A tale of woe...

[krazypaul]

I have a 1987 320i (and have had for 5 years now) that has suddenly become a bit of a pig.

Short story: It went to QAS (recently sold off to Nationwide Autocentres) in Filton, Bristol for an MOT and service. I was completely and utterly shafted, £1200 of repairs to brake lines, master & slave clutch cylinders and a few other minor bits and bobs.

Got car back (eventually) and after 5 days it wouldn't start at all (at 4am with my wife in labour was not a good time for this to happen!).

Tore strips out of garage manager, they agreed to recover vehicle back in and 'fix' it under the terms of their service guarantee.

After telling me that it was first, the crank shaft speed sensor, then deciding the fuel pump had gone, eventually I was told it was a dodgy earth on the fuel pump that was the issue which they 'fixed'.

Have had the car back for a week, it now has a coolant leak (don't know where from but had better not be the water pump as this was changed 18 months ago and surely should have been checked at service) and this morning it wouldn't fire up. It's not been driven since Sunday. Turned over, neally caught but wouldn't go.

I'm at my wit's end now, this car has been the most reliable thing for five years, never once failing to start regardless of how long it is left on the drive and now since going to this garage it has become a real pig.

Any advice?

yours, frustrated from Bristol....

kp

[bazza93]

change your garage, they are ripping you off.
take it back and tell them nothing was wrong until it went to them and you want it fixed and put right or you will be going to trading standards and reporting them

[krazypaul]

change your garage, they are ripping you off.
take it back and tell them nothing was wrong until it went to them and you want it fixed and put right or you will be going to trading standards and reporting them

I hear you!

It has been back, I've given them the chance to rectify the problems and i tried to get them to "re-calculate" their price..... They offered my wife a free service and MOT which we turned down, we got four new tyres for her car instead. I am reluctant to go back to them as each time it comes back, something else has gone wrong, therefore I have lost faith that they know what they are doing.

Lesson learned.

In fairness, the garage used to good when it was an independent garage (my wife used to take her car there, mine usually goes to an independent specialist in German cars) but since it has been taken over by a national company, it's gone to pot.

[bazza93]

find another independant don't use them nationals

[Brianmoooore]

In all fairness to the garage, this might just be an unhappy coincidence, and not their fault at all.
You have an intermittant fault, and it can be very difficult to diagnose a fault that isn't there!
Sounds like it could well be a fuel pump beginning to act up, but there are loads of other possibilities.
Agree with bazza about independents/nationals!

[krazypaul]

In all fairness to the garage, this might just be an unhappy coincidence, and not their fault at all.

I keep telling myself this in the hope that I won't feel quite so miffed...

You have an intermittant fault, and it can be very difficult to diagnose a fault that isn't there!

It's strange that this fault has only appeared since they messed with it...

Sounds like it could well be a fuel pump beginning to act up, but there are loads of other possibilities.

As it happens, a mate of mine lives across the road and works for an independent garage. He's going to look at it later and see what's what. I'll know a bit more then.

Agree with bazza about independents/nationals!

Believe you me, I would have never gone to a National intentionally, they have only recently been sold off to Nationwide Autocentres and yet they still 'trade' as QAS. If I'd known I would have gone elsewhere.

It seems I am not the only one who has fallen down to their "servicing" scams... They have a habit of exaggerating things according to these reviews http://www.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/Nationwid ... e__6493459

Having read some of the other starting problems within these pages, it might be worth mentioning that I had them change the blue temperature sensor (I had sourced it myself from Euro car parts some months back but never got round to fitting it) which improved the cold starting (in fairly clement weather) no end.

Before it ran like a bag of spanners until it had warmed up.

Maybe the recent cold weather is showing up a related problem with resistance on this?

kp

[tim_s]

Go to Beemer Redeemer in Keynsham. Talk to James.

[HairyScreech]

im afraid its a garage in bristol thats the problem. i bought the mini from a mechanic in bristol and it was a bloody shed to start with, and the bmw had a wing sprayed by a garage place in bristol acording to the recepts iv got, and its the wrong bloody colour.

[krazypaul]

It is difficult to find good mechanics in Bristol, I know. I used to live in Fishponds and took my car to Parkway auto (tucked away off Lodge Causeway) who were competent, not too expensive independent specialists in German cars. I only took the car to this garage because my wife had recommended them (this was before they had been sold off it turns out).

The guy who lives opposite works for First Choice Mechanics (FCM) but they are in St George which isn't exactly local to me but have a good rep.

I might well check out Beemer Redeemers but first of all I have to get the damn thing going again!

First things first though, I still have unfinished business with QAS, Nationwide. They haven't fixed the car as promised (the water leak shouldn't be there considering they have supposedly serviced the car, it sure as Hell didn't have a leak when it went in) and the start up problems still persist after they have claimed to have 'fixed' it. The logical thing to do is to demand that they rectify the car under their guarantee or I bring in trading standards.

On the other hand, I don't want them to touch my car again as I have no faith in their competence at all.

[sam325is]

that place ripp people off all day everyday. they are the same in cheltenham

[HairyScreech]

your other option is to get another garage to sort it and tell then to pay the bill of you will take them to the small claims court. as your well within you rights to do so.

[kevin316i]

I would be relcutant to bring the car back to them as if they are a bunch of muppets they might fix the current problems but break something else in the process. There was a local garage I used to bring my previous E30 (316i) for about nine years and was happy with the service. When I changed and got the iS I got them to do the work on it to get it through the NCT (Irish MOT) but the quality of service was bad. In one case they told me the fuel vent pipe needed to be replaced and when they did it the kinked the flixible connection at the end of it which meant it cut out on my on a busy road with the kids in the car. There were other items they just couldn't and wouldn't sort, so in the end I decided to walk away and find someone else. The guy who now works on the car is 10 times better that the previous lot, so I'm delighted to have moved and they have lost a loyal customer.

If you can get a trustworthy mechanic to check over your car and sort out the outstanding issues, then you have leverage in your complaint as you will have evidence these issues do actually exist and hopefully you can determine that they are as a result of the original garage's negligence, and hopefully you can get some of your money back in the small claims court.

[krazypaul]

An update.

My brother came up to see me on Sunday and had a look at the car.

I looked on the receipt of what the garage had claimed they had done for the service (a full magnatec service) and it doesn't say but from their website there is this pdf http://www.nationwideautocentres.co.uk/ ... hedule.pdf

On inspection of the car, the HT lead is in a sorry state, the plug has been taped on!. There is no evidence that the distributor cap has been taken off, no evidence that spark plugs have been changed.

As far as we can tell, they changed the air filter, the coolant and oil and slapped a bit of copper grease around...

Anyways, we cleaned up the parts, sprayed a bit of GT85 around and eventually fired up the car briefly but are now back to square one!

So current thinking is that damp has got in somewhere and that it is the ignition system that is playing up. Fuel pump seems to be okay, which makes me think that the CPS must be doing it's job also.

I do think I ought to report this to trading standards as the garage clearly hasn't done the work that is claimed and they have charged £188 for that service.

Happy New year...

kp

[damon_rymill]

I hope everything works out for you mate, and thanks for the warning. I was going to take my beloved E30 to Nationwide Autocentres in Barking but I wont be now thanks again mate and a happy new year to you all

Danny

[Gibson]

Report them.... nothing bad can happen to you becaue of it