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Ari
Original Poster
7,197 posts
84 months
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Heater fan switch is gone in my partner's Golf. Works on position 4, not 1, 2, 3.
She called the VW dealer, they want £75 (hour and a half) to "diagnose" the problem. If they can fix it within that time all well and good, if they have to order a part then the repair will be on top.
Seems a lot to say "it needs a new switch".
Reasonable?
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Needa308GT4
311 posts
15 months
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that's how dealers make their money. By ripping people off.
Must be a VW specialist near you. They seem to be everywhere.
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defblade
2,788 posts
82 months
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Ari said: Heater fan switch is gone in my partner's Golf. Works on position 4, not 1, 2, 3.
She called the VW dealer, they want £75 (hour and a half) to "diagnose" the problem. If they can fix it within that time all well and good, if they have to order a part then the repair will be on top.
Seems a lot to say "it needs a new switch".
Reasonable? It doesn't need a new switch, it needs a new resistor pack. That'll be £75 for now, please (surprise, surprise, I've got to order one in).
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Pommygranite
4,158 posts
85 months
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If its really £75 for 1 1/2 hours then it's cheap. Surely that's 1.5hours they are working on your car that needs to be paid for?
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thinfourth2
23,523 posts
73 months
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Pontoneer
2,550 posts
55 months
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There should be plenty of golfs in the scrappy , go get one for a tenner , and by the time you have pulled the part from the scrap car you will know how to fit it to your own car .
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blearyeyedboy
2,569 posts
48 months
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Ari, where are you in the South West?
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Steve H
1,581 posts
64 months
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So, Ari, how much would it have cost you to buy and fit a switch? £75 to diagnose a fault will often save you money in fitting parts that are not needed.
It probably is the resistor BTW and if you can find a VW dealer that only charges £50 per hour they have fallen through a timewarp from the early 90s!
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Pat H
6,274 posts
125 months
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Had same problem in K11 Micra. Was defective fan resistor. Second hand one cost a fiver and plugged into the loom somewhere under the passenger footwell. 
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Face for Radio
1,665 posts
36 months
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This all came about because rakes of people were going in to main dealers and getting them to diagnose the problem for free, and then go and take it to an independent to repair. Willing to bet dealerships were doing untold hours of unpaid work diagnosing people's problems for them, and then not being paid to fix it. 
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Graebob
2,096 posts
76 months
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Gotta love the world on general. Spend money buying something infinitely complex you know nothing about, then complain when the expert in the thing you bought charges you money to fix it.
Either do some research, learn the expertise and do it yourself or accept that your ignorance will be charged for.
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Porkie
2,249 posts
110 months
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Graebob said: Gotta love the world on general. Spend money buying something infinitely complex you know nothing about, then complain when the expert in the thing you bought charges you money to fix it.
Either do some research, learn the expertise and do it yourself or accept that your ignorance will be charged for. +1!
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minky monkey
1,092 posts
35 months
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Definitely the resistor, had the same fault on my caddy. About a two minute job to change too!
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98elise
3,148 posts
30 months
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Ari said: Heater fan switch is gone in my partner's Golf. Works on position 4, not 1, 2, 3.
She called the VW dealer, they want £75 (hour and a half) to "diagnose" the problem. If they can fix it within that time all well and good, if they have to order a part then the repair will be on top.
Seems a lot to say "it needs a new switch".
Reasonable? Its way too much time, but it shouldn't be free. Diagnosis of electrical problems is the hard bit, fixing it is normaly quick. Its the other way round for mechanical problems.
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kambites
32,864 posts
90 months
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Almost certainly the resister pack rather than the switch.
How much to diagnose depends on how hard it is to get at to stick an ohmmeter across it, I suppose. If it is a time-taking job to get to it, you'll end up paying for them to dismantle and reassemble the car twice if they don't have it in stock, too. Take it to an indi and explicitly ask if they have the resistor pack in stock before they start taking it to bits.
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OdramaSwimLaden
1,814 posts
38 months
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I went to my accountant / dentist / solicitor / to ask their advice on a matter and they gave me an invoice; cheeky buggers.
£75 to diagnose a problem seems like a fair charge to me. It used to be the case that the charge was waived if the work was carried out at the same garage, not sure if this is still the case.
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doogz
18,667 posts
56 months
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Graebob said: Gotta love the world on general. Spend money buying something infinitely complex you know nothing about, then complain when the expert in the thing you bought charges you money to fix it.
Either do some research, learn the expertise and do it yourself or accept that your ignorance will be charged for.  I agree with this guy.
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POORCARDEALER
5,628 posts
110 months
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Only way they can get a return on the millions they spend on showrooms, cos they dont make much selling cars.
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TonyHetherington
30,866 posts
119 months
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Here's a question then - how much do you think you should pay for it? As others have said, it can't be free because you'll find the problem, get the quote to fix it and do the rest on eBay yourself.
I think it probably does exactly what it's done; and that's deter people from just finding out the problem with the dealer to fix it elsewhere.
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Superhoop
2,483 posts
62 months
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Remove the glovebox, unscrew the fan resistor, test if you can be bothered, or just fit a replacement - Heater will be back to normal in about 10 minutes
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