Car not working correctly after worked on in local garage - please help

Hintza

Whether or not you get any money back from the garage do you reay want the car back?

Nightmare scenario OP Goods Luck.

optimus_primera

I think its going to be a bit of fight to be honest,but until you get a full report from Toyota you are in limbo so to speak,and to get a full report you are going to have to pay Toyota, seems like a no win situation,my advice would be to seek legal advice asap.

Just wondered who the garage was, as i only live down the rd from Immingham

Veryskint

Hi there, I have had diesel fumes in my car for over a year now, I kpet taking it to the garage (its was a new car) and they told me nowt wrong with it, finally they have found a hole in a pipe, so fumes were coming in at the front of the car. thats a year I ahve been driving it around with the kids in.
Perhaps a pipe with a hole in it at the front...sorry no technical terms, but I kept being told nothing wrong with it too and finally they found it after we made them leave the car off for some time, then start it up and leave it running, shut up for a while, then get in it, you cannot mistake the fumes at that point.
Not sure if that is any help to you at all, but good luck

Jackinbox99

In my experience there is not much you can do appart from either spend money getting a full report done then take the garage to the small claims court, or just walk away.

Its experiences like this which is why i never take my car to a garage and prefer to work on it myself. Im lucky in that I am able to do this.

The last time i took my car to a garage for some repair work it was a clutch company which is a big national chain. They said it would be a 4 hour job to fit a new clutch in my car, which in the end took them 3 days. Finally it was done and as I drove my car away from the garage it caught fire! I injured my hand putting the fire out. Upon inspection I could see that they had not fitted the underbonnet sound deadening correctly and it had been resting on the hot exhaust and hense caught fire. If I hadnt smelt burning, the car would have gone up in flames and been destroyed. I also noticed they had not put in 2 of the gearbox bolts - leaving them lying under the bonnet. The car also was dangerously overboosting because they had not re-connected a pipe to the turbo.

It was my word agains the garage and dispite many letters to their head office they refused to have anything to do with me. I decided to walk away from it rather than take them to court as it would have been their word against mine.

Unfortunately sometimes you just have no choice but to use garages, especially if its insurance work. My other half`s car spent 3 months at a bodyshop last year for them to repair a very light front end accident. The garage made a long catalogue of errors, I found 24 things wrong with their repair job, including using the wrong colour paint when it came back from them. The car then went back 4 times for them to "fix" problems and still is not running correctly - its misfiring, coolant is "vanishing", the exhaust is blowing and the car just is horrible to drive. The garage claims they have no idea what the problem is, and in fact have said the coolant is vanishing as "if by magic" as they have no idea where its going. When we complain to the insurance company, all they do is send the car back to the same dodgy garage. So, we are now left with no option really but to sell the car and buy a new one.

Claire_Jones_3

Just an update to say thank you for everyones help so far. Trading standards have opened a case against the garage involved and told me how/what to write to them to put in a claim against them which I have done. I have also been contacted by the garages insurance company and they are investigating as well. Trading standards have told me if claim is not settled within 7 days I can take to small claim court and I would have their support and assistance in doing so.

Will update more as it happens!

warehouse

Good luck. Please keep us updated on progress.

Hammyman

Veryskint wrote: »

Hi there, I have had diesel fumes in my car for over a year now, I kpet taking it to the garage (its was a new car) and they told me nowt wrong with it, finally they have found a hole in a pipe, so fumes were coming in at the front of the car. thats a year I ahve been driving it around with the kids in.

So you knowingly drove your kids around for a year breathing in cancer causing toxins?

Unbelievable.

Strider590

So they broke the glowplugs, then said that was the cause of the problem, then charged you for them to fix a problem they caused?

Claire_Jones_3

Strider590 wrote: »

So they broke the glowplugs, then said that was the cause of the problem, then charged you for them to fix a problem they caused?

No, sorry I obviously didn't make that clear. I think I broke the glowplugs accidently by tightening them up too much but they didn't break straight away it was months and months after I changed them a warning light came on. I took to a garage with a computer to plug it into they said it was to do with a glowplug but they were unable to do the job themselves as they didn't feel comfortable taking on a job of that type. I took to another local garage who said they were able to remove it and repair. They charged us to remove the cyclinders etc to get to the broken part of glow plug and to put it all back together again.

Veryskint

Hammyman wrote: »

So you knowingly drove your kids around for a year breathing in cancer causing toxins?

Unbelievable.

Exactly. Luckily I walk to the kids to and from school and most of the driving was just me on my own, but we do go up to middlesbrough 2 or 3 times a year, from here that is 300 miles each way, so not good for any of us.

I have had an unexplained cough since a month or two after we got the car, as that is over a year, I have been sent for chest x-rays which are all clear - I am hoping that now the car is fixed, the cough will go away....