Category: Other News

COVID-19

COVID-19 Precautions

Important COVID-19 Update:

From tomorrow I will be treating the controls and door handles of all vehicles on their arrival at the workshop and before they leave with Smartsan V anti-microbial disinfectant. Controls are items such as the steering wheel, gear lever, parking brake lever and commonly used switches. I will also extend that treatment to items in the workshop such as the credit card machine.

Smartsan V is a non-staining broad spectrum sanitiser that is effective against a wide range of pathogenic virus, bacteria, yeast and fungi. It passes BS EN1276:1997 & BS EN 1650:1998 disinfection standards.

You can read more about the product I will be using and download its datasheet at the link below.

I’m being proactive with this so I can help protect both myself and my customers.

https://autosmart.co.uk/products/csmv114c-smartsan-v

Our Safe Workshop Practice Charter

  • We try to minimise contact with customers and suppliers.
    • The workshop is closed to visitors and all work is carried out by appointment only.
    • Initial customer contact is by telephone, email or social media messaging only.
    • Drop-off and pick-up times will be staggered to ensure there is only one customer present at the workshop at any time.
    • We are not providing a while-you-wait service and there will be no waiting at or in the vicinity of the workshop.
  • We keep customers safe by using new disposable seat covers, floor mats and gloves for every job.
  • We will turn off vehicle Air Con/Climate Control to avoid spreading germs.
  • We wipe down all vehicle contact points as we work with Smartsan-V (passes BS EN1276:1997 & BS EN 1650:1998 disinfection standards), a non-staining broad spectrum sanitiser that is effective against a wide range of pathogenic virus, bacteria, yeast and fungi. A sanitation checklist will be left in all vehicles after the final treatment.
  • Items in the workshop which come into contact with customers such as the card machine will be sanitised after each use with Smartsan-V.
  • Our workshop follows all current government social distancing guidelines.
    • New signage and barriers have been installed at the workshop complying with the government’s latest ‘COVID-19 Secure‘ guidelines.
    • A clear plastic cough/sneeze guard is now installed at the reception counter.
    • Alcohol-based hand sanitiser gel (≥70% alcohol content, passes BS EN 1276 & BS EN 1500 disinfection standards) is available on the reception counter. I would ask all visitors to use it on arrival at reception and before they leave.
  • We respect high risk customers by maintaining an external drop-off and collection point.
    • When necessary and for high-risk customers we will increase our level of personal protective equipment (PPE) to include a 3M FFP3 respirator and disposable nitrile examination gloves.
  • We will offer you value-added services; e.g. Air Con disinfection, cabin filter replacement (HEPA) etc. for your added protection.
  • To keep your vehicle legally roadworthy we will carry out a free visual safety check of the following:
    • Brake Discs
    • Brake Pads
    • Horn
    • Lights
    • Wipers & Washers
    • Tyres
    • MOT Due Date
  • We will notify you of any defects found during this check.
  • We will ensure all contact points and keys are wiped down before collection.
Other News

Digital Service Records

Service BookDo you remember the service book in your glove box which the garage stamped after every service? If your car still has one you are lucky because many vehicle manufacturers are phasing out the issuing of a paper service book and instead are moving over to digital service records.

Digital service records are stored online on the vehicle manufacturer’s servers and can be accessed via their web sites. The advantage is that they can be checked at any time by the vehicle’s owner, the repairers or even by someone interested in buying the vehicle. The disadvantage for the repairers is the need to both register for and then be accepted onto each vehicle manufacturer’s system, a process which can be very time-consuming. Once accepted, the repairer needs to log into the system to update these records after each service is carried out, again another time consuming process. Ultimately this will increase the time it takes to complete a service and therefore the cost to the customer.

Not all vehicle manufacturers have adopted digital service records yet but are expected to do so.  Of the ones which have we have registered with them and are able to update digital service records for the following vehicle manufacturers. We’ll keep this list updated as more come online.

  • Audi
  • Bentley
  • Ford
  • Lamborghini
  • Mazda
  • Seat
  • Skoda
  • Volkswagen
Other News, Vehicle Defects

Exploding Battery Post

I arrived at work this morning to find a gentleman waiting outside for me. His car was at a garage in a West Hull village and whilst there an explosion had occurred at one of the two batteries which power this large four wheel drive vehicle. The garage wasn’t sure what had caused it to happen and didn’t want to get involved.

The only option was to have the vehicle recovered to my workshop so I could carry out a detailed inspection and my preferred recovery company was then contacted and transported the car during the afternoon.

It was quickly apparent that the damage was limited to the positive battery post of the main starting battery. The battery post had become so hot as to cause molten lead to be ejected from it onto the top of the battery. The battery terminal was now badly damaged too.

On inspecting the battery terminals on the other battery it was clear that they hadn’t been tightened up properly and were insecure. This causes a high electrical resistance which in turn produces a lot of heat. It’s this heat which caused the explosion and subsequent damage.

The repair was straightforward. A new battery and new Durite battery terminals which are far superior to the original ones.

And a word of warning. Car batteries are dangerous. Incorrect installation can cause the battery to explode. If your car needs a battery fitting leave it to a competent mechanic!

Other News

Welcome To Our New Website

Since 2008 we have hosted our company website with Microsoft using their Office365 Sharepoint Services. From March 2018 Microsoft are no longer hosting external websites which gave us a great opportunity to relocate then fully upgrade our online presence.

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Our old website, online since 2008.

So, welcome the new Jonathan Fry Automotive Ltd website!

Our new site is far more advanced and renders automatically to the screen size of whatever device you’re viewing it from so we’re now fully desktop, mobile and tablet friendly.

We can also cross-post to our social media pages so if you’re on our Facebook Page, our Twitter Feed or our Google+ Page you’ll see the same news and updates as available in the News section of this website.