Garage second hand parts (no warranty?)

Evo91

Hey everyone, I noticed my honda civic sport was making a scraping noise while accelerating before christmas and thought it was the clutch so took it to my local garage and got told it needed a new gearbox and clutch at the cost of £700.

Apparently they ordered the wrong transmission and had to wait for a drive shaft to arrive so they could actually fit the transmission to the car…

When i finally got the car back after 3 weeks of waiting it was leaking oil everywhere… So once again i took it back and had the drive shaft seals done…

Pick the car up for the 3rd time and a week later… leaking oil everywhere again due to drive shaft clips this time i took it back and the owner of the garage mentioned that because he used 2nd hand parts (which he provided) that they didn’t come with warranty…

After taking a week to fit the drive shaft clips, i picked the car today and the garage mentioned that i should check for oil leaks because he had to stretch the clips to make the drive shaft fit and that if it does a new gearbox will be required… anddd it’s been back 5 minutes and it’s leaking oil everywhere…

I don’t have a clue where i stand here… I paid for a new clutch and a second hand gearbox to be fitted, they ordered the wrong gearbox and had to order (another drive shaft) to fit the wrong gearbox to the car (telling me everything would be fine) they obviously didn’t check the parts because the seals + clips which came with the drive shaft were knackered and had to be replaced (shouldn’t they of picked up on this on installation) Apparently after doing all this they had to stretch the drive shaft clips to make them fit and now it’s leaking again it requires another gearbox…

rich13348

Did you request second hand parts if so, did he explain at the time there would be no warranty on them or the work done.
Most second hand (rebuilt to a high standard) should come come some warranty, and his work definitely should do. Might be time to pack up and take it to a real garage and get their thoughts on how much it will cost to rectify.

bigadaj

I'd just got to trading standards, have you formally complained to the garage, you've obviously pointed out the problems but a letter stating that they need to complete the job to a good standard or you will get done elsewhere and sue them for the cost in a small claims court is another option.

AdrianC

A new gearbox would be prohibitively expensive.

Used parts never come with warranties, unless the supplier provides one. The garage should have made this clear to you. Equally, if they ordered it, they should stand by any mis-ordering. I don't think "the wrong gearbox" would require a single driveshaft to be changed to enable it to fit, unless there was some minor and relatively ill-documented production change.

There's a bit more to this, or some Chinese Whispers going on.

[Deleted User]

The garage would ve quoted you approx new prices for the gearbox which would ve maybe exceeded the cost of the whole car.Garages would prefer to buy new parts every time not messing about on Ebay or scrapyards for used stuff. Seems overkill anyway to fit an entire new gearbox and clutch just because of a "scraping " noise. I would be more concerned about why I would need a new gearbox something I ve never had in 45 years of cheap motoring in bangers. You would ve thought that a Honda gearbox would be bullet proof.Honda are up there at the top of the reliability charts.You ve put me off buying a Civic myself now.

Joe_Horner

Regardless of second hand parts or any lack of warranty, goods supplied (and their fitting) must be of satisfactory quality. A trader can't get out of that by setting his own conditions in a sale to a consumer and even trying to is a criminal offence.

While we've had endless discussions on here about what that means in terms of used goods it's pretty clear that a supplied and fitted gearbox with problems before you've really driven anywhere isn't satisfactory.

So forget the "lack of warranty", you're entitled to have it sorted. That might be difficult to enforce but "difficult to enforce" doesn't change your rights any more than any mumbo jumbo conditions the garage is claiming do.

CAB would be a sensible next step if you have a decent local branch (they do vary unfortunately).

bigjl

It is not uncommon for a careless mechanic to damage seals when putting a driveshaft back in.

Happened to a Renault 21 I had back in the 90's.

I had a clutch and two new driveshafts fitted, though luckily the oil leak was only slight and it was easy to top up when required.

salubrious

If you can prove that the garage is using bad practice then you might have some where to go with it, and from your story it does sound questionable what they have done.

EdGasket

sacsquacco wrote: »

You would ve thought that a Honda gearbox would be bullet proof.Honda are up there at the top of the reliability charts.You ve put me off buying a Civic myself now.

Gearbox input shaft bearings are a 'known' problem on Civic's (google it). I must say that our Honda Civic (in the family) has caused many more problems than our Hyundai Lantra which is older and much higher mileage. My impression of Honda Civic's is that they are over-rated and not as good as Hyundai's which are a lot cheaper.

Evo91

Thanks for the replies everyone, the garage has told me to return the Corsa i borrowed tomorrow because they’ve sold it and basically the update on my car is… the guy is happy to have the gearbox returned however i have to pay the postage £50 and they are now saying i’ll also need a new drive shaft at the cost of £80 (not including delivery)

So it’s gone from purchasing a gearbox + new clutch for £700 which didn’t fit so they needed to get another drive shaft to make it fit… then the drive shaft was leaking oil so the seals had to be done, then the drive shaft was leaking again so the drive shaft clips had to be done again, now seeing there's still a leak it now needs another gearbox and their recommending i get a new drive shaft at the cost of £80 (not including postage)

I can confirm the car wasn't leaking oil before and was just making a scraping noise while accelerating in gears...