Report a Garage?

ckneyb0y70 · Post by **ckneyb0y70** » Sun May 29, 2022 7:42 pm

Hi, this is my first post. I had a new caliper and brake pads put on my car a year ago after 2 weeks I was still having the same problems, so I took the car back to the garage and was told it was a build up of dust, they said they cleaned it up and it would be ok. Anyway I was continually having the same problem, so had another garage look at it, I was told that I needed a new caliper and brake pads, when I asked if the caliper was new, the gentleman said ‘no the caliper was old and had not been replaced’ he also gave me the old caliper. I’m going to the garage tomorrow but is there a trading standards for car repairs I can go to if I get no joy.

To mess about with a braking system on a car is disgusting especially when I’m have kids in the car.

etaf · Post by **etaf** » Sun May 29, 2022 7:52 pm

have a read here
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/content/gu ... ning-a-car
You can return a car within 30days

I have in the past used trading standards now part of citizens advice , consumer help line, who helped a lot with a new car my daughter was buying and the dealer started to make excuses - they gave me a few things to say and include in a letter and it was all sorted out very quickly
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... mer-issue/

They also offered if i had further issues they would go through the details and help - BUT that was quite a few years ago now , how it works these days not sure

chrrris · Post by **chrrris** » Mon Sep 19, 2022 11:09 pm

The entire motor maintenance trade has a major issue with competence and professionalism in my opinion. My brother was told very recently that a new battery for his F-type jaguar would cost £400 fitted. This was from a Jaguar Main Dealer. When he queried it, he was told the battery had to be coded to the vehicle and it was a significant job. This is complete and utter bullsh**. The battery lives in the boot, it's an easy change; worst case is 15 minutes if you really take your time, and the parts are around £140 retail. It's a standard 12V car battery. Even halfords would replace it for less than £180.

I had an article in Autoexpress magazine a few years ago about my experience with Dagenham Motors in Thames Ditton. They charged me over £800 to do a bunch of work,including replacing corroded brake pipes. I took the car straight from them for an MOT. Which it failed on, you guessed it... corroded brake lines. It transpired that I'd paid £800 to park my car on a dealer forecourt for 2 days while they hadn't even looked at it.

During the subsequent backlash from that article, I learned that pretty much all vehicle main dealers have their own permanent in-house contacts with Trading Standards. If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about their competence, then I don't know what does.

Honestly, the entire industry is full of sharks. And I most definitely include main dealers and so-called "well known names" in that. I'm not at all surprised you were ripped off. The only answer is to do the work yourself, or find a competent mate to do the work for you, but that's made increasingly difficult by the requirement for special tools and test equipment.

Someone-Else · Post by **Someone-Else** » Mon Sep 19, 2022 11:41 pm

Sorry to point this out, but ckneyb0y70 only made the ONE post, and he did that back in May, so I doubt he will read your reply

chrrris · Post by **chrrris** » Mon Sep 19, 2022 11:44 pm

Someone-Else wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 11:41 pm Sorry to point this out, but ckneyb0y70 only made the ONE post, and he did that back in May, so I doubt he will read your reply

Another valuable UHM post my someone-else. Well done you.

Someone-Else · Post by **Someone-Else** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:17 am

chrrris wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 11:44 pmWell done you.

Aww, thanks chrrrris. I wonder what ckneyb0y70, thinks, oh, yes, we will not know as he has never been back.

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:37 am

I think a lot of jobs can be undertaken at home quite cheaply by comparison. However, some new hybrid secondary batteries have to be coded in, not a problem if you have a plug in code reader which are relatively cheap these days, YouTube usually tells you how to do most things. I recall people marking oil filters before a service to check it had been changed in the past. The motor trade has always been suss.

DWD

chrrris · Post by **chrrris** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 1:48 pm

dewaltdisney wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:37 am I think a lot of jobs can be undertaken at home quite cheaply by comparison. However, some new hybrid secondary batteries have to be coded in, not a problem if you have a plug in code reader which are relatively cheap these days, YouTube usually tells you how to do most things. I recall people marking oil filters before a service to check it had been changed in the past. The motor trade has always been suss.

Yep. I know you are definitely supposed to code in battery replacements on BMWs. BMW say it's because the engine management changes the charging profile of the battery as they age, so you need to tell it when there's a new battery installed, but that smells extremely suspect to me; the charging profile should be based on the condition of the battery, which the EMU definitely knows all about, not it's age (obviously, a 5 year old battery in a car that's driven a decent distance every day is going to be in better condition than one that's taken out a couple of times a month for 10 minutes).

Some sort of OBD2 reader is definitely an essential for anyone who does their own work on cars now. I'm rubbish with cars and vans generally -- I find everything so difficult to access in modern cars, but it's useful to have one of those things just to check fault codes and stuff yourself before taking it to a garage. Just changed the battery on my Transit Connect (the original from 2014 was still in there... I decided it's probably a good idea to swap it out before winter!) the battery box is under the bulkhead at the back of the engine bay so you have to get the air box and a bunch of wiring out of the way to get to it. I swear they do this sort of thing deliberately.

arco_iris · Post by **arco_iris** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 5:13 pm

ckneyb0y70 wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 7:42 pm Hi, this is my first post. I had a new caliper and brake pads put on my car a year ago after 2 weeks I was still having the same problems, so I took the car back to the garage....

If you "quote" the OP, the forum software will send an email to notify him of a reply.

moderator2 · Post by **moderator2** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 5:18 pm

arco_iris wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 5:13 pm
ckneyb0y70 wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 7:42 pm Hi, this is my first post. I had a new caliper and brake pads put on my car a year ago after 2 weeks I was still having the same problems, so I took the car back to the garage....
If you "quote" the OP, the forum software will send an email to notify him of a reply.

That's news to me. The OP will only receive notifications if they have selected that option in "preferences".

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:11 pm

dewaltdisney wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:37 am I think a lot of jobs can be undertaken at home quite cheaply by comparison. However, some new hybrid secondary batteries have to be coded in, not a problem if you have a plug in code reader which are relatively cheap these days, YouTube usually tells you how to do most things. I recall people marking oil filters before a service to check it had been changed in the past. The motor trade has always been suss.

DWD

I do as much of my own work on my car as I can. I do trust my mechanic though when jobs are beyond my skills/tools. He looks after me and I look after him.