Where do I stand? Garage says I need a new bonnet!

[Mr2Mike]

C. Grimsley said:

I had this issue but the other way around, I run a garage and had a car in for an mot (golf mk4), I carried out the test and at the end couldn't get the bonnet to latch, in the end it was due to a seized catch and a replacement was the only cure.

Sorry but that is a typical dealer response. I doubt very much if replacement is the only cure, things can always be repaired given the skill and incentive to do so.

[AyBee]

And one last time - take it somewhere private where they actually have some skill. It's amazing what some guys can do with a bit of common sense and a welder or otherwise - a new bonnet? fk off!

[TeaVR]

It will be going to a BMW indie once I get it back. I'll get him to look at it. I'll be informing the original garage of this. Obviously the original garage will play innocent, so then I guess it's a matter of going to the small claims court?

[Carrot]

AyBee said:

And one last time - take it somewhere private where they actually have some skill. It's amazing what some guys can do with a bit of common sense and a welder or otherwise - a new bonnet? fk off!

Still amazes me as to why people take their cars to a main dealers...

Big chains of anything are just hideous these days. I know there are a lot of ropey back street garages, but my god I would rather take my chances!

[TeaVR]

One point, apparently the bonnet is aluminium! Isn't this going to make life awkward?

[Globs]

TeaVR said:

One point, apparently the bonnet is aluminium! Isn't this going to make life awkward?

No, it just makes it expensive to replace.

[saaby93]

Carrot said:

Still amazes me as to why people take their cars to a main dealers...

Easy really.
Main dealers have trained technicians, all the special tools and stocks of components to hand so they can do the job in a couple of hours at £85 per hour.

Back street specialists have to make do with what's in the spares box and can take over half a day at £35 per hour.

[Carrot]

saaby93 said:

Carrot said:

Still amazes me as to why people take their cars to a main dealers...

Easy really.
Main dealers have trained technicians, all the special tools and stocks of components to hand so they can do the job in a couple of hours at £85 per hour.

Back street specialists have to make do with what's in the spares box and can take over half a day at £35 per hour.

Don't you mean "fitters" ?

[saaby93]

Carrot said:

Don't you mean "fitters" ?

I think you should take the sentence as a whole

[RWD cossie wil]

saaby93 said:

Carrot said:

Still amazes me as to why people take their cars to a main dealers...

Easy really.
Main dealers have trained technicians, all the special tools and stocks of components to hand so they can do the job in a couple of hours at £85 per hour.

Back street specialists have to make do with what's in the spares box and can take over half a day at £35 per hour.

Most main dealers I have delt with have been utter fktards for want of a better word. The best example of this is my dads mondeo TDCi developed a loud whoosing noise, and a lot of black smoke when on the throttle.

Anyone who knows anything about forced induction will recognise a serious boost leak when they hear one, so being a company car, he booked it into the local Ford dealer, and explained the fault. Come the end of the day, the garage handed the car back saying they could find nothing wrong with it, it was fine. As soon as we drove off, the whoosh was there, so we turned around, and asked to speak to the service manager, who came out, and short of being pretty rude, said that he was sure his trained (monkeys) technicians had done everything possible, and the car was fine.

We invited him to come for a drive, to which he initially declined, but after being told that it was so obvious what was wrong it was embarrasing, he got in the car (being rude now!) saying that he was sure punters knew more about the car than all the Ford techs with xxx years of experience.

Oh how his face dropped when as soon as the car came on boost, there was a loud "whoosh", and we turned around and went back to the garage.... after about 2 mins on the ramp, the turbo to intercooler hose was found to be split along it's length, causing a huge boost leak, and massive over-fuelling....

It had not occured to them to take the car for a test drive to actually establish what the fault was, even though we had told them it was probably a boost hose off or split, before they had the car all day.

Utter Gibbons, take your car to a good indie who relies on thier skill & reputation, and takes pride in thier work.

[Carfiend]

WOOOOSSSHHH

That was the sound of saaby93's post going over some peoples heads.

[mph999]

... a bit like the garage (main delaer) that told me the noise they couldn't explain wasn't "expensive sounding".

I pointed out that during my engineering degree (Mech Eng ) and, my time working at Ford as a design/ development engineer, I didn't recall "expensive vrs cheap" sounding being a valid method of diagnosis.

Previous to that they had tried to tell me it was 'probably normal', hmm, have you heard it before ..

"no"

"not normal then is it".

Martin

[LuS1fer]

Surely if you put your car into a garage, you have to take a risk that some part that is some way into it's life expectancy, will fail. You have to prove negligence rather than an inevitable failure that would have happened at some point anyway. I doubt you can.

[redstu]

TeaVR said:

It will be going to a BMW indie once I get it back. I'll get him to look at it. I'll be informing the original garage of this. Obviously the original garage will play innocent, so then I guess it's a matter of going to the small claims court?

you will need some solid evidence or a witness otherwise its your word against theirs.

[TeaVR]

redstu said:

TeaVR said:

It will be going to a BMW indie once I get it back. I'll get him to look at it. I'll be informing the original garage of this. Obviously the original garage will play innocent, so then I guess it's a matter of going to the small claims court?

you will need some solid evidence or a witness otherwise its your word against theirs.

Very good point - but I don't see that I have any other options.

It seems that when they (the mechanics) took the car in to the shop, they couldn't easily release the bonnet. They applied a little pressure to the front of the bonnet and it then popped. HOWEVER, they could not then lift the bonnet and used a degree of force to open it. I suspect this is what broke it. Can I prove this - no.

I love cars, but over the years they have been the centre of much irritation. This is no exception!

[Biker's Nemesis]

Eggman said:

If it were me, I would consider drilling the hole out a bit and installing something along the lines of a rivet nut, which should cost rather less than a grand.



If you're really fussy, you might want to squirt a bit of mastik in the hole first to prevent the loose nut from rattling about. (If you're really lucky you might be able to fish it out of the hole you've drilled!)

Here's the answer to your problem^^^ A "Nut Sert" tool same as a pop rivit gun can be bought for around £20.

A simple fix for anyone.

[BliarOut]

TeaVR said:

redstu said:

TeaVR said:

It will be going to a BMW indie once I get it back. I'll get him to look at it. I'll be informing the original garage of this. Obviously the original garage will play innocent, so then I guess it's a matter of going to the small claims court?

you will need some solid evidence or a witness otherwise its your word against theirs.

Very good point - but I don't see that I have any other options.

It seems that when they (the mechanics) took the car in to the shop, they couldn't easily release the bonnet. They applied a little pressure to the front of the bonnet and it then popped. HOWEVER, they could not then lift the bonnet and used a degree of force to open it. I suspect this is what broke it. Can I prove this - no.

I love cars, but over the years they have been the centre of much irritation. This is no exception!

Assuming there's clearance behind fit a hank nut where the captive nut has gone missing. Takes a couple of minutes for an experienced engineer and will present no problems in ali whatsoever.

[TeaVR]

hora said:

So it broke whilst in their care.

You didn't drive in with it as a complaint.

I'd contact BMW head office with this angle

I can't prove that it broke in their care. They claim that the part failed the last time the bonet was shut.

It's not a BMW dealer. Car was in for just an MOT (which I needed to get done quickly).

[The Wookie]

TeaVR said:

It will be going to a BMW indie once I get it back. I'll get him to look at it. I'll be informing the original garage of this. Obviously the original garage will play innocent, so then I guess it's a matter of going to the small claims court?

To be fair, BMW dealers do have a reputation for 'finding' obscure faults that require spectacularly expensive remedial work.

[Efbe]

TeaVR said:

hora said:

So it broke whilst in their care.

You didn't drive in with it as a complaint.

I'd contact BMW head office with this angle

I can't prove that it broke in their care. They claim that the part failed the last time the bonet was shut.

It's not a BMW dealer. Car was in for just an MOT (which I needed to get done quickly).

i would contact head office for sure.

if all else fails. DO NOT GET THE WORK DONE THERE!!!

people seem to think they are tied in to BMW garages for servicing, but you are not. find a good local indie and ask them what they can do for it.

Then invoice the BMW garage for this work :P there's always the chance they will pay it!