Hugh bill from the mechanic

[Firstimer]

Hi,

As a first timer both with Merc and generally with a car, I need your advice desperately:

*Bought the C220 cdi coupe Auto, reg 53 with 88k miles last May from a dealer called London Car Direct (used to based in Kew till recently, now we can't find them anywhere) with 1 year warranty.
*Hardly used it aside from local runs over weekends.
Last month noticed that the car doesnt pull, no acceleration or power what so ever. After we travelled to Oxford 10 days ago, when we headed back to London the engine light came up.
First thing last Tuesday, took the car to the mechanic in Fulham. He looked at it and thought that it's the Turbo inter cooler which was the problem. It wasn't. He then checked the Turbo charger and was convinced that this part needs replacing. We went back to the warranty company and they wanted to check the part before they can cover the costs. Then, the mechanic called me yesterday to say that after he has removed the Turbo charger, he found the root of the problem, which is the catalytic convertor and also another pipe (can't remember which now). He has given me the good news: "the car is ready", and the bad new: there is a bill of £1600 VAT exc
(530 for the cat convertor, 251 for the pipe, 406 for another part and 420 for 6 hours of his work) that the warrenty company doesn't cover.

NOW, if you read up to this point, thank you! I am not in a position to pay so much money and I am worried I've been taking for a ride by both the mechanic and the warenty company.

PLEASE PLEASE any advice on how to proceed from here and whether we should just pay the bill. What do I need to ask of the mechanic in order to make sure he has actually replaced these parts and we are not being taken for some people with no mechanic experience, hence can be easily fooled.

 

[television]

The down pipe and upper CATs can block and you will see the new pipe


Wait for other advice in the morning

 

[Firstimer]

Thanks Malcolm, I will

wait for the morning as you suggested.

 

[Cosworth]

Ask the mechanic to privide you with all old parts. So you can see what he has replaced.

If he has bought these parts new, ask him to show you the bill from the company where they were bought.

Not sure if you can argue about the labour, unless it was agreed in the beginning.

If you end up paying the bill, get everying in writing.

Normaly these warranty companys are scammers, they don't like paying out.

They will normaly ask you two question.

1) Was the problem wear and tear

2) Was it a failure.


If you tell them it was wear and tear, they will tell you their not interested.

Tell them this was a failure.

Take all old parts as evidance.

I hope this helps and i'm sure others will also have good advice.

 

[len_merclover]

Hi there if you read my post the similar thing has happended to me..... not the mechanic 'doing me over' but the sudden power loss. I had a mechanic tell me it was my turbo!? Now seems you was told the same and it wasnt ................ I have only had a merc for 1 week and already I am becoming frustrated at these computers they plug in. . . seems they may be related to a bank or something?!

my update:
http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?p=237811#post237811

 

[MotardMan]

No WORK should have been done unless it was agreed in advance. Any parts removed from the car are your property, so get them back.

Before allowing the mechanic to touch the car, agree the labour rate. My insurers only pay up to a ceiling amount and you have to apt the balance on labour.

Check the terms for part replacement. If it is worn out, then it is not covered, generally.

All this is prolly too late for you now. Sorry about that.

 

[sweeper]

Well, you should only pay for the faulty part and a reasonable sum to fault find, i always tend to suggest a Mercedes garage for fault diagnosis, as they have the equipment and the experience and you can expect to argue that they should be able to diagnose quickly as they are trained specificaly on Mercedes cars, so they may be expensive but should spend less time on diagnosis (or at least charge less time than they spend if they can't diagnose correctly first time)

 

[A210AMG]

Hello,

I guess we may be missing some of the story?

You dropped the car off with him what was agreed?

If he has simply changed the parts one by one in order to get to the fault without letting you know then surely thats wrong. He should have rang you up at each point to say it needs part X and its £££ or it also needs part Y and that £££. Did you know know the labour charge before he started the job?

Sorry not sure what you can do now only ask for ALL the faulty parts back and argue with the warranty people for paying. I guess you have to pay a percentage of the labout as most cover say to a max of £40 hr unless you have said you want it uplifed (and pay more)

The parts he has changed? doubt the CAT's covered?

Good luck sorting it

 

[merc convert]

From my past experience of having warranty work done, the warranty company will usualy ask for a full report/diagnosis of faults. Subject to the findings of that they then ask for costings and then authorise work to commence. The garage I have used had full contact with the warranty company so both parties know what will be paid for and you should be notified of any costs to yourself. All warranties have limits and exclusions you need to be extremely careful of what you tell the garage as they may (wongfully) assume you have had clearance to go ahead with repairs and continue to then find the warranty company does not cough leaving you in the lurch with the bill.
Probably not what you want to hear but that is my experience of warranties.

Good Luck

 

[colechelle]

Sorry but i think the point here is the bloke didnt know what he was looking for, that model and year was known for having blocked CATS, we road test them up to temp and you can hear it!!! you dont have to strip them to find the fault, sounds like your paying for his GUESS WORK!!

 

[Firstimer]

Thank you all for your helpful advice

Sadly, we ended up paying the bill of £1895 this morning.
I guess you learn something new everyday. When we dropped the car nothing was agreed, just asked him to find the problem. He did keep us informed at the different stages, but it was mainly after he talked to the warranty company and they wouldn't cover it. At that stage we gave him the clear to take the turbo charger out for the warrenty company to come and pick it up for their check. Then apparently, only after removing the part, he saw that the problem was with the convertor. He then fixed it without telling us. At that point, I was waiting to hear back from him when he gets the part back with their diagnosis. I was quite surprised to hear from him on Tuesday with the bad and good news. The charger was never collected since he found the real problem and fixed it without informing us of the cost. He only called to say the car was ready and there's a bill to pay.
Now, we saw the parts, we asked to take them with us, but since we were in a rush, we forgot to do so.
I will call him on Monday and ask to come and pick them up.
He did supply us with a letter stating that the problem was not a wear and tear but a mechanical failure, although it's a bit worthless since the warrenty doesn't cover the convertor anyway. How lucky are we!!!
The first time always hurts a bit, doesn't it?
Writing this thread now, I am no longer upset. We could either cry or laugh about it. We decided to choose the latter. Wouldn't harm to eat less for a while
Thanks again.

 

[panason1c]

It's a shame you didnt have the opportunity to post here that the cat was blocked before the garage fitted a new one.

A diesel doesn't require a cat to be fitted and will pass an mot emmisions test without one. (as a bonus you would probably find the car is a little nippier as well)

One common'ish solution for a blocked cat on a diesel is to 'de-gut' your cat by removing the exhaust box that contains the cat and simply knocking out the 'cat' innards and then refitting the box to the car minus the cat.

Not a lot of help now, i know, but might be helpful to anyone else reading this story.

ps....The exhaust system including the cat would not be covered by any aftermarket warranty as they are classed as 'servicable' items.

 

[television]

Panosonic is correct and I know of 2 done this week with CATs removed and welded up