Generator Servicing and Repairs in the North West

For most standby sets, once a year or at the hours interval in the handbook, whichever comes first.

Hours matter more than the calendar on anything working regularly, and the calendar matters more on a set that mostly sits waiting. A standby generator that runs for ten minutes a month still needs an annual service, because the things that spoil it are fuel degradation and a flat starting battery rather than wear. If a set is genuinely critical — standby power for a business, or a generator on commercial vehicles — a shorter interval and a proper run-up under load is money well spent.

Nine times out of ten it is fuel or the starting battery, not the engine.

Diesel that has stood for a year picks up water and contamination, filters block, and the lift pump draws air instead of fuel. The other half is a starting battery that has quietly gone flat over months of standing, so the set cranks slowly and never fires. Both are ordinary repairs. It is worth having it looked at properly before anybody quotes you for a replacement generator, because the assumption people arrive with is usually more expensive than the fault. See our approach to diagnostics.

That points at fuel delivery rather than the engine itself.

A set that idles happily and then dies when the load comes on is usually being starved. The usual causes are a restricted fuel filter, a weak lift pump, an air leak on the suction side of the system, or a governor that cannot hold revs as demand rises. Occasionally it is an overload protection device doing its job correctly because the set is being asked for more than it can give. It is a diagnosis rather than a guess, which is why we would rather see it than price it down the phone. The same fault-finding discipline runs through all our plant and equipment work.

Both, and which one depends on size and whether the set is bolted down.

Portable and small petrol sets are simplest brought to the workshop on Boundary Road in St Helens — no call-out, all the tooling to hand, and bench space if something needs stripping properly. Standby and larger diesel sets are worked on where they stand, because moving them is more trouble than the job. Vehicle-mounted generators are almost always done on site. Ring 01744 808586 or send the details over with the make and size and we will tell you which makes sense.

St Helens and the wider North West.

That takes in Merseyside, Warrington, Runcorn and Widnes, Wigan, Newton-le-Willows and Haydock, out towards Liverpool and Manchester, and into Cheshire and Lancashire. Runcorn and Manchester are the two we get asked about most, usually backup sets on industrial units that have not been touched since they were installed. If you are further out than that, ring and ask rather than assume — it depends on the week and on what the job actually needs. The same van covers plant work in Warrington and across Merseyside.

Yes — petrol and portable sets are a good share of what comes through the workshop.

They are usually quicker and cheaper to put right than people expect. After a spell standing, the common jobs are cleaning out a carburettor that has gummed up, flushing stale fuel, plugs and oil, and sorting recoil or electric start problems. Because they are easy to move, these are best brought in to Boundary Road rather than paying for someone to come to them. Bring it as it is; you do not need to drain anything first. It is the same workshop that handles the rest of our garage services.

Yes. We are not tied to one manufacturer, so make is rarely the deciding factor.

The engines in most small and mid-size sets are conventional diesel or petrol units, and servicing them is ordinary engine work — oils, filters, fuel system, belts, charge circuit. What does matter is parts availability on less common makes, so tell us the make and model when you ring and we will say up front if something is likely to be slow to get hold of rather than finding out halfway through. More about the workshop and the people in it is on our about us page. Call 01744 808586.

It depends on the size of the set and what it takes, so we price it before we start rather than quote a headline figure.

What moves the number is the engine size and oil capacity, how many filters it takes, whether it is petrol or diesel, and whether we are coming to you or you are bringing it in. A small portable is a very different job to a standby set with a large sump and multiple fuel filters. Tell us the make and size and you will get a real figure, not a “from” price. You can also spread bigger bills — see Payment Assist.

Yes, and it is worth doing before you need it rather than on the day.

A set that has stood for years normally wants the fuel draining and replacing, every filter changing, a new starting battery more often than not, and the carburettor cleaning if it is petrol. We would also check the oil for water and look at the mountings and exhaust for corrosion. Most of the time the engine itself is fine and it is everything around it that has suffered from standing still. It is a far better position to find that out in advance — the same logic we apply to plant across Merseyside.

Usually repairing, but not always, and you will get a straight answer either way.

On most sets the engine outlasts everything else, so a generator that will not start is often a few hundred pounds of fuel system and battery work rather than a write-off. Where it stops being worth it is heavy internal engine damage on a cheap small unit, or a set where parts are no longer available. If that is where yours is, we will say so rather than take the work and hand you a bill that gets you nowhere. If it is worth saving, tell us about it and we will price the repair properly.

No. We service, maintain and repair generators, but we do not sell or install them, and we do not carry out load bank testing.

If what you need is a new set specified and fitted, you want a generator supplier rather than us, and we would rather point you that way than take a booking we are not the right people for. What we are good at is keeping a set you already own working — scheduled servicing, fault finding and repair, on site or in the workshop. Everything else we do is on our garage services page.