Found fault within 30 days - Where do I stand?

soapstar88

Hello Folks,

I will make this short and sweet!

I purchased a car from a well known car dealer in my local area, dream car etc.

Found a fault with it - the Auto start/stop function is not working, I have driven it in all conditions and it simply wont activate.

Told the dealer within 30 days via email that this was an issue and was told to book it in with their service department. I was told they will charge me a 'diagnostic fee' to see what the issue is (not fix it), this fee will then need to be claimed BY ME on my 2 year warranty which they sold me.

This simply does not seem right at all? Its only been a month and they arent even prepared to attempt to fix the issue with trying to charge me.

What if the issue is not covered by the warranty? I then have a car which is faulty, sold by them in perfect condition to which I have to pay out of my own pocket to fix the issue which was clearly present when I bought the car.

Just to clarify this is a high performance sports car, sub 50k miles...it aint no banger 

Thanks for any help guys!

MarvinDay

What sort of daily/weekly mileage do you do?
One thing that can prevent the stop/start from operating is a battery that is slightly down on voltage and if you aren't driving too far after starting, this could be the cause.

One easy way to determine if this is the problem is to give the battery a good charge with a charger then take it out for a drive.
It might also be the battery if it's more than a few years old and has started to lose a bit of capacity.

Grumpy_chap

soapstar88 said:

Hello Folks,

I will make this short and sweet!

I purchased a car from a well known car dealer in my local area, dream car etc.

Found a fault with it - the Auto start/stop function is not working, I have driven it in all conditions and it simply wont activate.

Told the dealer within 30 days via email that this was an issue and was told to book it in with their service department. I was told they will charge me a 'diagnostic fee' to see what the issue is (not fix it), this fee will then need to be claimed BY ME on my 2 year warranty which they sold me.

This simply does not seem right at all? Its only been a month and they arent even prepared to attempt to fix the issue with trying to charge me.

What if the issue is not covered by the warranty? I then have a car which is faulty, sold by them in perfect condition to which I have to pay out of my own pocket to fix the issue which was clearly present when I bought the car.

Just to clarify this is a high performance sports car, sub 50k miles...it aint no banger 

Thanks for any help guys!

It's annoying when things like this happen, but I'd very much doubt that the stop/start not operating would be sufficient grounds to reject the vehicle, so working with the Dealer to get the issue resolved seems like the way forward.

My wife's Fiesta has stop/start and the function can be switched off. 
Have you verified that the stop/start function is actually activated on the car you have?  
It is also worth doing an internet search for "car make - model - year stop start inactive" and seeing whether that gives you a solution.

Another factor with stop/start that I understand is common if for the system to self-suspend if the battery voltage is a bit low.  This could happen easily, but without there actually being a fault,  for example if the car has been standing on the forecourt and then you have done short journeys.

Did you witness the stop/start function operating when you did the test drive?

If you are uncomfortable paying the diagnostic fee upfront, can you contact the warranty company directly first?

Alternatively, depending on the age of the car, is there any of the original manufacturer's warranty remaining?  There could be on a <50k mile car.

oh_really

S/S can be deactivated via obd socket, can you check the system is active?

ontheroad1970

Many stop start systems don't work when the demister function is used to save on battery usage.

Iceweasel

If this is a BMW you will get a better insight into the foibles of Stop/Start on a BMW forum such as https://www.bmwland.org.uk/index.php

Lot's of owners new to the marque fail to understand all the parameters that have to be met for Stop/Start to activate.

neilmcl

In order to use your short-term right to reject the onus is on you to prove that an actual fault exists and it was present at the time of sale.

There are a number of legitimate reasons why the start/stop system won't operate eg, battery is too low, not enough had enough of a regen, the engine/environment is too cold, etc. My start/stop system on my BMW hasn't operated for weeks now because I've not done enough journeys in it to keep the battery fully charged and the longer journeys I have made were on dual carriageways which didn't involve a lot of stopping to allow the system to benefit from the regenerative braking.

If I were you I'd get hold of a battery charger and make sure the battery is fully charged and try again.

soapstar88

MarvinDay said:

What sort of daily/weekly mileage do you do?
One thing that can prevent the stop/start from operating is a battery that is slightly down on voltage and if you aren't driving too far after starting, this could be the cause.

One easy way to determine if this is the problem is to give the battery a good charge with a charger then take it out for a drive.
It might also be the battery if it's more than a few years old and has started to lose a bit of capacity.

I do not do much miles per week tbh, Ive only had it 4 weeks now. Although I did one journey (approx 150 miles) which involved a huge traffic jam (1.5 hrs) of stop start traffic - i.e 4 feet every 10 mins and this is when I thought surely the fucntion should work in these conditions!

The battery was 13.1v when engine not running when I plugged my OBD in the other day.

 Grumpy_chap said:

soapstar88 said:

Hello Folks,

I will make this short and sweet!

I purchased a car from a well known car dealer in my local area, dream car etc.

Found a fault with it - the Auto start/stop function is not working, I have driven it in all conditions and it simply wont activate.

Told the dealer within 30 days via email that this was an issue and was told to book it in with their service department. I was told they will charge me a 'diagnostic fee' to see what the issue is (not fix it), this fee will then need to be claimed BY ME on my 2 year warranty which they sold me.

This simply does not seem right at all? Its only been a month and they arent even prepared to attempt to fix the issue with trying to charge me.

What if the issue is not covered by the warranty? I then have a car which is faulty, sold by them in perfect condition to which I have to pay out of my own pocket to fix the issue which was clearly present when I bought the car.

Just to clarify this is a high performance sports car, sub 50k miles...it aint no banger 

Thanks for any help guys!

It's annoying when things like this happen, but I'd very much doubt that the stop/start not operating would be sufficient grounds to reject the vehicle, so working with the Dealer to get the issue resolved seems like the way forward.

My wife's Fiesta has stop/start and the function can be switched off. 
Have you verified that the stop/start function is actually activated on the car you have?  
It is also worth doing an internet search for "car make - model - year stop start inactive" and seeing whether that gives you a solution.

Another factor with stop/start that I understand is common if for the system to self-suspend if the battery voltage is a bit low.  This could happen easily, but without there actually being a fault,  for example if the car has been standing on the forecourt and then you have done short journeys.

Did you witness the stop/start function operating when you did the test drive?

If you are uncomfortable paying the diagnostic fee upfront, can you contact the warranty company directly first?

Alternatively, depending on the age of the car, is there any of the original manufacturer's warranty remaining?  There could be on a <50k mile car.

Im not really wanting to reject the vehicle as such, I just would like it sorted The function is definitely 'ON'

I have never witnessed the start/stop working, its not really something I was interested in during test drives if im honest. 

neilmcl said:

In order to use your short-term right to reject the onus is on you to prove that an actual fault exists and it was present at the time of sale.

There are a number of legitimate reasons why the start/stop system won't operate eg, battery is too low, not enough had enough of a regen, the engine/environment is too cold, etc. My start/stop system on my BMW hasn't operated for weeks now because I've not done enough journeys in it to keep the battery fully charged and the longer journeys I have made were on dual carriageways which didn't involve a lot of stopping to allow the system to benefit from the regenerative braking.

If I were you I'd get hold of a battery charger and make sure the battery is fully charged and try again.

Thats interesting, I never thought of the regenerative braking - I do tend to go easy on the brakes with my cars, although my previous cars start/stop worked fine no problem.

I may give the battery a charge and see what happens...

Username03725

Stop Start needs a few factors to be true for it to operate, these being: battery state, electrical load, engine temperature and ambient temperature, as well as the car being in neutral and stationary with the clutch out (for a manul obvs). It's a fail safe process designed not to put you at risk of it not restarting instantly as soon as it's needed, as well as not stopping the engine in situations where you wouldn't want it to happen. Having never used an automatic with SS I don't know the trigger process, but it seems to involve the footbrake.

It follows that if you've just set off, or have wipers + lights + air-con + stereo on loud etc all silmutaneously the SS probably won't cut in, nor will it if you've only just set off and come to a stop, and [on mine at least] it doesn't cut in if any of the pedals are 'in use' or if the road speed isn't at zero. Mine also stops activating in busy stop start traffic; whether that's due it tracking how many times it's happened in a set time period or just due to the added battery load of a few SS cycles in a short time, I don't know.

The button to deactivate SS must default to On when the engine is started; it's part of the formal economy measurement process and part of the regs that aply to cars that have it fitted during manufacturing, so it's unlikely to be accidentally off.

ontheroad1970

On most autos stop start operates when you hold down the brake pedal.  With my Mazda, it won't operate if you are only depressing the brake pedal lightly - it has to be fully depressed.  To release it ready, I just take most of the weight off the pedal, so brake still applied but ready to go quickly.

Arklight

It's horrible; be thankful it doesn't work.