Car a write off - Garage at fault

Jakg

Silk wrote: »

The "likely" scenario will have been the wiring loom from the car passing through to the tailgate.
Wiring becomes brittle and constant opening of tailgate over the years broken the number plate light wire.

Repair would "probably" have been stripping the wires back that pass through the gaiter and rejoining with a new section.

As other wires in that section would include central locking, rear wipers etc it would be possible that the loom shorted in that section hence your other failures.

My advice would be to get an independant spark to examine the repair and do a report which you can use later to negotiate costs if he finds the repair was at fault

I think is by far the most likely situation, but the OP isn't providing enough information to give accurate advice.

EDIT - I also don't think you have to be a "qualified" electrician to work on a vehicle, although it can be helpful for a multitude of reasons

Lomast

A 'qualified electrician' is not going to know anymore about a vehicle wiring than a competent DIY mechanic, a trained/experienced Auto Electrician will,

Normally Auto Electricians are trained as mechanics 1st then specialise in vehicle electrics, there is no requirement for them to be qualified to work on vehicle wiring and most garages dont employ them anyway unless its a very complicated job normally the mechanics will just make the repairs.

If i were you i would be looking for a local Specialist Auto Electrician (maybe RAC/AA as others have suggested, im not sure if they offer this or not) and ask them to look at and report on both the cause/damage of the fire and the repairs made by the garage.
If they say it was a fault of the repair then you look at making a claim from the garage.

Pb76

Jakg wrote: »

I think is by far the most likely situation, but the OP isn't providing enough information to give accurate advice.

EDIT - I also don't think you have to be a "qualified" electrician to work on a vehicle, although it can be helpful for a multitude of reasons

Garage did some wiring work on my vehicle,30 mins later the car started smoking and wiring has been burnt and they say car is write off,I blame garage but they say not there fault,so I need to get it checked to see if it's garage repair fault,spoken to qualified electrician (whom i taking vehicle to tomorrow)and he said a garage mechanic shouldn't even had done the repairs needs to be done by qualified electrician

Relentless01

I have worked for a franchised dealer and the mechanics all did electrical work on the vehicles. It was part of their main dealer training.

I also agree with the previous comments you will need to prove they are to blame before you can take this any further.

Good luck getting it sorted.

forgotmyname

Pb76 wrote: »

Garage did some wiring work on my vehicle,30 mins later the car started smoking and wiring has been burnt and they say car is write off,I blame garage but they say not there fault,so I need to get it checked to see if it's garage repair fault,spoken to qualified electrician (whom i taking vehicle to tomorrow)and he said a garage mechanic shouldn't even had done the repairs needs to be done by qualified electrician

30 minutes later... This is like people that say they filled up and it broke down. As most people fill up weekly there is a fair chance of you breaking down after filling up or on the day you fill up.

Spoke to a qualified electrician and he said they shouldnt have done that work. I hope he is not the one your going to use. Because with statements like that his evidence will be worthless.

You need an unbiased report by someone who doesnt make silly remarks. Without knowing all the facts.
Has he inspected your car yet? You will need to pay for this report also.

Im puzzled as to how a repair to a numberplate light affects wipers and windows? Which are on separate circuits. All with their own fuses.

Jaynne

While it is quite possible the garage caused the fault statistically speaking the most likely time for a fault to occur is right now. Its one of those somewhat counter intuitive principles until you get to grips with it.

Get the professional report as that's the only way you are going to know it isn't a coincidence.

Silk

forgotmyname wrote: »

Im puzzled as to how a repair to a numberplate light affects wipers and windows? Which are on separate circuits. All with their own fuses.

Because as I pointed out in post #22 the common factor is that the part of the loom that was repaired for the number plate also contains the wires for central locking, rear wiper, heated rear window etc.
With age and wear and tear the section that passes between the body and the tailgate becomes brittle and broken etc.
To be fair to the garage it is possible that just disturbing and handling that section could have induced the fault as could a faulty repair.
Without proper investigation it's guesswork

Pb76

When I first took it back to them they said oh don't worry we'll get it sorted its repairable,then as soon as they knew damage caused they didn't want to know and started talking nasty to us,if the think they're just gonna fob us off they've got another thing coming!!

Oli.s

Did you get in touch with the insurance? Just concerned that if you do need to make an insurance claim, you may be required by your policy to notify them within a certain time of the incident happening?

Pb76

Oli.s wrote: »

Did you get in touch with the insurance? Just concerned that if you do need to make an insurance claim, you may be required by your policy to notify them within a certain time of the incident happening?

CAB said don't tell insurance company at the moment