Bought a secondhand car 3 days ago...

Gillyo_2

My daughter purchased an Audi 2001 A3 1.6 2001 100 thousand on the clock. It was purchased from a small dealer asking price was £1675, we got it for £1600.
Yesterday whilst my daughter was driving it the manager light came on and was still on this morning. We took it to a local garage and they plugged in the computer reader, which showed 2 faults. One of which could be the head gasket (we'll know more tomorrow) they did point out that it looked like some additive had been put into the coolant, the reason being lots of grainy bits showing and the water wasn't clear.

We are returning to our local garage tomorrow, they re-set the lights and no doubt the warning light will come back on again. We hope to get a full print out tomorrow.
How do we stand as far as a full refund, should the car show as not being fit for the purpose? It was sold without a warranty by the way.
Thanks

Woody._2

Did you check the coolant when you bought the car?

Gillyo_2

Woody. wrote: »

Did you check the coolant when you bought the car?

There was coolant in there, but I have to say I didn't think about sticking my finger down there:p can't say I noticed the grainy stuff until today.

Rolandtheroadie

It may be better dealing with whoever sold you the car.

Gillyo_2

scotsman4th wrote: »

It may be better dealing with whoever sold you the car.

Yes, I shall be calling him tomorrow once I get a print out, so I know exactly what I'm talking about.

Dave101t

if it drove away, there wasnt a fault at point of sale.

Gillyo_2

Dave101t wrote: »

if it drove away, there wasnt a fault at point of sale.

So what you are saying is as long as a car drives well on purchase, it doesn't matter if a major fault is found 30 minutes after purchase?

only_mee

Code reader can't show head gasket problem they don't have a sensor to monitor that.
Don't be taken for a ride.

Gillyo_2

Sounds about right:

If the vehicle develops a problem soon after you bought it, you may have a right to return the vehicle to the dealer and get your money back. This would probably need to be within about three to four weeks at the most of buying the vehicle. The problem would need to be fairly major, and you would need to take into account the age, mileage and price of the vehicle when deciding whether it is reasonable to take it back.

Gillyo_2

only_mee wrote: »

Code reader can't show head gasket problem they don't have a sensor to monitor that.
Don't be taken for a ride.

I wasn't told it was the head gasket only 'could be' we will know more tomorrow when it's investigated more:)

vax2002

There is no head gasket sensor, at most it could show a misfire on one of the cylinders, it needs a specific test to test for exhaust gasses in the coolant, similar to a test for antifreeze.
All the "print out" will be will be a list of the Vag-com error codes which will not diagnose the problem only help find which area it is in.
This code reading is a bit of a scam, a consumer does not need to know what the codes are, they are there for the mechanics help, not the consumer and I have seem literally thousands of pounds thrown away on chasing code faults when a simple scope test could have solved the problem in seconds.
The worst was a passat 1.8 20 v, £1300 spent changing components 2 and 3 times and the fault still existed.
It actually turned out to be spark plug 3 that had lost the end of its electrode, cost to change £43 including parts, 4x new plugs and 1 hours labour.
This was throwing vag com codes for faulty coil pack P0353 , misfire cylinder 3 (p303) and injector cylinder 3 voltage high P1203 + P1239 and airflow idle sensor P1509.
Eventually the "mechanic" code reader junkie gave the car back and said it was a leaking head gasket.
All this instead of pulling out the plugs for a look, you know like in the "old days" .