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Model specific boards => Golf mk4 => Topic started by: Nino on 13 September 2012, 20:20
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Right im sure some of you will remember my engine mount snapped last week while driving over a speed hump (in 1st gear).
I rang the AA as I have cover and they sent one of there contracters out to me.
So I get a phonecall the next day and they tell me what I already knew that my engine mount had snapped as well as a few bolts.
They said I need a new part, Part number 1J0 199 262 BF now looking up this part I can see it comes in two sep bits.
They also said that in order to repair this mount my entire engine has to be removed.
Costing a total of £928 inc vat as it would take 16 hours laybour!
I managed to knock them down to £722, I thought Ouch big lump of money but at least I got abit of discount.
Picked the car up monday all seems fine drives nice again :)
Speaking to my friend (who used to be a macanic) and he asked to have a look, and the 1st thing he said to me was, "mate your engine has not come out" he then pointed to certain bolts, pipes etc that would of had to have been undone/removed inorder for the engine to come out, and looking at them you can clearly see these bolts have not moved in YEARS!!
He then pointed at my new engine mount and said to me Thats bit is brand new but the other bit is your old part!
As you see im not happy!
First thing I did when I got home was ring the AA and tell them the story and explain to them that I want them to come out to investergate my car and tell me if work that supposed to have been done has been done e.g engine removed.
As I am leading to beleave that I have been over charged for work that has not been done and for parts that were already mine.
They told me I have to take photocopys of my paperwork from the garage that did the work, (who they reconmended) write a letter explain all this and my concerns and request them to inspect my car and send that to the complaint department and hope they answer me!
In the meantime I am thinking of getting a local garage to have a look and if they will for a fee ask them to write and an offcail report to what they beleave has been done or not done.
But where do I go from there? Im feel gutted/worried and to be honest abit depressed by this, that was alot of money for me and im scared that something bad could happen?
What do you think guys? sorry for the essy btw.
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Grab the bull by the horns and go and ser the manager of the company that done the work, ask him/her to tell you what has been done.
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yup, first point of call is garage, if you get no joy then take it further, just make sure you take plenty of pics of engine parts and date them.
engine doesnt have to come out for mount anyway, im pretty sure even vw dont list this as necessary, might be worth gettting them to write a statement saying its unneccesary work that "has been done"
good luck with it tho mate, dont take no sh!t
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To be honest if I contact the garage that did it surely there gunna tell me they did what they said they did?
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To be honest if I contact the garage that did it surely there gunna tell me they did what they said they did?
did the invoice have a list of the work they done :smiley:
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To be honest if I contact the garage that did it surely there gunna tell me they did what they said they did?
did the invoice have a list of the work they done :smiley:
It says and I quote..
Details
Engine mount 1x £95.28
Labour £512
Total
Vatable items £607.28
VAT @ 20% £121.46
Total invoice value £728.74
''Inspect and find 2x Bolts Snapped in Engine block.
Requires new Engine mount and 3x bolts. Supply and fit new engine mount and bolts.
Test and all ok."
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so what they are saying is you would need to remove the engine to renew the timing belt as you need to take that engine mount off to change the timing belt they are talking out of there ass have to remove the engine to put a mount on would be going back to the garage and asking why they had to take the engine out
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Its not the fact of replacing the mount..its that the bolts needed drilled out, right?
Go and see the garage if your not happy, ask them what they done, if you have a different opinion then tell them.
Go at them Leroy Jenkins style!
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surely it's not too much hassle drilling some snapped bolts out?
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It is if you cant get the bloodly drill in
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i swear there is a post somewhere about replacing your engine mounts and it only requires axle stands and new mounts which would of been probably half that price?!
they may of replaced your cambelt if that was rubbing as well when it dropped but if you get an independent opinion from a seperate garage that the work that was supposed to have been done wasnt then you have a case.
i had problems the AA as well and the garage they recommended "supposedly" replaced my clutch cable and all associated bits and bobs from clutch to peddle however took it to VW to be certain everything was done as it felt grainy when pushing the clutch down and it was found that the AA's recommendation had not replaced the snapped clutch link but WELDED it together. so wasnt happy plus they didnt replace all the parts they dais they had, got on the blower, had a word with the AA and the garage and after a few warning shots across their bows with getting the Fair trades involved and other associated bodies who deal with garage performance and award the Green Garage club to exceptional members, the AA refunded all £1500 which was the apparant labour and parts that i was supposed to have done, redid all the work and compensation with a years free Lvl 4 Euro breakdown for ALL the cars in the family.
they blamed the garage and have excommunicated them from their list of valued garages due to it.
you think it doesnt happen but it does, my current mechanic knows i'd break his fingers if he ever snuffed me on my vehicle...and then my girlfriend would disown him as a cousin lol (joking)
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First things first I thin kI will get my car checked on monday by an independant garage, if i find what I beleave to be true I will then Ring the garage that did the work and tell them I have had it looked at, spoke to the AA and passed on a report to them and ask them what exzactly? :undecided:
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I dont trust any garage, they need a good profit at the end of the day. My brother worked in one for a year. They love your money and do half the job. Like trying to do tracking, lol RTS (RATTLE TAP SPANNER).They will say the work was done. :evil: No one ever got a refund even though another garage said it never got done. :huh: .There are good garage out there. I have a vw tec friend he would suppy and fit a new clutch for £150. You paid way to much. :shocked:
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I dont trust any garage, they need a good profit at the end of the day. My brother worked in one for a year. They love your money and do half the job. Like trying to do tracking, lol RTS (RATTLE TAP SPANNER).They will say the work was done. :evil: No one ever got a refund even though another garage said it never got done. :huh: .There are good garage out there. I have a vw tec friend he would suppy and fit a new clutch for £150. You paid way to much. :shocked:
+1
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I dont trust any garage, they need a good profit at the end of the day. My brother worked in one for a year. They love your money and do half the job. Like trying to do tracking, lol RTS (RATTLE TAP SPANNER).They will say the work was done. :evil: No one ever got a refund even though another garage said it never got done. :huh: .There are good garage out there. I have a vw tec friend he would suppy and fit a new clutch for £150. You paid way to much. :shocked:
+1
i definatly agree, but i also got a full refund on ALL cost and a fully OEM clutch straight up refit with all components of the clutch redone
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I'm gunna ring Vw today and ask if they will inspect my car Monday and give me an officail report
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Yeah I would Defo get a manufactures report and show it whoever will listen that's the easiest way to get your money back , if that fails set up a money claim threw courts website if you have proof they owe you money it won't even get to court, I refuse to leave mine at any garage now even when it means sitting there freezing for 4 hours lol good luck mate
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give matt allwright a call....... watchdog rogue traders :wink:
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didnt you knock £200 off the price they charged you ? if i priced a job and the customer knocked down the price i would have to find a way to do the job cheaper. it would have been a pig of a job to do , and it sounds to me like the mechanic used his skills to not remove the engine , and tbh if it was my car i would rather it was done without the engine being removed and as much stuff under the bonnet left in place to avoid futher problems. it does seem you were over charged tho !
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price still eems incredibly high to change an engine mount no matter what skills you use to do it :shocked:
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its dificult!
if i quote a job to take the toilet out and reinstate aftter the works is compleet, then i dont do that, and finish the job 2 hrs earlier than the quote! i charge them for what i have done!
i guess he saw the eiser option, and still charged! as per the original quote! :undecided: tough one really!
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ripped the poor bugger off i call it mate i always agree on a price first for the work for my car and then i know its always nearly 50 quid more when i pick it up which i refuse to pay as i was quoted one price to start with
what we on about again :grin:
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na iv seen u cully! youd take my arm of me if ya could!! :rolleyes:
depends! i ushally charge less if it takes less time! which, not removing the engine would have been! :whistle:
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na iv seen u cully! youd take my arm of me if ya could!! :rolleyes:
depends! i ushally charge less if it takes less time! which, not removing the engine would have been! :whistle:
oops forgot you have seen me damn :grin:
didnt notice the bits missing off your car at inters then i take it :laugh:
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What bits :grin:
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:lipsrsealed: :wink:
did it run quite poo on the way home :tongue: :grin:
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My guess is they quoted worse case but the job was easier, I would be speaking to them and saying your not happy with the invoice.
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My car is booked in to my local garage first thing monday morning there are going to fully inspect my car for me, then write a report stating what they have uncovered.
If my thoughts are correct I will then with all my evidance, ring up the garage that did the work, and record my call, via videoing from my iphone.
I will pop them on loud speaker and ask them over the phone what exactly was done on my car, basically I am aiming to get them to say that they removed my engine and replaced the engine mount with a brand new one, then I will hit them with my evidance and ask them what they are prepeared to do about it for me not to take it any further.
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Did u manage to get any cash back mate ?
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Right little update, I went to my garage and he took a really big look to be fair, He confirmed that my engine has not come out at all but said the full engine mount has infact been replaced just not the bracket on the block.
He looked up the part number for me and I was wrong the new mount does not include the part connected to the block.
But I was right the engine DID NOT come out.
BUT... and here is where is gets hard, he asked me word for word what did the other garage say to me on the phone.
And I said, "They said that my engine has to be removed from the car in order to change the engine mount and it would consist of 16 hours labour"
He then turned to me and said the problem is them says the engine had to be removed, could mean that they had to undo the other engine mounts and jack up the engine abit to drill out the old parts, and a specialist tool may of been used to remove the snapped bolts hence the high price in labour.
He also said that because I agreed for the work to be done with them that I entered into a verbal contract and he feels that if I took it to court I would not win the case.
He said he advises me that I would send my letter to the AA and request them to investagate this matter as to why the labour was so much as my garage said this job at his garage would of cost £250ish max.
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then your best thing to do would to record a conversation with the garage who did the work asking specific questions such as: "HOW were the bolts drilled?", "What tools were used?", "Who carried out the work?" (this was particularly useful for me as when i then asked the specific mechanic he went against everything his manager stated), "Why did it take 16hours?" etc etc, ask them exploratory questions and not direct questions for if you guide the conversation then they would of prepared for eventualities. i learnt that in criminal investigative techniques, better them dig their own hole as apposed to you telling them where to dig so to speak, and also try adding a convincing tone rather than sounding as if your new to this, it may be a bit late as the work is done but at some point they would crumble with continued interrogation, depends on how hard nosed the guy is though.
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The other garage is right you entered into a verbal contract but not to be ripped of £700 to drill a couple of bolt is taking the piss