Wrong diagnosis of car fault

mgbglasgow

No way a mechanic misssed that, these hoses are under huge stress and do burst, i wouldnt go near said garage again, ps let your friends now......

droopsnoot

Strider590 wrote: »

"you were last person to touch it" and "the problems started after you last fixed it".

Been there - we had to tell our engineers not to be helpful, not to do anything other than exactly the job they went to do just because of stuff like that. You helpfully move a printer from one end of a table to another without even disconnecting anything, and then you get "ever since your engineer re-installed our printer..." for ever. Makes you look really unhelpful, but we were in a business where customers all knew each other.


OPs garage might well have had the same symptoms on many of the same model and found it was the turbo, and therefore jumped to a conclusion. Does suggest that the £70 diagnosis isn't worth the money, though. Equally they might be just trying it on. We can't know, from here.

DoaM

Turbomeister wrote: »

:spam:

You know where that button is folks.

nickcc

Turbomeister wrote: »

Most garages will use diagnostic equipment plugged into the computer of the car, this reads fault codes that have been logged by the engine management (computer)

A split hose or intercooler would show as a turbo fault because the air being created by the turbo would be going out into the atmosphere rather than going back into the engine via the air mass sensor that communicates with the engine management.

It's common for turbos to be misdiagnosed as the problem but if you have a turbo specialist look at the turbo before fitting another turbo, they should be able to tell you if the turbo is at fault, unfortunately by this time you're already running up a bill for labour.

the might be some useful info on this website turbologic dot co dot uk (sorry it won't let me put a link)

A skilled mechanic wouldn't need to plug in diagnostics to find a split intercooler pipe as they are such a common fault, adding the cost of a diagnostic in the op's case is just a rip off.

forgotmyname

Oh my you should have left Turbomeister's spam.. There is one to avoid..

I think he needs to check on the order of a turbo circuit. Boost goes into the MAF? Not on my car it doesn't. And i can think of several others where it doesnt and probably all turbo'd vehicles. Is there a car with the MAF after the turbo?

Also a split hose doesnt leave any fault codes on my car. You could take the pipe off and drive around and you wont get any fault showing.

Common for turbo's to be misdiagnosed yes, especially when so called specialist doesnt know how a turbo works.

Strider590

nickcc wrote: »

A skilled mechanic wouldn't need to plug in diagnostics to find a split intercooler pipe as they are such a common fault, adding the cost of a diagnostic in the op's case is just a rip off.

No, it's just following procedures. Dealerships de-skill the workforce, they use young apprentices and give them set procedures to follow. The first thing they have to do with any faulty car is run a diagnostics check, even if the fault is obvious.

nickcc

Strider590 wrote: »

No, it's just following procedures. Dealerships de-skill the workforce, they use young apprentices and give them set procedures to follow. The first thing they have to do with any faulty car is run a diagnostics check, even if the fault is obvious.

My post stated skilled mechanic not young apprentice and I can't see where the op mentioned a dealership. i know how dealerships operate having worked in one myself but very few non dealership garages would carry out a diagnostic without looking for the obvious first, and in the op's case a split turbo/intercooler hose would be pretty obvious.

Strider590

^^ And I was merely stating that it's not a rip off if they have no choice.