I recently had a minor dispute with a lorry whose rear wheels scraped along the side of my Audi A4. This necessitated a respray of the offside of the car and replacement of various trim components. The offside front wheel also suffered a knock and this upset the steering system, which was supposedly rectified by the replacement of a number of links in the suspension system. The repair was handled my Norwich Union's authorised repairer and took a lengthy 29 days (could it be they obtained a kick-back from the loan car hire company?). On initial collection I rejected the repair because they had omitted to respray the chipped door mirror. Whilst this had been on their job sheet it had somehow been overlooked. After a few days I noticed further problems, namely wind noise from the driver's door due to poor window alignment, the driver electric window mechanism catching as the window was wound up and down, and the steering feeling odd on sharp right hand cornering. I took the car back to the repairer and the first two problems were rectified. However, they were unable to find anything wrong with the steering. When I make a tight right hand manoeuvre at relatively low speed, such as in a car park, the steering wheel offers no resistance and feels as if it is pulling towards the right. This is accompanied by a scrabbling sound from the tyres. The car did not do this before the accident. Given the repairer's poor quality control I am reluctant to accept their assurance that nothing is wrong. Should I get the car independently checked, if so by whom? Presumably I should inform the repairer of this and expect them to pick up the tab if they are shown to be negligent. Should I inform the insurance company of my concern, if so at what stage?
- posted
19 years ago