Date:         Wed, 10 May 1995 15:28:20 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         drew@interport.net (Derek Drew)
Subject:      Re: Syncro Ball Joint

Nothing sinister here. Can you belive it? The $5,000 ball joint and I cannot
really find any evil here.

Start with a shop rate of $67 per hour. Then take the fact that mine is,
like, the only syncro that they ever fixed (syncro desert here in NYC) so
they are out of practice and didn't know what they were doing. Then, they
guessed wrong on what was wrong and replaced shocks and bushings and stuffed
foam material under the van under every piece of possible metal that could
be klunking to see if they could go away. That they thought it might be the
final drive, bearings or a CV joint. That they assigned the job to the
lowliest mechanic in the shop so as not to take up too much time from their
best, most productive, mechanics, who were making real money for them
shooting Jettas out the door. 

So the dumb mechanic sat there and cried staring at the van while the $67
clock was ticking away.  After 25 hours labor they called me to pick up the
van saying they could not find anything wrong--"Mr Drew, there is nothing
left to do."  And I brought it back two weeks later and insisted that they
start over and reminded them that if something failed on the highway they
could face some serious liability. They complain that the underside of my
van looks like it has been through a war and what did I do with this van? I
say *nothing* in response to this question and do not bite. We have a
show-down in the office with the DSM from Volkswagen itself who refuses to
pay the dealer's time for all this nonsense and the dealer swallows hard and
commits himself to really fix it this time. Three weeks later they call and
say the van is fixed and I have all kinds of new parts up in there--shocks,
etc.--including new ball joint, and the van is fixed and I am happy and I
think I'd better start assembling the tools so I can do this job myself when
the warranty is over. 

By the way, I know exactly where I busted the ball joint. It was on a road
so bad we had to build seven bridges just to go a quarter mile up a steep
road in the Michegan wilderness area in the center of Vermont. We were
building the bridges using the giant planks I keep on my roof for this
purpose. We had to build so many bridges that day, and the planks are so
heavy, that I stopped storing them on the roof and just towed them behind me
down the road with a tow strap. As I drove, over rocky areas, I could see
the front of the planks catching on rocks and the whole planks leaping in
the air in my rear view mirror but I was using a long tow strap--you know,
the stretchy kind rated for 18,000 lbs.--long enough so the planks would't
hit my van when they came down.

Derek

>Derek sez;
>
>>I had a ball joint replaced on my syncro. It made a klunking sound.
>>
>>It cost about $2,000 to replace plus another $2,000 of diagnostic time.
>>Plus, of course, about $50 in parts plus other parts they replaced but
>>didn't have to.
>>
>>I am not kidding you--I have the receipts to prove it.
>>
>>All under warranty, of course.
>>
>>
>
>I'm beginning to think that your dealership is running some sort of scam
>whereby they fabricate ridiculously inflated labor charges for warranty
>work on your Syncro (while they're actually doing non-warranty work on
>someone else's car) and then pass the bills onto VoA for reimbursement.
>
>There have probably been just enough problems with Syncros (and Corrados &
>other VW exotics) that it's easy for them to get away with this. VoA has
>probably given them a blank check to fix all problems, "whatever it takes."
>
>It's either this, or the dealership's mechanics must have a really good
>dealer themselves (if you know what I mean).
>
>It would have been interesting - if you had the time - to actually sit
>there for the 80 or so mechanics hours they claim it took to fix the
>problem and just watch what was really done to the vehicle.
>
>Paul
>puustial@adobe.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
___________________________________
Derek Drew
drew@interport.net (main address for e-mail)
derekdrew@aol.com (alternate/backup address, checked infrequently)