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Dealer work, did damage


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I had a timing belt done on my car, and ended up with an unrelated problem.

I just have to fill in the story to get to the question I need to ask,

 

When I was rang to say the job was done, I said ok, be there in 45 minutes, they said, oh but theres some other things we need to tell you?

I said Id talk to them when I got there, they suggested I needed more work done.

They made a list of work they claim needed to be done, some of which I was aware and intended to follow up. They mainly said the brakes were faulty, which I knew they were fine besides needing front pads which I wasnt going to get a main dealer to do.

When I took the car away, the brakes were about 90% ineffective and I had to be very cautious as I drove home.

I figured out that pressing the brakes more than once, as you might in stop go traffic made them ineffective, but pressing once (which isnt nessesarily practical in stop go situations) prevented them from failing almost completely.

 

I rang the dealer the next day and they basically told me they wouldnt do anything for me, I figured this was because I refuted their claims of what other work was needed, so I had to start tracing the problem myself, as their receipt had all sorts on it besides the job that was paid for , I looked at what they might have done and searched online for information about what might be the problem, they mentioned a bad caliper but the car had passed an MOT (equivalent) recently, I checked all the brake line in case they had opened a brake line, and eventually I decided the vacuum was the problem due to how the brakes worked/didnt work.

 

Eventually I got the information I needed which was a schematic off a SEAT web forum for my engine type for the vacuum system, as the Haynes had me a little preplexed, upon checking the vac tubes I found two vacuum lines completely disconnected.

 

I managed to force the dealer to talk to me by telling them I recorded them saying they were not going to help me, so in a meeting the admitted they got the timing belt in by lowering the engine using a jack on a sump, when I asked was this in a Skoda manual, they declined to say yes or no? I located a manual online which shows a supporting frame being used and no mention of the engine being lowered (but actually being raised to remove the mounting bolts), now I dont mind if they lowered it but I checked the tubes and movement of that much would pull the tubing out, which they never realised or bothered to check. 

They ended up getting a report done by someone else on the brakes which said there was no difference between braking with the vacuum tubes plugged in and plugged out??? but they denied they could have even caused them to come undone, even though I offered them to recreate this scenario or test drive the car with them plugged in and out, all of which they declined.

 

Im lucky nothing worse came of it and I had some experience to check these things, but am I right in saying, the report saying the brakes are no different with a disconnected vacuum is utter nonesense, I know it is in my cars case, but all cars as far as Im aware have a servo assist with vacuum, the brakes would be less useful or even useless without it.

I cant see how the person that did the report could stand over this as Im planning to take them to a small claims court, I dont expect any financial reward from it, but I may be awarded at most the cost of what I paid, maybe, but if thats the case it would only cover me as I'll probably have to get an independant assesment myself to counter them in a court.

 

So vacuum disconnected? if it was the same why bother design it into the car or most cars ever??? 

Edited by Mercurial
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I took my car to VAGtech in milton keynes last week to check for boost leaks as I could hear hissing. They done a free check and told me my brake servo pipes were split and asked if I had the symptoms you described you had. He told me I was lucky as a big pothole or bump could have caused my pipe/servo to completely seperate which would result in very little brakes or no brakes at all.... ring them mate they are very helpfull and will give you every info you need

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Having had my brake vacuum pipe split apart on approach to a roundabout at about 60mph, I can categorically say you'll get the above symptoms with no vacuum. Scared the willies out of me lol.

If they are saying the brakes are the same with and without vacuum attached they are telling porkies, they need the vacuum feed to work much at all.

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:rofl: Not at the dealer, who's basic competence I'd question: At the people who claim that brake effectiveness is reduced by a failed booster! The brakes would still work perfectly, but the pedal effort would be increased.

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:rofl: Not at the dealer, who's basic competence I'd question: At the people who claim that brake effectiveness is reduced by a failed booster! The brakes would still work perfectly, but the pedal effort would be increased.

Was biting my tongue from saying that :P still not brilliant from a dealer

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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With no servo assistance the ammount of pedal pressure needed is increased considerably. I certainly wasn't implying that the brakes wouldn't work. Still think the dealers actions were questionable at best.

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:rofl: Not at the dealer, who's basic competence I'd question: At the people who claim that brake effectiveness is reduced by a failed booster! The brakes would still work perfectly, but the pedal effort would be increased.

 

I can only speak from personal experience as mentioned above.

 

From a mechanical stand point, the brakes might 'work' without a servo. From a real world perspective, the amount of force needed on the pedal to make them work is so huge as to mean 'they don't work'.

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  • 1 month later...

Shocking! Name and shame please.

Its in the Republic of Ireland, thanks for the replies. I might get myself in a quandry if I name them as I havent ruled out following it up, but I need to get my skates on as I was busy and got sidetracked,  but a Skoda main dealer anyway.

The brakes were ineffective, I wasn't expecting them to be ineffective although they went on about them so much I was suspicious they did it intentionally, they may have done it accidentally, I just dont know, they felt much worse at the time, a lot more effort was required to have a lot less effect, to the extent I got one hell of a fright when I got onto the road from their carpark. The feel was completely different but also it seemed like they were not braking the car as if there was oil between the pads and discs, completely different when it was reconnected. I dont think the ABS was working either or didn't seem to work, but it probably wouldn't as the brakes simply weren't able to reduce the rotational speed of the wheels enough for it to kick in. If for some reason I stab at the brakes (which Ive done to test on a clear road) you can feel the ABS kick in, no matter how hard or urgently I pressed the brakes they simply wouldnt do this until I located the disconnected vac line and reconnected it.

When I say this, with the leak (a disconnected vacuum line), there was still sufficient vacuum to operate the brakes if you pressed once and kept it there, once you released and tried to repress the brakes, there felt like there was nothing, ie no braking effort, they tried to tell me it wasnt normal to release the brakes on a car with ABS, when I asked about stop go traffic or in the event you needed to operate the brakes and released but suddenly or soon after needed braking, what were you to do, they insisited on saying braking and taking the foot off and pressing the brakes on a car with ABS is not normal?? complete and utter bollrocks, now Im not talking about someone who keeps having to dab the brakes as they drive down the motorway, but if you need to use them more than once in a short space of time.

Edited by Mercurial
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