Engine check light

[Dr Jekyll]

A friend of mine has the engine check light come on in his petrol XE. No other apparent problem except he reckons the idle is a bit rough. Handbook says get it looked at ASAP, it was in for service today so he mentioned the problem. He got a call 5 hours later to say 'your engine light is on, if you want us to diagnose it it's £180 and we can fit you in in 3 weeks time'.

Quite apart from the ludicrous lead time, I thought the whole point of modern diagnostics was that the error could be narrowed down pretty easily. Is he supposed to not drive it for 3 weeks? For a car with less than 30,000 miles this seems pretty alarming.

Any suggestions as to what the diagnosis might be?

[fatboy b]

I stopped using Jag main dealers earlier this year when they basically told me to f-off when my diff failed. I really don’t understand why main dealers closed their workshops yet indys could operate as normal. They’re all garages still. Even when they opened, they quoted me a month before I could get it seen to. But the Indy had already fixed it along with copious amounts of customer service that could only be dreamed of from a main dealer.

That said, not all main dealers charge for diagnostics, only the really crap ones.

Rough idle could be a coil pack I guess.

Edited by fatboy b on Tuesday 3rd November 19:14

[W201_190e]

fatboy b said:

That said, not all main dealers charge for diagnostics, only the really crap ones.

Edited by fatboy b on Tuesday 3rd November 19:14

Please explain why diagnostics should be free? Say the customer doesn't want to go ahead with the repair, an hour or so just given away?

[fatboy b]

W201_190e said:

fatboy b said:

That said, not all main dealers charge for diagnostics, only the really crap ones.

Edited by fatboy b on Tuesday 3rd November 19:14

Please explain why diagnostics should be free? Say the customer doesn't want to go ahead with the repair, an hour or so just given away?

I’ve never paid. They want to charge an hours labour. It takes 5 mins. I’ve watched them do it.

[W201_190e]

fatboy b said:

W201_190e said:

fatboy b said:

That said, not all main dealers charge for diagnostics, only the really crap ones.

Edited by fatboy b on Tuesday 3rd November 19:14

Please explain why diagnostics should be free? Say the customer doesn't want to go ahead with the repair, an hour or so just given away?

I’ve never paid. They want to charge an hours labour. It takes 5 mins. I’ve watched them do it.

A lot of dish work takes far longer than 5 minutes!

[fatboy b]

W201_190e said:

fatboy b said:

W201_190e said:

fatboy b said:

That said, not all main dealers charge for diagnostics, only the really crap ones.

Edited by fatboy b on Tuesday 3rd November 19:14

Please explain why diagnostics should be free? Say the customer doesn't want to go ahead with the repair, an hour or so just given away?

I’ve never paid. They want to charge an hours labour. It takes 5 mins. I’ve watched them do it.

A lot of dish work takes far longer than 5 minutes!

I’m sure. But not an hour though. I had 3 dash warnings diagnosed in 5 mins of being plugged in. Charging £180 for that is nothing short of criminal.

[john_1983]

If I have an issue that needs a plumber or a sparky, or any other tradesman, they would come round, have a look and give me a quote - accepting that they may not get the work, and that time is therefore lost to them. They build it into their pricing structure.

I think dealers should do the same; I don't think they should spend an hour checking things over for free before a quote, but 5-10 mins hooking up a diagnostics machine to prepare a quote shouldn't cost the customer IMO. I appreciate the codes may not tell the whole story, but it should give an indication of what is up and allow a quote to be prepared based on what they know so far, with allowances built in if it's more complicated than at first glance or further investigation will confirm what it is up.

And for what main dealers charge, they should be giving out free quotes...

[fatboy b]

john_1983 said:

If I have an issue that needs a plumber or a sparky, or any other tradesman, they would come round, have a look and give me a quote - accepting that they may not get the work, and that time is therefore lost to them. They build it into their pricing structure.

I think dealers should do the same; I don't think they should spend an hour checking things over for free before a quote, but 5-10 mins hooking up a diagnostics machine to prepare a quote shouldn't cost the customer IMO. I appreciate the codes may not tell the whole story, but it should give an indication of what is up and allow a quote to be prepared based on what they know so far, with allowances built in if it's more complicated than at first glance or further investigation will confirm what it is up.

And for what main dealers charge, they should be giving out free quotes...

Agree about pricing structures.

I had an Audi years ago. It had a major service that was £430 back in 2006. I handed over my credit card only to be told they’ll be a £1 charge to use a credit card. How to pi55 me off in one foul move. If the service was £431, I wouldn’t have batted an eyebrow.

[John Locke]

Dr Jekyll said:

A friend of mine has the engine check light come on in his petrol XE. No other apparent problem except he reckons the idle is a bit rough. Handbook says get it looked at ASAP, it was in for service today so he mentioned the problem. He got a call 5 hours later to say 'your engine light is on, if you want us to diagnose it it's £180 and we can fit you in in 3 weeks time'.

Quite apart from the ludicrous lead time, I thought the whole point of modern diagnostics was that the error could be narrowed down pretty easily. Is he supposed to not drive it for 3 weeks? For a car with less than 30,000 miles this seems pretty alarming.

Any suggestions as to what the diagnosis might be?

If your friend is anywhere near me (20 miles South of Norwich), PM me; I will happily connect him to my system for free. A diagnosis takes no longer than opening Windows and making a few mouse clicks.

[Dr Jekyll]

John Locke said:

If your friend is anywhere near me (20 miles South of Norwich), PM me; I will happily connect him to my system for free. A diagnosis takes no longer than opening Windows and making a few mouse clicks.

Thanks for the offer but he's near Slough. When I last spoke on the subject he mentioned he'd borrowed an OBD reader that cam up with a code to do with the throttle body not controlling idling speeds. Seemed to be a symptom rather than a diagnosis, so not sure whether it's the throttle body itself that's faulty or a sensor somewhere.

Anyhow he reset it and at the time of speaking to him it the light hasn't come back on.

[Dr Jekyll]

Latest update.

Engine light came back on, it went into a different Jaguar dealer who did a 'smoke test'(?) and couldn't find the problem but reported that on resetting the light it didn't come back on. Needless to say a day later it did come back on. He reckons they are stringing him along until it's out of warranty.

[lexusboy]

Dr Jekyll said:

Latest update.

Engine light came back on, it went into a different Jaguar dealer who did a 'smoke test'(?) and couldn't find the problem but reported that on resetting the light it didn't come back on. Needless to say a day later it did come back on. He reckons they are stringing him along until it's out of warranty.

Smoke test is what is used to detect any air leaks in the engine inlet or vacuum pipe systems.

Does he have a report and all the codes present in the PCM?

[fatboy b]

Dr Jekyll said:

Latest update.

Engine light came back on, it went into a different Jaguar dealer who did a 'smoke test'(?) and couldn't find the problem but reported that on resetting the light it didn't come back on. Needless to say a day later it did come back on. He reckons they are stringing him along until it's out of warranty.

If a problem is reported in warranty, then it doesn’t matter if the warranty expires.

[Dr Jekyll]

lexusboy said:

Smoke test is what is used to detect any air leaks in the engine inlet or vacuum pipe systems.

Does he have a report and all the codes present in the PCM?

Nothing written down apparently, they just verbally confirmed the codes he already knew about.

[Simpo Two]

fatboy b said:

I stopped using Jag main dealers earlier this year when they basically told me to f-off when my diff failed. I really don’t understand why main dealers closed their workshops yet indys could operate as normal. They’re all garages still.

Flexibility of small businesses vs giant corporation with too many 'policies'?

[Dr Jekyll]

Latest update.

He took the car taken back in to the second dealer, booking made at the last visit about 3 weeks ago but this was the earliest they could see it. He'd been warned there was a possibility they'd have to keep it another day if parts were required.

Dropped it off at 8:00. By mid afternoon there had been no phone call either way, he tried to ring the service dept twice but they were too busy to speak to him, each time the receptionist took his details and said someone would call him back.

Turned up just before closing time to see if it was ready, a 25 minute journey which would have been wasted if they were still working on it but clearly no other way to find out what was happening. They hadn't even started to work on the car. He retrieved it and drove home vowing never to return.

[Dr Jekyll]

Good news.

He took the car to Chiltern Jaguar who both diagnosed the issue and fixed it, finished by lunchtime for < £100.