Incorrect Diagnosis - £358 out of pocket.

blackdog2220

TheEnergyThread said:

Problem is though Ganga the average person like myself, isn’t mechanical minded. We rely upon garages like Halfords to provide that service for us, after all they’re “ATA accredited.” So who would your ordinary Joe be to argue with someone who’s qualified to make that decision. 

anyone with a ha peth of sence does not go to a place like halfords /“ATA accredited.” actually meens the trade body that they pay to exist and protect them has given them (and all other members) a piece of paper saying "accredited." , whats this , national assoc of push bike builders 

blackdog2220

Halfords Autocentres and ATA (Automotive Technician Accreditation) is a paid for piece of paper product 

Herzlos

TheEnergyThread said:

Mickey666 said:

AdrianC said:

You had the EML come on.
Halfords read the codes, and told you what they said.
You took it elsewhere for the work.
They didn't bother doing any diagnosis of their own, just ticked off Halfords' list.
The light came back on.

And what fault codes are stored this time?

Key question - and without knowing the answer no one can know what has happened.
One scenario could be:
1.  OP paid Halfords to diagnose the engine check light faults, they did and told OP what needed fixing
2. OP takes car to another garage, pays them to fix the problems Halfords identified.  They did and the check lights went out.
3. The following day A DIFFERENT fault occurs and the check light comes on

Obviously, point 3 is just a guess, because with no proof of the fault codes we cannot know that the two check lights are caused by the same fault.
It might be, it might not - and that's the issue here.  Not a good basis for claiming anything back from Halfords or the garage.

I will establish what the current fault is, but there is no more than 20 miles between the Halfords diagnostic & that of the garage repairing it. So if the fault is indeed related it’ll go back to the garage as a “spark plug code” obviously shouldn’t come up a day after getting it fitted. But even if it’s not and the fault is elsewhere, I find it worrying that garages could literally do a diagnostic, write what they want as the fault and recommend they get that fixed which doesn’t actually  “fix the issue” and with the light still appearing shining brightly on the dashboard, it’ll be too easy for the garage to then provide the actual fault which would be totally unrelated to the false one. 

Just to be clear; take the car back to the garage that did the work, not to Halfords. The garage will be able to run the diagnostic again and see what the issue is. It's not impossible that one of the sensors they fitted has failed, or that there's another issue.

If you take it to Halfords again, you'll probably need to pay £50 again and be no further forward.

George_Michael

TheEnergyThread said:

Hi,
This cost £50 and they provided a health check report that stated what needed fixing which was the Lamba sensor Band 2, Coil Packs & Spark plugs. 

What are the chances of all of those things failing at the same time? It's possible that there was only one active fault and a few stored faults which may have been in the engine computer for a very long time and the problems that caused those faults to be recorded had been fixed and the stored faults not cleared.

dipsomaniac

blackdog2220 said:

TheEnergyThread said:

Problem is though Ganga the average person like myself, isn’t mechanical minded. We rely upon garages like Halfords to provide that service for us, after all they’re “ATA accredited.” So who would your ordinary Joe be to argue with someone who’s qualified to make that decision. 

anyone with a ha peth of sence does not go to a place like halfords /“ATA accredited.” actually meens the trade body that they pay to exist and protect them has given them (and all other members) a piece of paper saying "accredited." , whats this , national assoc of push bike builders 

750,000 people use Halfords autocentres every year. 

Do you ask to see the qualifications of the person working on your car?

OP. if you pay for diagnostics ask for a printout of all fault codes. Am amazed that all of those parts needed replacing together as coil packs should last 100k, plugs 50k & O2 sensor 75k

AdrianC

TheEnergyThread said:
I find it worrying that garages could literally do a diagnostic, write what they want as the fault and recommend they get that fixed which doesn’t actually  “fix the issue” and with the light still appearing shining brightly on the dashboard

Except it wasn't "still", was it?

You collected the car and drove it home without the light on.
You started driving the next day, without the light on.
At some point on that next day, the light came on.

You don't know what fault codes are now stored.
Fault codes don't, btw, say "This is a knackered coil pack". They say things like "misfire on cylinder 1". Misfires are not always spark-related. Not all misfire fault codes specify which cylinder. There can be one coil per cylinder, one per pair, or one for the entire engine. There may or may not be HT leads.

dipsomaniac said:

OP. if you pay for diagnostics ask for a printout of all fault codes. Am amazed that all of those parts needed replacing together as coil packs should last 100k, plugs 50k & O2 sensor 75k

It really isn't that binary.
If you're replacing a coil pack, it makes sense to change the plugs (and leads, if there are any) at the same time. It's cheap. If the lambda's reporting that it's reading off, and there's a misfire, is it actually being accurate because of unburnt fuel?

dipsomaniac

Changing plugs and leads is not cheap and without risk of cross threads. If it's not broke.........................(unless it's water pump when doing cam belt)

cymruchris

If you took the car to a bloke called Brian - and he said your tyres were knackered - then you decided to take your car to John to get them fixed because Brian was too expensive - and then the next day the tyres went flat - would you go back to Brian and complain?

You need to go back to the garage that you paid to complete the work to establish if what they've done is ok - whether it's the same fault that needs rework due to using a faulty part, or whether there's a new fault (entirely plausible) that needs looking at. 

If you'd had it all done with Halfords - you'd have some comeback - but because you decided to take it elsewhere - that's where you need to go to address the issue. 

TheEnergyThread

cymruchris said:

If you took the car to a bloke called Brian - and he said your tyres were knackered - then you decided to take your car to John to get them fixed because Brian was too expensive - and then the next day the tyres went flat - would you go back to Brian and complain?

You need to go back to the garage that you paid to complete the work to establish if what they've done is ok - whether it's the same fault that needs rework due to using a faulty part, or whether there's a new fault (entirely plausible) that needs looking at. 

If you'd had it all done with Halfords - you'd have some comeback - but because you decided to take it elsewhere - that's where you need to go to address the issue. 

The example you’ve provided regarding the tyres are irrelevant. As the “Brian” in your example is the one providing the diagnostic service and being paid for it. You’re paying Brian to accurately diagnose the fault, I feel like Brian should be held responsible if the said faults diagnoses doesn’t seem to be correct.

AdrianC

dipsomaniac said:

Changing plugs and leads is not cheap.

I had a (pair of cylinders) coil pack go down on me over the summer. Two OEM coil packs @ £10 ea, four Bosch plugs @ £4 ea, OEM HT lead set @ £15, all plus vat and delivery - just over £60 for the lot. Less than an hour to do the work, including dealing with a recalcitrant hex-head bolt for one of the coil packs.

I call that cheap.