A garage that damages instead of fixing

forwise

Hi all

I'm new here, so please excuse if I have trespassed on some good practices.

Back in June I've brought my car to a local garage (listed to the Good Garage Scheme scam) in order to fix certain things. Amongst other minor things to fix were break discs, pads, air box that fell apart and injector seals. The injector seals are the interesting thing and subject of the issue.

The car is relatively new but already has done more than 170,000 miles from new. Since I know, for at least 100,000 miles, one of the injectors was leaking a little bit. This was checked and analysed several times by authorised service and additionally by independent garage. It was never fixed or tinkered with and the car was driving fine. All of them didn't see a problem in it and indeed it didn't present a problem in driving the car for me.

I've requested the garage to review the condition of the car as I was planning to give it to my wife as a run around car to make sure that it is as safe as it can be for her to drive.

When the assessment came back the advise the garage has given me is to change the injector. They have provided me with a quote covering only change of the injectors. At which point I have stated that this issue existed before and never was a problem. They still suggested that changing the injectors isn't an issue and can be done at reasonable cost.

Things went quiet for few weeks and then, I've received a call from the garage that there are some problems and I should come around and see them. I did turned up, as discussed, only to hear that when they were trying to force the seized injector out of the bay they have damaged the cylinder head. That certainly didn't make me happy as it meant additional cost but they were adamant it won't be too much to buy new head.

Few days later they called me again to tell me that because of the construction of the engine (Turbo Diesel) they would have to change the whole engine, as the head is connected to the camshaft and chain. The repair cost would go well beyond the value of the car. Instead of an apology the garage suggested that I should take the car to the breakyard and that they will send me some invoices for labour and parts they had to order for the repair (but never used them) and cannot return.

Unimpressed, I've requested the garage to either bring the car to a working order at their cost (with me covering the originally estimated repairs only) or to purchase it off me for the market value before the repair. They have refused both of these options.

They still posses the car, the car itself doesn't drive anymore and the garage owner now says that it was all my fault as I've requested for them to proceed "at all cost" to fix it and they were in constant contact with me (called me three times, twice in regards to ordering new airbox from dealer and one to ask me to come in to discuss complication face to face).

I know the path of CAB and personal solicitor is of course available to me, but I was wondering what do you think I could do in this situation and whether anyone had an experience of not just shoddy garage repair but in my opinion complete lack of professionalism, lack of due diligence and misleading the customer?

dannyrst

As far as I can see, although you haven't stated it explicitly above, you authorized all of the work so far to be carried out, minus the engine change, which is where you are at now.

You have two options:

1) Pay the bill for the work done. I'm not sure whether you're liable for the cost of the parts or not, I wouldn't have thought so because whilst you have asked for them to be bought, I can't understand why they cannot be returned. (I've had numerous parts delivered that I've not paid for at garages due to them being incorrect, not needed).

2) Have the car moved to another garage to see if the original work was required or not. This will be costly and also probably require you to pay the bill to the first garage under protest to have the car released. You'll then have to hope they find a reason why it wasn't required to be done and then take the original garage to small claims if they refuse to refund you (which they probably would).

m0bov

None of the above diags make any sense. There is no bay in an engine and the engine cover is a plastic trim part. Ask them to put in writting the issue and cost. A leaking injector should have been fixed at once.

m0bov

You can get mobile specilists that can remove seized or broken injectors. Have they tried this route?

AdrianC

forwise wrote: »

Things went quiet for few weeks and then I've received a call from the garage that there are some problems and I should come around and see them. I did turned up, as discussed, only to hear that when they were trying to force the seized injector out of the bay they have damaged the engine cover. That certainly didn't make me happy as it meant additional cost but they were adamant it won't be too much to buy new cover.

Few days later they called me again to tell me that because of the construction of the engine (Turbo Diesel) they would have to change the whole engine, as the cover is connected to the camshaft and chain.

A seized injector is no great surprise - and not the garage's fault. Whether they're liable for damage arising from the removal of the injector depends entirely on whether they went about it in a reasonable and competent way, or if they were negligent.

As for the rest - well, who knows WHAT's meant? At a guess, the cylinder head has been damaged by the corrosion that seized the injector into place. Or maybe they damaged it by ham-fisted bodgery. Or maybe something else entirely. You need to get a proper idea of what's actually happened, without the Chinese Whispers. And you need somebody independent and competent to provide you with a proper report if you're going to take any kind of action with any kind of hope of success.

EdGasket

Sounds like they have already damaged the Head (I am reading cylinder head for "cover") and can't access the injector port to sort it out. Difficult to tell from OPs description. Seems like OP said yes change the injectors but that doesn't mean that if the garage botch the job they are off the hook does it.

forwise

@EdGasket Yes, of course I meant cylinder head. Thanks for correcting that.

Although I have authorised their assessment (apart from break discs none of it came from me as a request) I have made it explicit (unfortunately not in writing) that in the past another garage had looked at the injector and advised that replacement or cleaning isn't worth the risk.

This garage advised differently assessing the risk (as I understood from one of the employees as insignificant) as engine head could be easily replaced at reasonable cost in case they damage it.
Only after the engine has been damaged they have found out that actually the whole engine and cam chain has to be changed.

It clearly smells to me as lack of due diligence, attempting the work without proper understanding of cost and risks involved but also ill advising the customer in terms of whether this is sensible to be done (I didn't want to do it unless they were certain about it because of previous assessment, ultimately the car continued to work well despite having an issue since, most likely, it's inception).

EdGasket

Well you could chase them with a legal claim but with nothing in writing you might not win. They could say anything in defense including that you told them to go ahead despite the risks and potential cost.

Not sure why they are saying the head is connected to the cam and chain? Isn't that always the case but doesn't stop the head being removed once you remove the cam chain. What car is it?

forwise

BMW Mini Clubman 1.6 D

forwise

As Dannyrst have suggested I can see there is a number of companies specialising in injector removal. Some even claim 100% success rate. After finding these companies, it even surprises me more that anyone can just "force it" without thinking about the end results.

I will be asking for proper visual documentation to be taken of what exactly has been damaged. If they refuse do collect one, I will do it myself.

AdrianC

forwise wrote: »

BMW Mini Clubman 1.6 D

I'd imagine it's an R55 - pre-2014. You don't say how old, but I think you'd be hard-pushed to get 170k on a 2yo car...

So it's the PSA-Ford DV6 (1.6HDi/1.6TDCi) engine, renowned for all sorts of terminal shenanigans in other cars. You're doing well to have got it to that mileage without it going bang, especially given your apparent attitude to maintenance.

That apart, that engine doesn't have a cam chain - it's a belt. When was the belt last changed? It's probably about due anyway.