Newsletter

15 June 2005

No 16

 

Good news

 I have just received a mail in which it is implied that Weber will be producing Carburetors again.

 

3 things I’d like to share with you:

 

1)   A long-term customer asked me to Service his vehicle and was surprised at his 2000 N$ plus invoice.

The car had 180 000 Km’s on which means a MAJOR service. My attitude towards a Service is that we must ensure that the Customer does not get stranded anywhere. Yes, we do give options, such as “The radiator hoses, fan belts look/feel OK, but I would suggest replacement once every year or so”. If I believe the Brakes can take another 10 000 Km (I believe in a 7000/1 Year service interval for a petrol driven 4X4) then I will not of necessity replace them. The onus is on the client to ensure that his vehicle gets serviced timeously.

I normally do not Service, but don’t mind doing so on a well looked after vehicle that does not get used in stunts.

 

If you look closely at this picture, you can see that the Wheel bearings were greased with 2 different greases. The resulting breakdown (the grease looks more like oil) resulted in the Bearings premature failure.

 

2)   A customer made me responsible for his self-designed/built project. Or rather that the outcome was not as promised. My point is that the “hobbyist” makes his own decisions for which he is solely liable/responsible. Oh yes, that his Car chewed up tyres and used a lot of fuel while being Dyno’d was also my fault.

 

3)   I had a customer who bought a K&N Filter complained:

Since I bought the filter, I've done close to 20 000km on my bakkie, only to find that my bakkie started to loose power, especially up hill. I took out the filter and washed it as per the instructions. Futher, I've found that the air intake to the engine was dirty. After washing the filter and allowing two days for it to dry in my house, I've re-oiled the filter and waited another day before re-installing same. I've put some more oil on before fitting. After a day I noticed that the oil from the filter was leaking from the housing and took the filter out again. The filter looked rather dry to me comparing to when I've received it as new.

 

I feel unsafe with the k&n filter's filtration and would like to hear your comment on my experience with k&n.

At my expense I forwarded the Filter to K&N and let him have a new one.

K&N then came back with this verdict:

We checked the filter under the microscope and to us it seems that the customer did not use K&N filter oil. The oil seems to have a different structure and the fibers are coated with oil instead of wicked in. The oil is also much darker (more like a honey color) than the red K&N oil. There is no dirt visible on the inside of the filter.

 

Besides, why did he clean the filter, re-oil it and then send it to us? There are hardly any dirt particles on the filter, so it is hard to determine a cause.

 

Could you please find out what he cleaned the filter with and what oil he used?

I attached 4 pictures. 2 of a new K&N filter and 2 of the customer’s filter. You can forward these if desired.

The first 2 pictures are from a new K&N the last ones are from the customer.

 

In no way am I trying to find fault with any of my customers but rather share this with you in the hope of letting me know how I can enlighten my clientele better.

 

Those of you who are interested in what I do when not at work, can see what we have been up to recently, go to my Website and click on Articles then at the bottom in the middle you find Nick & Urda's and then to What did we do recently and then on to 2005 to.

 

That’s it for today, please drive safely

As Voltaire so wisely observed, "Common sense is not so common."