ford dealer charged £400 for job should have costed £80

[queensclose]

need some advice

 

9yr old ford fiesta been having problems. stuttering as i driving. car ground to a halt. it would start up but quickly cut out

 

THEAA towed it to a local ford dealer who advised that it would not be seen for 5 days and advised it would cost £80 to be hooked upto their computer

 

day 6 ford called to say the computer could not communicate with the ecu and would cost upto £400 to conduct exploratory tests

day 7 guy who does checks is off

day 8 hes busy but will get round to it

day 9 hopefully hopefully today he can do it

day 10 at 3pm reception transfers call to guy in work stop. he says on day 5 it started and worked fine and car has been sitting in compound. he says he went to start it and failed so will need to look at it again hopefully today/ transferred back to reception. who says total bill is £80 so far

 

day 10 and 11 weekend closed

 

day 12 call from ford to say ecu is faulty and will cost £2000 to repair. declined the repair. total cost to pay to collect car is £400. told girl i need to arrange tow truck. informs me its running and can be driven off.

 

collected car and paid by credit card.

 

decided to trade it in as we need a reliable car as car still stutters now and again.

 

that dealer ecu is faulty as he is giving a years warranty and want to be able to go back in case theres a fault with the new one

 

he says ive been ripped off. no further work should have been offered if the computer could not have communicated with the ecu and it was clear it was faulty and was fruitless

 

work sheet says

 

investigate vehicle will not start, we have carried out ids checks unable communicate with the vehicle but will recieve ids,s, removed and installed pcm to gain access, checked feeds and earths , all ok. check communication wiring for continuity and isolator to feed and earths all ok

 

 

what can i do

[Guest]

does sound as if you have been ripped, 400 to collect a car?

an honest dealer though re the latter?

 

complaint time to ford? wld the latter dealer be prepared to make a statement

[Hammy1962]

'day 12 call from ford to say ecu is faulty and will cost £2000 to repair'..........................

 

Unlikely.

 

H

[queensclose]

the car was towed by the aa on a wednesday ford did say because they were busy and would not look at it till the Monday. so the first days are waiting they looked at it on the Tuesday. they hooked it upto the computer and it would not communicate with ecu informed they needed to do some exploratory tests. but the guy who does that wont be able to do it till the thursday. at this point i did not know the car was running or that the ecu was faulty. i was only told that they did not know what the problem was and thats why they wanted to do exploratory tests. the £2000 was for the work they already did. £400 plus a new ecu and reprogramming it

i have just an a complaint via their online form

[king12345]

More and more horror stories about dealers.

Try to find a decent local garage.

All parts for a 9yo fiesta are available from scrapyards.

Most of them now trade on ebay and I never had a problem.

Look at this:

 

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/251918286193?nav=SEARCH

 

Reprogramming is around £50 from ford specialist (not main dealer).

Or you can swap the ecu yourself and try this:

 

http://www.justanswer.com/uk-ford/2u2wi-reset-ecu-ford-fiesta-st-2005.html

 

Maybe you can still save your motor

[king12345]

Sorry, mobile link.

This is the item number:

251918286193

[Hammy1962]

the car was towed by the aa on a wednesday ford did say because they were busy and would not look at it till the Monday. so the first days are waiting they looked at it on the Tuesday. they hooked it upto the computer and it would not communicate with ecu informed they needed to do some exploratory tests. but the guy who does that wont be able to do it till the thursday. at this point i did not know the car was running or that the ecu was faulty. i was only told that they did not know what the problem was and thats why they wanted to do exploratory tests. the £2000 was for the work they already did. £400 plus a new ecu and reprogramming it

i have just an a complaint via their online form

 

So, £400? @£80 per hour is 5Hrs, give or take. An ECU a generic term for all the modules and we have no idea which one it is is but they are about about £300. It takes 0.6 of an hour to programme which is £48. Even if the module repair came to £748 that leaves a balance of £1252 which is 15 hours of work.

 

Where exactly has the scaremongering figure of £2000 come from?

 

King122345's post above doesn't help either because there is far too little information here to declare this a 'horror story'.

 

H

[king12345]

So, £400? @£80 per hour is 5Hrs, give or take. An ECU a generic term for all the modules and we have no idea which one it is is but they are about about £300. It takes 0.6 of an hour to programme which is £48. Even if the module repair came to £748 that leaves a balance of £1252 which is 15 hours of work.

 

Where exactly has the scaremongering figure of £2000 come from?

 

King122345's post above doesn't help either because there is far too little information here to declare this a 'horror story'.

 

H

 

To me a dealer asking £2k to fix something that at most will cost £748 qualifies for the horror story of the week

[Hammy1962]

But neither you, or I, have any information about the alleged figure of £2,000.

 

The trouble with forums, this one and others, is that the ill-informed jump to conclusions that are more often than not, completely wrong.

 

Without further information it is impossible to deduce just what the issue is.

 

In fact this very forum speaks for itself, there are far more 'horror stories' on here than there is of 'independents'.

 

Bit like Tesco really, everyone like to bash Tesco, just like everyone wants to bash Main Dealers, with little or no justification.

 

H

[queensclose]

ive sent them a compliant via their website. the £2000 is the price quoted. her exact words were when i said thats expensive were the ecu would be £1200 without fitting and you need to take into account the £400 already owing. so it would have cost £400 to fit and program.

the dealer said there hourly rate is £100 for working on a vehicle. the first half is £80 which includes connecting the car to their computer

[JoeyJoeC]

ECU? They rarely fail.

 

My money is on the mass air flow sensor... common with them cars and sounds exactly what happened to two of my friends cars, £7 can of brake cleaner and a screw driver would sort it. (Also happened to my Toyota recently)

 

Worth doing a bit of research before hand, join forums and ask for advice before going to the garage.

[scaniaman]

Firstly, must be something far wrong in the way dealerships are run if it takes almost a week for car to be seen. Imagine if it were a newish Mondeo worth megabucks and driver was miles from home!!!!

What sort of training are these guys given that only one mechanic???? can do the work????

And you wonder why main dealers get bad reviews???? Amateurs, I would call them.

[JoeyJoeC]

I don't trust most garages.

 

My father's land rover had problem at high revs where the engine will lose power. A "specialist" garage spent 5 days looking at it, charged him £600 in labor, when they didn't find the fault. A second garage found it within a few hours, the coil packs needed replacing. They probably realised it was more profitable that they can just let the car sit for a few days and charge labor without actually fixing anything.

 

I'm surprised just how many garages jump to the conclusion that the ECU is faulty. Simple swap, and they can charge a fortune for it.