RoelfleRoux
Broken down next to the road
And so it happened; after owning six Pajeros over a period of 16 years, at last one broke down next to the road.

I few weeks ago Union Motors in Nelspruit had all four disks skimmed under the maintenance plan.

Yesterday morning at work I did a rapid weekly meeting with the contractors and rushed through my inbox and by 9am was on the road to Nelspruit. My Pajero was going to get some loving attention. First stop was going to be the carwash bay, then have a failed left-wing indicator light fixed and then finally stop off at PG Glass to have a new small chip in the wind shield sealed.

When I slowed down into Nelspruit, there was a sickening grinding noise when I applied brakes. That soon turned into a constant grind. I pulled into a side street to investigate. Didn’t take long to see the left front brake caliper was rubbing against the rim. The one retaining bolt was missing. I didn’t want to continue driving for fear of further damage to the rim and other mechanicals. I have the Union Motors Pajero service advisor’s No on my cell and called her. She said she is dispatching somebody immediately. I phoned her every 10 minutes after that with a promise to continue doing so until the mechanic arrives or my cell battery goes flat. After 40 minutes I called the service manager to explain my highly unhappy state due to the very poor maintenance that he did on my car.

Soon after that the mechanic arrived and it took me a few minutes to explain to him what the problem was. He then proceeded to look in MY boot for tools. It so happened that I didn’t have the necessary parts or tools to refit a brake caliper. He then moved the offending caliper away from the rim and offered to drive my Pajero to Union Motors without using the brakes – this is from one end of Nelspruit to the other. There was no way on this earth that the agitated me was going to allow one of the enemy to drive my car and not use the brakes. I then drove my car to Union Motors (without using the brakes) and went looking for the service manager.

From then on things went very smoothly. They had a Merc A class ready for me. I explained that my only business in Nelspruit was with my car and ten Mercs cannot help me achieve that. He carefully noted down what my plans were and assured me he would personally inspect all four corners of the Pajero’s braking sytem and rectify the problem, have the little wind screen chip fixed, see to the non-working wing indicator and have the car cleaned properly and delivered to me as soon as all that is done. I still didn’t want the Merc, because it meant having to sign a few waivers and indemnities and my mood was not right to sign away anything. My wife was in town with her own list of shopping duties, so I had a driver drop me off at her, with that same Merc.

By 3pm the Pajero was ready and as clean as I had ever seen it. The service manager then explained to me that there will be no charge for their efforts and I of course explained to him that is was very wise on their part to not offer me a bill. He also explained that serious disciplinary charges will be brought against poor Sipho for not doing a proper job when the calipers were replaced after the skim, and I explained to him that I hope the service manager will also be held responsible for poor supervision control.

In retrospect:
I could easily have done a McGiver repair next to the road and continued to the nearest service centre.

Their eagerness to please, once I got hold of the service manager, went a long way towards calming my agitated mood.

Although I hold Union Motors responsible (and they repeatedly accepted responsibility) for the poor workmanship on something as important as brakes, I feel no animosity towards them and will continue to take my Pajero there.
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Affiliate Member
Re: Broken down next to the road
well... it wasn't the pajero's fault so you still have a clean record in my books! :lol:

I suppose once you calm down and realise that mistakes can, and do happen, it is crucial for them to own up and be sincere to you for the inconvenience.
Re: Broken down next to the road
Sloppy workmanship.

Remove the wheel and do a thorough inspection of:
  • wheel (rim)
  • caliper
  • disk
  • brake lines
  • suspension components
If anything is damaged, get them to replace (they have already accepted the responsibility)
Gerhard Fourie
If you want to shoot somebody, make sure you aim at his head, not your own foot.
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RoelfleRoux
Re: Broken down next to the road
4ePajero,

Yip, all the components were checked immediately. I really caught it before any damage could be done.
That car went up the lift so quickly when I got there, you won't believe how easy it is to pull some other poor bloke's car off a lift :o
macjohnw
Re: Broken down next to the road
Good to hear you caught it in time and did not have any damages Roelf.
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