in at a later date, I didn't want to blow out another alignment booking. WIM were expecting to do everything today.

It was decided that we would try and get the wheels off, Joe would look at the suspension and we would take a view to changing shocks and then doing the alignment.

Anyway, back to those blasted wheels. The new lock key span in all of the locknuts, all of the locknuts had been rounded so the key was useless.

There's not enough room around the bolt head to get a traditional remover on, so scratching head, what to do, thinking would we have to cut the wheels off? Arrggh!

Another member of staff walked over (sorry didn't get his name) and seeing the problem walked off and fetched a VAG service kit, which included various sizes of socket with a ribbed portion on the end. Gently tap one into the rounded bolt and hey presto. In less than a minute all three lock bolts were off. (To be replaced by the standard non locking bolt.) Heave a HUGE sigh of relief! Standard bolts came out easy peasy.

Joe decided that he could replace the shocks and get the geo done by 2pm, as I needed to be away by then.

Now here's the clever bit, whilst he was fitting the new suspension, he looked at the previous Geo sheet, and shimmed up the relevant parts to get the geo figures 'about right' for Pete.

Suspension on, wheels back, and on the ramp there was very little to adjust!

 

So,

Am I relieved, you bet.

Am I surprised, yes, the skill, care and knowledge of the WIM staff was exemplary and sets a very high standard to all other businesses.

Am I surprised, no, having been a user of WIM, since before WIM existed, no I'm not surprised. Tony has selected staff who can maintain his high level of skills and service even when he is not there.

 

Bravo team WIM.

 

H

 

P.S. Halfway through the afternoon, I found a piece of paper in the toolkit with the number of the locking tool on it. Bugger, bugger, bugger!

[Tony]

Well thanks for taking the time to offer such a rewarding report....... The team work in a realm of "outside" of the box, we all know we have one chance to get it right because our audience is national, plus as i say to the guys if the car is here then there's "something" wrong so find the problem.

 

Point to note the reason they didn't remove the lock nuts in the fashion they did yesterday was to avoid damaging the wheels. If another key was available then that's the correct way to go, since the key didn't fit they took the alternative route at i must add at our potential expense because if a wheel got damaged we are still accountable. 

 

As for Pete shimming the angles blind from a previous chassis printout, well that's experience, care and attention so fair play to him for that.

[Rich]

So the moral of the story is to spend abit longer looking for something!

 

Glad they sorted it though without damaging the wheels

[Tony]

Yes but we don't charge for diagnostics, only the solution.