long story short (ish) took my daughters mk3.5 fiesta in for its MOT 2 weeks ago & it failed on "nearside drag link end has excessive play DANGEROUS" so got a quote for supply & fit including VAT £58.62 so took car home to see what my daughter wants to do she says she wants it done so i book the car in for the work & drop it in 9am today then i get a phone call an hour later to tell me its not the drag link its the steering uj !!!! i even said that to the tester at the time as i know they are a common problem but no its the drag link !!! so i said as long as its done at roughly the same price & will pass the MOT then fine its not a problem get a phone call at 3pm your cars ready & its £90+vat !!!! so i say im not paying that so the guy starts getting stroppy on the phone so trying to be calm i say i will pay £70 as we all make mistakes but he will have to take the hit for his mistake so he agrees & says dont ever bring a car here again !!! so off i go to get a mate to drive my daughters car home for me i get there & the boss has gone to the bank so i pay up & my mate goes off in the car while i wait for the paper work i get home & my mate says theres a light flashing on the dash so i thought it was the oil light & say dont worry about it i will sort it out later & drop him back home then come back to the car & its the airbag light !!!! so off i go back to the garage & still being very calm as i want it sorted the lad comes out that did the job on the car & i ask him to have a look i case he has knocked something,caught a wire & he was fine had a quick look & we both didnt know why its come on as really there is nothing there that he could touch then his boss comes out with the attitude of its not something we've done so i said well it was fine when i came in this morning as i sat in the car while it defrosted this morning & my mate drove it in & it wasnt flashing as we would have seen it so after an hour of him saying it wasnt his fault & how he hasnt got time for this he then says bring it back monday but i will charge you to look at it as its not our fault then i snapped !!!! told him it was HIS fault that the part was wrong & he said hes done me a favour by doing my MOT cheap !!! now he has agreed to fix it FOC so ive left it there waiting for round 3 on monday !!! but ive sat here & i want to make sure of a few things to prove him wrong as thats what i think has caused him to see his arse as i dont want to get in another arguement with him & not be sure of my facts ??? i think that the air bag light & the steering joint being change are connected cause i remember someone saying that they have have a similar problem when they hit a pothole the shock set the light off now im thinking as the joint on the car is from new (car has 42000 on the clock genuine ) that it would be stuck on so tight they have hammered it off & that is what has caused the problem ??? any input on this as i want to have the facts to argue my case & if he wants to carry this on i can as ive sent a few people there & defended him in the past as some people wont use him due to the way he treats people " ive been doing this for 30years & you dont know anything !!! "

 

airbag lights flashing are common on fords and sometimes need to be reset. so it could be a coincidence.... both my focus' do it intermitantly. if they have had the column along with airbag slipring off and not disconnected the battery then a fault will be logged and light will flash. last time i changed fiesta steering knuckle it tool 30 mins and no airbag light issues.

 

I got halfway through and gave up tbh. No offence mate but some punctuation would make it much easier to read.

 

just seems really strange never flashed on in the 3 years ive drove it i know the previous owner & she has never had a problem with it & im the 3rd owner from new i take it in this morning without a problem & then get it back with the light flashing & he has the nerve to say its MY fault !!!! i even said it might not be connected but the more i think about it if they have had to hammer it off or use a lot of force to lever it off then they could have damaged the clock ring behind the steering wheel ???

 

LOL yeah grammar is not a strong point even worse when im wound up

 

the 90+vat if that was with mot

and you got qoute 56+vat for supply and fit part then thats cheap

i'm taking it it was the same garage that did mot


also if he's taken the hit and reduced the price then i don't see what the problem is

and he's even fixing the second problem for free

but going in with a attitude is the wrong option

if you had done that to us then you would have had to pay up or we would have removed part or refused to give paperwork for mot untill you paid

so imho he gave in too easy

 

Tbh there is absolutly no need to go near the air bag when changing a fiesta steering knuckle....... 1 is inside the car and 1 is in the engine bay. Does sound coincidental to be honest.


Steve

 

MOT & top up oil £45,car fails on drop link end ball joint. supply & fit part to PASS MOT £58.62 i agree total £104 . take the car back get a phone call from the garage saying its the UJ thats gone so i said if its roughly the same price then do it . then to get a phone call to say its £90+vat (£105.75 ) thats nearly double then you can see why i was not happy . the way i see it is HE tested the car, HE said what part was faulty (even when i asked him could it be the uj ) , HE ordered the part then i would say its HIS fault!!! but instead of saying HE made a mistake ( as we all have ) he tried to make it out as it was my fault ??? if he had said we will split the difference then i would have agreed. i didnt go in with ANY attitude HE started with the attitude but i thought leave it as we all have bad days . as for the air bag light it wasnt on when first tested it ,wasnt on when i dropped the car off,its never been on since ive owned the car & its done 20 miles between test & re-test but it has come on when i've picked the car up ??? i know they can come on at any time but it just seems strange that it looks like the clock ring behind the steering wheel & they have been working on the steering joint ??? i think they have forced it upwards damaging something behind the sterring wheel & that has caused the fault ? i took the car back & ASKED the lad that did the work on the car if he would have a look to see if he had knocked a wire off & he couldnt see any & WE both agreed that its unlikely he could have as there is no wiring round near where he was working as the car was on a ramp & he worked from underneath . i know some people try it on with there cars with the you did this to the car & now this doesnt work it was fine when it came in but to be verbally abusive/aggressive to me for HIS mistakes & try to make out it was MY fault i think is a bit to keep calm so in the end i snapped & told him it WAS HIS PROBLEM but upto that point i had been calm & polite . if i was in the wrong then i would hold my hands up but i dont think i am ???

 

Paragraphs..........................use them!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph

 

i've also not used capital letters at the begining of my sentances & some words might be spelt wrong !!! so now i know what the problem was when i took my car for its MOT its because i didnt pass my english exams & that might be the reason i dont work in an office or why i havent posted that much on here even though ive been on here for 5 yrs ??? yes my written english/grammer leaves a lot to be disired but thanks for pointing it out as now i know if i sort that i should have no more problems in life !!! but thank you for the other posts relating to the CAR problem

 

Fuck me that makes for some hard reading !!!! A few paragraphs would be nice fella !!!!


Would almost place money on the fault being in the air bag clock-spring, when they have undone the steering coupling i bet they have forgot to take the ignition key out and put the steering lock on.... what's then happened is that there has been no resistance on the steering wheel and its probably spun itself round and the clock spring has unwound itself and probably broken its printed circuit wiring strip.

Have seen this happen before so i would be asking them first to take the steering wheel off and remove and check the clock spring unit, it should be all tightly bunched up.

 

Did your mate say the air bag light was flashing as soon as he drove off with the car then ??

 

yes i know it makes hard reading & i could do with sorting it out but at least you took the time to read it & give me the answer i was looking for instead of slating my education !!! LOL. what you have said makes sense as it seems to point to the clock spring being the cause of the air bag light comming on but not being sure i didnt want to argue without some facts . is it easy to see what the problem is when the steering wheel is removed ?? could anything else cause that sort of damage to the clock spring ? ive never removed a steering wheel with an airbag so i dont know ??? it sounds daft i just want to know if i am right cos if im in the wrong i will apologise to the guy,pay him for fixing it & get him bottle of whiskey !!!! but i dont want to keep sending people to him if he is not doing the job right ,damaging stuff & blaming everyone else for his mistakes !!!

 

he said it was flashing all the way home !!! he is not the most mechanial minded person !!! to be honest that would be normal for any of the cars he has owned as he just drives them till they break or the tax & test runs out. the testing station is only about 2 miles away from my house