dyver
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 62
- Location
- guernsey
- Car
- s320 w220 (sold), W202(sold) R230 daily drive, R231 AMG for those special occasions
Hopefully I'm posting this in the right area, if not then i'm sure a mod will move it.
Anyway this a a thread just to say a MAHOOOSIVE Thank you to Dave and Colin at MBS in Southampton for doing such a freindly, knowledgeable and generally brilliant job on my precious.
The story goes, had taken the S class to my local dealership for its B service (dont forget to grease the rear handbrake mechanism next time!) and come away some £550 lighter with a list of works totalling some £3400
.
The list goes something like this ..
1) 2 new rear exhausts because the rear hangers had rusted away, nothing wrong with the exhausts themselves.
2) Disks and pads all around as was down to 20%.
3) New front nearside brake calliper as bleed nipple seized.
4) New front nearside suspension strut / arm as bearing knackered and very annoyingly mouse like.
5) New camshaft cover and reseal as leaking.
6) Gearbox oil changed as no recorede history of it EVER being done in the cars 150000 miles (thats what i like to see accurate record keeping Mercedes!)
Well living in Guernsey I'm slightly limited to my choices, but i thought i would get in touch with the Merc specialists on the south coast as i had 2 weeks hols coming up and was pleasantly suprised as to how much cheaper they were compared to the dealership, so i booked myself in with Colin and Dave as they and the other southcoast specialists have such a good following on the forums.
Anyways arrived one foggy day into Portsmouth (£250 return for the ferry, i mention this as its an obvious consideration) and made my down to Jctn 8 M27 and found thier cowshed / workshop, I was a tiny bit concerned when first seeing thier facilities but to quote the addage NEVER judge a book etc as the work undertaken was 1st class and any concerns rapidly disapeared as soon as they had chance to view the car. They had a few other jobs to do before thay could get to mine so of i went into Southampton in one of their loan cars to get a BigMac as we dont have any of the usual fastfood outlets on the island and the craving was killing me (mmmmm greasy lukewarm meaty goodness) and came back 4hrs later when they were well into completing the works.
I was welcomed by the best words a man can hear (well allmost) "weve saved you some MORE money", as we have freed up the bleed nipple. I was able to see the weld on the exhaust hangers where they fashioned some new hangers rather than replacing the 2 rear exhuasts ( it dont look pretty but whos going to see it and it will never rust as the originals did). I also watched them do the disks and pads, all done with the minimum amount of fuss and a nice bit of banter. The resealing of the camshaft cover was pretty much the icing on the cake, Mercedes wanted to charge £143 to do the same job that MBS took 20 minutes on (2 bolts removed a quick cleanup and some sealant, job done)
Well the long and short of it was that at the end of the day I was one very happy customer and had allready spoken with them about some more work I was deffinately going to put their way. even tho it does cost me £250 to get the ferry over Dave and Colin managed to save me a CONSIDERABLE amount of money and did do in a very professional, knowledgable and freindly way and i have allready told my dad that he MUST take his ML to them.
If any of you have noticed I havent mentioned them being curteous as Dave and Colin are tea freaks who turned me into their Tea gimp for the day (how rude)
Again a big Thank You to Dave and Colin, it was a pleasure
Anyway this a a thread just to say a MAHOOOSIVE Thank you to Dave and Colin at MBS in Southampton for doing such a freindly, knowledgeable and generally brilliant job on my precious.
The story goes, had taken the S class to my local dealership for its B service (dont forget to grease the rear handbrake mechanism next time!) and come away some £550 lighter with a list of works totalling some £3400
.The list goes something like this ..
1) 2 new rear exhausts because the rear hangers had rusted away, nothing wrong with the exhausts themselves.
2) Disks and pads all around as was down to 20%.
3) New front nearside brake calliper as bleed nipple seized.
4) New front nearside suspension strut / arm as bearing knackered and very annoyingly mouse like.
5) New camshaft cover and reseal as leaking.
6) Gearbox oil changed as no recorede history of it EVER being done in the cars 150000 miles (thats what i like to see accurate record keeping Mercedes!)
Well living in Guernsey I'm slightly limited to my choices, but i thought i would get in touch with the Merc specialists on the south coast as i had 2 weeks hols coming up and was pleasantly suprised as to how much cheaper they were compared to the dealership, so i booked myself in with Colin and Dave as they and the other southcoast specialists have such a good following on the forums.
Anyways arrived one foggy day into Portsmouth (£250 return for the ferry, i mention this as its an obvious consideration) and made my down to Jctn 8 M27 and found thier cowshed / workshop, I was a tiny bit concerned when first seeing thier facilities but to quote the addage NEVER judge a book etc as the work undertaken was 1st class and any concerns rapidly disapeared as soon as they had chance to view the car. They had a few other jobs to do before thay could get to mine so of i went into Southampton in one of their loan cars to get a BigMac as we dont have any of the usual fastfood outlets on the island and the craving was killing me (mmmmm greasy lukewarm meaty goodness) and came back 4hrs later when they were well into completing the works.
I was welcomed by the best words a man can hear (well allmost) "weve saved you some MORE money", as we have freed up the bleed nipple. I was able to see the weld on the exhaust hangers where they fashioned some new hangers rather than replacing the 2 rear exhuasts ( it dont look pretty but whos going to see it and it will never rust as the originals did). I also watched them do the disks and pads, all done with the minimum amount of fuss and a nice bit of banter. The resealing of the camshaft cover was pretty much the icing on the cake, Mercedes wanted to charge £143 to do the same job that MBS took 20 minutes on (2 bolts removed a quick cleanup and some sealant, job done)
Well the long and short of it was that at the end of the day I was one very
happy customer and had allready spoken with them about some more work I was deffinately going to put their way. even tho it does cost me £250 to get the ferry over Dave and Colin managed to save me a CONSIDERABLE amount of money and did do in a very professional, knowledgable and freindly way and i have allready told my dad that he MUST take his ML to them.If any of you have noticed I havent mentioned them being curteous as Dave and Colin are tea freaks who turned me into their Tea gimp
for the day (how rude)Again a big Thank You to Dave and Colin, it was a pleasure
