FORD Dealerships

reddevil_77

Hi Guys,


I'm looking for a bit of advise. I had my partners car serviced at a ford dealership which has since been sold. It remains a Ford garage but the franchisee has changed.
The car recently developed a problem and it turns out the wrong spark plugs had been fitted during a previous service in 2013. The car was serviced again in July 2014, no mention of any spark plugs changed on this service, so they either didn't check or missed the incorrect plugs.
The garage are claiming not to be responsible because they claim it is the previous owners fault. My argument is I took the car to a "FORD" garage for a ford service and surely they as "FORD" need to rectify their mistake.


Any advise greatly welcomed.

Car_54

The car was serviced, and the mistake made, by company A, not Ford.

You are now expecting company B, again not Ford, to put it right.

Has fitting the correct plugs rectified the problem? If so, what more do you want them to do? Wouldn't it have needed new plugs anyway after two years?

bigjl

No you never took your car to FORD.

You took your car to a Ltd Company that was also a Franchised FORD dealer.

The dealer will only do what is onnthe service schedule unless it is a wear and tear item like brakes.

Spark plugs now last an awful lot longer than they used to.

I wonder if they fitted cheaper plug which don't have the same lifespan which is why they only last a couple of years.

Who told you the plugs where wrong?

The fact the car ran fine for 2 years makes me think it wasn't such a massive mistake.

Cornucopia

I agree with the above, except...

- If the servicing was part of a service package purchased with the car, there might be some liability on the part of the selling dealership.

- If the car was damaged by having the incorrect sparkplugs fitted, then there might be greater liability to the Ford warranty (if there is one) than might otherwise be the case.

- If the car was damaged, you may be able to put pressure on Ford UK to remedy the problem, or contribute to it.

If this is simply about the (relatively small) cost of replacing working spark plugs for the technically correct type, then I wouldn't have thought you have a claim.

Marktheshark

How did they fit the "wrong plugs" its one spark plug type.

reddevil_77

The car was looked at by an mobile mechanic after the car had broken down.I was informed after they had looked at the car that the sparkplugs had melted and some the the plug had gone in to the piston chamber. The spark plugs were replaced and i was informed by the mechanic that the car had the wrong sparkplugs in and this what had caused the problem. The bits that had gone into the piston have now damaged the piston and the engine is now loosing compression and not running correctly. the wrong spark plugs were put in the car in 2013 when serviced by Ford (Gordons), this was later clarified by Ford(Bristol street motors)when the car was returned to them. After checking the service parts receipt we were also told that the wrong air filter was also installed in the service.

Cornucopia

You definitely have a potential claim against the Limited Company who ran the dealership originally, if they are still trading (at a different address). I would start by finding them at Companies House.

Anything else is more speculative, but you might get Ford to do something as a gesture of goodwill. I would write to their CEO, if the original dealership company is no longer in operation.

Have you obtained an estimate for repairing the damage?

reddevil_77

yes, approx. repair would be 3k

agrinnall

reddevil_77 wrote: »

The car was looked at by an mobile mechanic after the car had broken down.I was informed after they had looked at the car that the sparkplugs had melted and some the the plug had gone in to the piston chamber. The spark plugs were replaced and i was informed by the mechanic that the car had the wrong sparkplugs in and this what had caused the problem. The bits that had gone into the piston have now damaged the piston and the engine is now loosing compression and not running correctly.

Am I reading this correctly as the mobile mechanic diagnosed the problem, replaced the spark plugs, you then drove around in the car and the pistons were damaged by broken bits?

If that is right then you (and possibly the mobile mechanic) will have to take part of the blame for continuing to drive without having the broken bits removed - it's inevitable that chunks of metal floating around in the engine will cause more damage.

Had the car been taken to a garage to have the engine flushed when it first broke down you might have avoided subsequent damage.

colino

Is your mobile mechanic telling you that the plugs you had fitted 10 months ago have decided to melt now?

reddevil_77

You will have to excuse my ignorance as I know very little about engines but from what I have been told the damage had already been done.