Bad service at garage - engine coolant

clarkyboy1

Hi everyone,

I've just joined after reading the main site for many weeks. It has been very informative. I've tried having a look on the web and on the main site but can't find anything that fully matches the issue I have at present.

I took my car to a local garage last week as the timing belt needed replacing. The car is a Citoren C3 2003 1.4HDi with 150,000 miles. The quotation was for a replacement timing belt kit and premium water belt with a 2 year warranty, including long life coolant with 5 yr protection. I decided I would get a full service done at the same time to check anything else that needed doing. The price for all this was £310.
The service revealed brake calipers (and pads), engine mount, new tyre and track control arm needed replacement so got these done. The total price was £510.

The car was parked for a few days over the Easter weekend but when I used it yesterday I started noticing a few things that were not too reassuring.

Upon accelerating I noticed that the engine temperature went from 0 bars to 3 (out of 6) and then the top one started flashing. I checked it this morning and it did it again. Once I got to work I did a further inspection - there was NO COOLANT in the tank.

What should I do? I am tempted to drive over there and say to them but what good would it do to the engine - it was already pretty warm when I checked under the bonnet earlier .... and that was a ten minute commute.

Should I get phone my AA rescue to take me to the garage?? And can I ask for a refund? I can only think of the damage to the car if I took it on a motorway.

I look forward to your advice and commments


Thank you

reddwarf2002

Either they've forgotten to re-fill with coolant or that they didn't bleed the system properly and so the coolant has gone down. I wouldn't drive it. Call the garage and ask what to do.

foxy-stoat

How far away is the garage and what garage?

Call them to say that you checked the coolant this morning and there was none and ask them what to do, they may have not fitted a hose properly or not replaced the thermostate or another component failed.....or you could of taken it to Kwikfit, if so you are really in trouble!

I would re-fill it and what for leaks around radiator, hoses and cambelt area, set the heater to hot, let it tick over for a while and watch the expansion bottle and temperature gauage for 10-20 minutes. If the temperature gauge goes over half way or heaters blows cold air once warm you have a problem.

clarkyboy1

OK thank you. I got worried that they might have forgotten to do that and then started thinking of other things they might not have done correctly.

I didn't put these in the above post as it would be too long but I've noticed they didn't do the following also:

Tracking is out - not sure if covered under a service but if they replaced the track control arm then I would have thought they'd need to calibrate it somehow?

Drivers side main beam bulb isn't working - they didn't tell me this over the phone as something that needed doing - this should be inspected I would have thought

The lever to open the bonnet is no longer functioning correctly (it needs to be popped back into the pivot, I tried and isn't easy)

And the coolant issue

droopsnoot

I'd suspect the coolant was low (or had an airlock that worked itself out when you drove the car for a bit) rather than completely empty - a lot of temperature sensors don't work when there isn't any liquid present. Or didn't at any rate, maybe there's some fancy new way of sensing temperature than negates that.

clarkyboy1 wrote: »

Tracking is out - not sure if covered under a service but if they replaced the track control arm then I would have thought they'd need to calibrate it somehow?

You might expect them to do that, but a lot of garages that do servicing don't have proper alignment equipment, preferring to leave that to a tyre fitter as a decent four-wheel alignment system is a big investment in terms of money and training time. They should have told you it needed checking / setting though.

EdGasket

For what you had done the price seems cheap; guess you got what you paid for in terms of quality though. If the temp went up so much they may have omitted to refill with coolant in which case it had better not be driven until either you or they fill it up with the appropriate coolant then watch carefully to make sure the head-gasket has not been compromised by over-heating.

It is possible to replace steering rods without having to have the tracking done if it is done carefully. How do you know the 'Tracking is out' from a 10 minute drive? This would only show up as uneven tyre wear after some considerable distance.

(NB the position of the steering wheel is irellevant though ideally the tracking can be adjusted such that the wheels are straight when the steering wheel is also level BUT if they are not, the tracking can still be fine as what matters is that all wheels are tracked relative to each other NOT to the steering wheel).

clarkyboy1

It was a local independant one to me, this is the place:

keepdrivingauto (search on google as I couldn't post the link)

I called the garage and advised to top up with water. I've called the recovery people to get their advice on topping with water/check I can drive to garage/tow to garage. Droopsnoot - good point with the airlock I hadn't thought of this. The things running through my mind was that the cars engine temp light flashing and if I was to drive on the motorway and the engine suffer failiure.

Good point EdGasket all I know is from the steering wheel - it just seemed that I have to hold it to one side I didn't know this! I spoke to the garage and they said the tracking should be done a few weeks after the TC arm is fitted.

With the main beam bulb they said it would have been checked but I knew it was out before the service - I didn't mention it as I thought it would be picked up/changed. They said it could have gone out in the interim between service last week and now.

clarkyboy1

Also they said they'd leak test the radiator system this afternoon so take it there and see what they say - it was just a big shock when I saw what looked to be no coolant!

I think it doesn't help when you yourself don't know all the ins and outs of car parts etc and just try to use cause and effect with what you know or think you know

clarkyboy1

Thank you for all your helpful replies, all sorted for now

droopsnoot

EdGasket wrote: »

(NB the position of the steering wheel is irellevant though ideally the tracking can be adjusted such that the wheels are straight when the steering wheel is also level BUT if they are not, the tracking can still be fine as what matters is that all wheels are tracked relative to each other NOT to the steering wheel).

That's not the case on a car with ESP, or other electronic stability systems, and I don't know whether the OPs car has such a system. ESP compares the physical direction of the vehicle (obtained from lateral and longitudinal acceleration sensors) to the steering angle (from the steering angle sensor) to establish whether the car is oversteering or understeering and attempts to correct issues if it finds them. Drive an ESP-equipped car with the steering more than a very small number of degrees out and you'll see that the ESP keeps trying to correct a problem that isn't there.


Correct that it doesn't mean the tracking is wrong, but having the steering wheel at an angle isn't always irrelevant.

EdGasket

Quote from the OP "The car is a Citoren C3 2003 1.4HDi with 150,000 miles." ...I would bet the house on it not having a steering angle sensor.