£90 to change a fuse...

goldspanners

Tucker wrote: »

The OP says it failed. It got stuck.

No mention of driver error or turning it on when it's frozen to the window.

where did it get stuck? how can the wiper get stuck other than being frozen to the window.
if it was mechanically stuck on a part of the body then it must have been out of line and it would be obvious there was more needed than just a fuse replaced. i.e. loose arm bolt or bent arm.

goldspanners

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Surely the first thing to do is check the obvious. The fuse!.

nope, its much easier to plug in a lead than to remove gloveboxes full of owners rubbish to access cabin fuse boxes.

Tucker

goldspanners wrote: »

where did it get stuck? how can the wiper get stuck other than being frozen to the window.
if it was mechanically stuck on a part of the body then it must have been out of line and it would be obvious there was more needed than just a fuse replaced. i.e. loose arm bolt or bent arm.

It stopped working. That's not the only thing that could cause a fuse to blow. I could do with borrowing that crystal ball of yours sometime!

If it was that simple to diagnose the actual cause they would have said, it's not covered by the warranty because it's been caused by the driver and the OP would be taking on the chin and wouldn't be posting on here!

goldspanners

Tucker wrote: »

It stopped working. That's not the only thing that could cause a fuse to blow. I could do with borrowing that crystal ball of yours sometime!

If it was that simple to diagnose the actual cause they would have said, it's not covered by the warranty because it's been caused by the driver and the OP would be taking on the chin and wouldn't be posting on here!

sounds like you already have one.

if you take your car to the main dealer and insturct them to fix the fault like the op did then you giving them a blank cheque.
it could quite easily take the best part of an hour to get the car into the bay and hook it up to computer and then change the fuse. if this dealer charges £90 per hour then its up to the op to know this before giving instruction to the dealer to fix it.

Hammyman

Tucker wrote: »

What??? Not everyone is capable of this sort of thing.

Fine so you take it to someone who is and pay for the privilege.

Fuses blow for a very good reason. The fuse is not the fault. Whatever the underlying fault is ought to be covered by a warranty.

Fuses can blow just due to age and many hours thousands of hours of constant expansion and contraction of the metal strip. They can also fail when there is too much current drawn such as when a stupid person tries to use frozen solid windscreen wipers without freeing them off first.

I had an electrical fault that blew the fuse in my heater. It would work again for a short while then blow again.... and again and again. There was nothing wrong with the fuses!!

And that proves what exactly, other than the heater motor drew too much current and blew the fuse?

Hammyman

goldspanners wrote: »

no mechanic gets paid £90 per hour. the mechanic will be lucky to get £10 of that.

Even up here in our rural northern county, there's not a single main dealer mechanic on under £15/hr.

it could take you ages to gain access to switches terminal to test with a multi meter,but the computer can test them in seconds.

Indeed. MK3 Mondeo is a good example. You have to completely take out the glove box then perform some voodoo on a lever on the fusebox to get it to drop down. Quite possible to take a good 15 minutes with one that's never been touched since it left the factory. First time I took my glovebox out of mine it took a good 10 minutes as it was well stuck in there.

Tucker

Hammyman wrote: »

Fuses can blow just due to age and many hours thousands of hours of constant expansion and contraction of the metal strip. They can also fail when there is too much current drawn such as when a stupid person tries to use frozen solid windscreen wipers without freeing them off first.

It's less than one year old? And why are people assuming the OP has caused the fault? She hasn't said that. According to her account, that garage haven't asserted that either, which they would if that's what they believe caused it.

...and now you are resorting to insults labelling someone stupid for forgetting to free a frozen wiper! Easily done, but not the subject under debate here unless the OP has a confession to make.

Hammyman wrote: »

And that proves what exactly, other than the heater motor drew too much current and blew the fuse?

It proves there was a fault covered by the warranty and changing the fuse didn't solve the problem.

pstuart

Newish Astra's were blowing front wiper fuses in the cold weather and the local dealer was initially fixing for free out of courtesy, as the queue grew though they started to charge - we were the first there (daughters in laws lease car) so ours was free.

Stopped fixing cars that aren't mine.

rdr

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Lady i know was charged the princely sum of nothing for exactly the same problem with her 308SW at the Pug garage, they fixed it whilst doing a winter check as a courtesy, that's how you keep customers.

Well done VW dealer, a lesson in how to lose any possibility of future business for £90...brilliant.

screen wash fuse done for free at Vauxhall dealer - I thought I'd checked it.

goldspanners

Hammyman wrote: »

Even up here in our rural northern county, there's not a single main dealer mechanic on under £15/hr.

down here in the central belt of scotland there is.