Any one elde had this or a similar problem.

My Marea 2.0 HLX went in with a broken secondary belt and had the Timing Belt changed (ouch).
When it was put beck together, it wouldn't start.
Eventually (after I supplied the workshop manual to the garage), they claim the front wiring loom has fused and will cost several hundreds to fix.
As they had problems changing the timing belt, and obviously didn't have a manual, I think they may have wired something wrong when they put the engine back in.

Is this a known fualt?

Only had the car a couple of months, but I already love it. Moves like a demon, drives like an angel.

SJB

I've not heard it before, but admittedly I've not been around Fiat's for long - I think you're right and the garage has done something.
I would be thinking of getting a second opinion if you have a way of getting the car to another garage (or even just getting a knowledgeable friend to hazzard a guess is better than nothing... getting the garage to show you or your friend the faults).

Sounds as though they have done something wrong, If you drove it in you should be able to drive it out.

i've never heard of it happen before, but i cant imagen what the garage has done to cause it.

might well be worth gonig to have a look and take some pictures etc to see if we can tell whats burnt out.

Ry

Too Late the garage has informed me that the repair work has already been done and the total bill is £1007 plus VAT.
This includes £495 for replacing the Timing and ancillary belts.

Could be fun tonight when I go to see them.

Over £1000 !!!!!!!!

I would like to be a fly on the wall when you arrive to discuss that bill, best of luck

sod paying that, its essentially more than the car is worth, if they did it without your authorisation i suggest you refuse to pay.

if you did authorise it, get them to show you everything they did, check all the joins etc where the loom has been repaired, i would expect it to be substantial for over £500!

Ry

Hmmm, that was interesting, yes you would have liked to be a fly on the wall.
Had to leave the owner of thegarage before I did something I would have regretted (maybe).

I will post details of the full bill shortly, the wiring was only about 250, but then there were all the other bits that I hadn't been told about.

Lets see what Trading Standards have to say.

P.S. If anyone breaksdown in West Yorkshire, I would not reccomend using Drive-In Service Centre, unles your wallets bigger than mine.

Full breakdown of Costs

Cambelt Kit - £126.50
Labour (to remove engine and fit parts) 11 hrs @ £35 - £442.75

Crank Sensor - £ 91.89
Cam Sensor - £ 57.39
Water Pump - £ 68.89
Rheostat (Fan Motor) - £ 34.39
(Didn't know about this little lot £252.56.)

Autoelectrician (to find and rectify fault) - £189.75

Grand Total - £1,011.56

Well at least I've got a car that runs I suppose.

Got used to driving the wifes 1.2 Clio, how the flipping heck do I keep this thing under 30 ;-)

you've been taken for a ride on a few of those parts.

Crank sensor - £91!!!

this doesnt require replacement when you change the belts and at worst is a £30 sensor and 15 minute @ home job, its 1 bolt and an electrical clip!

Cam Sensor - £ 57.39 - yes, best to replace when changing the belts.
Water Pump - £ 68.89 - again yes, if a little over priced, its about £40 for Fiat part.

Rheostat (Fan Motor) - £ 34.39 - WTF for? no one ever replaces these.

I hope you have some luck reclaiming some of the money.

Ry

If you didn't authorise all the extra work then I suggest a small claims court action. You can do it all on line these days, I used it very successfully against my local Fiat dealer when they refused to repay me for work they had done that did not fix a problem which should have been under warranty.

The fact that you have already paid is irrelevant, it was the only way to get your car back so the payment was effectively made under duress, a point you should make in your declaration.

My suggestion is that you get about three written quotations for the work you actually authorised and use those as a basis for deciding how much you will claim back.

Good luck

You did the right thing in paying, always a good thing to do is to pay and then deal with it after.
I think a trip to CAB to find out the best course of action - but I think small claims too.

Good luck.

I had a similar thing happen to me once, car required some extra work (which the garage then carried out, amount to an extra £350), which was unauthorised, I paid for what I had authorised and left the balance outstanding

Each time my car is booked into the garage I always take a letter stating they need to seek my authorisation for any work requiring payment outside of what the car is booked in for and hand it to the serivce department