Defective high pressure hoses--caveat emptor

["James A. Desveaux" <desveaux@ucla.edu>]

Somebody else had a bad experience with a high pressure steering hose on a
200Q the other day.  Thanks to that posting, I checked carefully before
springing for a rebuilt rack.  Indeed, my 'new' high pressure hose was badly
leaking as well.  The other lister emailed me and told me his hose was a
Gates that he bought from the dealer and that perhaps 'it was a bad batch.'
Indeed, I pulled back the sheathing on this one, and it's a Gates.  Bad
batch or no, I'll never use a Gates high pressure hose again.  Changing
these things is too much of a pain in the ass.  Steve at Europarts sent me
another that he said was 'Made in Germany' and definitely not Gates.
However (hey, full moon and gourndhog day rolled into one) UPS told me the
package would be delivered today.  The truck drove right past the building
and didn't stop.  I called UPS with the tracking number.  At first they told
me it was scheduled for delivery today and not to worry.  After the truck
rolled by, I called about 15 minutes later and they said 'the driver
attempted delivery at 5:55.'  I flew into a white rage, explaining that
there was no conceivable way that sob attempted delivery, and there was no
yellow UPS slip anyway, and I had a note to UPS on the door that could not
possibly be missed.  They finally put the driver on the phone, and when he
tried to tell me he attempted delivery, I called him a liar, and told him
that a strongly but appropriately worded letter would be in New York in a
few days.  (The regular driver, a great guy, was off today).

So, to cover my ass I bought another hose at the dealer and will likely eat
$192. because of Gates and UPS.  Incidentally, the hose from the dealer is
different for the '91 20v as the picture in the Bentley shows.  The curve is
different, and it's a bit of a trick to twist it under the return hose on
the rack, but not too bad.  This really brings back memories when I did this
for a living, and defective or incorrect new parts would ruin one's whole
day, and half the time the parts guys could care less.

This wasn't intended as a diatribe, just a warning to those replacing hoses
to look at the label.

- Jim