Grand Auto Service | Mechanic and Parts

November 24th, 2021 by TRAVELcandies-On-Tour

At first we've been really convinced by those (perfect english speaking) guys, who were totally honest and told us, that they don't do unnecessary things, rather starting iterative from "small" to "big". They used proper tools and professional measurement systems, took a lot care about our home on wheels, as well as they've been super friendly and hospitable.
So we spent a whole day here, letting all main fluids change, as well as we let check the whole drive train and axle related things and let the brake pads change.
Unfortunately at the end they couldn't fix our ABS problem (but it was clear for me) and forgot to put grease on the rear side of the new bake pads, as well as they tightened the nuts of the brake saddle much too much, until one of my torx just broke apart (I told them, that for an overlander it's necessary to tighten screws not to the max as they have to be able to be loosened, so better use a torque wrench)
Later on, we also found out, that even the brake pads (which should have been original), where squeaking all the way, no matter if we were just driving or braking (never had this before) and that after driving slightly downhill, the car lost a lot of braking power. I measured the wheels/brakes heat: 87°C. (the original pads had often over 200°C without loosing braking power).
Furthermore the loosened the original tie of the axle sleeve (for solving the ABS error), but didn't use a new tie, rather than taking the old one, which fall off a few hundred kilometers further. The sleeve came off and the inside of the axle shaft was exposed to the dirt.
There a few more minor things which didn't work out so well and at the end we were a little bit more disappointed.
We paid 85€ for the fake brake pads, whereas a good ATE set will cost 13€. They somehow denied to change the pads, even if I mentioned, that this is unacceptable, especially when speaking about security critical parts. They also didn't want to go to the dealer, who sold the pads for asking him about new and other ones.
They said, the guy won't accept and I need to pay for another one, when they will find pads at a different dealer.

Conclusion:
Very friendly and helpful guys, who really try their best (!) but always watch and check what they're doing and bring your own spare parts, otherwise you might regret!
I'm sure and can imagine, that these guys are the best in Sulaimaniyya, but for a really proper quality work it's still not good enough and spare-parts are way too expensive.

November 22nd, 2021 by edgar

great mechanic where some of the staff speak really good English. We had a transmission problem on our VW T4. Although this car is virtually nonexistent in Kurdistan-Iraq they were still able to help us plus they knew a VW spare part shop. We had no appointment but they took care of our issue right away. Their garage is well equipped, modern and clean. They worked on our car for about 3 hours. We found the price we paid really fair.
They have a separate waiting room which is pretty quiet. They have hot tea and fast wifi.
They also have a cleaning service (which we did not use)