Car repair issue? Someone is lying!

Sharona68

Advice please.... A couple of weeks ago took my 2011 mazda 2 to a garage to have a possible slow puncture repaired. Car went up on ramps etc. All tyres were checked. No other issues spotted at the time. Then last Friday I took the car to a Formula one garage for MOT and basic service. Car has only done 57,000. Passed with flying colours, told It was in good shape except tyres could do with balancing and tracking. Today took my car to mazda dealer for a free product recall repair (airbag) to be told 6 hours later that a rear spring had broken. The car does 5ish miles a day. I feel personally that something has happened whilst with the mazda dealer but have no way of proving it. All they say is it could happen at any time. Should Formula one have spotted something was wrong 7 days ago?

chunkytfg

Sharona68 wrote: »

Advice please.... A couple of weeks ago took my 2011 mazda 2 to a garage to have a possible slow puncture repaired. Car went up on ramps etc. All tyres were checked. No other issues spotted at the time. Then last Friday I took the car to a Formula one garage for MOT and basic service. Car has only done 57,000. Passed with flying colours, told It was in good shape except tyres could do with balancing and tracking. Today took my car to mazda dealer for a free product recall repair (airbag) to be told 6 hours later that a rear spring had broken. The car does 5ish miles a day. I feel personally that something has happened whilst with the mazda dealer but have no way of proving it. All they say is it could happen at any time. Should Formula one have spotted something was wrong 7 days ago?

But was anything wrong? You don't know.

5 miles is plenty of distance to hit a big pot hole or one to many speed bumps.

Things break on cars unfortunately and sometimes they break just after you have the car serviced and before you get a recall repair done.

Just don't have Mazda fit the new spring! :eek:

debtdebt

Why has something always got to be someone's fault?

A spring could easily have snapped between the MOT and the trip to the Mazda dealer.

If you're looking for someone to blame and claim for the damaged spring, you're out of luck.

Pay for the spring to be replaced and get over it.

mattyprice4004

The rear springs sit in a cup, and a broken bottom coil is easily missed.
Don’t fret about it, just get it fixed without pointing fingers etc - no one did anything wrong.

System

Your car could pass a MOT, you could drive out of the MOT station and a spring can break. They can break at any time. Nothing that anyone working on the car did either in the service or sorting the tyres out would break the spring so you're flogging a dead horse if you think you're going to be making a claim against them for it.

Sharona68

Many thanks everyone, I know nothing about cars and I'm sure you can understand my frustration when you leave your supposedly healthy car with a main dealer who finds a problem that they say I shouldn't drive away and I should let them fix, you do tend to think the worst ��

missile

Why did you assume the worst? Thank the dealer for identifying a serious problem which could have caused you to loose control and have an accident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN12-W-yiSE

tacpot12

Garages will sometimes try it on by saying the car can't be driven. Make sure you know exactly what is broken or wrong with the car. Relate this to the mechanic who you want to do the repair and see if they say it can be driven to them. If the garage offers you a large discount to do the work, I expect they were trying it on and didn't want to be found out.

Missile is also correct. Some dealers are completely trustworthy and don't really care where you have the work done.

PDC

I must admit I'm distrustful of main dealers since my car went in for a free recall and they did a 'complimentary' health check and found £1000's worth of work needing doing, saying similar to the OP that the car was dangerous. One of the jobs did need doing but was far from urgent whist most of what they'd found was just made up.

If it were me I would take the car elsewhere and get it looked at just for my peace of mind.

I did have a rear spring go myself once and it wasn't easy to spot until you had the wheel off.

Aylesbury_Duck

I had a front spring go with an almighty bang two weeks after a service and MOT, after hitting a minor pothole at under 30mph. It must have been ready to go but unless the garage X-rayed the spring at the service, how could they have known it was about to fracture? I was just grateful that it happened where it did, less than a mile from home rather than at 70mph on the motorway.

Homersimpson

Many years ago on my wifes 2007 fiesta had two broken front springs that happened while it was sitting on the drive. The broken bits of coil were lying on the drive under the car.

Apparently it was a common occurrence on these cars which strangely seemed to happen when the cars were sitting.

I used to work for a garage so was very sceptical about this but found loads of reports from people who has experienced the same.

I can also remember replacing a front wheel bearing on a mates peugeot 106 Rallye and when he tested it up the road and brought it back he said the handbrake wasn't working properly when he parked.

I removed the rear drums and the linings had come off the shoes and they needed replacing. He knew I hadn't touched the back as he had been with me all the time I had been doing the bearing but I remember saying it would have been hard to convince a customer of that!

Sometimes things can just be co-incidence.