You are not logged in to Prodigits. Please register or login. You are not logged in to Prodigits. Please register or login.
Subject: Car repair question?
Replies: 15 Views: 1159
obi_jon 25.10.23 - 10:27am
OK, my friends son has a low milage(approx 45,000) second hand 64 plate(2015) Ford Focus, he bought it 4yrs ago from a registered Ford main dealership(which had sold the car to it's original and only previous owner), where the car had been and continues to be regularly serviced to this day.
So he takes it in for it's annual MOT and service(which was it's big 9yr service, they do a full health check, all oil and fluids get changed and it costs almost double the usual service price at (quid)300+). As he drops it off he informs them he'd noticed the engine temp gauge on the dash had crept right up towards the red a couple of times over the previous week but that he'd checked that the radiator coolant levels were ok, the fan seemed to be working fine and that no engine warning lights had appeared, so could they please check for whats causing that.(which seems like a perfectly reasonable request to me.)
So he gets the car back with a full clean bill of health, it passed it's MOT with flying colours and it has no advisory notices to worry about, new oil, new brake fluid, new coolant, everythings good. They tell him they've checked everything out and they can't find anything wrong with it BUT if it does do it again, just bring it back in and they'll take another look at it. All well and good so far... until a week later when it does do it again and he drives it immediately back to the garage.
Anyway, to cut an already much too long story slightly shorter. They're now telling him, yeah the thermostat wasn't working, the heating has caused the cylinder head gasket to fail and it needs replacing, so it's gonna cost him another (quid)1600 minimum to have it fixed, possibly more but they won't know if it's fkd anything else up until they have it taken apart.
Now my question is, why didn't they spot a leaky head gasket if they changed the oil during the service? Surely that would have been evident, the oil they drained would have been noticably discol * +
obi_jon 25.10.23 - 10:41am
noticably discoloured if the gasket had already blown and they should have checked the thermostat when they investigated the overheating, if the gasket blew after the service. Either way I think they've fkd up and he shouldn't have to pay. What say you? * +
wakeup4 25.10.23 - 11:09am
I say Im not reading all that * +
critical 25.10.23 - 11:16am
and what has been said to the garage ? * +
critical 25.10.23 - 11:22am
i'd go this way with it tbh if he can't sort owt out himself ..... https://www.themotorombudsman.org/ * +
crail 25.10.23 - 12:13pm
So what if they missed it. If he wants it fixed surely he has to pay * +
obi_jon 25.10.23 - 12:18pm
and what has been said to the garage ?He says he asked them why they didn't find the fault during the service but the guy he talked to on the phone didn't know as he was just some office guy and not a mechanic. They've still got the car at the garage. * +
gt_tdi 25.10.23 - 12:29pm
He admitted to driving the car more than once when it overheated instead of getting it checked out on the first occasion so that would give the garage a reason not to be liable as the HG damage could well have started before they looked at it. If the HG was leaking from the water jacket outwards, the oil wouldn't have looked any different as the coolant wouldn't have mixed with it.
On the other hand, the garage should have checked the 'stat while doing the service because he'd mentioned overheating when he dropped it off, it's a very easy thing to check with a cup of boiling water.
IMO, he's liable for the repairs, based on the info given. * +
+ go to page 1-3
+ my page
+ functions
3 search
4 submit a reply
7 last page
+ bookmark
8 General Chat Forum
9 Forum Index
