Molgrips's car episode #3 – the villain revealed!

Recap:

Car displays weird electrical issues including not turning off and brake lights staying on
Mobile mechanic gets new ECU from specialist, charges me £750, problem not solved
I fix problem myself by a combination of cleverness and internet
Car mostly ok but has a couple of error codes and the gearbox is shifting slowly.

Today:

So I finally managed to persuade the mobile mechanic to give me the name of the specialist, and today I went to see them to see if they could shed any light on the gearbox at least.

Apparently the mobile mechanic had called them about my ECU, they said it probably wasn’t. He brought the unit in saying it was water damaged, they told him it wasn’t. They bench tested it, it was fine, he insisted on a new ECU. They eventually supplied it, cost £400. He then told me that the specialist HAD told them it was water damaged (this is a blatant lie).

So now (if this story is true) I should be able to get a refund or claim some kind of damages from the mobile mechanic.. right?

Sort of depends on wether or not the specialist is prepared to put it in writing

Correct or trading standards may need a call.

So – press for a refund, or get the authorities involved? Or both? He can’t be allowed to do stuff like this, but I got the impression last time I talked to him that he regretted ever getting involved. He admitted to me over the phone that he didn’t really know what he was doing with regards electronics… 🙄

I would be getting trading standards involved !!

He can’t be allowed to do stuff like this,

You mean a trades person ripping a customer off – happens every day…..

If the specialist will back you up then small claims court.

I don’t want to wreck his business and put him out on the street though, if he realises he’s made a mistake…

Tempted to take the car to VW and leave it there til it’s perfectly fixed, then send him the bill.

Your claim is as good as the evidence the specialist will give you I’d say. May be worth getting something from them on paper before getting in touch – and they may get cold feet if you go to court.

Worth a try tho, robbing ****

He might settle out of court if I threaten him with that though.

He spent an afternoon starting and immediately shutting off the engine. I suspect that clogged the EGR system, but that’s only a theory.

Tempted to take the car to VW and leave it there til it’s perfectly fixed, then send him the bill.

You think your mobile mechanic was hopeless – try a VW trained mechanic – absolutely useless if it’s an electrical problem.

They had my V6 Golf in for weeks on end for a miss-fire problem. Changed everything except the broken part (thankfully under warranty). In the end I took it to a specialist VW tuner, who fixed it in 5 minutes, faulty air mass sensor.

He spent an afternoon starting and immediately shutting off the engine. I suspect that clogged the EGR system, but that’s only a theory.

I would love to know how this would cause the brake lights to stay on?
All car manufactures are trying really hard to keep things in house & out of “specialist” hands. Given that as a genuine specialist in only one marque we payed close to £10k last year for one computer to work on one brand of car with extra on-going costs for support, then as a multibrand mobile mechanic I’m sure your guy doesn’t have the specialist equipment to diagnose your fault.

Cheers.

specialist equipment to diagnose your fault.

That’s the problem, the equipment doesn’t diagnose all faults and the mechanics just get trained to push a button and read the answer on the display, there’s no understanding of what is actually going on.

Hence, when I took my car to the tuners, who fiddle around all day with engine management systems, they understood what might cause the symptoms and isolated the problem in minutes. The VAG diagnostic tool just said ‘All OK’, even though my 204 bhp car couldn’t overtake a hearse!

I would love to know how this would cause the brake lights to stay on?

It doesn’t.

Water in the trailer control module caused brake lights on; car not turning off or not turning off straight away; random bulb warning lights; sporadic errors of all kinds.

Removing said module fixed all that immediately, but there are two fault codes still outstanding. One is “insufficient EGR flow detected” which points to a coked up EGR pipe – it looked pretty bad when I took the valve off which is not what I’d expect from car that’s just done 45k mostly motorway miles; the other is intake manifold flap position sensor short to ground – this could be genuine fault but it could also be related to the replacement ECU. There are two versions of the wiring loom released close together around the time my car was manufactured which wire the inlet manifold flap differently. The gearbox is also shifting slowly but there are no fault codes.

then as a multibrand mobile mechanic I’m sure your guy doesn’t have the specialist equipment to diagnose your fault

He doesn’t have the equipment or the brains, and he’s definitely not my guy any more.

The specialist place I went to today uses autologic diagnostics, which they claim is the same as VW use. Still looks like a 3rd party to me mind.

The specialist place I went to today uses autologic diagnostics, which they claim is the same as VW use. Still looks like a 3rd party to me mind.

It is, as is anything outside of the dealer network, but it is as close as you will get, they even send their techs to the dealer training days as the monopolies commission says that they must be available to all.

Out of interest what car?
Doh, VW, look at the ignition switch first if it’s not the EGR.

Doh, VW, look at the ignition switch first if it’s not the EGR.

Done, done, done.. this is the aftermath of all the head-scratching and googling. I’m now pretty sure I know exactly what went wrong, what happened, and what these leftover problems are.

Surely the first point of recourse/complaint should be to the actual mechanic rather than court?
You have to give him the option of putting things right or refunding??
You don’t want him messing with your car again so full or partial refund?
If he refuses then take it from there.

Fair point, but the car is now worse than when he farted about with it, so I would like compensation or a properly fixed car. He won’t be able to put it right so either compensation or he pays the bill.

Did he warranty the work? If so, fill yer boots. If not, caveat emptor….. I don’t go to little one man bands for ‘serious’ stuff. They sometimes have the specialist knowledge but often not the scale if things go badly wrong.

I woke up with an answer:

The guy lied to you in order to get your money = FRAUD.

Threaten to call the cops. I doubt the specialist would want to be found changing his story to them.

Which model VW is it just out of interest?

which engine is fitted to it ?

Well, we only have one side, for all we know the mobile mechanic guy advised a visit to a specialist as it was out of his bailiwick, but the owner is a bit of an armchair mechanic, thought he knew better and wanted to save money ?? The owner insisted that he go ahead. Your word against his. That would be my defence, in the mechanic’s shoes. Not saying that happened, just saying that seems a logical defence position.

Walk away, and think about buying a less complex car next time with a few less electronic doohickeys. I hear Skodas are reliable.

It wasn’t that fat old, lecherous Scouse bloke they had on Dodgy Dealers or Watchdog or something not so long ago was it…?

Edit: The Mobile Mechanic, aka Mike Sawyer, on The Wirral.

Threaten to call the cops. I doubt the specialist would want to be found changing his story to them.

I think have a conversation with him and relay what the specialist said.

If he won’t offer any sort fo deal then say you’ll be off to the police and reporting him for fraud. As Al says – the specialist is unlikely to try and cover up for a even a regular customer if the cops are involved.

I used a VAG “specialist” in Edinburgh when my Bora 2.0TDi died competely(well on reset it restarted but then something was oveloading the ECU and after 100m it killed everything). They spent 1 day looking for fault called in an autoelectrician, sent the ECU away to specialist who confirmed it was cooked and had been opened at sometime in the past new one back and fitted. Whole lot cost £680 car now back to going like a rocket.

The guy lied to you in order to get your money = FRAUD.

This is bang on. The specialist told him it wasn’t water damaged, he told me it was. And it’s a bit more than his word against theirs, because in their story, they told him that a new ECU would not fix the car, it didn’t. Despite the fact that he told me it would definitely fix it (this was before I knew he was talking through his arse).

Which model VW is it just out of interest?

which engine is fitted to it ?

Passat 2.0 TDI 06, last PD model before CR, can’t remember the engine code I think it’s BKP though.

Walk away, and think about buying a less complex car next time with a few less electronic doohickeys. I hear Skodas are reliable.

You are joking, right? Cos Skodas are exactly the same as VWs underneath…?

I’ll call the guy this morning once I’ve got my day job out of the way.

Ok, what exactly happened and what is wrong with it now?

If you think he lied deliberately to weasel money out of you then surely he’ll lie again if you call the police or trading standards? Even with the specialist on your side you might struggle to make a case, although I’d be tempted to at least try. If he did this to you then he’s done it to others and will continue to do so, even if he offers to cover your costs you’ve a moral obligation to ensure he doesn’t do it again (IMO of course).

If you believe it was an honest mistake and he’s learnt from it, then give him the facts and ask for compensation with no further action.

By the way, you started three sentences with the word ‘So’ – 5 minutes on the naughty step for you!

Ok, what exactly happened and what is wrong with it now?

The compressed version:

Odd electrical issues like brake lights staying on when the car’s off, car not turning off even when key removed and doors locked and other stuff.

Called a mobile mechanic, he decided it was the ecu at fault

He goes to specialist, they tell him no (as above) but he insists on a refurb unit

Fits refurb unit, spends all day starting and stopping it from cold, no change to problems

Eventually I google enough to find an answer, trailer control module in boot full of water. Remove module, car behaves mostly

Now two codes remain relating to EGR and inlet manifold flap, and DSG gearbox shifting slowly.

Inlet and egr codes are probably related.

Have you had a look at the egr valve to see if its clogged?? if so take it off and clean it if possbile.

im curious as to what training mechanics actually go through these days

my mate brought me a citroen c1 with emissions faults. high Co2 and high lambda, garage had had a go at fixing it with a new exhaust. and was suggesting that my mate needed to change his oil to thicker oil as he was getting bypass- fortunantly doesnt really care for the car and working on it but hes not but hes not stupid (ex formula student team president)

stuck my code reader on the OBDII port and got “catalyst efficiency failure”

popped the bonnet looked for blows before the lambdas. – nothing they had at least fitted the exhaust right. how ever they had taken the lambdas from the old one and put them in the new exhaust.

30 seconds with the multimeter showed the post cat lambda stuck at 0V

bench test showed it to remain dead even with a torch on the end of it.

40 quid for a new bosch lambda and fitted it without even jacking the car up. MOT pass like a new car.

not saying they are all bad by the way before i get backlash – i know 2 or 3 that i trust but it seems any time i go near a dealer they just want to extort money by “trying new parts to please the system” rather than fixing the fault. Good old fashioned multi meter and knowing what the readings from the componants should be is what my trusted mechanic swears by – but hes a very much make do and mend rebuilding gearboxes kinda guy.

have you had a look at this site………
https://sites.google.com/site/1810martin/home

you should get the specialist to give you their version of events in writing then approach idiot boy and tell him you will be reporting him to trading standards and will be speaking to the police about this. to be fair i dont think the police will do much other than say its not a criminal matter but a civil one…but trading standards could make things difficult for him…i wouldnt be surprised if you arent the only customer he’s done over like this, which if this is the case and others have reported him to trading standards then there may be a case being built up against him….

other option is to set the Dom loose on him…
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he should refund your money and pay for the repair in my opinion…

Have you had a look at the egr valve to see if its clogged?? if so take it off and clean it if possbile.

Done it. My VCDS reported ‘regulation range exceeded’ but the autologic scan reported the same code as ‘insuffucient EGR flow’ which is far more useful. When I had the valve off, I noticed that the recirc pipe was quite bad, so as soon as I get a chance I’ll try and remove the whole thing enough to get some gas flowing, then I’m tempted to take it back to the specialist, they offer an intake and egr cleaning service but I suspect it’s just a can of that cleaner sprayed through it. It’s been mentioned on here a few times I’ll have a search.

https://sites.google.com/site/1810martin/home

Yep, know the EGR sections by heart by now 🙂

get the toothbrush and degreaser out ? then find out if its possible to block the POS off ?

I’m not blocking it off. I don’t want to spew more pollution than I have to.

I had an egr issue on an old vectra cdti I had, was advised to clean it but even after that the issue was still there.

Decided to fit a new egr valve which completely solved the problem and also returned the power to the engine.

Reading up it seems that the egr valve and manifold flap issues could be linked.

anti shudder valve and fuse 8 ??

probably why its blocked in the first place tbh. drive like granny annie and “maximise your economy” and you get a blocked EGR