My VW golf 1.4 fsi went to the garage after the timing belt tensioner broke. we paid £1300 for a rebuild (head machined etc). 1 week later we had to pay £75 for 1 ignition coil. a couple of days after that another £75 for coild number 2. 4 litres of oil bought and used over 3 months, and the garage said nothing was wrong. 4 months after the original repair and the car broke down. Becuase the garage did the rebuild, i had the car recovered to the same garage. (although i did not want to). the problem was the timing was out and basically the same problem again. It was not the tensioner this time, and they investigated. They found one of the pistons has shattered and bits were in the oil sump, they sent the head to wherever they had it machined, and the result was, "you need a new engine". the company who machined the head, who say they dont accept liability, have asked for a quote for a replacemnt engine and fitting. (seems odd if its not their fault). I have made all the phone calls, the garage have NEVER rung me, I have found an engine and the garage have sent a letter to the company. Now the garage tell me they will make a decision, but it will take 7-14 days, ( i think its the insurance) but by then the engine will have gone, fsi are quite hard to get hold of. I just want my car back, or the trade in value, so i can get another. So the question is( sorry it took so long) how do i get this resolved asap.?

Hi there... I am desperate for some assistance please. My timing belt recently broke on my car. I have a Megane 1.6 and was advised by both the AA and a recommended garage that my timing belt + valves had probably gone. My car was towed to the garage, recommend to me, and they advised the cost of replacement would be approximately £1,200. It would involve removing the engine completely, changing the belt and putting the engine back together. Desperate to have the issue sorted and not sure where else to turn I agreed to the work. I paid the garage £600 upfront for parts. The garage kept my car for a total of 28 days replacing the timing belt. When the garage called to advise the car was ready the bill had increased to just under £2,000. I was not informed of the increase anytime in these days. After a heated discussion (and obtaining further quotes from other garages, (something I should have done prior)), the general cost of this type of repair was between £1,000 - £1,300 (latter quoted by a Renault dealer). In the end I negotiated a price of £1,300. I picked my car up and 2 weeks later I took it to another garage to conduct the MOT. At the time of test an oil leak was observed. (I have an invoice from the timing belt garage and as part of the timing belt replacement, the oil and oil filter was changed). I had the oil leak fixed and the garage advised I should try to claim the cost of repair from the garage that replaced the timing belt. COST OF JOB (including MOT) £90 I have since written a letter and advised the garage that the MOT failed due to the oil leak and was marked 'Dangerous" and could they return the cost of this job. 10 Days later I have not heard from the garage so a further letter was sent advising action would be taken if I received no response or the return of my money for the oil leak fix. This was sent recorded delivery. In a trip 2 weeks later the car just stopped. Engine and electrics shut down. I called the AA and they advised it was some type of short in the wiring and this may have been caused when the timing belt replacement was done. The car was again towed to a garage and the garage reported they couldn't find the fault but they had managed to get the car to stop shorting. I'm glad this didn't cut out when I was driving down the M1 motorway 15 minutes before. COST OF JOB £60.00 The garage also reported that the oil leak was continuing. I‘ve had so many faults since the timing belt was changed. (Oil leak & car stopping). Previous to this the car was running perfectly. I feel that since the garage clearly wasn’t pleased on receiving less money, they have purposely conducted a poor job of the timing belt and potentially put my life at risk. I’m also female and know little about cars – maybe in a clear position for the garage to take advantage. I would like to pursue legal action against the garage and try to recover as much of the expense I have forked out to date but I'm unsure how to go about this so your advice is really welcomed! TOTAL SPEND = £1,450. And I still have an oil leak! Thanks for reading and for helping.

My sister bought a 2008 Audi TT from a local Audi dealer on an HP agreement not too long ago. There has been a 'ticking' sound from behind the dash for some time, which she's tried to have fixed. Despite repeated attempts, more than five, the reason for the sound was not immediately identified by the garage. She took the car in a few weeks ago regarding the nosie again - and was told the steering column needed replacing! It seems unlikely that these two issues are connected - can anyone shed any light on this? She then picked the car up once the new column had beed fitted and drove away, with her 5 month old daughter beside her. She soon realised however that the steering was not working properly and had little control when trying to turn the car. She very carefully managed to return to the garage, quite upset. This had clearly been a very dangerous situation. Once the car had been checked again the after sales manager told her that because something had not been done to the ABS the steering would not work correctly - he was clealry extremely annoyed (with the mechanics) and offered my sister a weekend away fully paid for the inconvenience, which my sister promptly refused - she just wants to have a car that is safe. Two things; (1) she feels unable to trust the garage now and clearly something has not been right with the car since she bought it - can she refuse to take it back? She has said she wants a different car but the garage have refused. Is this one of those cases where she'll need to go through the finance company as it's an HP agreement? (2) Can she do anything about the dangerous situation the garage put her into? It is only by luck that perhaps something serious did not happen. I should say that as she's just had her first baby recently this is all getting a bit much for her, and I offered to try and find out some info - she could well do without the hassle. Can anyone out there please help? Thanks

Hi, I would be grateful if anyone could give me advice on the situation I am in. I took my car to a mechanic I have used previously a few weeks before my MOT was due as it needed new tyres and I wanted to know if it was worth doing or to just scrap the car. I asked the mechanic (who is an MOT tester) to look over the vehicle and advised him I was planning to scrap the vehicle if it would need much work doing to get through the MOT, as I couldn't afford to throw good money after bad (the year before I spent nearly £1,000 with him keeping the vehicle on the road). The mechanic looked over the vehicle and told me it wouldn't cost much to get through (didn't say a price) and also he knew someone with 2nd hand tyres he may be able to get cheaply. Based on his advice I gave him the go-ahead to fit the tyres and also weld the exhaust. Around three weeks later a front brake siezed on the vehicle, resulting in it needing new pads and discs. At the time he again assured me it was still worth getting the work done, so I authorised him to go ahead with this. A couple of weeks after this a front brake hose ruptured. At the time of the initial inspection he had advised me new a new hose would be needed for the MOT (so would have been included in his initial 'costing'), as I needed the car back on the road I collected the brake hose and fitted it myself. I then left the car with him for the MOT, this would be around 8 weeks after his initial assessment but the vehicle was off the road for the last 2 weeks as the MOT had expired and I was driving another vehicle. When I went to pick up the car, I was astonished to find a final invoice for £630 - significantly more than the value of the car. I removed all my possessions from the car and put in all spares/documentation I had (a new fuel filter, a new brake hose, old MOT certs, two worn spare tyres, the new keeper suppliment and the owner's manual). I wrote across the top of the invoice "I can't afford this, you'll have to take the car". Around a month later, I recieved an updated bill through the post - the car had sold for £400 at auction, auction fees were £30 and he had added on £170 of expenses! These included new wiper blades, valeting and 'out of pocket expenses'. So he still wanted £425 off me. I ignored the invoice to see if he would persue it, I have now had a letter from a solicitors saying I need to pay within 7 days or I will be taken to court. At this point I assume I need to dispute the bill in writing and need to know the best course of action. I am planning first of all to ask for a breakdown of the labour costs (they are one lump on the bill), stating I dispute the charges but nothing else at this point, which is a reasonable request which should also buy me some time. Once this has come through I then planned to write a more detailed explanation of why I dispute the charges (see below), and if he launches court action I will counter claim for the scrap value of the vehicle. The reasons I dispute the bill are: The mechanic assured me it was worth getting the repairs done on the car, although no quote was agreed it would be reasonable to assume it wasn't worth paying 60% more than the value of the car once repaired At no stage did he contact me to advise me the bill would be more than expected, accordingly I never authorised him to run up a bill that size, nor was able to cut my losses and tell him to stop work on the vehicle He ran up costs of £200 selling a car for £400, much of the expense would seem to be unnecessary so he hasn't tried to mitigate his losses If wasn't prepared to accept the car in exchange for the work, he should have notified me rather than sell it anyway I have lost out to the tune of £50 - £70 (scrap value of the vehicle) based on his advice Sorry this is so long winded, any advice would be gratefully accepted!

Hello all, I'm new to the site. I've been looking for some advice given a recent situation with a motorbike garage, and stumbled across this site. I quite sure I am in the right in this situation, but would really appreciate your honest opinion and any advice on the matter. A couple off week ago, I emailed a motorbike garage to ask their servicing costs as my bike wasn't running very well. From their response, I didn't feel any of their three-tier services would suitable resolve the issue my bike was having, so asked if I could bring it to them for a diagnosis. They agreed, and we arranged that a friend of mine take the bike to them. In this same email, I said "Once your mechanics have had an initial look at the bike, can I please be contacted in order to authorise any work that may need to be done (at this email address or by telephone, details below)." to which they responded "I would advise that it is left with us and collected when we have diagnosed / fixed the problem. I will be in contact with you by e-mail to let you know how we’re getting on and what recommendations we have etc.". I did not hear anything until my friend called me to say that the bike was ready and there was an outstanding invoice to pay. I contacted them to enquire about the bike, and was told that "The mechanic had a look at the bike which wasn’t starting at all when he came to look at it. He investigated a bit further and found that 2 of the coil sticks were faulty. We have replaced them with some 2nd hand coil sticks and also replaced the spark plugs which were fouled up. The bike now starts and runs fine.". I, of course, contested this as I had not heard anything nor given authorisation for any work to be carried out. They replied " Apologies for the lack of communication. I discussed this with xxx (my friend) when he dropped the bike into us and we agreed that I would call him first and that he would update you because he has your direct telephone number. Finding the problem with your bike wasn’t as straight forward as looking at the bike and advising what was needed to get it running (the bike wasn’t just running rough, it wasn’t running at all). The bike needed to be stripped down to identify the problem. The coil sticks and spark plugs would not necessarily look faulty on initial inspection when in place, only by removing them, checking them and swapping them out with new parts could we confirm that these were the problem. I have since reiterated that I was not contacted as agreed, did not authorise any work to be done and that the garage acted by its own volition. They still demand payment for the work done, and also payment to return the bike to the state it was in. WHere do I stand? I have selected the main parts of the email history, but have full history available if necessary. Also, in the last email sent by the owner of the garage, he closes with 'without prejudice'. He did not make any offer to settle, only demanded payment, but does this mean that I cannot share the content of that email? Your help and advice would be greatly appreciated. James.