Dealer lying?

[martinburke]

I have a 2017 fabia 1.0 mpg, and the other day I broke down,( car running rough revving only up to 3k rpm)

I was recovered and the car taken to Skoda

I had a phone call today to say the car wasn't covered under warranty as they said it was a spark plug, which was changed at the last service by the VAG specialist i take it to keep up my warranty.

The car has been running fine up until the breakdown.

Skoda say the tip of the spark plug was squashed inwards hence not giving a proper spark.

Surely this would have been the case 4000 miles ago when the plug was changed.

It seems very suspicious  to me.

I know the VAG specialist very well and he assures me that Skoda are talking nonsense.

I am quite happy to go down the route of the small claims court  as a principle.

Any thoughts?

 

[rum4mo]

A bit of a mess and now its "he said - she said", not good and one reason to stick with main dealership servicing until the warranty has run out, it will not always be like that/this, but I'd doubt that a small claims court would move forward with this one, but you will not know until/unless you try.

 

Edit:- do I like using my nearest VW Group dealership for servicing while within warranty? - No! 

Do I feel lucky? - Again no!

Edited 4 February, 2020 by rum4mo

[spartacus68]

Had my fair share of 'it's not me guv' stand-offs. Even main dealers can get it wrong. As rum4mo mentioned, use genuine parts, and document everything. Put it down to experience. Wouldn't be surprised if VCDS hadn't recorded this fault? Anyone local to you that can scan the car?

 

I'm running a Polo, it's under Das WeltAuto warranty until May 2020. It was due a service last month, duly done, all new VAG parts, fitted by me. Any additional work I can claim for, such as a remote key that needs to be recoded. They cleared an airbag light prior to Christmas. Pain in the **** to put it to them as they are city centre outskirts based. Needs must though. I have VCDS, but service reception are a joke, almost, you have our software, but we can't determine work based on your assessment, which is fair enough, but the thing is facts are facts, so worth investing in if you're spanner handy.

 

Back to your original topic, Pay the bill and walk away. Not worth the hassle to pursue through small claims. Hopefully not excessive cost, just based on principle which I totally get.

[Ootohere]

@martinburke

What mileage had the car done when you took it to the independent to have a service and plugs changed?

[martinburke]

He said that no codes were logged, and they had to investigate the matter!

They said they would sent a photo of the offending plug, which makes little difference, as it could be from anything.

It is a PCP deal which finishes this year, i was going to take another 2 deals with them for my son and i, but not anymore

I still think if the prong and the spark plug was damaged at service, it would have had the fault straight away and not 4000 miles later

1 minute ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

@martinburke

What mileage had the car done when you took it to the independent to have a service and plugs changed?

car plugs were changed at 40k, car fault occured at 44k

[TerFar]

Suspicious. I fail to understand how the plug could have been bent out of shape by the engine without some other trauma: perhaps a rogue plug but extremely unlikely. 

The most likely scenario is someone dropped a plug but didn't check it for damage before fitting it. 

As said above, extremely difficult to prove one way or the other. So cut your losses and walk away. Never use them again. See if they have a feedback/review page by searching the Internet for the garage name: leave your experience on there. 

[abaxas]

Why on earth would skoda warranty parts installed by someone else?

 

[martinburke]

You don't get what I was trying to say, I say they were lying blaming a VAG specialist for installing the plugs incorrectly to charge me instead of covering under warranty the actual fault

[Gerrycan]

How much are we talking about?

[penguin17]

I'm a little confused here (doesn't take much)

 

Are you saying that the issue here is that the dealer has done their fault finding and laid blame at a dodgy spark plug which because it was fitted elsewhere they won't cover under warranty?  So, have they actually replaced the spark plug and now it's fixed but they want you to cover costs or do you believe they've actually fixed something else and then refused a warranty claim, blaming said spark plug?

  

 

 

 

 

[Confused_Cheese]

I don't understand why they would lie. It's not like the dealer would be out of pocket for having to do a warranty fix, its paid for by Skoda as far as I know they just send off the paper work. The squashed bit might not be the main cause, maybe it was a plug that just failed early and happened to be a bit squished 🤷‍♂️ In my experience, if something is wrong and its covered by the warranty the dealer has sorted it with little fuss. They still get paid after all.

[penguin17]

3 minutes ago, Confused_Cheese said:

I don't understand why they would lie. It's not like the dealer would be out of pocket for having to do a warranty fix, its paid for by Skoda as far as I know they just send off the paper work. The squashed bit might not be the main cause, maybe it was a plug that just failed early and happened to be a bit squished 🤷‍♂️ In my experience, if something is wrong and its covered by the warranty the dealer has sorted it with little fuss. They still get paid after all.

My thinking exactly and when it's a warranty claim, IME they tend to know how much they can get away with billing for labour costs/time and tear the @rse out of it, e.g; they can get more money out of Skoda than a private customer.   If they were being devious then they would have just replaced the spark plug (let's face it they are not that expensive) and then try it on for something that would have cost much much more to sort. 

Edited 7 February, 2020 by penguin17

[martinburke]

7 minutes ago, penguin17 said:

I'm a little confused here (doesn't take much)

 

Are you saying that the issue here is that the dealer has done their fault finding and laid blame at a dodgy spark plug which because it was fitted elsewhere they won't cover under warranty?  So, have they actually replaced the spark plug and now it's fixed but they want you to cover costs or do you believe they've actually fixed something else and then refused a warranty claim, blaming said spark plug?

  

 

 

 

 

Yes, they are blaming the VAG specialist, who I know very well and was a Vw master mechanic before he went out on his own, they are saying because the fault is not Skodas, that won't honour the warranty, I am saying that the plugs would have had a problem straight away, as the plug had no gap at all, but it was driven over 4000 miles before any issue occurred with the car, that bit I find strange

[martinburke]

They wanted an hour's labour and diagnostic cost, I couldn't be bothered arguing anymore so I came to a deal of £50, I still have my doubts, but I just won't use them again

[penguin17]

16 minutes ago, martinburke said:

Yes, they are blaming the VAG specialist, who I know very well and was a Vw master mechanic before he went out on his own, they are saying because the fault is not Skodas, that won't honour the warranty, I am saying that the plugs would have had a problem straight away, as the plug had no gap at all, but it was driven over 4000 miles before any issue occurred with the car, that bit I find strange

...but did replacing the plug fix the issue? If so, then *something* was wrong with the plug.  Whether it was from fitting or from manufacturing defect.  It was the fault. If OEM parts are used then it doesn't matter who fitted them, thanks to the EU, Anne Widecombe could fix your car as long as she uses OEM parts, then the warranty is intact.  So...there must have been an issue with the plug that they believe they wouldn't get auth for a warranty claim.  As above, dealers make a good income from warranty claims, they'd be daft to refuse one or even try without a good reason.  Have you seen said plug, did they provide evidence of the root cause? 

 

And TBH for £50...I would have handed over the cash and say thank you very much.  They've got the car up and running again and by todays standards, that's a cheap fix.  

 

 

 

 

Edited 7 February, 2020 by penguin17

[martinburke]

I don't think there was an issue in the first place, the AA found no code but said it has a problem as it won't rev over 3k rpm at s standstill,  but I have since discovered newish Skodas don't! When at a standstill.

So maybe the engine fault was a random fault which cleared itself.

And the plug issue was of Skodas doing to able to claim something off the customer, as no fault was found.

 

[seriesdriver]

Hi you say your car broke down so there was a fault which dealer found ( but you dont want to believe) but even if there was no fault you would still need to pay a fee for them looking at the car surely ? 

[martinburke]

14 minutes ago, seriesdriver said:

Hi you say your car broke down so there was a fault which dealer found ( but you dont want to believe) but even if there was no fault you would still need to pay a fee for them looking at the car surely ? 

No it didn't breakdown the engine light came on

[FabiaGonzales]

Newer engines don't rev past 3-4K rpm when at a standstill, my 1.2TSI doesn't go past 4K rpm.

The idea of this is both as a launch control, maintaining full boost for as fast a launch as possible, and also to protect the engine, sitting at the limiter with no load on the engine isn't the best thing for it, especially when not moving anywhere to get airflow through the radiator!

 

Aside from that, i try stick to only using one place to have all my servicing done, that way if something does go wrong, they can't start pointing fingers at each other.

Exceptions being tyres and brakes. Tyres i can get done wherever (and if i have balancing issues, i take it straight back to them, so they can rectify it - for free), and brakes i can do myself (though i still get hold of VAG parts from my dealer, at a discounted rate, so if i do have an issue with it that isn't a fitting issue, then they will sort it).

 

Don't wanna sound an ass but if i'd had new spark plugs or coils in mine, and couple days later started getting rough running issues and engine light coming on, i'd be taking it straight back to whoever put those plugs and coils in, as they clearly did something wrong, or there is an issue with the parts they fitted.

 

A spark plug being gapped too small (or squashed) should still run fine, it'll just "wear" faster as the spark will be thicker and hotter. It's actually recommended to slightly reduce the gap when tuning for higher boost levels. Might run a little rougher at low loads from uneven ignition if it's too close though.

 

If it's that badly squashed it's practically touching, it wouldn't run right from the moment it was fired up after putting it in. It'd probably missfire badly and on a 3cyl 1.0 that'd be heck of a rough ride, you'd certainly notice that!

[Rustynuts]

6 hours ago, martinburke said:

You don't get what I was trying to say, I say they were lying blaming a VAG specialist for installing the plugs incorrectly to charge me instead of covering under warranty the actual fault

If it was a faulty plug, or a plug installed by someone else with a bad gap or whatever, then that isn't a warranty issue. At least, not with the main dealer. That particular warranty issue is with the person you paid to install the plugs which they supplied and fitted. 😉

[seriesdriver]

On 04/02/2020 at 18:58, martinburke said:

I have a 2017 fabia 1.0 mpg, and the other day I broke down,( car running rough revving only up to 3k rpm)

 

 

 

On 07/02/2020 at 18:00, martinburke said:

No it didn't breakdown the engine light came on

 

make your mind up one post break down then not ??

Edited 8 February, 2020 by seriesdriver
additional script

[rum4mo]

Ooh, this forum is meant to be friendly, yes he seems to be chopping and changing, but try to just absorb that for a new member - maybe?

[seriesdriver]

9 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Ooh, this forum is meant to be friendly, yes he seems to be chopping and changing, but try to just absorb that for a new member - maybe?

 

Reading it back it was a bit harsh, but I was just trying to work out what the situation was otherwise no one can advise really can they

[martinburke]

38 minutes ago, seriesdriver said:

 

Reading it back it was a bit harsh, but I was just trying to work out what the situation was otherwise no one can advise really can they

Thank youseriesdriver, but I am afraid I have got my opinion already  of the forum, and I will not be back.

I may not have explained myself very well, but I am only saying as it was.

 

[DJ_EFK]

Bless... 

 

See you then.