mercedes benz part failed

fishingcinema

Hi all i posted this in the consumer rights board but thought it might be a good idea to post in motoring too.

At the end may fuel pressure regulator went on my mums mercedes A170 so she brought a new one from mercedes benz dealer at £150 and had it fitted (not by mercedes)

The part has now failed, she knows its the fuel pressure regulator as has had another one put on to test if it was that, so she took the part back to mercedes today and was told that she needs to have the part fitted again so they can test it, if it has failed again then they will give her a new fuel pressure regulator, if it's not the fuel pressure regulator then she will be charged for testing it.

The part is less than 6 months old she returned it in its box with receipt, id this right that she has to now pay again to fit the part so mercedes can test it, is there no way of them sending the part off to be tested, i appreciate that it would probably need to go back to germany.

I have little confidence left in mercedes as going back about 18 months, her car would not start, so a family friend put it on a machine to see if any fault codes came up none came up, she then took it to mercedes and told them about it said it had been on a machine but no fault codes came back, they told her she would need to put it on a machine to see if it had any fault codes and this would cost £65 she agreed but no fault codes came back, they then said that it could be one of two things (a) dis@ £800 (b) ecu @ £1200. and she said if i have the work done will it fix the problem and was told it may do it may not

It turrned out to be euc needed re initalising and done by a gent who worked at mercedes for £10.

any advice would be greatly appreciated as i can not find any terms and conditions for this, i can only seem to find it for vans.

Thanks in advance

scheming_gypsy

Mercedes will need to fit the part to make sure it's working on your mums car. If they stick it on somebody elses car to test it then it's no guarantee that it will solve your mums problems; hence somebody else putting one on..
As she already knows it's the regulator why is there an issue if she has to pay if a new one doesn't fix the fault? especially when Mercedes didn't fit it originally?

Not sure why you have little confidence in them though. Family friend couldn't find a fault, Mercedes couldn't find a fault but they told you it could the ECU at a cost of £1200 which is no doubt the cost of a new CPU. If you'd left the car with them to carry out the work they'd possibly have reinitialised it and charged for an hours labour; you can't lose confidence in them for not letting them look at a problem to sort it.

Hammyman

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

Not sure why you have little confidence in them though. Family friend couldn't find a fault, Mercedes couldn't find a fault but they told you it could the ECU at a cost of £1200 which is no doubt the cost of a new CPU. If you'd left the car with them to carry out the work they'd possibly have reinitialised it and charged for an hours labour; you can't lose confidence in them for not letting them look at a problem to sort it.

Indeed. It beggars belief TBH. Diagnosis of faults costs money thanks to people in the past using main dealers for free fault finding then getting the work done elsewhere. Had she had the work done there, the fee would have been waived - thats what happened with me at my local Ford dealer. She chose not to so she got billed.

fishingcinema

Hammyman wrote: »

Indeed. It beggars belief TBH. Diagnosis of faults costs money thanks to people in the past using main dealers for free fault finding then getting the work done elsewhere. Had she had the work done there, the fee would have been waived - thats what happened with me at my local Ford dealer. She chose not to so she got billed.

I appreciate that diagnosis of faults cost money, but when you go to a main dealer and tell them that it has already been put on a machine and no fault codes come up, and be told that it will need to go on a machine to see if there are any fault codes showing and then be charged to be told there are no fault codes and they do not know what is wrong with the car that there could be a possibility of it being 2 costly items that may not fix the problem and then it turn out to be a cheap fix by one of the guys at the same dealership, makes me think they are more interested in making as much money as possible but i suppose they are a bussiness after all.

appreciate you help and comments though, thank you

fishingcinema

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

Mercedes will need to fit the part to make sure it's working on your mums car. If they stick it on somebody elses car to test it then it's no guarantee that it will solve your mums problems; hence somebody else putting one on..
As she already knows it's the regulator why is there an issue if she has to pay if a new one doesn't fix the fault? especially when Mercedes didn't fit it originally?

Not sure why you have little confidence in them though. Family friend couldn't find a fault, Mercedes couldn't find a fault but they told you it could the ECU at a cost of £1200 which is no doubt the cost of a new CPU. If you'd left the car with them to carry out the work they'd possibly have reinitialised it and charged for an hours labour; you can't lose confidence in them for not letting them look at a problem to sort it.

I appreciate what you are saying regarding needing to fit it to her car to make sure that it is or is not that part that has failed, but why should she have to pay again to get the faulty part fitted back onto her car and to get the car to mercedes as it wont start with the fault part on or if it starts it just cuts out, so they can test it and tell her its faulty, she will then have to pay again to have the faulty part taken off and the new one fitted again, There is no issue with having to pay if the part is not faulty because it is faulty.

There is no way that they would have reinitialised it and charged an hours labour, they were left the car to put it on the machine and it came up with no faults and they never mentioned it could be that it needs to be reinitialised just said it could be one of the two things in my first post and that it may not even solve the problem.

appreciate you help and comments though, thank you

Hammyman

fishingcinema wrote: »

I appreciate that diagnosis of faults cost money, but when you go to a main dealer and tell them that it has already been put on a machine and no fault codes come up, and be told that it will need to go on a machine to see if there are any fault codes showing and then be charged to be told there are no fault codes and they do not know what is wrong with the car that there could be a possibility of it being 2 costly items that may not fix the problem and then it turn out to be a cheap fix by one of the guys at the same dealership, makes me think they are more interested in making as much money as possible but i suppose they are a bussiness after all.

First of all, you're assuming the person on the service desk is a qualified manufacturer trained technician, many times they aren't - the woman at my Ford dealership has no clue at all. And even if they are, the chances are they've not been in a workshop for some time so don't know the little shortcuts of each model the same as the guy who fixed yours with a reset - although it is yet to be determined if that has actually fixed it permanently....

I have a business repairing laptops. I am a qualified electronics engineer. I, along with any other competent engineer in any discipline anywhere in the world would not trust the diagnosis of anyone other than people I personally know and even then would probably contact them. For some of my customers that approach has saved them a wad of money. They've been told X is wrong by some muppet in a local computer shop and will cost however much to fix. I've diagnosed it myself, found the actual fault and usually fixed it for less. If I had taken your approach and taken the original diagnosis of an "engineer" I didn't know at face value, the customer would have been out of pocket and the original fault would still exist.

The thing with the problem you have is that it could be more than one thing causing the problem, and not only that, not something you can see with the naked eye. Its not something like "my brakes are making a noise" where you can look at the brakes and see the brake pads are worn.

So the only way to correctly find out what it is is to go through the process they did do. If you know that particular model and because of previous experience you know it has some faults that something unofficial - a bodge such as the reset would cure, you try those - however they're not in compliance with manufacturer diagnosis routines so don't appear on the list of causes on computer databases or fault finding/diagnostic processes. You then start off with the cheapest option and work through them. However, if you are a good business, you inform your customer of the most expensive price it could end up being as well as other possibilities.

I have customers bring laptops to me with no display but otherwise working. I will tell them that it might be the cable, the screen inverter, the display panel or a motherboard fault which requires a chip reflowing as without actually doing hands on diagnostics, those are the four possibilities it could be. They will be given a couple of prices - I'll say £100 for the screen but if its the mainboard you're looking at £150. If it turns out to be the inverter, I'll charge them a tenner if I've a spare one.

And on a final note...

As I said earlier, it remains to be seen whether the reset actually fixed anything. The original fault may still remain however the reset could just put it back to "good" condition and over the next few weeks/months it could return to "fault" again. Quite a few electronics issues can be "fixed" like this but the reality is you've fixed nothing, just put a temporary band aid on it.

With some laptops, its possible to "fix" them by reflowing the solder on a chip on the motherboard as heat breaks the solder contacts which causes the fault and reflowing repairs those contacts. However that doesn't actually fix the cause of the problem and it will happen again several months later.