Charge for Diagnosis

[Robbo 27]

Its a long time, over 5 years, since I took a car in to a main dealer that needed some work done other than regular servicing or discs.

Just been into Sytner for a squeaky window which could only be assessed when the door card was removed. Car was booked in and went ahead with the work which was a new seal and a new regulator, cost was £380. They said 'we would normally charge £75 to diagnose the problem,' but we have waived the charge.

Is this diagnostic charge a standard practice now, it seems a bit unreasonable when the technician needs to take the car apart to find the problem and to put the new parts on the car.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Saturday 17th August 16:31

[Initforthemoney]

What if you said, no thanks it's too much?

Who is going to pay for the time spent diagnosing the problem?

[xjay1337]

Yes normal dealer charge is around 80 quid.

[HTP99]

Initforthemoney said:

What if you said, no thanks it's too much?

Who is going to pay for the time spent diagnosing the problem?

This, or you said thanks very much and got it done elsewhere, after having the free diagnosis.

Our place charges a diagnostic fee and if you have the work done the the fee is refunded/not charged.

[motco]

An independent Jaguar specialist charged me £42 for an SDD scan last week. Not a physical diagnosis I realise, but a main dealer would be likely to charge twice that much. Good indies are always worth finding.

[M4cruiser]

Initforthemoney said:

What if you said, no thanks it's too much?

Who is going to pay for the time spent diagnosing the problem?

I think what this means is they would charge for the time spent diagnosing the problem. Then if you ask them to fix it they don't need to charge again if it's still dismantled. The wording of "waiving" the charge sounds like they're doing you a favour, so not the best words.

[Robbo 27]

Thanks for your advice evryone. I am out of touch really because I havent had any repair work done for as long as I can remember.

Not sure about how i would feel about asking for a cam belt change and being charged a diagnostic fee before they do the work.

I have found a good independant for next time something goes wrong.

Cheers all.

[Ultuous]

Robbo 27 said:

TNot sure about how i would feel about asking for a cam belt change and being charged a diagnostic fee before they do the work.

There's a big difference between asking them to resolve an undiagnosed problem and telling them to conduct a specific activity (genuinely - I've had this with my BMW dealer before, where I've decided the cost of doing an activity and likelihood of it solving the issue make it a better bet just to plug on with it rather than give them another £99 to confirm the cause first!)

[Robbo 27]

Ultuous said:

There's a big difference between asking them to resolve an undiagnosed problem and telling them to conduct a specific activity (genuinely - I've had this with my BMW dealer before, where I've decided the cost of doing an activity and likelihood of it solving the issue make it a better bet just to plug on with it rather than give them another £99 to confirm the cause first!)

I can imagine that this is a topic which gets peoples blood fired up.

I went in because the drivers side window was squeaking occaisionally and almost dependant on the weather. The advice I had from internet and a knowledgeable mate was that a good squirt of silicone lube would fix it/improve it. If it was still a problem then the seal may be faulty. I gave it a spray and the squeal went away on the down stroke, slight squeak on the up. I took it down to the main stealers and they agreed with my diagnosis but said they had a special grease for the job, it would be silent. Booked it in for a few days later.

A new seal was £118, a new regulatorand a new seal was £381, quite a big difference to cure a problem that people said was just a lubrication issue. I gave the go ahead, the techician called me into the workshop and showed me that the squeak was still there after he had fitted the new seal, in fact the squeak was worse.

I gave the go ahead for the work including a new regulator.

Not sure where the diagnostic charge could have applied other than simply doing the work.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Saturday 17th August 19:44

[motco]

Judging by a number of stories on PH main dealers are far from certain to make a correct diagnosis anyway.

[M4cruiser]

Robbo 27 said:

I can imagine that this is a topic which gets peoples blood fired up.

I went in because the drivers side window was squeaking occaisionally and almost dependant on the weather.

A new seal was £118, a new regulatorand a new seal was £381,

Edited by Robbo 27 on Saturday 17th August 19:44

This is the problem with main dealers. If you'd known at the start is was going to be nearly £400 then maybe you'd live with the squeak - I would, but of course you didn't know. I've been in similar situations and wished I hadn't bothered, I go away feeling cheated.

[eliot]

I think i would live with the squeak and save the £380 for a real problem.

[Robbo 27]

eliot said:

I think i would live with the squeak and save the £380 for a real problem.

Agreed.

On the day of the repair there was next to no noise, but I was convince that a squirt of silicon would fix the issue, a new seal was ok but not great at £100+, but the noise was really bad after the new seal went in. I am no expert but I would have thought that a regulator either worked or it didnt, its just a motor and cables.

The noise didnt actually come from the seal, it was below the seal and hidden by body work.

[Dr G]

Hiring/training/retaining a genuinely good diagnostic technician is incredibly expensive. It's going to get more expensive too; the training, tooling, and equipment to work on the latest driver assists and upcoming EV/hybrid stuff is mortgage levels of money.

Their skills are in extremely high demand and very short supply. Hell, right now even crap technicians are paid too much money. We've had (I think) 4 new starts fail their probation in the last year.

Charging for their time is essential. It's that or we close the doors and there's nobody to diagnose a fault.

[motco]

Robbo 27 said:

eliot said:

I think i would live with the squeak and save the £380 for a real problem.

Agreed.

On the day of the repair there was next to no noise, but I was convince that a squirt of silicon would fix the issue, a new seal was ok but not great at £100+, but the noise was really bad after the new seal went in. I am no expert but I would have thought that a regulator either worked or it didnt, its just a motor and cables.

The noise didnt actually come from the seal, it was below the seal and hidden by body work.

The window on the driver's door of my daily driver makes a noise like a Trinity House foghorn as it chatters its way up. A squirt of silicone lubricant on a rag wiped along the glass edges stops the noise for a while and is virtually free of charge.

[Robbo 27]

Dr G said:

Hiring/training/retaining a genuinely good diagnostic technician is incredibly expensive. It's going to get more expensive too; the training, tooling, and equipment to work on the latest driver assists and upcoming EV/hybrid stuff is mortgage levels of money.

Their skills are in extremely high demand and very short supply. Hell, right now even crap technicians are paid too much money. We've had (I think) 4 new starts fail their probation in the last year.

Charging for their time is essential. It's that or we close the doors and there's nobody to diagnose a fault.

I agree with you and I have always supported the idea of paying for training, I get it. What I dont really buy into, if the work is going to go ahead, is the charge for a diagnosis of a problem is for the benefit of the garage isnt it? How do they they know what to do otherwise? Perhaps I have missed something here.


I was talking to a friend about this over the weekend, he has a Fiat and washed the car on a Sunday, it was less than a month old. Set off for work next morning, a 60 mile trip. No power steering, no ABS, no speedo, most of the electrics didnt work and a load of warning lights but the car still ran. Took it into Mangoletsi near Knutsford and they wanted £75 to plug it into their computer, even though it was under warranty. He couldnt afford £75 and went back to his car, started it and some electrics had returned, 30 minutes later all was back to normal, he thought it was water in the fuse box.

I appreciate that I am old fashionned but i would have thought that a decent mechanic would have been able to diagnose the problem and been able to fix it in a few minutes.

[xjay1337]

Robbo 27 said:

I was talking to a friend about this over the weekend, he has a Fiat and washed the car on a Sunday, it was less than a month old. Set off for work next morning, a 60 mile trip. No power steering, no ABS, no speedo, most of the electrics didnt work and a load of warning lights but the car still ran. Took it into Mangoletsi near Knutsford and they wanted £75 to plug it into their computer, even though it was under warranty. He couldnt afford £75 and went back to his car, started it and some electrics had returned, 30 minutes later all was back to normal, he thought it was water in the fuse box.

Surely that's some very bad customer service on behalf of the dealer ??

I would be looking into making a complaint to the dealer service manager based on that, although I doubt it would change anything.

[catso]

Audi dealer advised a minor gearbox oil leak during the MOT test on my S4, they wanted £120 to diagnose the fault, even though it was fairly clear that it was due to poor sealing/gasketing from new (odd that they never noticed a few months earlier during the service when it was still under warranty).

As the leak was very small (no oil drops on garage floor I waited until the next service to get it repaired, this I did at an independent (service alone saved me a few hundred pounds) and got them to fix the oil leak at the same time - cost for the gearbox repair was £190 including a free diagnosis prior to booking.

[Robbo 27]

Good point, this diagnosis charge is just a rip off for main dealers to make an additional for what should be normal work, there is no benefit to the customer and a good garage have the skills to assess the problem.