Wrong diagnosis of car fault

powerful_Rogue

My car started making a whoosing sound from the front drivers side when I accelerated.

Took it to a garage who had a look and said the turbo was knackered. Would be £500 for a reconditioned one and then the labour on top. Had to pay £70 for the diagnosis.

Didn't believe this to be the fault, so took it to another garage and it turned out the fault was a split in the intercooler pipe. Parts and labour was £115 and the car runs like a dream.

I doubt it, but thought I would ask - Apart from leaving a negative review, any comeback on the garage with the wrong diagnosis?

Strider590

The first garage might have a "first time fix" policy, most main dealers do too, in this example basically they don't want to just replace a pipe and then have to deal with if/when the turbo goes 2 months down the line, the customer comes back blaming them for the blown turbo, which they then have to fix at cost AND get poor word of mouth.

Thing is I used to run an IT business and I know what it's like, you fix a DVD drive and 2 month later the customer expects you to remove a nasty malware infection for free because "you were last person to touch it" and "the problems started after you last fixed it". If you refuse they then proceed to drag your name through the mud, if you take the hit and fix it for free and you end up doing free jobs for everyone and the business takes a nose dive.

Marktheshark

A split pipe does not mean the turbo might also fail.
I would say the first garage spotted the split pipe and rubbed their hands together in glee.

nickcc

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

My car started making a whoosing sound from the front drivers side when I accelerated.

Took it to a garage who had a look and said the turbo was knackered. Would be £500 for a reconditioned one and then the labour on top. Had to pay £70 for the diagnosis.

Didn't believe this to be the fault, so took it to another garage and it turned out the fault was a split in the intercooler pipe. Parts and labour was £115 and the car runs like a dream.

I doubt it, but thought I would ask - Apart from leaving a negative review, any comeback on the garage with the wrong diagnosis?

Common fault on Land Rover freelanders, also other makes. Garage should have suspected pipe failure before thinking turbo fault.

arcon5

Strider590 wrote: »

The first garage might have a "first time fix" policy, most main dealers do too, in this example basically they don't want to just replace a pipe and then have to deal with if/when the turbo goes 2 months down the line, the customer comes back blaming them for the blown turbo, which they then have to fix at cost AND get poor word of mouth.

Thing is I used to run an IT business and I know what it's like, you fix a DVD drive and 2 month later the customer expects you to remove a nasty malware infection for free because "you were last person to touch it" and "the problems started after you last fixed it". If you refuse they then proceed to drag your name through the mud, if you take the hit and fix it for free and you end up doing free jobs for everyone and the business takes a nose dive.

First time fix means replacing hoses, ducting, oil pipes, map sensor etc when a turbo fails.
It doesn't mean replace turbo, intercooler, sensor etc with a split boost pipe.

thescouselander

There's no comeback because you haven't lost anything. Probably best not to use that garage again though.

arcon5

thescouselander wrote: »

There's no comeback because you haven't lost anything. Probably best not to use that garage again though.

Ops lost £70 paid for diagnostics.

loskie

op have you never made a mistake?

thescouselander

arcon5 wrote: »

Ops lost £70 paid for diagnostics.

Oh, I see. In that case the OP should get their £70 back because the garage didn't use sufficient care and skill when performing the work.

powerful_Rogue

loskie wrote: »

op have you never made a mistake?

How's that relevant?

arcon5

loskie wrote: »

op have you never made a mistake?

I wonder how you'd react if your hair dresser 'made a mistake'