Incorrect Diagnosis - £358 out of pocket.

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. 

Also I wouldn’t say a new fault linked to the EML is “plausible” immediately after they’ve worked on issues relating to a full diagnostic on the engine.

cymruchris

TheEnergyThread said:

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.

No - if John did the work - and there was then a fault - John is who you'd go and see first.  You'd then establish whether John was the problem, as maybe the tyres were faulty, you might also have driven over a packet of nails an hour after leaving, or you might find out that the wrong tyres were fitted, so you'd firstly work out whether it was John (or you) that was at fault, and then rectify whatever was needed. If John then demonstrated that he had done the job perfectly, and that all parts were tip-top, and that you hadn't driven over a bag of nails, and that what Brian had said was incorrect, you might then have some comeback on Brian.

Incidentally - although many years ago - I was a Halfords garage manager for short period - and if you'd come to me saying 'You told me this - and I've gone there to get it fixed' - I'd be telling you that's where you needed to start your journey of rectification. Or - I'd happily bring the car in, and then get it fixed - charging you for whatever was needed, leaving you to go back to your 'reputable garage' to resolve the payment issue with them. 

Cars are known to have more than one fault - and it's not unknown that when you repair a fault, that in a short time, something else then rears its ugly head, that something was probably on the borderline of giving up the ghost, and whatever was changed pushed it over the edge. 

It's also commonly known that when replacing parts - there are times when the 'new' parts develop a fault.

There are a myriad of reasons as to why the light might be on again.

As of yet - you don't know why the light is back on - so you're not out of pocket. It may very well be that the work that was diagnosed did need doing, and now something else needs doing. That's the joy of car ownership. The number of times a customer came in after a job was completed to tell us that 'X has stopped working since you've had my car' when X was at the other end of the vehicle and had nothing to do with the work done was a common occurrence. Cars do go wrong, and often. 

Your first port of call is your reputable garage. Find out the issue. See if it's workmanship, faulty parts, a new fault or something else. Whatever the outcome - I think you'll be hard-pressed to establish Halfords were at fault. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's common on forums. 

Jumblebumble

TheEnergyThread said:

Hi,
I was just wondering if anybody could give me a little bit of advise, I had a diagnostic check done at Halfords as my Check Engine Light had appeared on my dashboard. 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. They advised me they can do it for £450ish but I advised this was too much and taken it to another reputable garage that provided a quote of £308 for a like for like replacement of all the issues stated on the health check report relating to the Engine Light. I had this done and it was fine at first but the day after my engine light has reappeared and I’ve got an MOT that’s due to expiry on the 19/02. 

I feel like I’ve been misdiagnosed, of course I paid them £50 for a service in diagnosing the fault for which hasn’t been diagnosed correctly. But it’s not just that, I’ve taken there advice in what needs replacing trusting there resolution to it. It states on there website they are “ATA-trained” “quickly identify the problem” etc so had no reason really not to trust the diagnosis’s they provided at the time. But I’m more concerned about the £308 I’ve lost for what probably wouldn’t of been required. 

Has anybody else been in a situation like this and if so what was the result?

You are on a hiding to nothing
Halfords will not be interested in what someone else has done as they have no evidence whatsoever  your garage did not put in a counterfeit /rubbish  lambda sensor or coil pack bought from China via eBay.
Perhaps your garage was cheaper for a reason

Cars suffer from many intermittent faults
My Zafira had the yellow engine light and  fault code misfire on cylinder 1 two years ago
I cleared the fault via the built in diagnostics that Zafira's have and it never reocurred
What else did I do ?
Nothing !  
Probably dirty petrol

Herzlos

cymruchris said:

The number of times a customer came in after a job was completed to tell us that 'X has stopped working since you've had my car' when X was at the other end of the vehicle and had nothing to do with the work done was a common occurrence. Cars do go wrong, and often.

Ah the old "you changed a headlight bulb for me now the handbrake is seizing! You better fix it for free!" thing, because correlation =/= causation.

cymruchris

Herzlos said:

cymruchris said:

The number of times a customer came in after a job was completed to tell us that 'X has stopped working since you've had my car' when X was at the other end of the vehicle and had nothing to do with the work done was a common occurrence. Cars do go wrong, and often.

Ah the old "you changed a headlight bulb for me now the handbrake is seizing! You better fix it for free!" thing, because correlation =/= causation.

That's the one.

Mickey666

TheEnergyThread said:

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.

Yes, perhaps Brian should be responsible for an accurate diagnosis but you've not offered any evidence that he didn't.
He diagnosed the problem, you went somewhere to have the recomended parts changed and the EML went out for a day.
How can you possibly know if the next time the EML came on that it was the same problem?
I don't think you can.

born_again

What is odd is the garage took the advice of a halfords diagnostic & what needing replacing without doing one of their own.

Guess they saw a easy buck to be made. 

Any decent garage would have run their own check & cleared the codes stored. So any fault now would show and not all the old ones.

Mickey666

born_again said:

What is odd is the garage took the advice of a halfords diagnostic & what needing replacing without doing one of their own.

Guess they saw a easy buck to be made. 

Any decent garage would have run their own check & cleared the codes stored. So any fault now would show and not all the old ones.

I get your point, but is that exactly what happened, or did the OP just ask the garage to replace certain items?
I'm sure this whole saga is very upsetting for the OP but it's riddled with unproven (and perhaps unproveable) possibilities about what has really happened.  Because of that, the OP has no chance making a claim stick.

mattyprice4004

Unfortunately you chose to cheap out and pay another garage to do the work - the situation you've found yourself is a disadvantage of that approach.
If you'd have asked Halfords to do the work and it didn't resolve the issue you'd have some leverage, but trying to save £150 might just have cost you a chunk more. If you asked the garage just to replace what's on the sheet, it's not their fault if the issue is elsewhere.

TheEnergyThread

born_again said:

What is odd is the garage took the advice of a halfords diagnostic & what needing replacing without doing one of their own.

Guess they saw a easy buck to be made. 

Any decent garage would have run their own check & cleared the codes stored. So any fault now would show and not all the old ones.

I’ve got a “Diagnostic check service” on my invoice from the garage, I’m taking they did one or at least cleared the code. But they’re having it shortly anyway to re diagnose it again to see if they fault coincides with work they’ve carried out. If so of course I’ll hold them responsible and assume they’ll have a “warranty.”