RAC/Garage woes - Where do I stand?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DcD
  • Start date Start date
DcD said:
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
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Can I just point out, regarding this you can be towed home, once home you can do some research and book the car into a garage etc.

Then when you are ready to have the car towed from home to the garage, you merely state you are continuing an already open recovery case.

This as seen as you are being towed from where you were recovered from yesterday, aka an hour from home.

It's not seen as you are now starting a new journey from home.

So home recovery/start/cover etc does not come into it. The only catch is that the garage needs to be something like 10 miles within the distance of them starting the second part of your recovery.
 
dalin80 said:
As I mentioned in the post above yours I have not seen a master cylinder stick in such a fashion and would be interested to see if that was the case. If the master was to be sticking or otherwise faulty I would imagine that the first thing you would notice would be a poor feel to the pedal which the OP didn't mention.
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I have had a master cylinder jam before, it is more common than you would think, mine was on a brake so the brakes kept jamming on :)
 
Clutch is ****ed again...

It now won't get into gear, I literally have to ram the gear stick in as the clutch pedal feels really soft. It's almost as though the clutch pedal isn't doing anything at all.

Spoke to the RAC who refuse to have anything to do with the fact the garage have made my car worse off, and are washing their hands of the entire situation, saying their contract with me ended when their patrol left the scene. Great!

The garage on the other hand want to see the car again (despite being 50 miles away) and are still sticking to their guns. What a surprise.

I've got my car booked in with my local trusted garage, who are going to inspect the old clutch and see if there's anything wrong with it, and try and diagnose/fix the current problem. If they come back saying there is nothing wrong with the old clutch I'm going to talk to Trading Standards and/or take the garage to small claims court.

I don't want to return my car to the dodgy garage because I don't trust them at all. Does this all sound like a decent enough game-plan?
 
DcD said:
I've got my car booked in with my local trusted garage, who are going to inspect the old clutch and see if there's anything wrong with it, and try and diagnose/fix the current problem. If they come back saying there is nothing wrong with the old clutch I'm going to talk to Trading Standards and/or take the garage to small claims court.
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As already said, if the clutch was slipping, it would make perfect sense to change it. I think you`ll find that it is not worth keeping.

I can see this from the garages point of view too, they fixed a car, its faulty so they want to look at it. The fact you live 50 miles away isn`t their fault. :confused:

However, I`d also point out you don`t believe what they are saying and they didn`t road test it properly the first time.

Tough one.

Did they change the slave or master cylinder ?
 
I've just been told there is absolutely nothing wrong with the clutch. Sigh.
 
DcD said:
I've just been told there is absolutely nothing wrong with the clutch. Sigh.
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Call the CAB, they can be quite good with garages and bills. The other thing is if you paid by credit card you do have some protection with them.

Not to bore you but my car was serviced and needed new tyres. The price was good so I saved myself the hassle and got the garage to do them. 3 months down the line my wife got a puncture. When she took the car to a tyre place they said all four were practically illegal. It turned out they had fitted the wrong load and speed rating.

I phoned garage who were uninterested, then called CAB. They were great but the real changer was when I called the credit card company. I don't know what was said but 4 new tyres of better brand and quality were fitted free of charge the next day.
 
Third Opinion said:
Call the CAB, they can be quite good with garages and bills. The other thing is if you paid by credit card you do have some protection with them.

Not to bore you but my car was serviced and needed new tyres. The price was good so I saved myself the hassle and got the garage to do them. 3 months down the line my wife got a puncture. When she took the car to a tyre place they said all four were practically illegal. It turned out they had fitted the wrong load and speed rating.

I phoned garage who were uninterested, then called CAB. They were great but the real changer was when I called the credit card company. I don't know what was said but 4 new tyres of better brand and quality were fitted free of charge the next day.
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I paid debit card (visa debit) - is that the same?
 
I am not sure, there may well be purchase protection on it. The thing with the credit card is it is their money and purchase till you pay it back.

It is something under section 75 if I recall, I think some apply to debit cards.
 
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A bit of a tangent but is it normal to pay £410 for a new clutch? I paid around £100 on my Mr2 or is it dependent on car?
 
bobuk said:
bJN... why not just heli coil the spark plug hole £45.oo tops and good as new.
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This is what I will be doing starting on it this weekend. But not going to do a half-arsed job and do it properly, so going to be stripping everything down and cleaning all the muck out properly.

Will be interesting to see if the helicoil holds though...
 
Frenzy said:
A bit of a tangent but is it normal to pay £410 for a new clutch? I paid around £100 on my Mr2 or is it dependent on car?
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The clutch alone in my car is £85. Then a few hours labour at £50-60, then VAT. My previous clutch was £350 without VAT. London prices!
 
pepsilol said:
Can I just point out, regarding this you can be towed home, once home you can do some research and book the car into a garage etc.

Then when you are ready to have the car towed from home to the garage, you merely state you are continuing an already open recovery case.

This as seen as you are being towed from where you were recovered from yesterday, aka an hour from home.

It's not seen as you are now starting a new journey from home.

So home recovery/start/cover etc does not come into it. The only catch is that the garage needs to be something like 10 miles within the distance of them starting the second part of your recovery.
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This isn't standard procedure. The RAC refused to do this for me without charging me.
 
[This is what I will be doing starting on it this weekend. But not going to do a half-arsed job and do it properly, so going to be stripping everything down and cleaning all the muck out properly.

Will be interesting to see if the helicoil holds though...]

I take it that you have never used a heli coil kit before, it's not a half-arsed repair. So I presume that by doing the correct repair you will be renewing the cylinder head then.
I've have repaired many stripped threads with helicoils most in aluminum and never had a failure yet.
 
Okay guys - I just picked up my car from my normal garage. The entire problem was caused by a leak on the rubber bit of the slave cylinder. Why on Earth would you not check such an obvious thing first time around?! My normal garage has offered to do a full report on paper of whta they've found, explaining how unnecessary it was to take out the clutch and master cylinder first. I should be receiving this next week.

In the mean time, as I said I'm going to get the old clutch inspected by an independent garage. If the clutch is not damaged in any way, then I will add it to my list of evidence. I am 99.9% sure this will come back in my favour, as three seperate mechanics have looked at it now saying it's fine. However, these aren't formal sources as they are friends.

So far I have;
  • Full report by good garage stating what the problem was all along.
  • Invoice of old clutch being fitted, dated April 2012.
  • Inspection of old clutch stating that the component is not damaged nor faulty.
  • Photographic evidence of mileage, proving that dodgy garage lied about doing an extended road test. They took the car 3 miles, rather than the 10-15 miles they claimed to have done.

I plan on sending photocopies of all of this, plus a cover letter laying it all out to them in writing. I am going to request the reimbursement of all the labour of the two jobs (new clutch & master cylinder fitting). To try and sweeten the deal for them, I'm going to offer to still foot the cost of the new parts.

I'm going to formerly request the above in writing. However, I'm going to say that if they don't play ball on this request, I'll be sending the same evidence and letter to the RAC as a formal complaint about their approved garage, and also to the trading standards & CAB, and from there, if necessary, I'll be taking things into legal proceedings.

I am opting for written communication rather than talking to them over the phone as A) I want a paper trail, and B) I can make copies of my replies for mechanic friends to see and correct any professional wording/car speak.

Does this all sound like a good plan to you guys?



On a seperate note, I'll be talking to the RAC anyway in an attempt to get my three call outs reinstated on my membership due to their shoddy approved garage!
 
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