Greetings All, About 2ks ago I had this car in for a complete tune-up Plugs,wires coil and L.O.&F all due to a check engine light. After 1 1/2 wks the light comes on again but the car is running awesome. How do I clear this condition myself. If I go back to dealer it will cost a expensive minimum. Thanks in Advance Mark
Most dealers warrant their work for more than 2 weeks. Bring it back and tell them to fix it right this time.
You would think this but my experience is that he's going to get shafted again.
He will probably get out of having to pay the expensive "diagnostic" fee. But, they will just change some different parts and charge him for those. Then if he complains, they will say "OK, so maybe you didn't need plugs, wires, and L. O. & F. but you got new ones and those are worth something so you still owe us money" Then if he threatens to not pay them they will just keep his car. By then the only way he will get any kind of satisfaction is if he has young children and he brings them into the showroom and instructs them to run around in circles screaming. and/or has an old bag of a mother in law with horned-rimmed glasses and a voice that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard who isn't afraid of marching into every open office door in the place and disrupting every pending sale they have. And then, all that will get him is he may get his car back, but the service department will then tell him "we don't know what's wrong, take it somewhere else"
The mistake he made was in bringing in a 7 year old car to a dealership service department. Most dealer service departments do not regularly work on cars of that age, and they do not want to put their best people on such vehicles, because they know that it is going to require time for the tech to relearn all the 5-7 year old diagnostic procedures that they haven't been using for the last 3 years or so.
This is a case of "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" While he can try to get them to fix it for free, he better be prepared to yank the car out of there if they start talking billing him for anything, and unless they are an exceptional service department that is what they will do. He needs to develop a relationship with a good independent garage, as the mechanics in those places regularly see vehicles of his age.
Ted
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