Car bought from dealer - ABS / TC light came on in 10 miles.

StockportGerbil

Folks :-
I bought a Y plate Zafira from a dealer. 10 miles away from the dealer the abs / traction control warning light comes on. I get it home and contect the dealer. He replies (via email) "idrove the car some 25 plus miles and nothing like that at all happened i suspect its something trivial please let me know what the fault is and i will reimburce your costs".

I had the car booked into my local garage for a service anyway, so got them to sort it out. Thet reported the sensor had gone in the near side front hub assembly and the whole lot had to be replaced. The hub assembly was £192, labour £60 with VAT added on top. The dealer upon receiving this news replied (again via email) "ive read your bill and ive spoken to our mechanic who used to be a main vauxhall technician for pentagon derby he has said that was a very high bill for such a none technical job".

Is it a non-technical job and / or unreasonably a high bill?

A slight additional complication is I bought the car via an advert in ebay although the transaction was done outside ebay (I offered less than the reserve and after the auction finished the dealer contacted me saying he'd take my offer.) In the last email the dealer states "im more than happy to contribute even though you purchased the car through ebay where my terms and conditions on the ebay invioce are that every vehicle i sell on ebay is without any warranty and totally sold as seen with any prior test drive welcomed ." Would I be correct in the belief that as a motor trader / dealer those conditions are nonsense?

Thanks

Kevin

MarkyMarkD

Yes, you are right. A trader has to supply a vehicle which "must be of "satisfactory quality and fit for the purpose intended" - the car must meet the standard expected for a vehicle of its description, price, age and mileage.

If he's going to quibble the amount, he should have agreed to fix it himself rather than telling you to sort it out. He's a muppet.

It does sound quite expensive to me, but I am not an expert so I'll leave it to one of them to comment.

newsseller12

There is no need to replace the hub assembly the sensor simply fastens to it with one bolt. I would think no more than half an hour to change.
I have a 51 plate Vectra which had the same problem, I changed my own sensor which I got from a breakers yard for £15. I don't know how much for a new one though

Wig

It does sound really excessive for a simple job. Is there some huge distance between you and seller preventing you from asking him to source a repair cost he is happy with?

Get another quote, at the moment he appears to be wanting to help you. And is quite rightly querying such a huge estimate for replacing a sensor. Have you asked Ford how much the sensor is? They will tell you if it is replaceable as a single item.

As to his warranty, you bought outside of Ebay you should have asked what your warranty period was before you handed over the money, as to the legal standing of what warranty a dealer has to offer (if any) I don't know, but trading standards will/should know.

MarkyMarkD

Wig wrote:

Have you asked Ford how much the sensor is? They will tell you if it is replaceable as a single item.

As the car is a Vauxhall I doubt that Ford will be particularly well informed on its maintenance requirements.

Aberdonian_At_Heart

i thought the same that an abs sensor (i think it could be made by Bosch ) is fitted onto the hub carrier by a single allen bolt

StockportGerbil

Hi!
Thanks for the replies.

Since the original post I've invested in a Haynes manual (heaven knows why I always buy the things; when something goes wrong I look at the car, look at the manual then look at the car again and decide to take it down the garage.)

Anyway for the Zafira (and Astra) in Vauxhalls infinite wisdom they've made the sensor an integral part of the hub, so if the sensor goes you need a new hub. . :-(

I've spoken to my local Vauxhall dealers parts department who confirmed the cost of the hub and said the sensor could not be acquired seperately.

As for the warrenty the dealer said there was a three months warrenty and was now trying to say no warrenty as the transaction was via ebay. Hmmmm.....

Thanks again

Kevin

wazza

get trading standards involved.