I picked up my Late Bay in September and instantly fell in love with it. It was already in really good nick - the engine was running a treat, the bodywork perfectly acceptable and the interior immaculate. I took it for a week's holiday with both my parents and we had a fantastic time. I decided to take some extended time to drive it around Europe, so looked into preparations. I have the 1.7 engine with should have twin carbs but only had one fitted, so I booked into a specialist classic VW garage in London to get them changed over. They estimated £850. When I finally got the bus back, they'd done a number of other mechanical jobs too, which I hadn't asked for and didn't particularly think needed doing, after all it was a good runner that had just passed its MOT and the engine test report showed it to have perfect pressure levels and no leaks. So the price went up to £1,250. I paid it and left, after all it was driving very nicely. Among the 'extras', by the way, they had switched my previously 'always off' heating to 'always on', which actually I couldn't bear - too smelly, hot and yucky. Within a couple of days, I noticed the fuel gauge was acting a bit off. It's hard not to notice when you run out of petrol on the M4 despite it reading 1/3rd full. Plus every time I switched the indicators on, the gauge needle bounced up and down in time to them. So I called the original garage and asked them to look at it, and they booked me an appointment for the day I was hoping to drive through the Channel Tunnel. They said on the phone "we haven't touched anything to do with that" but agreed to do a diagnostic. I brought the bus in as planned and tried to explain the problem directly to the mechanic, although he was in the middle of an argument with someone and didn't really seem to be listening. I also asked him to switch the heating back to 'off'. He sent me off into London for the day with a promise to call my mobile. At 5:15pm, having not heard anything, I phoned the garage for news. The guy said "we've ordered a new sending unit". I replied, "hang on - so it was a problem with the sending unit, was it? This is the first I've heard - what sort of timescales etc are we talking about, I thought replacing the sending unit was a major job? I plan to leave tonight." The guy sounded confused so I jumped on a tube to go back to the garage. On arrival 20 minutes later, the guy said "they've already changed the sending unit, they just forgot to tell me. That's £135 please". I drove off but, stuck in central London rush hour traffic, a fellow driver informed me that my tail light was out. It turned out two of the fuses had bust so I replaced them. Driving through France the next day, the fuel gauge was being strange again. I would notice it reading lower, then higher, then lower again, and the 'bouncing' was even greater than before when the indicators came on. 5 hours in, the camper suddenly gave up on me - it stalled and refused to restart (completely dead) so I pulled over and called the RAC to recover me to a local garage. It turns out that the ignition switch has gone and some wires in the dashboard have melted. Am I right in thinking that this London garage have (inadvertently) caused a problem in the wiring in the dashboard, and then charged me £135 to supposedly change a part that did nothing to help?
Why would you let them do work extra over the quote without you agreeing to it. Whenever I leave any vehicle in a garage I always get a quote and then tell them not to touch anything else without calling first. This way there is always the chance for you to say "hang on until I have come and had a look" even if you have no intention of looking or don't know what your looking at. If the extra work seems reasonable ask them to chuck the old parts in the box the new part came out of and just explain to them you can't claim it back on expenses unless you show it to the boss. Just a couple of tips to keep them honest. Changing your sender is a very big job, look it up on here. Do you think they did it, can you see any signs that old screws have been moved etc. If I had to let anyone touch my van, they would have to be recommended by someone on this site. Fact
I really don't know , but repairing stuff you didn't know about or even authorise is totally out of the question Quoted £850 should be charged £850 not £1250 !!!
The additional work on the first visit was done by stealth... I called on a daily basis and would be told "We also found X, Y and Z" alongside, "All the vehicles that leave this garage are in tip-top condition - we give them a full mechanical service." To start with, he told me about testing the engine and finding some small problems and when I expressed my concern about cost he said that they'd cap it at £1,000. Then when I asked him to send me the engine report he backtracked a bit, saying the results were very good. But two days' work turned into three, then four... I actually moved out of my London pad with the bus still in the garage - I had to start finding places to crash for the night while I was waiting for it to be ready. Eventually my mobile ran out of batteries so I just sat in the manager's office charging it up. That was when he took me on a walk under the bus to point at bits and pieces they'd fixed over and above our agreed 'cap'. I again asked what cost we were talking about, said that I couldn't afford any more as I'd now quit my job, and he said "it won't be much over what we agreed". When it was finally done, I was just glad to get out of there. He gave me a list of everything they'd done, which seemed pretty comprehensive, and although it was expensive I did feel reassured that I had a totally 100% perfectly running vehicle: It was when the fuel gauge went, and when they charged me to 'fix it', and when the fuses blew, and when the whole dashboard blew up, that I got concerned. What do you reckon, would the electrical problem cause the fuel gauge issue? And could the garage have caused the electrical problem, perhaps by messing with the heating? I can't see the bus now (it's in a French garage while I'm in a hotel in the middle of nowhere for the weekend), but I find it very strange that, in a garage with room for only one vehicle to be raised up at a time, the manager wouldn't have noticed my sender unit being changed. And would be so confident that it was in [glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow] on order, only to change his mind 20 minutes later.
If they had your van for 4 days, it looks like you got off lightly. The bill seems to match the work/hours they had it for. Do you know if they dropped your engine out completely?
Sender unit can be a pig of a job, unless its been replaced fiddled with before and one of the previous owners has cut an access panel above it in the rear raised floor, in which case its a quick easy job The wiring, in my opinion would be hard to pin on the garage as it could be just one of those things, unless you can find where and if they meddled behind the dash, what carbs did they fit? and what was wrong with old single carb to warrant changing it? Anyhow, I hope you get it sorted without too much expense in french france, and get to enjoy the rest of your trip Welcome to TLB by the way
If someone comes to me and says "I'm going to travel round Europe and I don't want to break down" it puts me in a difficult situation. I had one such customer - nothing wrong with his engine, but after me doing more or less as above (for less) he took it somewhere else and had a new engine put in. The difference being I'm a good egg and the next garage saw him coming. Apart from changing the carbs what they've done sounds thorough.
It wasn't stalling because of the carb, it was probably an air leak in the servo vacuum pipe so that was a waste of money. Heating off to on would have been done at the heat exchangers, because you have no/broken operating cables, so not the dash.
its a bit ripe that they've done all of the extra work without consulting you or giving you a price, but its a pretty comprehensive list of things they have done for you - assuming it all needed doing no self respecting garage who wants to hold onto a good reputation would let you drive away with any of those items not working correctly. Type 4 engine change from single centre mount carb to stock twin carbs and all of the associated set-up is quite a major undertaking. Could they have messed with your dash to cause the subsequent problems? Probably, but these are 40 year old vehicles and the wiring on most can be classed as suspect at best. Dodgy fuel gauge is a very common problem. I wouldn't assume 'i'd been done' until i'd had the chance to discuss it with the garage concerned face to face and/or had someone else take a look. Make sure you get everything done by the French mechanics fully documented. Its hard to say once the horse has bolted but in future you should demand a fixed and firm quotation for the works, with any additional work to be performed with your agreement only. Good luck and hope you get things sorted
Yes they normally have twin carbs and yes twin carbs are better. Then again 2.0L engines are better for touring than 1.7L and you didn't change that. I wouldn't dream of doing anything that cost more than say £20 to anyone's bus without discussing it, and I would have agreed even that with the customer. It's an easy conversation. I don't care how little or how much work they want me to do as long as we agree where the bounderies are, and as far as possible I warn of possible scenarios before starting. There can be nothing worse than having to tell someone that what started out as an oil leak is actually a cracked crankcase requiring a new engine.
check behind your rear seat under the rear cushion (above the engine). Is there a little panel about 20cm x 20cm which has been cut out/covered over with tape etc? If not they haven't replaced the sender unit. This can only be done if a hole has been cut into the panel above the engine to get behind the firewall, or by removing the engine. With the time scale they didn't remove the engine. It sounds more like they've had a fiddle behind the dash on the receiver unit, and cross some wires there causing the wiring failure. This being the case you should have recourse if you can prove they've charged you for, but haven't changed the sender unit.
In fact, if you're really interested, here's a map of my route so far! http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=208379927367471899587.0004ba550d7a06afdc083&msa=0&ll=46.513516,0.906372&spn=0.97532,2.392273
