Garage woes - volvo v50 - a plausible tale?
Discussion
Hi All
Newbie here and starting with some garage woes.
2 months ago my Volvo v50 (08 reg) broke down. I got it taken to a local garage who has had it since.
The issue turned out to be the fuel pump. The car, two months later, now starts and is driveable. Over the course of the two months they chased down everything it could be including refurbished the injectors @ £600, replaced the fuel filter (£50), replaced the catyltic converter(£?), the cam belt (£90), the fuel pump (£460), various bearings (£60) until they got the fuel pump so my bill is now £2k++ if you include labour + VAT. The car is worth maybe £4.5k. I've made several mistakes - I said I wasn't in a hurry, I said fix it cheaply so I can't have many complaints about the time and in some ways the cost.
Trouble is, it needed an MOT and now they've got the car started they tell me (in a rather jolly voice) it's failed it's MOT because the drivers air bag light is on and I need a new ECU - £600 plus fitting. They've tried erasing the codes and they come back.
I'm seriously doubting the service now and not sure whether to tell them to stop, take the car away from them and take it somewhere else or whether to continue. I'm going to sell it/trade it in as soon as it comes back but...
So questions
- Am I being taken for a ride or does this sound plausible?
- Should I take it out and go somewhere else?
- anyone want to buy it?
Cheers
Alan
Newbie here and starting with some garage woes.
2 months ago my Volvo v50 (08 reg) broke down. I got it taken to a local garage who has had it since.
The issue turned out to be the fuel pump. The car, two months later, now starts and is driveable. Over the course of the two months they chased down everything it could be including refurbished the injectors @ £600, replaced the fuel filter (£50), replaced the catyltic converter(£?), the cam belt (£90), the fuel pump (£460), various bearings (£60) until they got the fuel pump so my bill is now £2k++ if you include labour + VAT. The car is worth maybe £4.5k. I've made several mistakes - I said I wasn't in a hurry, I said fix it cheaply so I can't have many complaints about the time and in some ways the cost.
Trouble is, it needed an MOT and now they've got the car started they tell me (in a rather jolly voice) it's failed it's MOT because the drivers air bag light is on and I need a new ECU - £600 plus fitting. They've tried erasing the codes and they come back.
I'm seriously doubting the service now and not sure whether to tell them to stop, take the car away from them and take it somewhere else or whether to continue. I'm going to sell it/trade it in as soon as it comes back but...
So questions
- Am I being taken for a ride or does this sound plausible?
- Should I take it out and go somewhere else?
- anyone want to buy it?
Cheers
Alan
alan1977 said:
Hi All
Newbie here and starting with some garage woes.
2 months ago my Volvo v50 (08 reg) broke down. I got it taken to a local garage who has had it since.
The issue turned out to be the fuel pump. The car, two months later, now starts and is driveable. Over the course of the two months they chased down everything it could be including refurbished the injectors @ £600, replaced the fuel filter (£50), replaced the catyltic converter(£?), the cam belt (£90), the fuel pump (£460), various bearings (£60) until they got the fuel pump so my bill is now £2k++ if you include labour + VAT. The car is worth maybe £4.5k. I've made several mistakes - I said I wasn't in a hurry, I said fix it cheaply so I can't have many complaints about the time and in some ways the cost.
Trouble is, it needed an MOT and now they've got the car started they tell me (in a rather jolly voice) it's failed it's MOT because the drivers air bag light is on and I need a new ECU - £600 plus fitting. They've tried erasing the codes and they come back.
I'm seriously doubting the service now and not sure whether to tell them to stop, take the car away from them and take it somewhere else or whether to continue. I'm going to sell it/trade it in as soon as it comes back but...
So questions
- Am I being taken for a ride or does this sound plausible?
- Should I take it out and go somewhere else?
- anyone want to buy it?
Cheers
Alan
What was actually wrong with it, I struggle to see how a fuel problem (assumption based on fuel filters, pumps, injectors, etc) can end up with changing cat, cambelts, and bearings.Newbie here and starting with some garage woes.
2 months ago my Volvo v50 (08 reg) broke down. I got it taken to a local garage who has had it since.
The issue turned out to be the fuel pump. The car, two months later, now starts and is driveable. Over the course of the two months they chased down everything it could be including refurbished the injectors @ £600, replaced the fuel filter (£50), replaced the catyltic converter(£?), the cam belt (£90), the fuel pump (£460), various bearings (£60) until they got the fuel pump so my bill is now £2k++ if you include labour + VAT. The car is worth maybe £4.5k. I've made several mistakes - I said I wasn't in a hurry, I said fix it cheaply so I can't have many complaints about the time and in some ways the cost.
Trouble is, it needed an MOT and now they've got the car started they tell me (in a rather jolly voice) it's failed it's MOT because the drivers air bag light is on and I need a new ECU - £600 plus fitting. They've tried erasing the codes and they come back.
I'm seriously doubting the service now and not sure whether to tell them to stop, take the car away from them and take it somewhere else or whether to continue. I'm going to sell it/trade it in as soon as it comes back but...
So questions
- Am I being taken for a ride or does this sound plausible?
- Should I take it out and go somewhere else?
- anyone want to buy it?
Cheers
Alan
I fear who may have already been taken for the ride...
I'd suggest you get the car back ASAP and take it elsewhere.
It sounds like they have taken you for a complete ride - some of the things they've replaced (cat converters?) are just nonsense. If I was in your position, I'd probably take the car elsewhere and have it independently verified that they have done the work they've billed you for...
It sounds like they have taken you for a complete ride - some of the things they've replaced (cat converters?) are just nonsense. If I was in your position, I'd probably take the car elsewhere and have it independently verified that they have done the work they've billed you for...
thanks for the replies, folks!
I'm pleased I chose diesel for the fuel economy
Original issue - not sure exactly. It lost power on a dual carriageway then it refused to start. There was a relationship between the cat converter and the cam belt - something about a cat converter would have probably caused the cam belt to go?
I'm still on the ride though I've pressed the pause button. Sounds like I should be getting it out of there!!
I've already put down a deposit on a different car - I'm moving away from this one. SHould I feel bad about selling it to some other punter or should I feel pretty bloody good about it having spend thousands on it? Someone may be getting a good deal. I don't know how to look at it to be honest...
I'm pleased I chose diesel for the fuel economy
Original issue - not sure exactly. It lost power on a dual carriageway then it refused to start. There was a relationship between the cat converter and the cam belt - something about a cat converter would have probably caused the cam belt to go?
I'm still on the ride though I've pressed the pause button. Sounds like I should be getting it out of there!!
I've already put down a deposit on a different car - I'm moving away from this one. SHould I feel bad about selling it to some other punter or should I feel pretty bloody good about it having spend thousands on it? Someone may be getting a good deal. I don't know how to look at it to be honest...
Sounds familiar. My 850 T5-R went into a garage as it wasn't starting, told them I wasn't in a rush, same thing changing random bits before doing the immobiliser.
Took a while to get the issues resolved that they'd caused to get it running. Had used them for simple things and got a decent service at a good price, was only after that I heard a few horror tales about them.
Worst thing was it had just been machine polished before going in, sat for a few months gathering dust and got washed with a brush that lived on the ground. Raging didn't start to describe how I felt when he announced we've washed it for you for free...
Very little you can do apart from never using them again, probably worth cutting your losses and taking it to a good local garage...
Took a while to get the issues resolved that they'd caused to get it running. Had used them for simple things and got a decent service at a good price, was only after that I heard a few horror tales about them.
Worst thing was it had just been machine polished before going in, sat for a few months gathering dust and got washed with a brush that lived on the ground. Raging didn't start to describe how I felt when he announced we've washed it for you for free...
Very little you can do apart from never using them again, probably worth cutting your losses and taking it to a good local garage...
S10GTA said:
alan1977 said:
There was a relationship between the cat converter and the cam belt - something about a cat converter would have probably caused the cam belt to go?
WHAT?!The closest I could guess is that lambda sensors before and after the cat could through up fueling error codes, and a cam position sensor could prevent the engine starting - the only thing in common I can think of (and I'm not in anyway qualified to diagnose) is that they would/might both throw up error codes/EML light.
8Ace said:
S10GTA said:
alan1977 said:
There was a relationship between the cat converter and the cam belt - something about a cat converter would have probably caused the cam belt to go?
WHAT?!Incompetent thievery.
S10GTA said:
WHAT?!
To be fair, if the Cat escaped from its metal box then it could run all around the engine and get its claws in the cambelt.It could have pee'd on the ECU and caused water damage.
To the OP: I assume that you have part receipts or something to confirm that the parts have actually been changed?
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