Garage misdiagnosed fault - what would you do?
Discussion
My MK5 Golf went to an independant VW specialists in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago. The reason for taking the car in was that it was turning over but not starting.
The canbus system on the car was intermittently dropping in and out but I managed to get a full list of the faults that the car was throwing up using a VW fault code reader I have and passed this onto the garage as a head start for them.
A couple of days later, the garage call me to say that they suspect main ECU was the problem and to keep costs down could send it away for test and subsequent repair if necessary. I questioned this first off as the ECU has little input on the cars canbus system which was evidently where the fault was. As they are the specialists, I took their word and agreed.
The ECU came back a week later. It was confirmed by the testers as not working correctly and they repaired it. The garage refitted the ECU and still no joy. Same issue as before - the car turns over but does not start. They dug a little further and found the gateway car to the canbus system had failed (severe water ingress had caused the card to literally discintegrate). A new card was fitted and the car is now fine.
Now onto my issue. I'm due to collect the car on Monday and the final bill is expected to be in the region of £1000. I have no issue with the gateway card and a few hours labour - about the half the bill. What I object to is an ECU repair that I don't think was necessary and certainly didn't cure the fault.
Do I pay the full bill and be happy or dispute the circa £500 ECU repair that didn't cure the fault? My grounds for dispute would be that if the garage was competant then they would have found the canbus gateway card was at fault before deciding to send the ECU away for testing?
Any advise would be much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.
L33
The canbus system on the car was intermittently dropping in and out but I managed to get a full list of the faults that the car was throwing up using a VW fault code reader I have and passed this onto the garage as a head start for them.
A couple of days later, the garage call me to say that they suspect main ECU was the problem and to keep costs down could send it away for test and subsequent repair if necessary. I questioned this first off as the ECU has little input on the cars canbus system which was evidently where the fault was. As they are the specialists, I took their word and agreed.
The ECU came back a week later. It was confirmed by the testers as not working correctly and they repaired it. The garage refitted the ECU and still no joy. Same issue as before - the car turns over but does not start. They dug a little further and found the gateway car to the canbus system had failed (severe water ingress had caused the card to literally discintegrate). A new card was fitted and the car is now fine.
Now onto my issue. I'm due to collect the car on Monday and the final bill is expected to be in the region of £1000. I have no issue with the gateway card and a few hours labour - about the half the bill. What I object to is an ECU repair that I don't think was necessary and certainly didn't cure the fault.
Do I pay the full bill and be happy or dispute the circa £500 ECU repair that didn't cure the fault? My grounds for dispute would be that if the garage was competant then they would have found the canbus gateway card was at fault before deciding to send the ECU away for testing?
Any advise would be much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.
L33
Thanks for the prompt replies guys - some very valid points. The knackered gateway card could have blown something in the ECU, I did indeed agree to them sending off the ECU for repair. I think the repair report for the ECU will be crutial (if it exists) in taking this further.
If anyone else has any ideas, please feel free.
Cheers,
L33
If anyone else has any ideas, please feel free.
Cheers,
L33
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