Worried that Garage may of misdiagnosed injector fault

milegurts

Hi this is my first post on here and I am hoping to find some advice or peace of mind.

My daughter has a 1.6 Diesel Fiesta and it has been having trouble starting from cold it is an 09 plate. It runs fine when started but took a good few turns to get it running.

At first being a decent Dad I tried changing the glow plugs, I could only find 2 though so I changed these and then booked it into a local garage to get the others changed straight away. These were changed along with a relay that was found to be faulty. This did not cure the problem though and the car was not bringing up any errors on diagnostics. This garage told me they could not find the fault and recommended I go to a Diesel specialist..

I took it to a local Diesel specialist and left it with them to have a look at. After 2 days I phoned them to see if they had any success only to be told that 3 of the injectors were bringing up a fault when starting from cold and that they were going to get them sent away for testing. I explained to them that I thought this was surprising as the car had just been through a diagnostic and no errors were found. I got a bit of a fob off on the phone so decided to go down to the garage and discuss face to face. On the way down I phoned the first Garage to double check that this fault would of shown on the diagnostic that they did which they confirmed and said they have a record of there tests as they keep them
.
When I got to the Garage the car was already being worked on and they told me that they were struggling to remove the injectors. I questioned the fault they had found and they said that the coil was open circuit at start up and then were ok once running. I said this seemed unlikely as a coil is good or bad and never in between. I said this and explained I was an electrician and understood how coils operate. I was told that it was possible due to the needle on the injector being part of the coil circuit and that the other garage had not diagnosed it as they dont have the test kit that we have. At this point I said I remained unconvinced but I could not offer any further insight. They told me if the injectors were sent away I would get a report of any findings. I was in a bit of a position as the car was in bits now.

The next day I looked up injector specialists and phoned for advice. They said as I had suggested that the fault they were describing was impossible ie you either have a circuit or not. I again phoned the garage and asked them to explain why they were removing these given that what had been said and asked them if they were in any way unsure to phone their injector people and explain the symptoms. They told me they would do this.

Anyway after the easter break I phoned to see how things were going as I hadnt heard off them and they said they were still struggling to seperate the sleeves of the injectors. Again I questioned if they had sought any other advice and I was told they had.

Today I phoned up again after not hearing anything to be told that they were in the process of fitting the new injectors. I was totally blown away by this as I had thought I may of been given a call or better still a report on what was wrong with the injectors. I was a bit dumbstruck by this and I said I will phone back in the morning.

So that is the rather long story but my main concern is we are going to get the car back with a large repair bill and it will still not have fixed the problem. Do I have any legal standings here as they have not quoted me on the new injectors and were they even needed.

I hope somebody has some insight. Thank you for reading

Nodding_Donkey

Why not wait and see if it fixes the issue? If it doesn't then would be the time to complain.

milegurts

I know what you mean I am (maybe incorrectly) convinced that it will not solve the problem and would rather be prepared if and when this happens.
If it does solve the problem I will be extremely happy and gladly pay the Bill and offer my sincere apologies for ever doubting them.

bigjl

Tried to read your post but it gave me visual problems.

But did the first bit.

Why did you bother taking it to a diesel specialist if you and the original garage know better?

Are you a mechanic? Or specialist in modern diesels?

milegurts

Point taken sorry it was so long for you. Thanks for trying to read it though. To be fair I am new to this and tried to fit in all the information I thought relevant. I have split the paragraphs a bit better now also.

But no I am not a mechanic and as the other Garage were not able to diagnose the fault they recommended a Diesel specialist..

I just want to know if my daughters car is still the same after the repair where do I stand

bigjl

milegurts wrote: »

Point taken sorry it was so long for you. Thanks for trying to read it though. To be fair I am new to this and tried to fit in all the information I thought relevant.
But no I am not a mechanic and as the other Garage were not able to diagnose the fault they recommended a Diesel specialist.. I just want to know if my daughters car is still the same after the repair where do I stand

If they have diagnosed an injector problem then you have a case to complain of it makes no difference.

If you went there and asked for the injectors to be replaced then if it makes no difference then that is on you.

Apart from glowplugs one of the more common causes of cold starting problems is injectors. Well that or a loss of compression, but that was more of an issue with the old 1.8d engine to be honest.

s_b

Most garages refer complicated diesel issues to a specialist as its not worth the hassle of doing them in house,
You really need to see what happens and if car no better then it was repairer who attempted repair so ultimately hes responsible for mis diagnosis.

milegurts

Thanks. I have not asked for the injectors to be replaced so I am ok on that score. I did not even ask for them to be removed, sent away or tested.

Even though I am not a mechanic or Diesel expert I have been in electrical engineering all of my working life 25 + years and it was just his explanation of the fault that does not ring true though this just could be down to poor communication and my lack of knowledge.

Genuinely I do not mind so long as the car is fixed I have just been given the impression that this may not be the case and would like to be prepared for that scenario. Plus it is also my daughters first dealings getting her car repaired and I hope it is not too bad an experience

bigjl

Garages rarely give too much detail to customers, as it would rarely be understood or will be taken completely out of context.

So many adopt the KISS principle.

Marktheshark

If its the HDI which I think it is the injectors have a leak back issue when they age which fuel seeps back clogging the injector and shutting down the fuel relay switch which causes open circuit readings when cranking.
The only fix is a set of recon or new injectors.

milegurts

s_b wrote: »

Most garages refer complicated diesel issues to a specialist as its not worth the hassle of doing them in house,
You really need to see what happens and if car no better then it was repairer who attempted repair so ultimately hes responsible for mis diagnosis.

Thank you. I am hopefully being paranoid but do I need to take any special steps when paying etc that does not imply I am accepting the repair until I am happy with it. This will be proven on the first morning of starting the car cold.

If I was to pay on Credit Card would that ensure I could query the repair if it still has the same problem.