Just wanted to throw in a recommendation for Central Motors in Toronto. Werner saved my bacon. I was driving from Winnipeg to Toronto along the north shore of Lake Superior (many great campgrounds!) Lost a lot of power around Sault Ste Marie, but didn't say anything so as not to alert the girlfriend (who swore that if there was another problem, it would be the last trip. Grr.) Had to go to Halifax for a conference in the middle of the vacation, and I thought I had it all worked out. Dropped the van (85 Westfalia GL) off at the VW dealer in Brampton on Sunday, and called on Monday. Turns out they won't look at it because 'they don't have the parts or the manual.' Wouldn't even do an oil change. So I lost four days, and had only two days to get it fixed before leaving for home. No other VW dealer in the Toronto area would touch it, except for Owasco which was backed up a week or so. Doug Alcock helped me out with a few recommended mechanics in Toronto, and Central Motors was the closest. Dropped in unannounced Friday morning, and Werner had planned to leave early for the lake so didn't book any other cars. Lucky for me, unlucky for him! He went through the motor with me, measuring compression etc and showed me how to do a tune up (i'm not hugely incompetent, just inexperienced and I really appreciated the lesson). Things were mostly in order ( a little low compression in #2 cylinder). I had mentioned I had a new exhaust system within the last year, except for the catalytic convertor which I had understood got 'cleaned out' when I got stuck on a previous holiday road trip. Turns out it wasn't, and when it was removed it appeared to be about 3/4 blocked. A new catalytic convertor, and I was on my way. Funny that the VW dealer in Winnipeg had just replaced the muffler the day before the trip. I didn't realise you had to remove the cat. as well. Coincidence? A big thank you to Werner who did a great job and stuck around to help me out. The van has never run better, and hopefully by this time next year my girlfriend will have forgotten about the little incident . . . I, however, have not forgotten the shabby treatment by VW dealers in Toronto! What a bunch of hooey. Even Canadian Tire could've done the work. For the record, the name of the garage is: Central Motors (Werner Kesicki and Peter Lamprecht) 682 Gerrard Street East Toronto ON M4M 1Y3 416.463.9901 416.463.5694 Jeff 85 Westfalia GL Winnipeg _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail |
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