Bought car, garage wont/can't fix dash light

JustAnotherSaver

Bought car from a garage maybe about 4 weeks ago thereabouts. MK5 Golf 2.0 GT TDI 140bhp.

Steering wheel warning light came on the next day, arranged to have it booked in and sorted thinking it's a sensor.

Went in on the arranged Friday, by the next day they'd done nothing. Picked it up.

Arranged another date (always a Friday), dropped it off, they get in touch the next day to pick up - they've only taken the code of the rack (steering rack i assume). Could've done this on the first week but never mind.

This isn't my car by the way, it's my sisters but all in all she says she's dropped it off to them about 4 or 5 times now. Every time is to get this light sorted and the rear windscreen washer doesn't work (i think a cap has come off so i don't know if the entire thing needs replacing or what - and the actual wiper has recently stopped working so maybe duff motor? I don't know). Ok the wiper is a little minor but she wants this light sorted.

It keeps coming back &
A) the wiper isn't sorted (and still isn't). I don't know whether they're seeing it as it doesn't matter so we wont bother or that it isn't covered under warranty but either way if she's asked for it to be fixed then it should either be fixed or if they can't then they should say so and if it's not under warranty then they should point it out.

Most of the time they don't seem to touch anything related to this light. Apparently they've "sorted it" this last weekend, yet the very next day ..... steering light comes on again.


I've done a bit of looking in to it and the issue is likely with the power supply and wiring to/from the sensor or the sensor itself.

If the sensor itself is duff then apparently a new (steering?) rack is required (for new read: replacement) as you can't change the sensor on this supposedly. Wondering if the garage have discovered this and are trying the fob off.



What can you do in this situation? Is it possible to send it elsewhere and get it fixed and then tell them you want the cost refunding? Is that an agreement that needs to be reached before you send it elsewhere? Is it a case of tough luck you'll get absolutely nowhere?

DUTR

MK5 Golf is old, perhaps went up to 2009 so car could be at least 8 years old with all the stuff that goes along with a car of that age, from what I recall the orange steering light comes on with the steering lock?
The wiper may not be motor but the linkage ceased (had this on my corrado) .

Perhaps look on a VW forum for a resolve, perhaps fighting with the garage is going to be long and possibly fruitless.

JustAnotherSaver

DUTR wrote: »

MK5 Golf is old, perhaps went up to 2009 so car could be at least 8 years old with all the stuff that goes along with a car of that age, from what I recall the orange steering light comes on with the steering lock?
The wiper may not be motor but the linkage ceased (had this on my corrado) .

Perhaps look on a VW forum for a resolve, perhaps fighting with the garage is going to be long and possibly fruitless.

The warning light is yellow (i'm aware it can go various colours for different issues).

Not really sure what relevance the age is? It either has a problem or it doesn't and it either needs fixing or it doesn't, surely? My car is even older at 17 years old yet since 2008 when i bought it the only thing i've needed beyond brakes, tyres, wipers etc was a new ECU. Someone i work with bought a 3-4 year old car that was forever in the garage with issues. They ended up getting rid of it because of it.

The light doesn't come on when the steering is locked, it comes on as she is driving.

AdrianC

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Not really sure what relevance the age is?

Reasonable expectations.


It's electric power steering. When you say "They're doing nothing"; they're most likely reading fault codes, resetting the system, and waiting to see what code pops back - that's the only sane way to try to diagnose the fault. They've clearly tried several things, and the light is off... only to come back on the next day.

You say you've had a little google, and think it's probably <x> - it's entirely feasible that they've already investigated that, cleaning connections, checking for chafing and corrosion. If it does come to a replacement rack, the warranty won't cover the cost, and you can't come to a mutually acceptable agreement with the supplier over covering the cost (which is certainly massively unlikely to be zero-cost to you), then you need to think about whether it's worth going legal.


It's a 10-15yo car. The fault was not present at the time of purchase - she was driving it around quite happily for a month before it popped up. So the question is whether it would be reasonable to expect this kind of issue to arise on a car of that age, mileage and apparent condition? And the answer would tend to be yes, it absolutely would.

DUTR

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

The warning light is yellow (i'm aware it can go various colours for different issues).

Not really sure what relevance the age is? It either has a problem or it doesn't and it either needs fixing or it doesn't, surely? My car is even older at 17 years old yet since 2008 when i bought it the only thing i've needed beyond brakes, tyres, wipers etc was a new ECU. Someone i work with bought a 3-4 year old car that was forever in the garage with issues. They ended up getting rid of it because of it.

The light doesn't come on when the steering is locked, it comes on as she is driving.

As you are aware yellow/amber warning lights are more notification than red where immediate attention is required.
Without digging out my handbook, it is difficult to say.
Of course the age is relevant. I was under the impression ECU's were expensive and serious.
Anyways as said in the original reply, either seek via VW forums or entertain some battle with the seller, as you appear to have a little sense then I would go for the former as you are aware the dealers do not treat customers like royalty and the battle maybe fruitless.

Joe_Horner

• Steering MIL lit indicates a fault (regardless of colour), which is an MOT failure (regardless of "urgency") and makes it legally unroadworthy.
  
• The fact the light keeps illuminating is sufficient in itself to make it unroadworthy, regardless of the underlying cause.
  
• Regardless of the age of the vehicle, a fault showing up within 4 weeks of sale is deemed to have been there at the time of sale unless the seller can prove otherwise
  
• Regardless of the age of the vehicle, a fault sufficient to make it unroadworthy within 4 weeks of sale isn't of reasonable quality.
  
• It's unroadworthy as respect to steering, which is specifically included in the prohibition of sale in S.75 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Therefore, selling it in that condition is an offence.

So, they repair (without undue inconvenience) or they refund. If that costs them a replacement steering rack then that's the cost of being a business.

AdrianC

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Regardless of the age of the vehicle, a fault showing up within 4 weeks of sale is deemed to have been there at the time of sale unless the seller can prove otherwise

The light was off for four weeks after sale, and now comes on within a day of the codes being cleared. It's not hard to show it was not present at the time of sale.

It's unroadworthy as respect to steering, which is specifically included in the prohibition of sale in S.75 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Therefore, selling it in that condition is an offence.

This depends on the previous point, of course. The steering merely lacks power assistance. Does that render it unroadworthy...? Plenty of cars on the roads without power assistance.

George_Michael

AdrianC wrote: »

The light was off for four weeks after sale, and now comes on within a day of the codes being cleared. It's not hard to show it was not present at the time of sale.

The light came on the day after the car was purchased.

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Bought car from a garage maybe about 4 weeks ago thereabouts. MK5 Golf 2.0 GT TDI 140bhp.

Steering wheel warning light came on the next day, arranged to have it booked in and sorted thinking it's a sensor.

Alter_ego

Could be the battery dying. I have similar car.

AdrianC

Ah. My apologies for misremembering. Yes, that changes the situation quite substantially - you definitely have grounds for pushing for a refund.

Joe_Horner

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Bought car from a garage maybe about 4 weeks ago thereabouts. MK5 Golf 2.0 GT TDI 140bhp.

Steering wheel warning light came on the next day, arranged to have it booked in and sorted thinking it's a sensor.

AdrianC wrote: »

[/I]The light was off for four weeks after sale, and now comes on within a day of the codes being cleared. It's not hard to show it was not present at the time of sale.

Nope, far more likely that they reset the light before sale, only for it to come back on the next day. So balance of probabilities is that the fault was not only present, but they knew it was present at sale.

AdrianC wrote: »

This depends on the previous point, of course. The steering merely lacks power assistance. Does that render it unroadworthy...? Plenty of cars on the roads without power assistance.

Yes, it does render it unroadworthy unless the power steering was optional.

(a) It would fail an MOT, so is technically unroadworthy
(b) It's indicating that the steering isn't meeting it's design / approval specification, so is faulty.
(c) The Road Traffic Act prohibition specifically lists faults with steering but doesn't require that fault to be dangerous. If it's faulty (which it is) then it's not ok It does require most other faults to be dangerous so omitting the "dangerous" part with steering isn't an oversight.