Renault brake faults, diagnostic/repair & consumer rights advice

Thecreative

Hi all, hoping someone can quickly advise on this.

Basically I bought a nearly new demo from the dealer, trouble free for the first few months then a brake system fault happened,
the first time it cleared itself, I phoned the dealer and they said if its only happened once then keep driving it as I'm covered for 4 years warranty
and with Renault RAC recover.

Shortly after it happened again this time disabled in a busy city centre, it was recovered into the local dealer, they had it for several days,
couldn't find any faults as the RAC had cleared the computer. The dealer said it was good to go and I collected.

Fine again for a while then again flashing brake warning - it cleared after a 10 minutes starting and stopping the engine etc.. again on a busy road.

More recently 3 weeks ago I was working away some 100 miles from home, the car did the same thing dangerously instructing a stop and locking all the system
leaving me stranded in the road. This time there was no response and it was completely locked up, RAC recovered it to a dealer near my hotel and I was put in a hire car.

Here in lies the problem, the dealer had the car for 3 weeks, then without my knowledge shipped it to my local dealer who then called me to say my car was ready to collect.
I asked for assurances on the issues however dealer 2 had no idea what the car was recovered its them for, it was just dropped by a truck.

 I spoke with Renault support who reported that dealer 1 had made no repairs!

Speaking direct to dealer 1 they advise they had cleared the brake warning, now does that mean something was fixed or simply they cleared the diagnostic? Renault have no knowledge of this. Dealer 1 also advised there was an intermittent fault and warning lights coming on.

At this point dealer 2 didn't know it was intermittent, tested it very briefly and deemed it good to go again. Now if it got delivered from dealer 1 with faults and dealer 2 did nothing then clearly it cant be fixed and the same thing will happen again.

Renault are asking or the hire car to be off hired but I am not at all comfortable putting my wife and a small baby in a car with a potential lethal brake fault to drive on our local motorway which due to roadworks does not even have a hard shoulder.

Renault customer complaints seem pretty useless, wouldn't escalate the case for 48 hours and basically told me to drive the car away as I could always be recovered again ! yet they couldn't identify what has been done so I am not prepared to put myself or anyone else in danger.

I seem to go around in circles, I want to put all this in writing and escalate it at Renault I also wanted to know where I stand legally and if this doesn't not get sorted what do do regarding things like the consumer rights act for a possible refund or exchange, then even the motoring ombudsman.

Thanks in advance.

AdrianC

So the car has come up with an intermittent issue twice during "several months" of your use, three weeks and how many miles apart?

If the diagnostics do not allow any fault to be traced, there's really not very much they can do unless and until it does it again.

How long do you want the dealer to retain the car, and how many miles will you be happy with them putting on it, until you are satisfied that the issue will not recur?

Thecreative

Well no its happened 5 times in the last few months ( they've had it for 3 weeks of that) twice it was recovered by the services from dangerous positions on main roads after failing suddenly - I would expect any fault to be their responsibility or are you suggesting I should just hope for the best as they are advising it might be Ok and if its not they can just get recovered again? To say nothing of me working 200 miles away or it being used by my wife and a small baby being alone? I'm sure you will appreciate driving with braking fault is a dangerous thing for anyone, I want a guarantee from Renault of everyone's safety and proof of what work has been done, is it fixed not simply cleared of a computer and waiting to happen again? the lack of communication between the dealerships, recovery services and Renault is quite frankly staggering.

You say there's nothing they can do until it does it again, that's why one the second recovery as I was advised initially I instructed them not to clear anything and delivery it to the dealer with an explanation, I even called the day after to run through everything so they were clear of the full history -  they have had the full story & a dash full of lights.

AdrianC

Thecreative said:

I want a guarantee from Renault of everyone's safety and proof of what work has been done, is it fixed not simply cleared of a computer and waiting to happen again?

So how many miles do you want them to put on it before returning it, to be able to guarantee that?

NSG666

Not an answer to your question.
On the one hand you want a car that's safe and reliable and on the other hand it seems like an intermittent problem that is very difficult to diagnose. You can help by being very specific and not embellishing when describing the symptoms to the dealer e.g. what warning lights came on, did the brakes work any differently, pulsating pedal, firm pedal, difficult to stop (I'm not asking you to post here)
If the brake warning light and stop light both come on when the problem occurs then Renault advise to stop the car as soon as it is safe to do so e.g. not on a dangerous motorway.
Can you swap cars with your wife for a while and you test it rather than her?

Ectophile

AdrianC said:

Thecreative said:

I want a guarantee from Renault of everyone's safety and proof of what work has been done, is it fixed not simply cleared of a computer and waiting to happen again?

So how many miles do you want them to put on it before returning it, to be able to guarantee that?

How much further do you expect the OP to continue driving a car which is known to have faulty brakes, because the dealer can't work out how to fix them?

If it's a serious safety-related fault that keeps coming back, but they can't work out what it is, they should either replace everything, or scrap the car as beyond repair.

AdrianC

Ectophile said:

AdrianC said:

Thecreative said:

I want a guarantee from Renault of everyone's safety and proof of what work has been done, is it fixed not simply cleared of a computer and waiting to happen again?

So how many miles do you want them to put on it before returning it, to be able to guarantee that?

How much further do you expect the OP to continue driving a car which is known to have faulty brakes, because the dealer can't work out how to fix them?

My suspicion, because the OP hasn't said, is that this is probably adaptive cruise related or similar.

If it is, that could always not be used...

Thecreative

I wasn't under the impression that when I bought the car I would have to tell them what's wrong with it ! Obviously I've explained everything that happened though the fact that they wouldn't have asked I find laughable, they didn't even contact the recovery.

I normally drive the car and work hundreds of miles from home, the last breakdown was in the evening on a main road on a bend and was not a nice situation to be in, you expect me just to give it another go and hope for the best? I'm self employed and that experience cost me 2 days work and I had to return the following week at my own cost to cover plus hours on the phone etc..etc..

In addition I don't use cruise control but your guess is probably better than Renault !!

As far as I'm concerned I spent a lot of money on a car from a reputable main dealer which is faulty, not really sure why you think I should have to solve it! 

Goudy

There are quite a few reports of the very same thing with lots of Renaults but is seems to plague the Captur more than most for some reason.

There seems to be an issue with the brake fluid level sensor in the reservoir.
It's either faulty or over sensitive.

Some onwers have sorted the problem by topping up the fluid as when the pads and discs wear the fluid in the reservoir drops and it looks like it doesn't take much of a drop to send the system into it's Brake System Fault Warning.

I've read other owners have had the reservoir replaced, but I can't help thinking when it has been replaced they've topped the fluid back up which could explain why the fault was sorted.

I have a 18 month old Clio myself and am sort of waiting to see if anything crops up as my brakes start to wear and the level drops a little, had nothing yet.

NSG666

You might be better posting this in the Consumer Rights section as you might get the advice you are looking for there.

daydotz

Funny enough Ive a Clio that appears to be leaking/loosing brake fluid in the last year unfortunately I've found Renault completely useless