| Did Main Dealer break my FF | |
Hello.
mods: please move if you think there is a more appropriate place for this question.
I am seeking advice on what action (if any) people here think I should take.
Bit of background first. My FF went into a Main Dealer near the end of last year because of a knocking when going over bumps (like the myriad of potholes that seem to breed faster than rabbits these days) which they diagnosed as needing some new bushes on the drivers side which they do by replacing the whole arm but I specifically asked about the passengers and the service guy said they were fine. The same comment was made by the technician working on my FF on a video the garage sent me. Roll on 2 weeks and knocking was back so went back in and they diagnosed it was the passengers side. Not overly happy at this as if they had checked better first time could have saved a load of time and some money getting them all done together. They also said on the 2nd visit that it needed a new boot on one of the front hubs which would be an MOT failure so had them fix that too (why was it fine 2 weeks before too....). Got a call just before I was going to pick it up from the second lot of work (they had had it 2 days already) to say they wanted to keep the car for a couple more days because they hadn't got any clips to hold the new boot in place. I was very unhappy and needed the car back so said no and would get it fixed later.
A month or so back I booked it in with the same dealer to perform a service, MOT, boot and to investigate the oil leak causing smoke though the headlights. I had already replaced the o rings so had a feeling it was a problem with the oil cooler. They did all the work but said the oil cooler was faulty and oil was in the coolant so it needed a new cooler, expansion bottle and a couple of other bits. Was booked in the following week for a couple more days to do that work. As many will know, to replace the cooler, you need to remove the plenum chamber and the attached hoses.
A day or so after I got it back, it started going into restricted performance mode. I have an BT IIDTool and checked and it was logging no fault codes (only one there was that ghost fault about egr temp sensor which has been there since I got the vehicle last year). Turning off, locking the car, unlocking and starting cleared it. Also, clearing the engine ECU faults also cleared it which meant I could actually clear it while driving.
Phoned the dealer who said it was unrelated and wanted £180 just to look at it despite it only starting after they ‘fixed’ the last problem.
I decided not to pay them that so instead took it to a local indy who managed to track it down to one of the hoses on the plenum having a split in it under one of the clips. Replaced the hose and all seems ok.
While I understand that hoses can perish, I find it highly suspicious with the timing and given the previous inability of the technicians to notice issues, I have no issue believing that they assembled it broken and didn’t even notice.
What are peoples opinions on this? Should I be going back to the dealer and asking them to pay the indy’s bill (possibly less the hose cost) as if they had been upfront about it breaking when disassembling/reassembling then that’s all it would have cost me?
Thanks.
Ian. Current: RR L322 2010
Past: RR L405 2017, RR L322 2012, 2008 & 2004, 2018 D5, 2016 Defender, 2011 D4, a few Disco2s, P38, RR Classic, couple of Disco1's, SIII SWB
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23rd May 2018 6:08pm
