Diagnostic Fee - Fair? 27 February 2022 at 11:53AM in Motoring 137 replies 4K views

pimento

I have a 2017 Mazda.  I've owned it since March 2020 and it has been serviced and MOT'd twice by the main dealer I bought it from.  It was working fine until I took it in for the annual service and MOT on February 14th.

I do a very low mileage (3000 miles between the last two MOT's).  The second day after the service when I started it up, several of the amber lights on the dashboard were on and the lane assist light was flashing.  I turned the car off and on again and the lights went out but as I was driving to the shops they came on again so I called Mazda and they said to bring it in and they'd have a look. 

As I had no way of getting home from the garage, I waited for them to inspect it and I heard the service manager telling the mechanic that the car had been very recently serviced.  I was then informed that an ABS sensor on one of the wheels had failed.  Part £31, an hours labour £105 plus VAT.  I thought, how unlucky that the sensor had failed just a day or two after the car had had a full service but with no way of proving otherwise, I asked them to order the part.
Then, I was presented with a bill for £123 for the diagnostic testing that they did to discover the fault.

Does this sound right?  Is there anyone here knowledgeable enough to give me an opinion on a) whether it might have been something that the garage did on the service that caused the ABS sensor to fail or b) whether it sounds correct that I should be charged the diagnostic fee so close to the service?  Or do I just suck it up?

SaverRate

£123 just for diagnostics does sound a lot. When I took my Audi to the main dealers they said diagnostics would be £99 but waived the cost for this as I went ahead with the repair.
As a comparison Halfords and others charge around £50 for diagnostics 
Can you ask the garage for any goodwill gesture especially as you service the car with them and are doing the repair with them?

Stubod

...similar thing happened to me. The day after the garage changed the battery some of the warning lights came on. Took it back and they diagnosed a duff wheel sensor. (NB Not a Mazda, but a local indy dealer so no charge for the diagnostic check).

They advised a defective wheel sensor which controls a lot of things, eg abs, lane warning etc. (this is because the onboard computer cannot process "speed" info from that particular wheel so everything relevant to that input will show an amber warning). The sensors are normally quite simple to replace and the sensors are probably around £50, so around £100 to buy and fit.

It is standard practice for "main dealers" to charge a diagnostic fee even though for the amount of time it takes this is a complete rip off, (just plug in reader and look at the fault codes). Our other car is a Mazda and recently needed some warranty work, inititally they quoted us a similar amount for the diagnostic check but as it was found to be a manufacturing fault it was fixed under warranty.

This fault is probably nothing to do with the service and is just a coincidence.

Understnd the car is newish, but when it gets older it would probably be cheaper to go to your local independant dealer who would probably diagnose and repair this soert of thing without charging for a diagnostic check, but accept you wouldn't have known that at the time.

pimento

Thanks both.  I guess I'll try appealing to their better nature when the part arrives.

While I was waiting, they tried to sell me a new one!

Ibrahim5

I remember a few years ago talking to someone who said he knew a garage owner. The garage owner was saying diagnosis was the best money maker ever. Buy a £20 scanner and charge everyone £70 for plugging it in and press scan.

[Deleted User]

Ibrahim5 said:

I remember a few years ago talking to someone who said he knew a garage owner. The garage owner was saying diagnosis was the best money maker ever. Buy a £20 scanner and charge everyone £70 for plugging it in and press scan.

A £20 scanner is likely to be of limited value to a commercial enterprise. That £20 scanner is unlikely to read the individual ECU's and will likely provide generic  "P" etc codes. Not all faults will activate the MIL, especially on VAG cars, eg flashing coil lamp, orange active cruise control plus others. Conduct a scan with a cheap scanner and the report is likely to be no faults logged, yet you are sitting looking at warning light sequences.

oscarward

£123 is cheap, my Jaguar main dealer charges £180 to look at it. 

They got a bit miffed when I refused their offer and instead went to an indie who diagnosed and fixed the problem for £50.

the indie did tell me the jag hourly charge was £230😳

dipsomaniac

123 is NOT cheap.  I am amazed garages have been allowed to get away with this for so long especially since the EU standardised the 16 pin socket

Bigwheels1111

I needed a scan this week as light came on and said engine fault damage possible.
I called the AA and told them about light and power loss, they scanned the car.
Told me the fault and let me take a picture. Cleared the code.
If it comes back I need a Nox sensor.
Common fault these days on diesel cars, my brothers had one go, mates Vauxhall insignia and my Peugeot.

Grey_Critic

oscarward said:

£123 is cheap, my Jaguar main dealer charges £180 to look at it. 

They got a bit miffed when I refused their offer and instead went to an indie who diagnosed and fixed the problem for £50.

the indie did tell me the jag hourly charge was £230😳

Pity that the technicians hourly rate has not gone up the same way.

KimJongUn88

I’d rather not be visiting a garage where they rely on a £20 code reader for their diagnostics.