Tension Belt Trauma

I decided (probably wrongly) to take my car to a main dealer. This of course is not what is normally done when you have a car as old and well used as mine. Having seen the fantastic pictures that were sent me by a member of the Club, I felt sure that I could do the job myself. Anyhow, what's done is done and so for everyone's education, here is the bill.
I also asked them to change the automatic transmission fluid at the same time. According to the dreaded Haynes Manual you are supposed to do this every 36000 miles. For me that would be about every year and a half. I asked for it to be done when I bought the car and that was over twice the recommended mileage ago!
I would say that the staff at the Reading Branch of Greenoaks were very polite and they seem to treat customers who own older cars with as much courtesy as the ones who own brand new cars. (Although of course I have never been in that favoured position so maybe I can't judge….maybe they get a complementary Bollinger as well as a valeting.)
When I brought my car in, it had just toured France so it was full of crisp packets, sand and that peculiar smell of sandwiches eaten in a car…a mixture of plastic and banana. When it was returned it had been thoroughly cleaned out. So I was happy with the service and my car is a whole lot better now.
One thing I didn’t realise was that the loud cranking noise that I used to suffer from when making sharp turns (especially in reverse) was caused by the loose fan belt. When the power steering pump placed demand on the belt, it would flap about. This in turn causes the free running pullies to rotate in a jerky fashion hence the noise. This is now cured.
So: verdict: more costly than normal but I am happy with the service and happy with the job!

The Dreaded Bill