Another crap local garage

Not my car. Well it is now bought as worst case scenario scrap money.

Previous owner went into main dealer. They said timing chain slipped and needs a new engine £6k

They had removed timing chain, pulleys, cams etc.

We took head off. Nothing wrong with it. Could have put new chain and tensioner on it and driven away. Bunch of crooks.

 

Standard practice, can’t guarantee the engine without a strip and rebuild, new engine equals warranty from manufacturer with no comebacks for the dealer , I’ve fixed a few blown head gaskets as main dealer fit new heads regardless, horses for courses .

 

I work for a main dealer, I'd have to counter and say that they were probably playing it safe. I.E. we gaurentee a new engine will fix it (obviously!); the customer is faced with a choice of either doing this, or another couple of hundred quid to dismantle and then find that, indeed, a new engine is required. A case of, "do ya feel lucky punk?"

I would however like to think that they would have had access to a borescope, done leakdown tests etc to give them an idea of the state of the engine.

However, I'd disagree with "crooks" - they would have made more profit from the labour and parts on a decent investigation and replacement of chain and tensionor than just dropping a new lump in I would expect. Yes, to the customer its £5k (say, labour excluded) for the new engine, but remember the dealer only sees 10% (e.g.) of this.

Without knowing the conversations had between the customer and dealer it's all second guesses - but I'd like to think they were presented with options (one of which would have been the scary £6k number) - and customer just decided he couldn't be bothered so chopped it.

 

...and as @davidoft beat me to - they have to warranty it; you'd be pretty peeved if you spent £800 on a chain and tensioner, only to find subsequent issues further down the line - it all comes back to the dealer-

the famous "ever since..." statements....

 

Thanks, I'm not "championing" main dealers as (like all businesses) plenty ARE crooks I'm sure!

The only scary thing really is the labour rates, but as experts in the vehicles (hopefully) - issues will be sorted much quicker. I won't mention my brand, but we have a common issue on an older model with a knock from the steering column. Independants put a new column in - the actual fix is a bit of "special" grease. Another model (old again) has steering which goes tight on one way only, independants replace steering racks - actual fix is a speed sensor pinion for a fraction of the cost.

Moral is - don't be scared; get quotes at least and often you'll find labour rates can be flexible - we almost always go by SRT (standard repair times) ; so whereas your engine out job might have taken 3 days of solid labour, cutting and replacing knackered fasteneres; you'll only pay the 5 hours book time.

 

it’s different though isn’t it a second hand “fixed” rack versus a newly manufactured one , it’s a gamble and that’s where the cost versus gain comes in, Main dealers are cheap on lots of stuff just gotta shop around, had my mrs golf serviced at vw for 10 years as it was so cheap and they spotted a couple of things I didn’t

expensive on others and free on some , had the air bags replaced on my mrs 18 year old bmw under recall, I got a full English breakfast and coffee and they valeted the car both times too

 

you quoted me before I finished typing

 

I also see a lot of indy garages servicing cars on completely the wrong schedule, spark plugs changed on 2nd services and the likes when they are good for 75k.... the worst culprits are when its "bob who I've used for years...", I'm sure (I hope) it's not intentional, but often a false economy.

I'm off to bed now to sleep on my mattress stuffed full of cash.....

 

Surely the answer to any misdeeds is - was the customer invited to, and did indeed buy a 'new' car from said main dealer.

I worked at a few main dealers as a 3rd party supplier and often older stuff that had faults saw the technician go to the service manager, service manager go to sales.....then service manager goes to customer.

Without knowing the maths - that might not have been a bad answer - but always looks shady.

 

If you owned a Jag I'm sure you were a regular visitor!

 

Wasn't Nissan Maindealer that South African bloke they put in prison?

 

I'm here all week