Lsfe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SilentDeath]

(Lifestyle ford europe) I hate them. The parts store in both the crawley and horsham branches could not have more incompetent staff!

I have been planning to change the fan belt on my fiesta for a month or two, I had bought the belt (which they looked up on computer, and made sure it was the right one), for £19 and it sat on a shelf since.

Today I got underneath my car and started doing it. I got the old one off quite easly, but it had gone 4pm by time I had got there, and LSFE are shut.
So now I compare the two belts, and the new one is atleast 50% longer than the old one, I mean WTF!!!!
Now I need to find the other half of the recipt since I only have the small half that doesnt say what item it is.

Im not putting the old one back, since it is quite badly cracked and taking it out was not too careful.

So now I need some way of getting to the industrial estate tomorrow to exchange the belt, and they probably wont have it in stock at the crawley branch, which will make me extremly pissed off since I will have no way to get to any other branches without putting the belt back on.. (halfords dont, I asked just before they shut )


Other experiences include being overcharged on credit card, by £50 on a £17 item, and getting trapped in their carpark for over 30 mins by another customer. Im sure i have also returned an item in the past but I cant remember what it was.

[kaillum]

a little note to self the first time I ever changed a fan belt on my old beetle.. when you take the old one off, first thing to check is that it is at most a little bit bigger than the old one... othewise you're in a whole heap of trouble as you've just found out!!

Unlucky mate.. Best bet is to take your OEM Ford belt back to Ford and get yourself down to a local car shop who'll sell you one for a lot less, and probably sell you the right belt as well!!!

[SilentDeath]

Yeah I did that, halfords sold me the "correct" belt for £11 saving me £8. They also ordered it for me at 11am and had it in by 1pm.

However I tryed to fit it, and I just cant get it on - its too tight. With the tensioner pully fully losened (by spanner, needing to be held in place, so only 1 hand free to fit belt) it is a resonable amount to short.
I think it can be done if I had an extra hand or two so Im getting my dad to help me, possibly tomorrow if the weather allows it.

One thing though, I can now change the wheel very quickly with very little effort. If I ever had to change it at the side of the road, the biggest problem - by far, would be getting the spare out from under the boot and then putting the damaged one back there.

edit:
3 hours out in the wet and it is done!

We were about to give up, having losened the altenator to get an extra 0.5mm, which really didnt help much. The altenator pully had a stupid 5mm lip around the outside and there was no way we could stretch it enough to get it over.

Then we took off one of the pullys (flat one, doesnt do anything) and pushed that against the belt to get it tensioned, and it worked.