George_Fraser

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Steve_Perry

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 3, 2002
Messages
3,241
Location
Wales, U.K.
Car
CLS350CDI Grand Edition
Just a little more feedback regarding George Fraser, Mercedes-Benz specialists of Alperton N.W. London.

I took the car in on Friday 24th Jan 03, 8:00 a.m. to have a leak in the air-con system fixed. Also one of the bulbs that illuminates the instrument cluster needed replacing.

On the morning I took the car in, George was busy putting together a 4 speed auto box and about to take apart a 5 speed electronic box. :crazy: He kindly let me into the 'gearbox' room and explained some of the finer points of how an autobox works :rock: including valve chests and master control valves etc :cool:

After my air-con system was charged up I was allowed to help search for the leak, it didn't take too much finding as it appeared my condenser had taken a big hit and was spewing refrigerant. I also now know that the condenser is the term for the a/c radiator, heh no I didn't know that before :p

After the leaks had been located, I had to go as I had other plans for the day and weekend.

George was also dealing with the warranty company on my behalf and he kept me fully informed, via phone calls, of the battles he had with them to try and cop for a new condenser. Unfortunately for me, the only part of the a/c that my warranty will cover is the compressor. So they wriggled out of paying for this repair.

Come this morning (Monday 27th Jan 03) I called George, and the car was ready for pick-up at any time. George had repaired the leaky a/c system, replaced a bulb in the dash, critiqued the accident repair work performed on the car back in Oct 02 to give me peace of mind, peformed a computer fault diagnosis and also checked out my auto gearbox, again at my request as I am paranoid that the thing will go wrong at some point. :crazy: The total bill for the entire visit came to £300-00.

IMHO the level of service is a vast improvement over the usual 'stealership', who once wanted £40 just for a fault code print out from the ECU.

If you're after a hands on (and for me a learning) experience where you want to follow the car through every detail of a service or repair then George Fraser is happy to oblige. However, if all you want is to drop the car off, forget about it and pick it up when it's ready then that is readily catered for too.

I can thoroughly recommend George Fraser for all your Mercedes-Benz needs.

Hi to George, Suresh (sp?) Angela and all the staff at George Fraser (London) Ltd.

Oh and Koolvin... George was really impressed at your turbo install ;) he also says hi to *edit* Greg (Wheelie) *edit* and hopes the wheels have recovered.

S.

p.s. sorry for the monster rambling post :p
 
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Originally posted by Steve_Perry


he also says hi to Jonathan (Fudger) and hopes the wheels have recovered.

S.


Johnathan's wheels were damaged too? :eek:
 
Re: Re: George_Fraser

Originally posted by Koolvin
Johnathan's wheels were damaged too? :eek:

Fudger's 1st Service

Spike's service and Wheelie's dinged wheel

D'Oh !!! just take me out and shoot me :confused: I got confused between Fudger and Wheelie (sorry guys) and I've edited my first post accordingly *blush*

My mistake K... as far as I know Fudger's wheels are in perfect condition! Bernadette (sp?) certainly remembers the 16 spark plugs.

Once again, sorry for the confusion, hope that's cleared up.

S.
 
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TIP: don't go to George's on a Sat - if you do make sure your there at 7am......

he's just waaaaay to busy on Sat and parking is problematic with clamping being rife.
 
Steve, I think I remember Bernadette (the only 'lady' mechanic?). She made me blush big time and that takes some doing.

Wheels are OK, perhaps George was nervous about what happened to wheelies wheel.
 
My wheels survived quite happily :)

And my SL now has a shiney new water pump fitted !

Many thanks to both Vin and George for getting it sorted in very short order.

Before anyone asks - I looked at doing the job myself, however the car is needed tomorrow and I couldnt get caught out with a half finished job.
I watched the whole job (and as a mechanic I know just how hard that can be), and realised very quickly that without the special toos for the job - what he did in 2 hours would probably have taken me 6-8, - consequently I'm going to buy/make some more tools this weekend!

Next time though I would be quite happy to do it myself :)

Mark
 
Mark.

When i did my pump last year, Andy Gayle recommended replacing the allen bolts that hold the pump to the block with standard bolts, this made so much sense and i was really p'd off that i hadn't thought of it when i did it.

With regards to special tools, yours must have the same set as mine, (103 engine), if you need a tool to lock the viscous coupling what i found to do the job, was the thing that comes with a black a decker drill to measure the depth of hole you are drilling, it is exactly the right diameter that the haynes manual speaks of, and has a long enough handle that you can get a good hold of it when undoing the bolt.

Hope this helps.:bannana:
 

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