Evening all,
I've got a bit of an issue with my trusty 2000 Astra 1.7 DTI, or, more precisely, an issue with the dealer that's fixing it!
I'll try and keep it short:
Car serviced a couple of weeks ago, at which time notified garage of a loss-of-power problem. ECU was showing faults on the air flow meter, brake light switch, and glow plugs - garage only had time to fix the AFM, so I got the car booked in for another visit (which was Monday).
I got a call on Monday afternoon, ECU still reporting the same 3 errors
- even after the AFM had been replaced at the same time as the service. I was told that it'd be replaced again, free of charge, and that they'd also replace the brake light switch and glow plugs. All in all, it'd be £270, and the work could all be finished before Monday night.
Phoned Monday evening, informed they'll be running it over night to make sure the problems are resolved - not a biggie, but it would have been nice to have been told! Phone them again next afternoon (5pm-ish), to be told that they're waiting for some details from Vx re the ECU - something about a security code they need to flash it - again, fine, but they could have let me know. I give them a call today, about 4-ish to see if all is well, and they inform me that they now think the ECU is faulty - they've put one in from another car, are certain that's fixed it, and they want to run it over night to make sure. Again, would have been nice to be told! A new ECU will cost you £570+VAT (exc. labour), thank you very much sir.
The *really* annoying thing is that when they told me the air flow meter was showing up as faulty for a second time, I actually said "couldn't it be the ECU that's faulty, since you've only just replaced the AFM?". Surely they should have then checked the output of the ECU after replacing it a second time?
This brings me to the crux of the matter - if I, who is as much of a mechanic as Elton John is a heterosexual, can determine that perhaps the ECU may be the cause of the problems, why can't a Vauxhall trained mechanic working at a Vauxhall dealership? As it stands, I'm going to be stuck with having already paid £185 for a AFM that didn't need replacing, and now pay for glow plugs and a brake light switch (that both could have been good), and now an ECU all with labour.
What are my options, folks?
I suppose I could flatly refuse to pay for any parts/labour associated with the air flow meter, brake light switch, and glow plugs - but that still leaves me the issue of lots of labour for them to diagnose the
*real* problem, when it shouldn't have been rocket science (or should it?). Then there's the ECU - I'm *certain* I'll be able to get it repaired/replaced somewhere else for a damn sight less than £570+labour+vat. When discussing this on the phone, I was told that they'd probably spent 20 hours on the car, but that they couldn't possibly charge that as it "wouldn't be fair".I suppose I could also *really* throw my toys out of the pram, tell them to stick the old bits back on (which they undoubtedly don't have), and I'll pay them a nominal fee for diagnosing the problem - couple of hours labour, perhaps. The *big* thing that annoys me is the mis-diagnosis which will cost me dear in terms of labour and parts.
Any ideas?
Ta,
Lee