Any car sparks out there for advice?

sleepymy

Hi,
the engine light on my car has been on for a few months but the car was driving perfectly and passed it's MOT etc. My mechanic couldn't find a fault (it kept going off when he had it :rolleyes:). A few weeks ago the car started to backfire so my husband took it to a garage which had a diagnostic machine. They said the machine was diagnosing a fault with the coils. Anyhow they changed the coil (twice as the problem still occurred after the first change) and the car was driving much better.

My husband felt that the car was still hesitating slightly and the engine light was still on so took it back to the garage. They said it was now the cables leading to the coils so changed them. The problems are still there.

He took the car back today and the owner said he 'couldn't' refund for the leads (they charged about £60 for parts & labour), he gave a load of speal about how if we took it to Mazda it would cost us much more to find the fault. He also felt that it wasn't anything important and that the car would drive fine as it is.

Husband let him know he wasn't too happy about the non-refund of the leads and the guy talked him into bringing the car back. He said they'd put it on the ramp and try one last check as he had a suspicion what the problem may be. He said they would check it for free and that, if it was the thing he was thinking of, it wouldn't cost much to fix.

Am I being unreasonable at thinking we should be refunded completely for the leads? If not, does anyone know where we stand legally?

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Perhaps the original leads needed replacing anyway. The boots or insulation may well have been shot and arcing.

goldspanners

it could be any sensor on the engine causing the light to come on.

i dont think you should be chasing a refund for the leads,with faults like this it is hard to diagnose,so changing parts is usually the easiest and cheapest option,and if the diagnostic machine was pointing to the coils then changing the leads is the next option.
i think £60 to fit them is a bit steep though,it should only have taken around 10 mins.did they do any other work while changing the leads?
as pew said leads should be changed regularly anyway so dont worry to much about it.

sleepymy

Thanks guys, you're making me feel a bit more relaxed about it. I'm used to my mechanic who's a very reasonable and decent bloke, I'd normally ask him for advice but he's very ill atm poor soul.

The £60 was for parts and fitting, they quoted about £30 for the part and said it would be a quick job so I was surprised at the labour charge, as far as I'm aware they didn't do any other work at the time. Between the diagnostic test, the coil and now the leads they've had about £250 from us so far. I just don't fancy shelling out indefinitely for something they may never fix.

goldspanners

sleepymy wrote: »

Thanks guys, you're making me feel a bit more relaxed about it. I'm used to my mechanic who's a very reasonable and decent bloke, I'd normally ask him for advice but he's very ill atm poor soul.

The £60 was for parts and fitting, they quoted about £30 for the part and said it would be a quick job so I was surprised at the labour charge, as far as I'm aware they didn't do any other work at the time. Between the diagnostic test, the coil and now the leads they've had about £250 from us so far. I just don't fancy shelling out indefinitely for something they may never fix.

what car is it?
have a look for an owners forum or club to see if it is a common fault with this particular model.

sleepymy

It's a mazda 323.

goldspanners

what year? the old one with the pop up lights?

Keith

£30 + £25(+VAT) Labour sounds ok to me, most places would charge a minimum of 30 minutes so I don't think you've been ripped off

Obviously they tried to clear the warning didn't they?

This may be of use toohttp://www.roadraceengineering.com/323gtxtech/gtxdiagnostics.htm

sleepymy

goldspanners wrote: »

what year? the old one with the pop up lights?

No, it's 2001/2 from what I can remember, without getting the reg book out.

cyclonebri1

I don't think you are being ripped off in any sense of the word. They are obviously convinced it is an ignition problem and changing the leads would be standard prodedure and one of the cheaper options for what is still an undiagnosed fault.

Not sure on this model but cars have either one or more commonly 2 or 4 ignition coils fitted, could be one of the ones not changed. Plugs shpuld be changed as a matter of course too, even if they weren't the cause of the problem, the misfire could have affected their performance.

Take advantage of the offer of further free diagnosis, sounds very much as if they are genuinely trying to help/sort:money:

sleepymy

Thanks cyclonebri1, there are two coils in this model, the first change didn't work but the second one did. Himself is taking the car back in to them tomorrow, if they still can't diagnose it I think we'll just leave it and see how she runs for a while.