Garage cant fix car but still wants to charge for faulty parts......... Advice please

pcyam

Hi All,

My car broke down 3 weeks ago. So RAC towed it back home. I went to a local garage and they looked at the car.
1st week
Day 1 (14-11-11)- They looked and couldnt work out what was wrong.
Day2 (15-11)- Looked at found out one of the injectors had gone! Order parts for following day.
Day3 (16-11)-Part came in, changed it, took i for test drive-car brokedown. Checked car, and another injector gone. Ordered Part for next day
Day4 (17-11) Same happened, replaced part, test drive-brokedown
Day5 (18-11) Wasnt sure thought it might have been injectors. Had a courtesy car-went to work.
2nd week
My sister helped me contact the garage at the beginning of the week as I was away working.
They had another 2 injectors delivered during the course of the week, fitted them and still the car was no working. They said it was due to the no4 injector the first one they replaced) was a faulty injector. They spoke to Renault garage where they brought the part and they were not taking responsibility for the faulty part!!!

Day 9 (23-11)-the courtesy car-a light (looks like a tap) was beeping when I was going back to my accommodation.

Day10 (24-11)-didnt drive the car as I did not know if it was safe to do so. Contacted the garage and they said it should be ok. I could take it to a local garage if I wanted to-but I would be responsible for the costs, and if the car brokedown i would also be responsible!

Day 12 (25-11) They spoke to my sister, said that they were towing my car to Renault garage, for them to inspect the faulty part, that way I would not need to pay for a 5th injector. And the bil currently was £198+VAT x4 (injectors) +labour £35x2 +VAT. Also, they would take a look at the courtesy car on sat morning.

Day13 (26-11)-took the courtesy car for them to look at, they said its fine, its probably just an engine misfire! They had resetted it. Drove car away all fine. Later on that afternoon it starts to beep again.

Week 3,
Day 15(28-11) Renault has the car.
Cant remember which day but was told that renault are trying to fix i as my local garage couldnt fix the problem, Renault in the meantime have put some pipe in (£20 +labour +VAT prob)
Day 19 (2-12) Today. I find out that the car has more problems that it was not the injectors which were the problems, its something which costs £3000+!!!!! Local garage still want me to pay for the labour PLUS the injectors!! and the rest if I want my car fixed.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as I have been told that as they never fixed the problem and the injectors which they put into my car are faulty now! Also, I have been told they should no have jus replaced the injectors they should have checked the pressure and also if 4 injectors go during a short period of time its something else causing it.

I have looked up on trading standards site and I was wondering if anyone experience can tell me

1-Do I need to pay the local garage anything?? As they havent actually fixed anything.
2-They towed my car to another garage left it there because they couldnt fix it! So am I responsible for labour and Parts too at Renault
3- Where do I stand in getting my car back!
4- The courtesy car, do I give it back to them when I get my car back?

Grateful for any advice, as I am really not sure where to go with this and I am worried everyday I am driving to and forth work and home!!

TIA
A Worried MSE

Weird_Nev

Speak to them.
Find out what has actually gone wrong with your car.
If they tried a fix and it was unsucessful, the nI would not expect to pay them for any work/parts.

Speak to Reanult direct to find out what they are fixing, and why, and if any of the damage has been caused by your local garage mucking about.

pcyam

I forgot to say,

Even though the car is mine, Renault will not speak to us, because they say the local garage towed the car there, they are Renault customer. Also, I think the reason they towed it to that particular garage is because the local garage has a friend in th Renault garage, whether or not its the friend that is working on my car I dont know.

Its getting quite serious now because the local garage were getting 'arsey' when they spoke to my sister saying that why were so many people contacting them, and the fact they didnt like it when my sister spoke to Renault directly.

Also, if I dont get to work this week, work will no be happy as they werent pleased with me being off during week 1. plus I have only been in this new job for 3weeks!

Depressed and worried MSE x

Rik242

After reading this I had to join.

At the end of the day it is your car so they have to tell you what is wrong. It does sound like there is a mate of the garages working on it and trying to cover something up.
It also sounds like the original garage has mis-diagnoised what the original problem was, highly unlikely that the replacement Renault injectors are faulty as they are factory tested.
I think it is appalling the way you are being treated and I would not hesitate to firstly get on the phone to Renault Customer Service Uk and then to your local Trading Standards office. Make sure you have written down every thing, including times, telephone calls, peoples names etc.
Do not pay anything until you have spoken to them.

Rick

TrickyWicky

Mis-diagnosis isn't your problem, it's theirs. They've misdiagnosed the fault and by the sounds of it caused you more problems.

As for renault, ask for a written report as to what is wrong. They're known to invent faults that don't exist, replace multiple parts that don't need replacing and even then the fault can persist. I've had first hand experience of them doing this to me. Although it was an older car they tried to con me with a £350 replacement wiring loom and several other bits.. and it turned out to be a duff head gasket that was making the car hard to start. Got that diagnosed and fixed by an mobile mech. No replacement wiring loom or other parts and the car ran fine (until the HG failed again 6 months later).

Renault are fine for buying a car from or purchasing your own parts but I go elsewhere for repairs.

What is this £3k job that needs doing anyway?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

its a renault, so i'm guessing either a megane mk2 or scenic a deisel possibly as these are prone to injector failures.

injector failure to these cars inc laguna needs to be plugged into the diagnostics computer to erase the fault, to stop it mimiking the symptoms of a failed one previously removed and replaced. the common rail (were the injectors get their fuel supply) needs to be primed (filled with fuel to specified pressure)before turnover to prevent damage to the injectors.

renault cannot refuse to speak to you about YOUR CAR they can refuse to speak to you about someone elses trade account, make sure your not querying about the car brought in by xyz garage, make sure you specify that they have YOUR car and you wish to speak to a customer services manager about whats happened, take out xyz garage from the equasion in your conversations, to you thats a separate issue between them and xyz garage, you now deal with your car and renault.

as for xyz garage, they may seem to have misdiagnosed, but its trial and error with cars of modern era, even a fault code reader can tell you one thing but means another so your still none the wiser untill you replace what the car is telling you is faulty, have had a few like that in the past nutorious on citroen and pugeots, ultimatly if youve given them a blank cheque book to work from and by that i mean find the fault and fix it said to them then you may have to stump up the cash, 1. you didnt specify a limit to them, 2. you did not call them to STOP work and meet with them to find out what progress has been made, 3.contact through third party is never a good idea unless someone is checking the car is ready for pick up, they do not have to speak to a third party about your car, your contract is between you and the garage and this is how mis communocation can happen (just like the chinese whisper game).

the xyz garage is fullfilling your instruction to find and fix, thinking you have the money to cover the costs as youve not specified the limit to wich their allowed to spend on your car, had you said you have a limit of say for e.g £700 inc VAT and labour, as soon as this limit is reached their duty bound to contact you directly to update and inform of progress, give a clear new QUOTE and ask for permision to carry on, because if they carry on over the agree'd limit without permission you can legally refuse to pay the amount over that £700 as its not authorised work.

Freefall

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

its a renault, so i'm guessing either a megane mk2 or scenic a deisel possibly as these are prone to injector failures.

injector failure to these cars inc laguna needs to be plugged into the diagnostics computer to erase the fault, to stop it mimiking the symptoms of a failed one previously removed and replaced. the common rail (were the injectors get their fuel supply) needs to be primed (filled with fuel to specified pressure)before turnover to prevent damage to the injectors.

renault cannot refuse to speak to you about YOUR CAR they can refuse to speak to you about someone elses trade account, make sure your not querying about the car brought in by xyz garage, make sure you specify that they have YOUR car and you wish to speak to a customer services manager about whats happened, take out xyz garage from the equasion in your conversations, to you thats a separate issue between them and xyz garage, you now deal with your car and renault.

as for xyz garage, they may seem to have misdiagnosed, but its trial and error with cars of modern era, even a fault code reader can tell you one thing but means another so your still none the wiser untill you replace what the car is telling you is faulty, have had a few like that in the past nutorious on citroen and pugeots, ultimatly if youve given them a blank cheque book to work from and by that i mean find the fault and fix it said to them then you may have to stump up the cash, 1. you didnt specify a limit to them, 2. you did not call them to STOP work and meet with them to find out what progress has been made, 3.contact through third party is never a good idea unless someone is checking the car is ready for pick up, they do not have to speak to a third party about your car, your contract is between you and the garage and this is Fhow mis communocation can happen (just like the chinese whisper game).

the xyz garage is fullfilling your instruction to find and fix, thinking you have the money to cover the costs as youve not specified the limit to wich their allowed to spend on your car, had you said you have a limit of say for e.g £700 inc VAT and labour, as soon as this limit is reached their duty bound to contact you directly to update and inform of progress, give a clear new QUOTE and ask for permision to carry on, because if they carry on over the agree'd limit without permission you can legally refuse to pay the amount over that £700 as its not authorised work.

From the OP's description it is far from clear that this is what happened.

It doesn't seem that the OP told the garage they could go ahead and replace a part which was not the problem and then demand payment for the same.

The practice, of getting the car back, however, may be different...

photome

I would go direct to Renault customer service and by pass both garages

This may not be simple to resolve and could be expensive

Trading standards would be a good idea as well as it does seem that the first garage want to charge you for a faulty part, that cant be right

kaya

You go to a garage and pay for a professional service, i would refuse point blank to pay for any labour or parts that were un-nessecary and didn't fix the problem, why should you go for a professional service and pay money for them to "Practice or learn" on your vehicle ? Tell them to remove the unnessacery parts they fitted and put your old parts back on if they argue , if they say they dont have them anymore thats their problem and not yours , this behaviour disgusts me, companies portray themselves as professionals, charge top money for the service then you find out they are incompetant and dont really know what they are doing , personally i call that behaviour fraud or taking money by deception, unless trial and error is considered professional behaviour nowdays!!
If they dont know what is wrong with your car thats their problem not yours , they are the company advertising as a garage , if they had the sign "incompetant fools affiliated to the early learning center" over the door you would never have let them near your car in the first place !!

colino

Just for clarity, did you ask the garage to find out what was wrong with your car or did you tell them the guy in the orange van says it needs injectors?

If the former, they are chancing their arm and are out of their depth. If the latter, they are just complying with your instructions.

Rik242

colino wrote: »

Just for clarity, did you ask the garage to find out what was wrong with your car or did you tell them the guy in the orange van says it needs injectors?

If the former, they are chancing their arm and are out of their depth. If the latter, they are just complying with your instructions.

Agree with that comment. We never rely on the man in the vans diagnosis, 9 times out of 10 they are wrong.