Author Archives: Aaron Harding

Rapid Supercharged Mini & Stunning Triumph GT6.

The Aarons Autos family has a large width of knowledge ranging across many different makes and models of vehicles with all of us working in different areas of the motor trade through our careers, from dealerships to specialists, Master tech’s and even engineering.

This Width of knowledge helps us when we have to work on older vehicles as this was where we first fell in love with the motor trade. We cut our teeth rebuilding carburettors, replacing points and condensers and grew up with king pins and grease nipples.

With this in mind when customers ask if we can work on their pride and joy classic cars we can be confident in our abilities.

The owner of this Supercharged Mini rang us after purchasing the car for some road rally events and some hill climb events to see if we could check over the geometry and make a few adjustments. We made a few small adjustments and got the customer on his way.

The owner of this beautifully restored Triumph GT6 Mk3 contacted us to ask if we could set up the camber and toe of his triumph after its complete restoration. Carrying out the camber adjustment on the front of the Triumph is done by either adding or removing shims on the lower wishbones and rechecking until the desired camber is obtained, the toe adjustment is carried out the same as modern vehicles. The rear camber is not adjustable but the toe is, the toe is adjusted by using shims again to lengthen/shorten the trailing arm.

If you have a classic car or even a modern classic and have any problems give us a call to see if we can help you on 01332 205070

Air Conditioning service and repair.

We may not have Air Conditioning in the garage but we do try and make it more comfortable for our mechanics Adam and Sean on hot days like today. Remember we service and repair vehicle Air Conditioning. Our Air Conditioning service is £84.00 inc vat and includes gas up to a extra 500 grams top up, give us a call today on 01332 205070.

Illegal Part Worn Tyres, Is It Worth It?

Four garages found selling illegal and dangerous part-worn tyres, Nearly all (97 per cent) of the part-worn tyres were found to have defects

Motorists are still being duped into buying dangerous and illegal tyres. Image: Bigstock.

Trading standards officers have found a number of garages across the East Riding of Yorkshire to be selling dangerous part-worn tyres to the public.

Investigators from East Riding Council visited four garages selling part-worn tyres in Bridlington, Beverley and Market Weighton.

After officers seized two tyres from one garage, an examination revealed they were unsafe for sale and had become degraded due to how old they were.

Unsafe, serious defects

Both tyres were discovered to have exposed cords which could have resulted in immediate catastrophic failure had they been fitted to a vehicle.

One of the tyres was also believed to be around 28-years-old.

Following a Yorkshire and Humber-wide survey, organised by the Office for Product Safety and Standards, 97 per cent of all part worn tyres examined were found to have some type of defect, with 45 per cent found to have defects so serious they were condemned immediately as unsafe.

Catastrophic consequences

Colin Briggs, trading standards manager at East Riding Council, said: “As tyres are the only part of a car that is in contact with the road surface, their integrity and roadworthiness is of the utmost importance.

“Any faults of defects could have catastrophic consequences, such as the driver losing control of the vehicle, not only risking their life, but the lives of any passengers in the car as well as other road users.

Consumers being put at risk

“Our investigations, together with those from around the Yorkshire and Humber region, should act as a stark reminder to anyone thinking about buying second-hand tyres.

“The findings suggest some sectors of the trade have developed bad practices which could be putting customers at risk.

“Consumers may feel that they can get a bargain by buying second-hand tyres, or some consumers may not have any other choice, but irrespective of that, they have the right to demand the products they buy are safe and legal.”

Volkswagen Transporter Broken Springs.

This lowered VW Transporter came into us with noisy front suspension when turning.

After a quick inspection on the ramp it was quite obvious that the cause of the noise was the broken front springs.

The customer had brought the VW with the lowering springs already fitted and wanted it restoring to original height for a more comfortable drive, this meant replacing all four springs with original length springs.

Once we had replaced all four springs the van was then taken for a road test and drove as it should with no rattles or bangs then was handed back to one happy customer.

Broken coil springs can be very dangerous, they can cause tyres to blow out, wheels to jam up inside the wheel arch and are also an MOT failure so if you think your car doesn’t sit right or you can hear a noise from your suspension get it checked out before it gets worse.

Lease Car / PCH Car Servicing.

When you are looking at leasing a car there are many things to consider, one of the most important of those is cost!

So you have bartered with the sales rep to get the best price for your new lease car and now you know how much the monthly costs will be, but then most dealers or lease companies will try to tie you into a service plan with them to increase there profits on the sale.

Most lease cars either on Business Contract or Personal Contract do NOT have to be serviced at the main dealer, you can find this information out by contacting your lease company or checking your lease contract.

There is a law which stops main dealers forcing customers to use their services and as long as the car is serviced to the same specified schedule and genuine or OE parts are used it will not affect your warranty or your lease contract, this law is called ‘Block Exemption‘.

When it comes to cost an independent garage is on average 30-50% cheaper than the main dealer, so over a three year lease period you could save quite a bit of money.

If you are interested in finding out more about lease car servicing give us a call on 01332 205070 or drop us an email to dave@aaronsautos.co.uk

New Race Car Testing.

As some of you may know we decided sell our beloved Clio Cup race car and move up to a Honda Type R which will make us able to race in higher class’s.

Over the last few months we have been testing the car to make sure it doesn’t have any issues and for us to get some well needed seat time to get used to the new car, many thanks to Chris from Circuit Days for the track time and his input into how the car handled.

The first test day was at Donington Park which is our local circuit and would be good to see how it compared to the old Clio, after the test day we realised that in general the car was very good but the suspension seemed a bit to soft for how we wanted the car to handle.

After doing plenty of home work we opted for the Yellow Speed Racing coil overs (as used in the Civic Cup) with bespoke spring rates, we managed to get the kit fitted and setup before our second test day which was to be at Rockingham Race Way.

The test day at Rockingham was a great success, the new suspension had transformed the car into exactly what we wanted, the car was now planted, balanced and very controllable, we even managed to get a few laps with one of the cars we will be racing against next year and realised that even though the car was more than capable of keeping up we needed more seat time!

Our third and final test day of 2018 was at Oulton Park and it was wet, ideally we wanted a dry day to see if our times were good but we also new we needed to test in the wet so it wasn’t all bad, with our wet tyres on the car handled brilliantly and we were getting more and more confident as the day went on.

In the afternoon the rain had died off and there was a dry line appearing on the track so we decided to try our dry tyres to see how it would handle on a drying track, the car behaved in general but was a little twitchy on the back end which was to be expected.

In conclusion we are very happy with car and have managed to get it to a point where we are happy to race it.

Now for the strip down over winter and over to the bodyshop for our new paint scheme for next year, stay tuned for more updates.

Audi A1 1.4 TFSI Timing Chain Fault.

This Audi A1 TFSI came into us with poor running, noisy and the engine management light was on! We carried out a diagnostic code read to find the reason for the EML light to be on which gave us several codes relating to an incoherence between the cam and crank shaft sensors.

The next step was to partially strip down the engine on the Audi to access the timing chain, once stripped we were able to see if the timing marks for the chain lined up with our specialist timing tools, then check for any signs of stretching or damage to the chain and gears.

In this case it was quite obvious, once the timing chain cover was removed we could see that the chain had stretched so much that even at full extension the chain tensioner couldn’t tension the chain, thus causing the timing marks to be miss aligned.

We sourced a new timing chain kit and tensioner for the A1 and fitted it making sure to check all timing marks were lined up as per factory settings, then rebuilt the engine using new gaskets, oil filter and some fresh oil.

After the rebuild we cleared all the existing codes relating to the timing issues and tested the engine which sounded nice and quiet compared to when it came in to the garage, the engine management light stayed out and all sensors read as they should.

Lastly we carried out a long road test before handing it back to a happy customer.

This seems to be a common fault on this 1.4 TFSI engine which is fitted across the VAG group of vehicles, VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda.

If you would like any more information give us a call on 01332 205070 or drop us an email at dave@aaronsautos.co.uk

A few Jobs from last week.

This beautiful Mercedes ML63 AMGcame in for a brake check after its owner had noticed the brake warning light had come on, after a quick strip down and report the customer gave us the go ahead to replace its MASSIVE front brake discs and pads and rear pads.

The front brake discs on this three tonne 500+ horse power beast are 395mm in diameter! to put that into context a ford focus has 270mm discs! The AMG also runs Brembo six pot callipers on the front for optimum braking.

The owner of this Scirocco R came to have his own lowering spings fitted as he wanted the car to sit lower.

There are Pro”s and Con’s to fitting lowering springs to a road car the Pro’s are –

Better handling (centre of gravity is lower and springs are generally slightly stiffer than OE)
Better looking (not everyone thinks so, but if your a petrol head they do)

The Con’s

Very hard drive (UK’s roads are not the best so you feel every bump and pot hole)
Can cause stress to other car parts (if it feels hard to you imagine how the car feels)
Speed bumps (self explanatory)

This BMW 325 Compact Track car came in for a quick Geometry check and adjust before its owners took it to Bedford Autodrome for their Track Day, the owners had fitted all the suspension components them selves and just wanted the alignment checking to make sure it didn’t kill tyres and they could get the optimum performance from their new kit.

New MOT Laws Coming In May!!

Many of you may not know but MOT laws change all the time! What would PASS an MOT last month could FAIL an MOT this month.

The DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) are the ruling body when it comes to what is classed as safe and what is un-safe or even dangerous on your vehicle when carrying out an MOT at any test station.

In May 2018 we will see some of the biggest changes in MOT law in a long time, these could effect everybody who drives a vehicle on our UK roads.

One of the biggest changes will be the fact that it will no longer be PASS or FAIL for items on the MOT, the tester will have several options to choose from depending on how bad the fault is.

New Rules.

Dangerous – Items that the MOT tester deems to be dangerous at the time of test and should be repaired immediately before the vehicle can be driven on the road.
Major – Items that will cause the vehicle to fail the MOT test but will not stop you from driving the vehicle to get it repaired.
Minor – ‘Minor Fails’ are basically replacing the existing ‘Advisories’ and will mean your vehicle will still PASS its MOT but these will be recorded on the DVSA database for the following year.

Driving a vehicle that has a Dangerous failure will be breaking the law and would make you liable for three points on your driving license and up to a £2500 fine, and according to the latest information if you are caught twice within a three year period you could get a driving ban of six months.

There are other changes coming to, some relating to lighting, some to emissions and dashboard warning lamps.

So when it comes to MOT time make sure you and your car are ready, for more information or to make a booking give us a call on 01332 205070 or drop us an email to info@aaronsautos.co.uk

Business Award 2017 – Best Garage

It is with great delight that as 2017 comes to a close we find out that we have won an award from Wealth and Finance Magazine for ‘Best Automotive Services and Repair – Derby’.

This has come as a wonderful surprise as we didn’t even know we had been nominated, apparently we made it down to the final seven Garages and then won.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers as without their comments and reviews awards like these would be impossible for a small garage in Derby to achieve.

Wealth & Finance Business Awards

Success in business is a challenge in today’s fast paced global market, as companies compete for customers with competitors from around the world thanks to the increased prevalence of technology in the international corporate landscape.

Despite this, many firms are flourishing and constantly seeking to offer clients the very highest standards of service and innovative products that will meet their exact needs. As such, the 2017 Wealth & Finance Business Awards aims to recognise these companies,
and the individuals driving them, showcasing their achievements and successes from the past 12 months.

As with all of our awards, every one of our winners can truly rest assured that their recognition was genuinely deserved, as we carefully scrutinised everything from a
nominee’s region to their performance over the past 12 months, their commitment to innovation, their methods and even their competition to ensure that only the most deserving names walk away with one of our prestigious titles.