Garage diagnosing my car wrong, charging for works and parts and still not repaired...

tpf93

A year ago i had a problem with my car when driving up north, 1.4l vauxhall corsa, went limp and white smoke was coming out the back. warranty with finance company and manufacturers warranty just ran out. Took it to garage for diagnostic, i beleive it was gasket on turbo which caused the leak of oil into the turbo, had it fully serviced 4 months before but with only around 2000miles done on clock since then. Got a bill for £750ish for parts and labour for a new turbo. Agreed for works to be done, when that was done i got another call to say it needs a new rocker cover with a bill of £250ish for parts and labour. After this i got another call saying there is still problems and think there is a leak in a cylinder, but had to be put off for months because the mechanic working on it had an accident and was no one else to work on it. When they returned to it they told me there was a leak on the cylinder and would need a new engine and they cant find one so i will just have to pay for whats been done and collect the car. I dont think this is acceptable to have 2 wrong diagnostics to then be told they cant fix it. Where do i stand?

AdrianC

Or, just perhaps, they fixed one thing - then found there were other problems that the original fault had masked.

£250 for parts and labour to replace the rocker cover? No, that's chinese whispers right there...

tpf93

AdrianC said:

Or, just perhaps, they fixed one thing - then found there were other problems that the original fault had masked.

£250 for parts and labour to replace the rocker cover? No, that's chinese whispers right there...

hi adrian, what do you mean by chinese whispers? With a leak in a cylinder, would that not be a test to be carried out, like a pressure test when i told them it was going into limp mode?

tpf93

total costs are now 1200 for parts and labour for a new turbo and rocker cover, and cant do any further works

forgotmyname

Why would they do a leakdown test for a low boost condition and an oil leak from the turbo?

tpf93

forgotmyname said:

Why would they do a leakdown test for a low boost condition and an oil leak from the turbo?

ive got no idea about motors, just want to find out. but if there was a leak and no oil there and it had overheated. would it not be a check to do?

AdrianC

tpf93 said:

AdrianC said:

Or, just perhaps, they fixed one thing - then found there were other problems that the original fault had masked.

£250 for parts and labour to replace the rocker cover? No, that's chinese whispers right there...

hi adrian, what do you mean by chinese whispers?

I mean a rocker cover takes about two minutes to remove, and I would be astonished if the part was anything remotely close to that in price.

With a leak in a cylinder, would that not be a test to be carried out, like a pressure test when i told them it was going into limp mode?

No. Went into limp mode, bloody big cloud of blue smoke - take turbo pipework off. Full of oil? Blown turbo. Change turbo.

What may have happened is that when the turbo went, a bit of turbo went into the cylinder, and scratched the bore.

red_eye

tpf93 said:

forgotmyname said:

Why would they do a leakdown test for a low boost condition and an oil leak from the turbo?

ive got no idea about motors, just want to find out. but if there was a leak and no oil there and it had overheated. would it not be a check to do?

You say it overheated as well? 

A turbo gasket would not require a new turbo and has nothing to do with oil, the bearing on the other is lubricated by oil and when worn will dump oil into the cylinders which will burn causing blue smoke not white would be burning water

tpf93

red_eye said:

tpf93 said:

forgotmyname said:

Why would they do a leakdown test for a low boost condition and an oil leak from the turbo?

ive got no idea about motors, just want to find out. but if there was a leak and no oil there and it had overheated. would it not be a check to do?

You say it overheated as well? 

A turbo gasket would not require a new turbo and has nothing to do with oil, the bearing on the other is lubricated by oil and when worn will dump oil into the cylinders which will burn causing blue smoke not white would be burning water

yes, there was no oil in it when i broke down. but was fully serviced a few months before with not much driving done after that. i was told the oil had gone into the turbo and thats why it needed to be replaced.
 it was definately burning white smoke 

Philipp_Bach

No oil in engine? Did you see a red warning indicator on your dashboard when you are broke down?
Possibly your mechanics are right, that oil gone through turbo if the last had a hidden failure..