Reply To: Halfords expands “Mobile Expert” service with plans to add 150 vans to fleet

[Eddie Bamber]

I got asked to recover an old Astra from a Halfords branch and take it to a local engine replacement centre. It was old, but very low mileage and in good condition. It had been towed into them as a non starter and the Halfords ‘mechanic’ said that he ‘thought’ the cylinder head gasket had gone but admitted that he hadn’t carried out even a compression check. We pushed it out of the garage onto their forecourt. I had a look and found the battery was flat, the engine badly flooded with fuel and the plug leads fitted in the wrong order in the distributor cap. The compressions were all good. Charged battery, fitted a dry set of plugs and corrected the firing order and it burst into life. It ran o/k with no issues up to normal temperature and the cooling fan kicked in and out as it should. If they can’t even deal with something with simple technology, I’m looking forward to seeing the claims when they f*** up a more complex vehicle.