What’s a reasonable time to hold your car for repair?

JamesY201

I took my Audi into an Audi garage for an MOT however a warning light had been coming on intermittently without any obvious problems. I asked them to look into this whilst they had it for the MOT. Their communication was none existent but the first visit ended up with them keeping the car for 2 days with no repairs but a fee for the diagnostics. They suggested I book in for 2 days to rectify the problem. They’ve had the car now for a further 4 weeks and little to no communication on their part. This was until I received a bill for £450 for the first hour of diagnostics and for authorisation of a further two hours to find the problem. I wasn’t pleased with this staged billing and phoned them to explain that I wasn’t made aware that there could be more than one diagnostic payment. After a lengthy conversation they’ve agreed to do more diagnostics at their own expense. It’s been a further week and I still haven’t had a response other than a quick call two days ago to ask how long the learning light had been on for, a question I had previously answered. 

Give them hat the car is 11 years old I am looking to trade it in if the costs for repairs are too high however I need photos of the car from multiple angles to retain my trade in value. However the garage doesn’t return my calls nor does it respond to emails. 

I think 5 weeks is reasonable to identify the problem, but more than anything the communication is awful. Do I have any redress? The bill has come to over £800 so far with two diagnostics. 

jimjames

I'd get the car back asap and avoid spending any more money. You're paying through the nose for a main dealer rates to investigate an old car, it's just not a cost effective option. Find a local garage or decide if you can live with the warning light if it's not causing any problems, just be aware it may be an MOT issue if it's on at that point. £800 for 2 diagnostics with no fix is crazy

JamesY201

jimjames said:

I'd get the car back asap and avoid spending any more money. You're paying through the nose for a main dealer rates to investigate an old car, it's just not a cost effective option. Find a local garage or decide if you can live with the warning light if it's not causing any problems, just be aware it may be an MOT issue if it's on at that point. £800 for 2 diagnostics with no fix is crazy

Thanks for that. As far as I knew, they said they needed the car for just a couple of days. I had no idea that they can charge for diagnostics more than once. 

MX5huggy

“Diagnostics” covers a multitude of activities from plugging the car in to computer and reading off some codes to having the engine out and stripping it down to find the big end failure. 5 weeks is not acceptable go to the garage and see the car. 

BOWFER

I take it you're hoping the intermittent light doesn't show when you try to trade the car in.

JamesY201

BOWFER said:

I take it you're hoping the intermittent light doesn't show when you try to trade the car in.

I am hoping, but even if it knocks value off, the costs of diagnostics alone have made it better to accept any lower offers for trade in. It is also very intermittent.

JamesY201

MX5huggy said:

“Diagnostics” covers a multitude of activities from plugging the car in to computer and reading off some codes to having the engine out and stripping it down to find the big end failure. 5 weeks is not acceptable go to the garage and see the car. 

I wouldn't mind if it did involve stripping it down, but from the infrequent calls they've taken from me, it seems it's only ever reached the plugging into the computer stage. I've escalated it to the head branch in the hope they can offer me resolution one way or the other. I'm just hoping I get the photos I'd requested by today to move further forward with the trade in.

GrumpyDil

i'd ask for any codes they are getting from the scans and then post/search on some of the specialist Audi forums to see if anyone else has posted similar as it might give a clue as to the issue. 

JamesY201

GrumpyDil said:

i'd ask for any codes they are getting from the scans and then post/search on some of the specialist Audi forums to see if anyone else has posted similar as it might give a clue as to the issue. 

They said when they do the scan, no codes are posted. I'm not sure how it's taken them 5 weeks to only find that.

L9XSS

Pretty poor imho. To have the car that long I’d be expecting a full breakdown of the costs and labour incurred so far. Wha as the original warning light? EML?

GrumpyDil

OK. So if you've got an intermittent warning light with no codes which particular warning light is it as anything which triggers the EML should result in a code being set?