READ THIS!!! why the motor industry is a joke!

hi fellow dubbers
i have just been AGAIN roited by the motor vehicle industry! ive been posting on this site for a recon motor, as i thaught i had a blown head in my bus, but heres the story as it unfolded today...

first of all id like to say the volkspower in melbourne are the best vw place that ive ever taken my car, and even despite the free advertising they splattered all over my car, i would recommend them to anyone if your not a home machenic like myself! they are by far one of the best around, and i will be taking my car back to them (wish i could work on my car though)

so last thursday my bus came to a stagerring halt, it was serviced by volkspower the week before and when i picked it up it ran smoother than ever, but over the day it died it slowly declined to undrivable.
i was stranded on my way home thurday, close to home, but she wasnt going any further. i left the car as it was 6pm and cabed it home ($10). i rang volkspower the next day and told them of the symptons. the machenic i talked to said it sounded like a blown head, and since i had a compression test on my last service and one head was at 50, this seemed fesiable to me. so the hunt went on to find an engine. i had to take friday off work (approx $200 a day contract work) to hire a car ($180) for the next week to get work. i then spent the remainder of the day ringing around for an engine.

as it turned out i found a second hand engine at volkspower, and it sounded good, so i after paying for a $380 service the week before i bit the bullet and told them id take the engine. they said they were down in staff and wouldnt be able to install it to the following week. i thaught it was in my best interest to stop in at volkspower and check this engine out, considering it was the engine, or my o/s trip i had been planning for months to go to germany to see my girlfriend.....so as you can imagine buying a new motor for my bus was going to really fuck me up, let alone the poor girl in germany that has been planning christmas and new years for us.

yesterday i stoped in a volkspower before work and talked to dean (owner), i told him what i had told the machenic on the phone the week before, and he immediatly told me it was bad set of points and that he would come and pick up the car and have it fixed....

so today i go and get the keys volkspower, and yep it was bad points. so over the week it cost me roughly $400 and a shit load of stress.
now heres the clicher, do you think theres any renumeration for having bad componants installed in your car?? no bloody way mate! the best of it was verbal agreement that theyd fix me up next time i bought my car in with something, but that its boches fault, not theres.
see i dont understand this, these faulty parts cost me more than the car to get serviced, and all up just under $800. now this is bullshit! ok right now im a little pissed off so....

i understand it from volkspowers side, and all credit to dean who organised and payed for the tow truck to get my car, and to repair it straight away...and i believe if this happened at alot of other machenics (not just vw) the process would have been alot more painstaking. but what if they installed say 100 cars with bad points??? see this is where the motor industry gets away with murder, and your money!


anyway sorry if any guys from volkspower are offended by this post, but hopefully youll relise that ive gave you a huge rap and recommended you, and even plan on taking my car back.
i guess im just sick of forking over huge amounts of cash for shit like this! ive been done over worse before but this is still fucked!
there defiantly needs o be some new rules and regulations implemented in the motor vehicle industry, anyone agree?

had a mate who got a 2lmotor built. no relation to the above people in post.
anyway the cam ended up being faulty. so all the re wrok that had to be done was covered. no extra expense to my mate.

maybe check what your rights actually are.

If it was me I would have asked for compensation as it was their fault by fitting faulty parts.
Also How good is the mechanic if he told you the head had gone without looking at the engine, must be a mind reader or something.

People might say its your fault for not getting a second opinion, but as they have worked on the engine you would expect them to know. Also if they know they are having problems with faulty parts, WHY are they still fitting them??????????.

Cheers
Dave

there are a set of rules for the motor trade. if you bought the points from this person then they are responsible for the parts being of merchantable quality so the people who fitted the points are responsible not the manufacturer. id suggest talking to the people responsible and if necessary take this to the department of fair trading to sort this out via the repair industry council. id get your condensor check cause it could have been the point were good but were fried by a crook condensor

i feel your pain ,those little points are a pain ,keep a spare set in the car or change to electrnic ignition and never worry about timming and points again, then if you got some spare cash get some hydrolic lifters ,then all you need to do is change spark plugs and oil every time its due ,and alittle tune work on the carbs here and there. well thats what i did to my bay ,not that it fixed all the problems though , but was a good start

Although I don't work in the motor trade, when we build or service a piece of equipment we are expected to stand by all the parts we use. If a part fails, our customers expect us to supply and fit a new part free of charge. We then have the option of returning that part to the manufacturer for a refund.

It seems from your description that Volkspower have done as much as they can, which is what you state. Unfortunately you cannot recoup the money you lost due to loss of work and expenses for a rental car, which are by far the greatest costs, from Bosch who made the original part. It's a pain that such a cheap part cost you so much money and I sympathise as I have had the same thing happen in the past, but in the end there's not much that can be done about it.

I had a similar situation happen to me, but thankfully I ended up coming out at the end of it ina better situation than you.

I was having idle problems in my old VN bombadore wagon when in Sydney. On the way home it actually stopped on me as I was heading up the duel carriageway just north of Bulladelah. Had to pull over, tried to restart - nothing. Tried for the next 5-10 minutes and whamo, off again.

Got to Port Macquarie and did the same thing. 30 minutes later and it's going again.

Got to Macksville and did the same thing. NRMA dude from the Holden dealer comes out and says could be the fuel pump. As he bangs on the bottom of the tank I crank it over and, Whamo, off again.

So, I book the car into the Holden dealer to get the FP changed.

Next day, no go again. Not happy Jan.

Different NRMA dude comes out and pours cold water on the crank angle sensor. Whamo, we're off again.

So, I book the car into the Holden dealer to get the crank angle sensor changed.

No problem they say. I tell them that if my old fuel pump wasn't the problem then I won't be paying for the replacement. Cool, they said we'll just take the new one out and put the old one back in.

OK! I say.

Picked the car up that arvo and they said I could keep the new FP.

If they diagnose a problem, and you end up paying for work that is not required because their diagnosis was wrong, you shouldn't have to pay a cent for the EXTRA costs incurred.

i asked them about he faulty parts, and they said 1 in a couple of hundred of points are faulty, so it was just bad luck, nothing they could do. apparently the bosche ones are the best there are anyway!
the owner (dean) just said its a shame he didnt get the call when my car broke down (day after), as he would have known the symptoms, instead of being told that it sounds like cracked head by one of the machenics!

barls regarding taking this to fair trading, i dont really have the time and energy mate, which i supose is why many poeple let this sort of thing go. im working real long hours to save for my trip...and well next time i take my volks back to them, ill be hitting them up for something. if they remember of course which is highly unlikley! how do i check the condensor?? hopefully they checked this as its been there twice now!

anyway im now a little relieved that i can go to germany and see my girl! and im going to try and fit in the vw and merc museams...if i can talk her into driving me there of course🙂

not a problem i know how involve these sort of things can be as ive just gone through a similar thing with a certain accounting software program company.
checking the condensor is something im going to have to look up in my idiot manual.

gave my idiot manual to a friend that was having probs with his bus a couple of years ago...i think its about time i get a newe!!!

t2, in the future id love to electronic ignition and hydrolic lifters, i think that would cut service cost atleast in half!!! how much did you pay for that set-up???

ignitor kits are on special at micks this month at $148

Its stories/experiences like this that forced me to start doing my own mechanical work a few years ago, buy some good books and tools, no-one is going to take as much car of your ride as yourself.

I suppose at the end of the day we can't all just expect compensation for everything. This would mean that for example if 1 in 100 sets of points are faulty and lets say $400 compensation is due each time this happens, then $4 has to be added to every set of points to make up the $400. Now if this is one item that is worth about $16 and $4 is 25% of the value, then we can say that if everyone wants compensation, then that would be fine if everyone pays 25% more for everything.

Welcome to USA.

I would be glad that it all worked out in the end.

I do some work on the VW's myself, but there are some more workshop specific jobs that I get done by Volkspower. I never stipulate a finish time and I never ask for a discount or cheaper option. I have never had a problem with any work done, but if something like this happened to me I would just smile and accept it as part of the hobby.

i dont know why hes upset 1 week is pretty long isnt it

t2, what do you mean 1 week is pretty long??

and yeh helbus i did just grin and take it, but this sort of thing seems to happen to me too often....not just with vw's, i think machenics are the most dodge trade around, by far!!!

actually something wierd did happen though when i drove her home last night. i put her in reverse, and couldnt get it out of reverse until i turned the car off and then it came out no worries, anybody know why this is???
the clutch felt really light when i was driving home and the car was idling alot higher than normal (warm). is it possible that these bad points have thrown the timing out????

i am still driving the hire car so i thaught at first that maybe i just wasnt used to the old bus after the week..but these things seem alittle strange.

After all Your problems. I would have thought they would have given the timing a check and most other things...

There are other brands of points made in Germany..
I have some DODUCO points.. I thought BERU made them too...

I'm NOT a mechanic, but I drove a type 3 VW to Perth and back in the 1970s, now it wouldn't idle... but drove OK all the way there and back... It had cracks in the heads....

Now I would have thought that a blown head gasket wouldn't actually STOP the engine..... it would misfire etc...

Broken points would stop an engine -- NO Spark...!!

Condensers used to be changed with the rotor and distributor cap frequently back in the 60s & 70s but nowdays
most people use them until they play up.....

Sorry to hear of Your back luck.....
I believe that Mechanic should take some responsibility for His MIS- Diagnosis.... He should have taken a 5 minute look at the engine..... and should have found the problem....
The points would have been the first thing to check regardless of them being new- they can be shorted out due to a faulty condenser... which can also STOP an engine...

What do VW Mechanics and others on this forum think???

Lee