IV just had my car back from repair after it was taken in under an insurance claim. It got broke in to and the lock on drivers side was screwed.
The car was in there 5 weeks and i get it back today and a lovely job they've done of the exterior, but the car is playing up bad style. The steering is extremely heavy, and if you turn the wheel to the right (lock or slightly) it makes a noise similar to that of if you put a twig in a bicyle spoke. The brakes are near non-existent. all these problems were non existent before it went in. Im just wondeirng if because of the 5weeks its been in the garage and not even looked at for 4 weeks whether the battery has fone flat and the ECU has reset due to this and this is why the car is running rough. The car is noisy on tickover, this i can understand if the ECU has been reset, but the ECU wouldn't make any difference to the brakes and steering would it?
By the way the car is a N reg Punto 55s.

have you signed to say you are happy with the state the vehicle has been handed to you in?

They didn't give me anythin to sign, they just dropped it off and gave me the receipt for the excess. any ideas what could of happened?

you may have grounds to reject the cars return due to it not being in near identical state it was in when you gave it to them. they should have a sheet which states everything appearance wise and mechancally that was wrong with the car when it went in. your insurers should now have a copy of this. if you ring your insurers and explain this, then, in theory, it should be sorted for you.

I Just want to know whats up with it, to be honest i dont want them sort it out now, because they took 5 weeks to fix a bloody door lock which is ridiculous. Im wondering whether the steering and that has ceased up due to it being stood still, and jst running it will release it,

5 weeks for a damaged lock ?????????????? Mine got done over a few years back and they smashed dvrs door lock and totally destroyed the stereo wiring harness when they ripped it out. It was only in the garage about 3days

Hi
I know it`s obvious but have you checked the tyre pressures?
They can lose a lot of pressure standing still for that long.
Cheers
Adrian

yeh checked my tyre pressures and they were low, but i put em up to 31 all around. Still really heavy and also it would not make a difference to the brakes would it.

Had my lock screwed a few months back, when my stereo was nicked. Took it to the local Fiat dealer and it only took them 4 - 5 hours to get it fixed and replaced with a new one. So 5 weeks!!! sounds a totally rediculous amount of time to me, even though you need to go through all the insurance procedures.