I'm worried about the garage that's fixing my car

Charliezoo

My 2003 Ford StreetKa started sounding dodgy a few days ago. The engine sounded and felt rough and the engine management light came on. I got it over to Ford who diagnosed an injector circuit malfunction on cylinder 2. They said the spark plugs needed changing too. I let them do the spark plugs but the quote for the other work was £350 so I decided to take it to a local garage I had been recommended. Ford delivered it back and I took it to the garage, it was driven for approximately 20 miles and was sounding a bit better than before but still a bit noisy. The guys at the local garage seemed a bit clueless. Alarm bells rang when they refused to accept it was a 1.6 engine, I had to show them the tax disk to prove it. They also didn't believe it was the injector that needed replacing but plugged it into their computer which showed this. I'm now wondering if I should have been concerned enough at this point and gone elsewhere but I'd been told this was a good garage and their labour charges were half of that at Ford.

I was at the garage for about 10 minutes, the had the bonnet up and were touching the engine, revving it, etc. They said they would swap injectors 1 and 2 over and take it for a test drive to see what happened. This seemed plausible so I left it with them. Later on that afternoon the garage called me. Apparently the car had got 2 minutes down the road before overheating and they'd had to go straight back. This seems really odd, it had just driven 20 miles with no overheating problems. In fact the car has never overheated in the 8 years I've owned it. The engine wasn't even hot when I left it with them, they had their heads under the bonnet and there was no steam or evidence of excessive heat.

I know very little about cars but my first thought was what on earth have they done to it! I thought it was a straightforward case of replacing the injector, how would it suddenly go and overheat? They're now saying it could be the head gasket that's gone, would it be normal for both the injector and the head gasket to go both at once and for it to suddenly overheat without any warning? It seems especially odd that it had just driven 20 miles with no overheating.

I'm really worried they've somehow caused more damage but I obviously can't go accusing them of this, can anyone advise me on what to do next?

j_bailey_3

I am by no means a mechanic nor do i have an extensive knowledge of cars but from what i do know, it sounds like you've got some cowboy mechanics.

For a start you said the engine wasn't hot when you left it with them and that they were revving the engine. And what with these cold nights recently i would take a guess saying the car wasn't at operating temperature. Any mechanic should know not to rev a cold car, since the car needs time to circulate oil and warm it up. Without it metal parts in the car are just rubbing against each other bare causing friction.

And from what i know and heard about fuel injectors, if they are not operating properly (not injecting the correct amount of fuel) it can cause the car to stall or in some cases overheat as you said. You said that they would swap the fuel injectors over, well if they did this and the problem is still there or has been made worse, Either they didn't swap them over or change them correctly or its due to a bigger problem.

You said that you were recommended the garage, Who recommended you? Was it somebody that knows about cars, what work did they have done to make them recommend you? (If it was just a basic service, that's straight forward) How many people work at the garage, the people dealing with your car might not be the same people who worked with who recommended you.

If they need evidence to prove a cars engine size and don't believe the owner of the car, i wouldn't trust what they say if they don't trust you.

Its your car remember so if you're not happy, go somewhere else. There's plenty of garages that will deal with people who don't understand cars and will explain to you step by step what they have done or what problem you have.

I'm clueless on what your rights are to damage/paying them are. So I'm sure somebody else will hopefully help you.

Charliezoo

Thank you for the reply. The car should have been sufficiently warm after driving 20 miles so I'm not particularly concerned with that. Also they weren't revving it excessively while I was there, just enough to hear the engine sounds.

I'm just very confused as to why it overheated and whether this is related to the injector malfunction or if it is another problem that has arisen while in their care.

fatstuff76

Hi Charliezoo,

It is always awkward to help with car problems without actually seeing the car. It is possible that the bad running from the car was down to the head gasket in the first place, so it is plausable that it is no fault of the garage that the car overheated. When diagnosing vehicles the engine is often left running on idle with some revving, this in it's self causes the engines temperature to rise above normal driving temperature and could have caused the already damaged head gasket to get worse.

The only way to prove overwise would be to get the head gasket done and see if it cures the running fault (without replacing the injector). If after replacing the head gasket the engine still has the same running fault then there is a chance of something dodgy going on.

I am not sure why the garage wouldn't accept that the vehicle was a 1.6 litre. It is possible that if they had not seen a streetka before then it would be a bit of a shock to find a 1.6 engine under there.

As I would always say in these situations, you always have the option to get a second opinion, and if the garage is an honest garage then they will have no problems with you getting one.

Hope this helps.

Charliezoo

fatstuff76 wrote: »

Hi Charliezoo,

It is always awkward to help with car problems without actually seeing the car. It is possible that the bad running from the car was down to the head gasket in the first place, so it is plausable that it is no fault of the garage that the car overheated. When diagnosing vehicles the engine is often left running on idle with some revving, this in it's self causes the engines temperature to rise above normal driving temperature and could have caused the already damaged head gasket to get worse.

The only way to prove overwise would be to get the head gasket done and see if it cures the running fault (without replacing the injector). If after replacing the head gasket the engine still has the same running fault then there is a chance of something dodgy going

Hi Fatstuff, thanks for your help.

The garage say that its definately an injector that has gone, they swapped injector 2 with injector 1 and the diagnostic computer confirmed that 1 had failed so it definately needs replacing. Does it look likely that the head gasket has gone as well as the injector? Could they be linked? If this is the case I'm assuming this would be a big job running into hundreds of pounds. The injector alone will cost me about £200 to replace (£350 from Ford).

mboro

Have you joined a Ford car club forum, might be worth asking your question on there too.

EdGasket

Head gasket and fuel injector are not related at all.

Strider590

Two points i'd like to make....

Personal recommendation are good, but not when it's purely because "they seemed nice".... Seeming nice does not mean competent.

Independent garage's won't look as nice and polished as a dealership, one of the reasons I don't trust dealerships is because I know as an engineer that its impossible to work efficiently in an analy clean/tidy workspace.
So when I see polished floors, clean tools and all that malarkey, my alarm bells starting ringing.

LandyAndy

Strider590 wrote: »

Two points i'd like to make....

Personal recommendation are good, but not when it's purely because "they seemed nice".... Seeming nice does not mean competent.

Independent garage's won't look as nice and polished as a dealership, one of the reasons I don't trust dealerships is because I know as an engineer that its impossible to work efficiently in an analy clean/tidy workspace.
So when I see polished floors, clean tools and all that malarkey, my alarm bells starting ringing.

Have you seen a Formula 1 workshop?;)

Strider590

LandyAndy wrote: »

Have you seen a Formula 1 workshop?;)

The one on the pit lane in front of all the camera's, or the one out back that nobody ever gets to see?

Gordon_Hose

Merc workshops are always spotless as well!