Always get a second opinion

Rilot

Rilot

Rilot

Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
23,789
Location
Wargrave, UK
My Rangie had a nasty clunking sound when turning the steering from lock to lock and also the steering felt a little loose. I figured it was a bush or a ball joint.
I replaced the ARB droplinks as they're only £9.25 each and can cause the described symptom. No joy so I took it to a large, well-renowned indy for a diagnosis......
Rangie needs a new steering rack at a price of £1700+VAT+fitting. So, not much change from £3k as the engine needs to be lifted to swap it out.

Somewhat annoyed by this I decided to think on it for a few days before authorising the work. Maybe source a recon or used rack. Maybe do the job myself. Anyway, I started to think while I was looking at pictures of Rangie steering racks that I just couldn't imagine how it could fail in such a way that would demonstrate the described symptoms.

So, I called another indy. A small local one just up the road from me. Told him the symptoms and he booked it in. It turns out that he has to drive past my house on the way to work so he offered to pick the Rangie up and give it a good drive to the workshop to listen for the knock.
So, on Monday, away goes my Rangie only to be returned later that day with a bill for £53. The knock was a loose trackrod end ball joint which the indy replaced for me. Knock fixed. Steering now nice and tight.

Big thanks to Greaves 4x4. You will now get all of my servicing and repair business.

So, when faced with a big bill on your car, always get a second opinion.

TLDR: Garage says £3k work needed to fix Rangie, other garage fixes fault for £53.
 
That's terrible, I hate dealing with garages.

Had my own run in today with one. My sisters Nissan sprung a leak from back of engine. It was really bad so I lent her my car and dropped it into a local independent on Saturday who seemed very helpful. They said they couldn't do it till Monday which was understandable and they said they were not very busy.

Monday I hear nothing so I phone them at 5:30pm to be told they only just got it on the ramp. They find a split hose and will get it and fix Tuesday. I wait all day Tuesday and again phone at 5:30pm. I get told now it is a dealer only part that is coming in Wednesday first thing and the car will be done by mid morning.

I phone lunchtime today and it still has not been touched, in addition they now want 3 hours labour instead of the quoted 1. They are not sure they can do it today. I query the labour and got a mouth full of angry mechanic. He then tells me the car is all rotten underneath. I query that too as the car had an MOT last week and had no advisers. I ask if I can come along and look as if it is that bad it might effect if she wants it fixed. Guy gets all shirty again and says no, but he will have it done by 3pm. It wasn't finished till 4:30, and has cost a staggering £220. The hose was £19.

Rip off, but she had to have the car back today.
 
Third Opinion, not very professional of the garage in question to be sure. However, some hoses can be a nightmare to replace.
Try replacing the infamous valley-pipe on any Jaguar supercharged V8. When (not "if") it fails it a 6 hour job to replace a part that costs £3.50.
 
Rilot said:
Third Opinion, not very professional of the garage in question to be sure. However, some hoses can be a nightmare to replace.
Try replacing the infamous valley-pipe on any Jaguar supercharged V8. When (not "if") it fails it a 6 hour job to replace a part that costs £3.50.
Click to expand...

Yeah I appreciate that, I had one done as a precaution on the Alfa V6 as they said it looked perished when they changed the oil filter. That was £150 for a £10 hose.

But this was just a Nissan Almera. Looking at it now I wish I had had ago myself.
 
It seems to be the prevailing opinion online that indy = amazing and dealer = scum but to be honest I've long found that there is just as much if not more variability in competency with indys as there is with dealers. They just seem so spout all sorts and expect you to take the garages word for it as they are 'a specialist'.
 
The confusion primarily comes from people referring to all independents as "specialists", when in actual fact they are nothing of the sort.
 
What happens when the steering rack is replaced at great expense and that doesn't solve the problem? You have relied on their expert(?) advice and it won't have fixed the root cause, perhaps then they find the track rod end issue, fix it, but you are still net £3k out of pocket as you didn't need it in the first place.

I couldn't see them offering a refund so curious as to what would happen in that scenario.
 
Steering rack? Didn't think the range rovers had a conventional steering rack... unless it one of those new ones?
Good result on the local garage knowing what they're doing.
 
As a matter of course, if I'm needing a second opinion, I'll run it past two garages I use regularly for that if I can't actually get to see the first one coming to their conclusion.
 
[TW]Fox;24480275 said:
It seems to be the prevailing opinion online that indy = amazing and dealer = scum but to be honest I've long found that there is just as much if not more variability in competency with indys as there is with dealers. They just seem so spout all sorts and expect you to take the garages word for it as they are 'a specialist'.
Click to expand...

This has been my experience as well. My dealings with two highly respected VAG specialists were:
a quote for a full service of £270. When I started probing about just what that entailed (a fair question I thought) they went very quiet after filters, oil and a "check over". When I threw in a very open ended "spark plugs?" I got "This is the first service we've ever done on this particular car. We aren't sure what it needs..." Suffice to say I didn't go ahead with it.

The other misdiagnosed a faulty secondary air pump as a faulty alternator after me specifically asking them to check the air pump (it even had a fault code logged) and they said it was fine.

All in all I've found that the savings are minimal and it is nice to have a decent courtesy car rather than a '99 Golf 1.9D with a caved in sill and a speedo that read 70mph at a GPS speed of 86mph...

Dealers are my first port of call these days. edit - for the Punto anyway. Local oily rag place will do what I can't on the MX5.
 
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To be fair I'm pretty good most of the time but even I screw up diagnosis occasionally.

Twice recently, once on my own car!
My Disco for eg. The steering started to get notchy, so I changed the fluid (£15) that weirdly fixed it for a few days (how I don't know) then it came back..
So then I was thinking well it's either going to be the steering box or the steering pump that's on it's way out. (having flushed the fluid the week before I did notice a certain amount of metal particles on the filter at the bottom of the reservoir)
So the steering box is £270 exchange and the steering pump was £86, so I opt to change the pump first and hope for the best. :o
:( That made no difference, so I glumly ordered the steering box and sucked it up.
Fitted the steering box at home one weekend evening and it took me about six hours of scrabbling around on the floor (including popping out to B&Q for a Blow torch @ £73 to get the steering arm off the box) and another £15 quids worth of fluid.
Going to work the next day and steering wheel wasn't straight so I thought, no bother, must have got it a spline or two out, I can do that in my lunch hour.
On fiddling with the steering column UJ's to realign things I notice one was very difficult to line up, so I pulled the whole lot out for a closer look. Only to find one of the UJ's was seized solid.. a £93 part that can be fitted in fifteen minutes. :o

The other was a misfiring 20v turbo Golf, a customers car. :o
Customer had already bought plugs so I fitted those first anyway and sure enough No.3 was clearly coloured differently to the others on removal of the old ones.... Misfire still there.
These have a common failure on the coil packs so I pop off thecoil pack plugs while it's running and sure enough the engine note stays the same when No3. coil is unplugged.
A quick compression test later and I decide the coil pack is FUBAR...
£24 new coil pack and .... :o misfire still there.
:o :o

It was the fuel injector.
 
Finding a garage you can trust is very hard, I feel for those who have no idea about cars, they must be conned left right and centre.

May cars only see a garage if I cba to do the work myself, I'm lucky I have a specialist I can trust and know the owner of very well.
 
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