02 Aug 07
After seven months, our S-Max has had to make its first trip to the garage. No fault of the car, though. Blame careless parking (not mine, obviously).
The reason for its trip to the service department was a bent tyre valve. Usually, a visit to Kwik-Fit would do the trick, but that doesn't take into account the sophisticated tyre pressure monitor fitted to the S-Max.
Indeed it was this system that alerted me to the problem in the first place. The tyre monitor flashed up a warning that the nearside front tyre was under pressure, so I added some air.
However, when it flashed again a few days later, I knew there was a problem. My first stop was Kwik-Fit, where they first extracted a large nail and then identified a bent tyre valve. But because the valve and the pressure monitor come as one unit, it meant that I had to go to my local Ford dealer, Dees of Wimbledon, to get a new part.
In fact, it was a part so new that they'd never ordered or fitted one before: the parts department had to do a bit of work to find it on the system. When they did, I was told it was out of stock, but they'd get back to me in a few days.
However, the next day I received a call telling me that it had arrived and was ready to be fitted whenever I could come in with the car. Which presented me with the next hurdle: the centralised telephone booking-in system.
