Dixon's - false repairs

[wooley]

recently had my 4 year old corsa mot'd by Dixon's. Needed some electrics fixed and final bill come to £800 ish. Which was fair enough. When I collected the car I was told the drive shaft need to be done which they could do for approx. £200. I declined the offer.

I then spoke to a family friend who was a mechanic as since the mot my car was making a noise as it was drove (Dixons said this was the drive shaft). The friend on hearing the description of the noise, said it was more likely to be the cv joint and he would take a look at some point.

He looked over the car in his garage and removed all the wheeld and said there was nothing wrong with the cv joint or drive shaft, but the noise was been made by a loose mud flap and some dents in a brake disc. Well, in short he fixed all this foc.

However he did ask how often the car was serviced, to which i replied every year to keep the warranty. He said that the car didn't look like it had ever been serviced and if it had nothing had ever been done with anything t do with the brakes.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Can I do anything about any of it?

[meggyweggy]

From what you are saying now doubt you will have the reciepts. I would suggest an independant assesment by someone other that your friend(sorry but they will say he is sticking up for you). After you have the report approach the garage with the documents and the reciepts as they will have no wheer to hide form thre

[Tel916]

Hi Wooley,

Dents in the brake disc, I'm not sure exactly what that entails. As a rule, and certainly from their point of view, It's not a recognised fault; brake discs don't dent, they may warp, or have undue wear, but not dents, I'll take it that they were warped, and that would require a replacement or a skim at least.

The problem is with servicing, and always has been, that it means different things depending on where you take it. Most places regard servicing as clean oil, oil filter, sump plug washer, spark plugs, air filter, pollen filter, maybe fuel filter, fluids top-up, distributor cap/arm, and a visual check of the brakes etc.

There are tell-tale signs though. Spark plugs tend to get discoloured around the bottom of the ceramic end after about 10k miles, sometimes less (assuming they need to be changed at the interval) the sump plug washer should probably be recognisably brass, the oil filter should be close to it's original colour (a decent garage will write on in marker when changed), and the air filter should be still relatively yellow-ish in colour and not covered in crap. (depending on the car and conditions).

To be brutally honest, I don't think there's a lot that you can do currently. Next time the car goes in for service, mark the filters with a permanent pen, just a dot or similar, if they're not changed, you know.

I am curious about the electrics though on a 2002 Corsa, I've never heard of issues with them, seems like a lot of money.

Terry