Car Clinic Scam - What are my rights???

SkintNalsy

I took my car to the Car Clinic last summer, due to it blowing out blue smoke and juddering a lot. They had a look, called me back and confirmed that they couldn't see anything wrong. I asked them how much they would charge me for this and they said 'nothing'. I was delighted, singing their praises etc etc. November last year comes, along with a Service by them. They called me and said that there was oil all over the engine and asked if I had been overfilling it with oil and I replied that I was not. There was oil in the air fiter etc. They told me that the total cost to fix this (i.e. taking the engine apart etc to clean it) would be £289. I needed my car and so I agreed. A couple of months later, the car started doing the same again but this time it was losing power also. I took it for it's MOT in March this year and got a call from them while at work. Apparently, it had failed on emissions which he said meant that my head gasket needed replaced along with a couple of other things. I was quoted £870. I obviously couldnt afford this and so told him that I would leave it and would pick up my car. 2 weeks later (last night in fact), a friend came to look at the car and told me he would fix it for me for a couple of pints. After looking at the car, he told me that there was nothing wrong with the head gasket at all!! He opened the bonnet and showed me all the oil which was runny (as it should be) all over the engine. There was oil pooling in the air filter etc. Car idles fine, heating works and car doesn't overheat. No water running out of exhaust, nothing. He also found that one of the pipes which comes out of the oil tank to go through the engine had burst, hence oil. He also pulled out the pipe and unravelled tape which was put round it!!! This is the job that the Car Clinic had charged me £289 to fix!!! I am absolutely raging that they were going to charge me £870 for a headgasket which is fine and that they charged me £289 to clean my engine and put TAPE round the pipe :mad: . Maybe they saw a woman and thought their luck was in.

Is there something I can do?

BananaramaMel

That's disgusting!

I do everything on my car myself now because I'm sick of garages taking advantage.

It's true...they see a woman and pound signs appear in their eye's.

I had the oil all over the engine thing and the bloke said it was the HG and quoted over £500...so I took it home and my brother and I had a look...changed the oil cap,cleaned the engine and it was fine.Did a compression test etc.It's been a year and a half now and still no sign of the HG failing,no oil in water...nothing.I've learnt to be very wary of mechanics since they conned my mum in 1986!

I'd make a complaint.I'm not sure how you'd go about it though...do you have the job sheet or whatever they call it?It should list what they were supposed to have done.That also seems like a huge quote for a HG job,it's not as hard as they like to make out.Also my car failed on emissions last year and it was just the catalytic convertor so I think they're talking rubbish especially as your car has none of the other classic HG failure symptoms and I'm assuming they didn't do any tests?.The loss of power might be because of the bodge job they did on the oil pipe.

Find the job sheet,show the shop the evidence of the bodge job and either ask for a refund or ask that they repair it properly and throw in a free oil change or full service.Take your mate with you.I wouldn't stand for it.

Things like this make me really mad!:mad:

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

Contact your local trading standards as they may have had other complaints about this garage. You may end up having to claim through the small claims courts for a refund of your money but first port of call is TS. Don't back down and fight this all the way. Take a photo of the offending pipe too in case you need it.