Car repairs

horseymom1991

Hello, 

I recently sent my car to a local garage due to the car losing power and cutting out in low revs. When sent the car was starting and driving albeit with the issue mentioned above. 

The garage have had the car and said they have investigated, they cleaned some fuel filters and took it for a test drive, where they said it lost power and cut out and will now not start at all. 

They then said they would do some more investigation and they have said they think it is a timing belt issue. As this is a big repair I have said I will need the car back for now as it's a large expense. 

However they are charging me £100 for recovering the car back to my home and for the investigation work they have done.

Now I understand they have spent time looking at the car, however they are returning the car back to myself in a worse off state then when I sent it. 

I just wondered if anyone can advise anything 😊

fatbelly

I'll ask for this to be moved to the motoring board.

Off the top of my head, £100 seems fair

I think other posters will want to know make, model, year, engine and mileage.

horseymom1991

Thankyou, I think the £100 is fair however it's just the fact that the car was sent and it was starting and driving, now they are saying it's not starting at all. 

It's a Renault Scenic 12 plate, 1.6 petrol and around 85,000 miles. 

sheslookinhot

£100 is about right for a local recovery. So £100 all in seems fair. Why did you not leave the car with them, as it wont be doing anything on your drive ?

horseymom1991

I think my concern is, I drove the car down and now I am having to pay for them to recover my car because of an error they have made, to make it stop running? 
The garage haven't been very professional to be honest and if I wanted the timing belt replaced, I would probably chose another garage for how much it would cost. However I am deciding if to just sell the car for spares and find another one, as I was thinking of getting a slightly smaller car. 

MyRealNameToo

horseymom1991 said:

I think my concern is, I drove the car down and now I am having to pay for them to recover my car because of an error they have made, to make it stop running? 
The garage haven't been very professional to be honest and if I wanted the timing belt replaced, I would probably chose another garage for how much it would cost. However I am deciding if to just sell the car for spares and find another one, as I was thinking of getting a slightly smaller car. 

if its a timing belt issue then changing the fuel filters won't have caused the condition to have worsened, its just coincidental that it was with them when the existing problem worsened.

What's the plan for the car now? If you are going to get it fixed you could ask the next garage to look at it and consider if the fuel filter changes could have caused a deterioration but likely you will just pay for additional investigation to confirm what's already fairly likely that they are unrelated. 

Mildly_Miffed

Have they "made an error"...?

They've swapped the fuel filter - a reasonable first call for diagnosing down-on-power, especially if there are signs that it hasn't been touched for a long while. Is it their fault that it died completely while in their hands, rather than a mile or two earlier as you were driving it to them?

A hundred quid is barely over an hour's labour after £15-20 for the filter, let alone dropping it back to you.

14yo car, 85k miles... When was the belt last changed? Because one possible cause is that it could well be starting to break up, which is why it jumped a tooth while you were driving it, and it's now either stripped or snapped completely. Recommendation is, I believe, 6yr/60k mile. So it should have been replaced twice now, most recently two years ago.

born_again

You could also arrange collection yourself. Then just pay for the work they have done. 

Arunmor

I was half way through your post and said to myself, timing belt.

One of those things.  I think you are being unfair to the mechanic I have seen this happen before, drove wife's car parked and it wouldn't restart.  

C'est la guerre.

Goudy

horseymom1991 said:

Thankyou, I think the £100 is fair however it's just the fact that the car was sent and it was starting and driving, now they are saying it's not starting at all. 

It's a Renault Scenic 12 plate, 1.6 petrol and around 85,000 miles. 

If this is the K4M engine it could be either the crank or the camshaft sensor.
My Mrs had one and it ate them for fun.

They start to run rough and keep cutting out.
Then they struggle to start until they just fail to start altogether.

More often than not your local garage start testing various parts, like the ignition and realise a coil or two aren't performing, so they start changing them not thinking it might be the firing signal that's duff.

If I remember correctly, the crank sensor is on the gearbox end and the wiring can get pulled about particularly if someone with fists of ham removes the gearbox to change the clutch.