Fan stuck full on, Garage to blame??

hartcjhart

Anewman, yes you are right but we are not talking damage here the switch or facia hasnt been broken ,the fan mecanism(switch/rheostat) has given up the ghost

boatman

The vehicle was in their care. If I borrowed your car and gave it back with a dent(e.g. it happened while I was away from the car), how would you feel?? You would expect them to offer to fix it!!

anewman

Conor wrote: »

Good, because you had no grounds to complain. The cable stretched during the brake test because it wasn't that clever to begin with.

Just wondering how you know? The shoes had been replaced just months ago as I said. That involves a handbrake adjust. How would the handbrake cable stretch during the brake test? The brakes are hydraulically controlled. Also how would it stretch from 3 clicks all the way to the full travel of the handbrake, in both cables, just by one test of the handbrake for the MOT? Appreciate what you're trying to say, but there doesn't seem to be any mechanical sense behind it. 2 metal cables do not stretch an inch each after a test in a matter of minutes unless they snap.

hartcjhart

BUT ITS NOT A DENT, its a component failure,if i lent you my house in Spain for a holiday and then found that a bulb had gone I would replace the bulb not chase you to try and lay blame

anewman

hartcjhart wrote: »

BUT ITS NOT A DENT, its a component failure,if i lent you my house in Spain for a holiday and then found that a bulb had gone I would replace the bulb not chase you to try and lay blame

What if the Plasma TV was smashed in half?

Although I agree in the OP's case that this seems to be a mechanical failure and something that the MOT tester will not have interferred with or been likely to damage (unless a test component is near the fan controller). I think OP will have great difficulty getting anything out of the garage unless it can be proven - which chances are it cannot be.

But I do strongly believe that people who sell you a service, and carry out work on your property, should be liable for when they cause damage to something. It is not impossible for someone working on a car to cause damage to another component.

boatman

I'm not sure what gets connected to the car on the emissions test but could that have caused some sort of electrical problem that would otherwise not have occured in normal driving?

Looking by the comments it seems that i may well have to pay up!! Somehow doesn't seem right.
Maybe not so long ago the polite and honorable thing to do would be to fix the problem but now accountants are in charge of the budget every penny counts and stuff the customer!!
I can't help thinking that when i was told it had failed the MOT and needed new front tyres, pads/discs and I questioned the outcome, this whole thing is his way of getting back at me! Put it this way, the front discs are 2mm within the manufacturers limits, the tyres have 4mm of tread(they said they were on the limit) and I was told on the phone that the front pads had 1.5mm but when shown them they were down to the metal(were they my pads?). I was on the phone with him while they were testing the brakes but he was already telling me it had failed on the brakes and it needed new discs/pads!!
I said they could do the pads but if it needed new discs as well i would take the car away and do it myself, suddenly the discs became an advisory and the new pads would be enough get me the MOT certificate, perhaps you can see why i'm not convinced by their mechanical ability and the possibility that they did infact cause the fan to fail, hell if they can't manage to measure tread depth, what am i supposed to think?!

anewman

boatman wrote: »

I'm not sure what gets connected to the car on the emissions test but could that have caused some sort of electrical problem that would otherwise not have occured in normal driving?

I think cars have a sampling pipe at the back of the engine? I think they also hook up something to tap in the engine tach signal. Only thing I could think is if they were clumsy attatching and re-attatching the sampling pipe at the back of the engine, but it's unlikely.

boatman wrote: »

I can't help thinking that when i was told it had failed the MOT and needed new front tyres, pads/discs and I questioned the outcome, this whole thing is his way of getting back at me! Put it this way, the front discs are 2mm within the manufacturers limits, the tyres have 4mm of tread(they said they were on the limit) and I was told on the phone that the front pads had 1.5mm but when shown them they were down to the metal(were they my pads?). I was on the phone with him while they were testing the brakes but he was already telling me it had failed on the brakes and it needed new discs/pads!!
I said they could do the pads but if it needed new discs as well i would take the car away and do it myself, suddenly the discs became an advisory and the new pads would be enough get me the MOT certificate, perhaps you can see why i'm not convinced by their mechanical ability and the possibility that they did infact cause the fan to fail, hell if they can't manage to measure tread depth, what am i supposed to think?!

Sounds like Kwikfit to me. Someone I know caught them intentionally damaging a brake disc. With them changing the discs from fail to advisory I would complain to VOSA immediately. They are not permitted to unnecessarily fail a car, and the tester can lose his testing license.

If the pads were down to the metal I'd have expected nasty sounds on braking.

I'm with you on this one, they seem completely clueless - more after what's in your wallet than anything. I recommend trying to find a good MOT tester that won't mess you around trying to do unnecessary work, or damage your car.

I certainly wouldn't take the car back to those monkeys to do anything to it again.

Inactive

boatman wrote: »

As far as i'm aware they turned the radio and climate control off during the test. .

Might it not have been prudent to have switched them off yourself before submitting the vehicle for test?

You cannot prove that the garage caused any damage to your vehicle, end of.;)

Keith

Am I right in thinking the nationwide chain is in fact "Nationwide"?

The same cowboys advised me that a noise from my engine bay was the diff in my gearbox, it turned out to be a loose bonnet prop.

But you've no claim against them for the fan failing, it could of happened at anytime.

anewman

Keith wrote: »

But you've no claim against them for the fan failing, it could of happened at anytime.

I tend to agree, but if someone, for example, slipped a screwdriver into the radiator making a hole, the radiator would leak and potentially kill the head gasket etc. You could say that fault could have occured at any time, but it would never have happened unless they put the screwdriver in the radiator. No claim, no proof, no nothing, and you're the one left with the repair bill - and the company who did it makes money out of you for the privelige.

Everything seem perfectly acceptable there? There's laws meant to protect people against these sorts of things and they should be at least useable. Otherwise the law and courts are a complete farce.