Hi all,
So, Thursday morning my car breaks down an hour away from home. The car was over revving and struggling to get past 25mph. I call the RAC, an hour later the mechanic rings and says "I can get you in at a garage today to get a new clutch for £410". I said, hold fire, and see what you think first. He turns up, and says the clutch is slipping and that the car isn't going to make it much further. I have two options, tow it home or tow it to an RAC approved garage and get the clutch replaced.
The car gets towed to the garage as if I'd have got it towed home, it'd be stranded. I do not pay for the RAC home-start service, you have to break down 1.5 miles away from your house otherwise they don't come. I figured it's far easier to get it to their trusted garage in Brighton rather than paying carriage cost to my local garage back home.
So, car goes into the garage and later in the day the garage rings me and says the car is ready for collection. New clutch has been fitted. Bear in mind at this point, I had a new clutch fitted six months ago because the old one reached the end of its life. They said the old clutch had been fitted incorrectly, and that my usual garage hadn't tightened the bolts in opposites so it was sitting uneven, causing it to "rub on the pressure plate". They road tested it and it was okay.
I paid for the work (£410) and left. I got 10 miles down the road, and the symptoms started again. I was on a busy duel carriage way, struggling to do 30mph in 3rd gear. I broke down again and called the RAC at about 5pm.
The RAC turned up again (new mechanic this time) and said he was bemused. He'd spoken to the garage already and confirmed they were going to give me a courtesy car and he would tow my car back to the garage again so they could attempt to rectify the problem. This all happened and I stayed at my brother's overnight so I remained local and could pick it up the next day without having to do wasted journeys.
Today (Friday) they said the master cylinder was duff. Something about it not returning to it's position properly after being moved by the clutch pedal the further you went. Apparently, over night, it slowly returns to its position resulting in the car working fine again the next usel, until the problem replicates.
As I needed to be home, I said do it. This cost another £75 on top of the £410 I'd already paid. I queried their original diagnosis asking if the old clutch being removed was really necessary and they said it still stood because the clutch was still 'damaged'. I also asked if the car had been properly road tested, as he said their previous road test hadnt identified the problem because the road tests they do aren't long enough to force the problem. He said they had road tested the car fifteen miles (similiar to how far I got when I picked it up). Little did he know I photographed my speedo before handing the car back to them after the second road test. They only went 3.2 miles! I also photographed the evidence of this.
I retained the old clutch and my friend (who is a mechanic where I live) is going to inspect the part to see if there's anything actually wrong with it. He hasn't had time to do this yet, though I'll post whatever his findings are.
Where do I stand with this? The £75 is not my issue with the whole situation. Either way, that had to be done. But if the old clutch is found to be absolutely fine then I am very annoyed at wasting £410. If this was a total rip off, why was I taken by the RAC to their "Approved and recommended garage"? Most importantly, where do I stand in terms of a crap diagnosis on the garage's behalf?
Any help would be great, thanks.
So, Thursday morning my car breaks down an hour away from home. The car was over revving and struggling to get past 25mph. I call the RAC, an hour later the mechanic rings and says "I can get you in at a garage today to get a new clutch for £410". I said, hold fire, and see what you think first. He turns up, and says the clutch is slipping and that the car isn't going to make it much further. I have two options, tow it home or tow it to an RAC approved garage and get the clutch replaced.
The car gets towed to the garage as if I'd have got it towed home, it'd be stranded. I do not pay for the RAC home-start service, you have to break down 1.5 miles away from your house otherwise they don't come. I figured it's far easier to get it to their trusted garage in Brighton rather than paying carriage cost to my local garage back home.
So, car goes into the garage and later in the day the garage rings me and says the car is ready for collection. New clutch has been fitted. Bear in mind at this point, I had a new clutch fitted six months ago because the old one reached the end of its life. They said the old clutch had been fitted incorrectly, and that my usual garage hadn't tightened the bolts in opposites so it was sitting uneven, causing it to "rub on the pressure plate". They road tested it and it was okay.
I paid for the work (£410) and left. I got 10 miles down the road, and the symptoms started again. I was on a busy duel carriage way, struggling to do 30mph in 3rd gear. I broke down again and called the RAC at about 5pm.
The RAC turned up again (new mechanic this time) and said he was bemused. He'd spoken to the garage already and confirmed they were going to give me a courtesy car and he would tow my car back to the garage again so they could attempt to rectify the problem. This all happened and I stayed at my brother's overnight so I remained local and could pick it up the next day without having to do wasted journeys.
Today (Friday) they said the master cylinder was duff. Something about it not returning to it's position properly after being moved by the clutch pedal the further you went. Apparently, over night, it slowly returns to its position resulting in the car working fine again the next usel, until the problem replicates.
As I needed to be home, I said do it. This cost another £75 on top of the £410 I'd already paid. I queried their original diagnosis asking if the old clutch being removed was really necessary and they said it still stood because the clutch was still 'damaged'. I also asked if the car had been properly road tested, as he said their previous road test hadnt identified the problem because the road tests they do aren't long enough to force the problem. He said they had road tested the car fifteen miles (similiar to how far I got when I picked it up). Little did he know I photographed my speedo before handing the car back to them after the second road test. They only went 3.2 miles! I also photographed the evidence of this.
I retained the old clutch and my friend (who is a mechanic where I live) is going to inspect the part to see if there's anything actually wrong with it. He hasn't had time to do this yet, though I'll post whatever his findings are.
Where do I stand with this? The £75 is not my issue with the whole situation. Either way, that had to be done. But if the old clutch is found to be absolutely fine then I am very annoyed at wasting £410. If this was a total rip off, why was I taken by the RAC to their "Approved and recommended garage"? Most importantly, where do I stand in terms of a crap diagnosis on the garage's behalf?
Any help would be great, thanks.
Bloody expensive experience though.
