Today in the way to work I had notice the red light from the battery turned on. And I was suspecting that was some kind of electrical problem. It was not so far away from the parking lot so I decided to postpone until I get to work.
After I parked I look under the the hood to investigate the problem. It turn out that the v-belt between the engine and the water pump was broken. It was completely torn apart. I will show you a picture of it tomorrow. In the office I had look to a electronic catalog for the part number.
I fund it together with the specifications: V-Belt 9.5X643MM (if anybody is interested the part number is: b 068 121 039 B) and it shud cost about 7.5 Euro's (at least his was the germane price ) so I assumed that including VAT is about 10 Euro. So in the lunch break I made a visit to the local auto service near by.Guess what ! They didn't had any idea what kind of belt i need, what size, how it should look, nothing. What the hell ? They should be the experts. Because I wasn't smart enough to remember the specification they search for it in a catalog and they found something with a lot of luck. The price was about 3 Euro and they have had to order it because they didn't have it in stock. But here come the funny part. Because it was so cheap they can order it. "Maybe you want also something more expensive ?" they ask me. "Yes! A boat and a island ! But for now on I just want by belt " I had replayed. What the hell ? I think that if you go to a service and say "My car is broken" to say replay something like "Ok. Let's fix it" And if I know exactly what they have to fix to tell me exactly how much is cost, including the part and stuff. I don't want th hear excuses like that. I just want to get a price for fixing the specified problem. Probably if they had sad "It cost 50 and it take 30 minutes" it was a lot more convincing for me. And in this 50 they can include the price to the auto shop to buy the belt and the replacement.
So I go back to the office and decided to buy a belt and change it myself a lot cheaper. But I still had a problem, it was no auto shop near by and in the evening when I finish my job all the shops all closed. So I call my mother and ask her if it can go to a shop to buy a belt. I finally convince her, and I tell her the details.
She call me a after a while and told me that she get the belt. But here come the funny part again. The size is diffrent from the one form the catalog, instead of 9.5X643MM is 10x650MM. The guy from the shop told her that it has the same part number but the size is diffrent because they have a list of equivalents and is no way to find the one with the exact same around. The only way is to order it from Germany and it will take 1-3 weeks. Sound's silly, isn't it ? Let me explain it to you.
They have only one belt in the stock that is the average size, and they sell it in replacement for all the other sizes. So they can sell it as a 9.5.X640MM or as a 11X660MM. It is almost the same, and nobody will notice. What that worst it can happen ? Great mentality. So I had to live with this.
After I parked I look under the the hood to investigate the problem. It turn out that the v-belt between the engine and the water pump was broken. It was completely torn apart. I will show you a picture of it tomorrow. In the office I had look to a electronic catalog for the part number.
I fund it together with the specifications: V-Belt 9.5X643MM (if anybody is interested the part number is: b 068 121 039 B) and it shud cost about 7.5 Euro's (at least his was the germane price ) so I assumed that including VAT is about 10 Euro. So in the lunch break I made a visit to the local auto service near by.Guess what ! They didn't had any idea what kind of belt i need, what size, how it should look, nothing. What the hell ? They should be the experts. Because I wasn't smart enough to remember the specification they search for it in a catalog and they found something with a lot of luck. The price was about 3 Euro and they have had to order it because they didn't have it in stock. But here come the funny part. Because it was so cheap they can order it. "Maybe you want also something more expensive ?" they ask me. "Yes! A boat and a island ! But for now on I just want by belt " I had replayed. What the hell ? I think that if you go to a service and say "My car is broken" to say replay something like "Ok. Let's fix it" And if I know exactly what they have to fix to tell me exactly how much is cost, including the part and stuff. I don't want th hear excuses like that. I just want to get a price for fixing the specified problem. Probably if they had sad "It cost 50 and it take 30 minutes" it was a lot more convincing for me. And in this 50 they can include the price to the auto shop to buy the belt and the replacement.
So I go back to the office and decided to buy a belt and change it myself a lot cheaper. But I still had a problem, it was no auto shop near by and in the evening when I finish my job all the shops all closed. So I call my mother and ask her if it can go to a shop to buy a belt. I finally convince her, and I tell her the details.
She call me a after a while and told me that she get the belt. But here come the funny part again. The size is diffrent from the one form the catalog, instead of 9.5X643MM is 10x650MM. The guy from the shop told her that it has the same part number but the size is diffrent because they have a list of equivalents and is no way to find the one with the exact same around. The only way is to order it from Germany and it will take 1-3 weeks. Sound's silly, isn't it ? Let me explain it to you.
They have only one belt in the stock that is the average size, and they sell it in replacement for all the other sizes. So they can sell it as a 9.5.X640MM or as a 11X660MM. It is almost the same, and nobody will notice. What that worst it can happen ? Great mentality. So I had to live with this.
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