Car Repairs Failed.

neilvicks

Please can someone offer some advice on the following:

My car died about a month ago and I ended up having it towed to a local BMW dealership to be looked at.

The car itself is a BMW 1 series 116i 2008 model.

I realize dealerships are more expensive but I decided it would be in the best interests to get it done there.

So they ran a diagnostic and told me that there was an error with a misfiring cylinder and that it needed 4 new fuel injectors and a further error that it needed a new thermostat. They advised this would cost £1639 to fix. As you can imagine with it being expensive I asked them in their opinion would this correct the issue and he confidently told me it would.

I authorized the repair and waited for it to be complete, they then called me a week later and said that the injectors were fitted but the problem wasn't fixed. They said there appears to be internal damage to the engine and they wouldn't be able to confirm it without removing the cylinder head, which they said they would do free of charge. Since the repairs had already failed to fix the vehicle and my budget was maxed out I agreed to it so we could at least get to the bottom of the issue. It turns out there was some major internal damage and the engine needed replacing.

I am now left in a situation where I have no vehicle, and I have a repair bill just shy of £1700 for a car that they couldn't even fix. I have spoken to them about resolving the issue, they will not accept the vehicle as part payment plus cash and now I find myself in a very tight situation.

So, at the end of all that, I really need to know since the repairs they conducted didn't rectify the problem am I at liberty to pay the bill in full, bearing in mind I asked him if he was confident it would work and it didn't.

I am happy to pay something towards labour and time spent etc but it feels excessive to have to fork out the whole amount for what feels to me like a misdiagnosis. Surely, if the engine was that knackered they would have been able to tell.....?

Thanks in advance.....

DoaM

As they confirmed that the advised repair would fix the fault, then it didn't, at the very minimum I'd be getting them to charge the repair at cost (maybe plus 10%) rather than the retail price they are no doubt currently charging.

That would get the £1700 down to nearer £800 no doubt.

paulsad

Ridiculous price in the first place, you need to be firm and stand your ground, they said they'd identified the fault - warning to anyone else going to main dealers for repairs better asking around family and friends for a good smaller garage with latest diagnostic tools and good experience with your make of car. Dealerships charge anything from 70-150 quid an hour! Smaller places half that often caring more about repeat business too.

Nobbie1967

You entered the contract to fix the car on the basis that the agreed work would fix the car. It didn't as there was major engine damage which they failed to foresee. You could argue that this amounts to a lack of reasonable skill and care and decline to pay for the work and invite them to take you to court if they think they have a strong case. The car's only worth scrap value at the moment, so offer to dispose of it so that you don't get stung for storage charges. As a compromise, you could offer to pay the trade price of the parts used.

neilvicks

I was hoping for something along these lines, it just feels wrong to charge me full price for work that didn't even fix the problem. Thanks for the replies.

arcon5

If it was misfiring on a particular cylinder they should have performed a compression test followed by a leakdown test.
To me it looks like they did a leakoff test on the injectors then made their final conclusion.

You should have been spitting feathers when they didn't fix it after the original diagnostic. At this point you should have disputed it and imo have a case to dispute the bill.
But you then agreed for them to strip the engine down, although no charge it would have been a form of compensation for the original misdiagnosis... so imo the issue isn't as straight forward as it could have been and potentially some money due to them for the stripping down.

If your not bothered about getting the car back I think you are in a better position to dispute and negotiate the bill though