Just bought a 'dodgy' car...

terric

Just a quick update - spoke to the dealer in the afternoon, he said he's still waiting on someone to get back to him. Tried calling a few times after leaving work but no answer, eventually got a phone call from the electronics diagnostic place who said that the problem was an over-boost on the turbo, not really sure what that means but I'm looking into it, and that it's gone back to the dealer's mechanics to fix so I should hear from them today.

So far, so good.

AdrianC

terric wrote: »

eventually got a phone call from the electronics diagnostic place who said that the problem was an over-boost on the turbo, not really sure what that means

The turbo uses exhaust gas to blow compressed air into the engine, increasing power. But it should be controlled to avoid too much being blown in - and the sensors are telling the engine electronics that control isn't happening.

60k diesel that's likely to have been pootled locally? I'd be suspecting that it's all a bit sooted up internally - the vanes of the turbo, which control how much air is blown, jam up, and the filter which takes the soot out of the exhaust fills up without a chance to empty itself. Modern diesels really don't like being pootled, and much prefer regular long hard journeys. Trouble is, local pootling is exactly what people buy low-tax, high-economy sprogbuses for...

"Ex-company car" doesn't necessarily exempt it from that - it might have been driven to the station to drop the company user off for the train to town for work, then pootled on the school run, supermarket, lunch etc...

terric

AdrianC wrote: »

Trouble is, local pootling is exactly what people buy low-tax, high-economy sprogbuses for...

Hahaha, brilliant. I think it may have been sat around for a while (there was no MOT through 2014) and the service history implied it had done 10 - 12k miles per year since it was born, so we *thought* we were getting a fairly well-broke in Diesel.

I do something like a 70 mile round trip daily where the majority of that is motorway travel so hopefully I'll be using it for what it's actually for and not mooching about the town centre in

No update from the dealer yet, but I'll back off for today and just let them get on with it and call them tomorrow afternoon.

AdrianC

terric wrote: »

Hahaha, brilliant. I think it may have been sat around for a while (there was no MOT through 2014) and the service history implied it had done 10 - 12k miles per year since it was born

5-6yo one owner is unlikely to be "ex-company car"... But 10-12k/year is prime pootling mileage and prime problem territory on a modern diesel.

Sitting for a year...? Hmm. It suggests higher annual mileage beforehand, but it also makes me wonder why somebody had it sat in a yard depreciating heavily.

I do something like a 70 mile round trip daily where the majority of that is motorway travel

OK, that shouldn't be too bad, then.

terric

Just a quick update, we picked the car up this evening - seems all sorted, errors gone and from the sounds of it they've had the turbo apart and checked everything they could. Done something like 15 miles so far without issue, will see how the next 210 miles go over the next 3 days.

Just to add, because of the inconvenience the dealer has given us £150 towards the RAC warranty (12 months) which includes their standard 1 month warranty. So far very happy with how things have gone.

Joe_Horner

Fingers crossed, sounds like you may have just disproved the "all dealers are scumbags" rumours

terric

Oops, nearly two weeks ahead and on our way back from a lengthy drive to Stockport the warning lights are back - same errors "check injection" and "check anti-pollution", what's more is that the car seems to be losing power, I was struggling to get up to 80mph in fourth gear!! I've spoken to a friend and they're eyeing the turbo suspiciously... we've just checked the RAC gold warranty the dealer gave us half towards and they don't cover turbos... oh dear.

Going to have to call the dealer this afternoon, managed to get to work OK this morning, just had to float along at 60 - 70 because I just can't seem to get up from there, pedal to the floor, not much happens.

I'm a little stuck now, my old car is now SORN and sat behind the house so I guess we'll have to see what we can agree on so I can get to work and back for the rest of the whenever.

bod1467

Sounds like they didn't really do anything other than reset the sensors/computer ... a couple of weeks of use has been enough to trip the sensors again.

terric

That's what I'm thinking / am concerned about... what more can I do?? They could just take the car in to clear the error again, and then in a few more weeks (when out of their warranty) knock it back. I don't want to have to invent problems to get them to really look at it (if they're not of course, I'm worst-case-assuming here).

I know I'm covered by SOGA but I'm hoping to not have to start getting nasty with them, and I don't want to have to reject the car - I really like it and am willing to work with them to get it sorted.

Anyway, I'm jumping the gun. I'll give them a call later and report back.

AdrianC

Trouble is, them's your choices...

If they won't sort it under goodwill, and the warranty doesn't cover it, your next step is to enforce your SOGA rights legally.