Re: Damage to car at garage

Even if they did cause a premature failure of the clutch, I can't see how it could be proved. It is conceivable that it's failure whilst the car was in their possession is simply coincidental as they claim. It might be better to see if the garage is prepared to accept some sort of compromise on the cost of repair. Mike.

In article , Mark Hewitt writes

Oh but they really can try hard at times.

I took a car to a service centre once and the muppet who drove it from the car park to the garage revved it so hard black smoke was poring from the exhaust pipe.

When I picked it up the tappets were rattling so hard I complained, they solved the problem by tightening them down so much the car stalled when idling, after a return the next day and an unpleasant scene in reception they fixed it, I didn't darken their doorstep again and they were a well known national chain.

Mike

lol, I remember giving my Dad a lift to a motorway recovery garage near Atherton (M6, outside Manchester), to reclaim his car that'd conked out the previous weekend - the garage had attempted to repair / replace the distributor, then claimed it all worked again. Got there Saturday morning to find his car still on the ramps with the dissie in bits. After much arguing and wrangling he decided to pay for the work (not) done and I'd tow him home (20 miles up the A6 back to Preston, via roundabout-hell that is Chorley - oh what fun). Anyway, apart from f**king up parts of his electrical system they used a recovered stolen car (I think, beyond the towing part it all gets a bit hazy). to tow it off the ramps. Dropping over the side of the ramp. Anyway, long story short - they managed to torch the clutch completely dragging this poor Tipo (aha, that explains the knackered electrics) back onto and over the ramp.

So. Yes, a garage can easily destroy the clutch of someone else's car.

Have it towed to another garage to be fixed. That way they don't get paid to fix the fault if the y did cause it.

I once had a gearbox repaired at a main Ford dealer who thankfully no longer exists. When I got the car back it would ocasionally make a knocking noise particularly when turning on near full lock. I took it back and they said they couldn't find the problem but it was still knocking. After a few days it started jumping out of gear so it went back again. They said they cured the problem but a day later it jumped out of gear again.

Eventually in frustration I put it up on ramps and got under the car myself. I discovered mostly by feel that several of the bolts holding the gearbox together were undone (not just loose). They must have been like that since the gearbox repair a week earlier. One bolt head was projecting 1/2" and it was knocking on a cross member when the engine moved slightly in it's rubber mounting blocks. That was also putting load on the gear stick mechanisim and causing it to jump out of gear. Tightening the bolts cured all the problems.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mark Hewitt" saying something like:

I've known centre pieces fall out of clutches with no warning at all, yet the crack's been developing for ages without the driver having the slightest inkling of it. So yes, the garage could be telling the truth.

Otoh, one of the apprentices could have been doing handbrake turns in the back yard - there's simply no way of knowing.

Or like the car we took into a Peugeot main dealer, under warranty, because it was almost impossible to start when cold.

'Oh yes fixed that, no problem," they said. Only when they came to give the car back to us, they couldn't get it out of their car park because it wouldn't start.