Well I've had a crap day

First job of the day, a 53 plate Clio. Drive it in and one of my colleagues is on the ramp doing a "quick headlamp aim" so instead of my usual routine of open the window, do walk round, turn engine off turn sidelights on and then go and log on I did the walkround outside, and as it was a bit drizzly I left the window closed. Logged on and came back to the car and it's still sitting exactly where I left it, with the engine running, and all the doors locked! Rung the customer and he has some security thing fitted that closes the central locking after one minutes running! Thanks mate, have you got a spare key, Oh the wife's got that and she works in London! Still it only took a couple of minutes to break in.

Then an Audi that I failed last week came back for retest. Headlight pattern was awful and I advised that could have been because all the lights had a honeycomb black adhesive film over them. The lady was most upset, her husband had told her the film was perfectly OK and made no difference at all, and he should know, he's a traffic officer! Well he should know better luv, because the film isn't there now and it's passed!

Another Clio, failed on honeycomb background on the number plates. Customer ranting and raving, it's not exactly dangerous is it? plates have been on the car for years, why has it never failed before. How can I answer that? "I've printed off the page from the manual, that shows what I have failed it on, and it doesn't have to be dangerous to fail, just not comply with the rules"


Last job of the day, Wreg Polo, Boss wandered up before I'd finished the last full test, "oh just pop a ticket on that he's had all the work done" so I finished the test and picked up the retest, now about ten minutes to closing time. The retest was for wheel bearings and lambda, Whizzed the car in, left it running to warm up while I logged on and checked the wheel bearings
and then saw the 14 advisory items!Checked all those and carried out a brake test because one of the advises was brake balance, and hooked up the EGA, thinking, "it's still got an exhaust leak at the rear joint, it might struggle with lambda" Anyway, nice and hot now so hey presto, lets fail the BET test!, And the boss is standing there with the keys to the workshop doors already, just as I start a Full Cat Test! five minutes later its failed the lambda again, the figures exactly the same as the original fail. Print a fresh VT30, take it out to reception and get caught in the crossfire. He's had the lambda sensor replaced! Well I didn't fail the sensor, I failed the gases. So when the guy fitted the new sensor on saturday and tested it on an MOT 4gas analyser it passed, how come I failed it. " I don't know sir, I have an approved machine which VOSA insist I have calibrated regularly and that's all up to date, and that machine shows a fail, so you get a fail" BUT IT'S GOT A NEW LAMBDA. "I don't care if you change the whole engine, if the cat or exhaust are pushing the lambda up it still won't pass"

Tomorrow's another day, and for some reason I'm actually looking forward to it