Garage ruined engine when car took in for MOT

AdrianC

benten69 wrote: »

Sorry, rant over, but that really does bug me when people blame others for their lack of knowledge.

<applause>
And, let's be honest, understanding how something works ALWAYS helps you to get the best out of using it, anyway.

facade

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Pity the poor sod who buys this car next !

Which is why we always advise against buying cars with suspiciously low mileage, and lacking a proper service history, unless they are pocket money prices.

Low miles does more harm to an engine than high miles.

Strider590

facade wrote: »

Which is why we always advise against buying cars with suspiciously low mileage, and lacking a proper service history, unless they are pocket money prices.

Low miles does more harm to an engine than high miles.

"Low mileage, one (elderly?) lady owner" and "VW Golfs are the most reliable cars" will always be desirable.

People don't listen to the people who know, they listen to car salesmen.

BeenThroughItAll

Strider590 wrote: »

"Low mileage, one (elderly?) lady owner" and "VW Golfs are the most reliable cars" will always be desirable.

People don't listen to the people who know, they listen to car salesmen.

Let me just check out of the window and see if it's cold in Hell today. For once I agree with you.

sartois

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Pity the poor sod who buys this car next !

Well it will probably be Fiat. She is a bit nervous about driving the car around now after the engine problems so I have suggested she does get rid of it based on some of the comments on here about the potential for failure soon. She doesn't want to go through this sort of thing again so is currently considering trading it in for the same car, but a new one of the petrol variety.

Feels like an expensive way to travel a mere 1000 miles a year to me but each to their own I guess...

Thanks again for all the helpful comments on here... much appreciated I feel like I have learnt a lot!

Nodding_Donkey

Might be an idea to include the registration number in this thread so that any future purchasers can google it and find out it's a lemon.

BeenThroughItAll

Might also be an idea to point out to her that she should take care of any vehicle she owns in future.

GwylimT

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

As discussed, diesel engines are run to their governor at MOT time - that's not something most people do in normal use, and certainly not unloaded.


The process is known to carry a significant risk, and that is why test centres have 'ADVICE TO OWNERS PRESENTING DIESEL VEHICLES' posters up.

Should have posters up. As both a diesel owner and someone who worked as a mechanic for years, I rarely see garages displaying their posters and it has never ever been verbally mentioned when going for an MOT.

m_c

I never read the bit about the oil warning light being on. One thing I will say though, is with Fiats, depending on the vehicle, the oil warning light isn't purely for oil pressure or level. Some can come on in orange as well as red, and on some it indicates a service is needed (quite frankly it is a stupid design).


Now I've read back a couple pages, the high oil level should of been picked up, and combined with the warning light, no attempt at a smoke test should of been made.

Chrysalis

benten69 wrote: »

That has nothing to do with the mechanic sector and 100% everything to do with people not wanting to educate themselves. I am not a mechanic by trade, but I am well aware of all the possible issues that can occur and I know enough so that if a mechanic is trying to pull the wool over my eyes (as one tried to do just a few months ago) I can put them in their place.

If something does happen that I don't know about, google is in everyones pockets these days, but no-one seems to bother using it to learn for themselves and think the grease monkeys in the garage are "experts" when the reality is that 95% of the time they are FAR from being experts in anything.

You could plaster your comment about anything. How many people know how an iPhone works? Or how their digital camera works, or their treadmill or their electric drill? These are all easy things to learn, but people don't want to learn. Then they complain that "xxx sector can get away with anything due to peoples lack of knowledge".

All the knowledge you need is available on the internet, you don't even need to pay for a fancy education these days to learn 99.9% of things. If people want to know, they will source the info, if they don't they will remain ignorant and blame that companies prey on them because they don't understand.

Sorry, rant over, but that really does bug me when people blame others for their lack of knowledge.

What kind of post is this?

The mechanic sector is easy to rip people off as people can be taken advantage off, but you appear to be claiming that people can easily teach themselves to be a mechanic, on top of other things in their life like their own job, sorry this is nonsense.

But of course you avoided my point about is it reasonable for a trained professional who knows about diesel runaways to start this test when the oil light is on?

I could e.g. say they did it with the knowledge if the engine blows they can make money from the work fixing it.

By the way I just rang a random garage and said my oil light is on, is it safe to drive it to them to examine the car, they said yes no problem.

So just to clarify are you saying if a person does something wrong in their car prior to a MOT test, that make's the garage immune to liability for damage caused whilst the car is in their care, I just want this clarified please.