I think the dealer killed my car!

[Nebby]

Had the car in for a full service on it's service plan, 55 plate 06 C5 1.6HDI Est. It was due full coolant and brake fluid change, while in I had them change the Pollen filter, re-gas my air con. Unfortunately I didn't collect my car the other half did. When the car arrived home the suspension had failed, dead in the water, even the switch in the boot didn't make it pinging noise when pressed. I had to go on holiday the next day so, after an interesting phone call, they recovered it. Lo and behold after inspection, the car requires a new controller unit for the suspension at £1200 and it was, "nothing we did that could cause this".

What I'd like your opinion on, is whether or not they are selling me a line. Cars never put a foot wrong before this except for a seat catch and the rear wiper/ half glass door opening fail, the Wife does say as she was driving back she noticed the dash say "do not exceed 55mph". As she has no idea as to what the car should feel like when driven, she wouldn't have noticed it it had failed whilst in the hands of Citroen.

[qprdude]

To be honest mate, sh*t happens to cars all the time as you know. It might have happened after a long journey, and you would be thinking "that's what caused it". Or maybe a drive in heavy rain.
Impossible to say of course, but there is no reason to assume the garage caused the problem, just because nothing bad has happened before. The first bad /expensive fault has to happen sometime, it just maybe coincided with your visit to the garage. I suppose you could get a second opinion, if you know exactly what the service garage did but if it's a main dealer, why would they risk telling lies? They are most likely insured for damage to customers cars.
My last car was in for a service and next day I had a broken spring. I couldn't very well say "I never had a broken spring until the car was serviced so it must be their fault".

[Xantia97]

Hi Nebby,
I personally would want a second opinion, let me tell you what happened to my husband's XM at a Citroen main dealership here in France - 90 minutes away from where both our cars were built in Rennes.

Xm 1997 went in for her second timing belt change at 150k, husband collected her and immediately noticed a lack of power and black smoke, by the time he got home the car could only climb gradients in 1st gear. Called the garage to collect car, by now it would hardly move and loads of black smoke. The garage took a week to diagnose what they thought was a broken camshaft but without taking the engine to pieces it could not be proven and it would be difficult to get a new camshaft if not impossible, so scrap the car. Now luckily my husband is a retired chartered marine engineer, he has repaired and supervised repairs on much, much bigger engines than a car and understands all about camshafts, funnily once the garage were made aware of this and that my husband thought that it would be possible to prove if it was the camshaft without taking the engine to pieces everything changed. All of a sudden the boss man appeared gushing apologies for 'their' mistake and they would source a second-hand engine and put it in at their cost if my husband would pay the labour of 600euros, which he agreed to. While the engine was out he had the clutch replaced and of course only had to pay for the parts so win win. Now it took them three months to do the job, 2 months for fitting because they only trusted one mechanic to do it!!!! The car came back but did not have the power, so back she went and they found that something to do with the fuel pump was misaligned by a mm, she had been to a Bosch specialist to check the pump before the initial return!!!! She is still not right, a very light accelerator which the garage thinks is the throttle linkage so back she goes next week.

My 1997 Xantia went in to the same garage for a new radiator and top and bottom hoses a couple of weeks ago - what could go wrong with a simple, straight-forward job like that? They took a week to do the job, when I drove her home she had no power (OMG here we go again) but I thought perhaps it was me because I had been driving the XM which is unbelievably powerful for an estate. My husband drove the Xantia a couple of days later and remembered I had said she seemed under-powered so he tested her and agreed, got home popped the bonnet and saw that the garage had failed to reconnect the pipe from the turbo at the side of the radiator, he couldn't quite get the pipe to go on so back the car went - lots of apologies from the garage. So yesterday - no the saga doesn't end yet - we filled up the washer reservoir and water started pouring out from underneath the car and through the fog light!!!!! Apparently they would have had to have removed the front bumper and the reservoir to get the bottom hose in and have obviously not connected something, so back she goes on Tuesday, although we may see if we can find the problem over the weekend via access through the wheel arch. On further inspection the garage had also failed to engage the supports for the wiring loom beneath the radiator.

Needless to say we will not be using this garage again once the faults caused by them have been fixed to our satisfaction. Main dealers don't want to know cars of the age of ours and I suspect that yours is now approaching an age where they would probably prefer it if you bought a new one - from them of course! My advice would be to find a nice independent garage who specialises in Citroens and work on them for the love of them, these garages do exist, check the map on the forum. Before we moved to France I never took any Citroen to a main dealer, they went to Bijou in Cwmcarn who loved Citroens with a passion, unfortunately they have now closed, never had a problem with their work.

Hope this helps a little.
Good luck,
Juliet

[wheeler]

Juliet, it does sound like the problems you had were almost certainly related to the work that was carried out however the OP's problem sounds totally unrelated to the service work that was done.

[Xantia97]

I totally agree Wheeler that the OP's problem would appear to be unrelated to the service work. I suppose I was trying to make the point, and not very well, that frequently people see the main dealer garages as the 'font of all knowledge' and that they must be right whereas this is getting to be less and less the case especially with older cars. The problems after my radiator replacement are down to sheer laziness/negligence regarding checking everything was put back correctly - I don't expect this sort of thing at the labour rates charged. I don't know enough about the problem but I would certainly want to get a second opinion if only to put my mind at rest if I was the OP - but then I don't trust main dealers!
Juliet

[qprdude]

I have used the main dealer I bought the car from, and have had exceptional service from them . Always a courtesy car, all jobs done profesionally using correct parts. always on time and best of all, no more expensive than local Indy's.

Converseley, I put my wife's car to a local indy who professed to have all the correct diagnostic equipment and trained mechanics. Result? Shoddy work ,rude service, overpriced parts (£70 for a battery for a 1.2 Clio!!!) and worst of all, more expensive to service than my C5 2.2l HDI Exclusive.

Moral? Don't tar everyone with the same brush.

[Xantia97]

All I'm saying is that I think the OP should get a second opinion and that there are good independent garages around, but I personally will not trust main dealers. I wish I'd never replied in the first place now - just trying to give the OP some moral support about getting that second opinion. If my husband wasn't an engineer a perfectly good car would have been scrapped. I'm sure there are some good main dealers out there and I know there are some very bad independents who don't know the bonnet from the boot. I was lucky and had outstanding service from Bijou in Cwmcarn.

[Hell Razor5543]

All I'm saying is that I think the OP should get a second opinion and that there are good independent garages around, but I personally will not trust main dealers. I wish I'd never replied in the first place now - just trying to give the OP some moral support about getting that second opinion. If my husband wasn't an engineer a perfectly good car would have been scrapped. I'm sure there are some good main dealers out there and I know there are some very bad independents who don't know the bonnet from the boot. I was lucky and had outstanding service from Bijou in Cwmcarn.

Don't take it personally. Everybody has differing opinions and experiences. I would never use my local branches of PC World, as they have given me nothing but grief, but the mother to my three godsons has nothing but praise for them, as she has always found them very helpful. Go figure.

[Xantia97]

Hi James,
I'm not taking it personally - honestly! Just feel it's getting off topic, the OP wanted opinions on whether we think the garage is selling him a line, but it is developing into an argument about which is better - main dealers or independents - which is not helping the OP.
Juliet

[myglaren]

Don't worry about it going off topic Juliet, it is a FCF charecteristic.
It is also quite normal for such discussions to be generated.

[miked]

What I'd like your opinion on, is whether or not they are selling me a line.

No, I don't think so. It may be more than just coincidence though. I know little about C5's. Is the 'controller unit' they speak of a combined pump/ecu? Maybe yours has been on it's last legs for a while and was just waiting to pop it's clogs. To change the brake fluid (I assume) would require the car lifted with all the wheels off the ground, giving the suspension more exercise that it would normally see. The same could have happened wherever you took it.

£1200 seems a lot to spend though. If they are a dealer they probably won't entertain the idea of fitting a second hand part, but they are available on that popular auction site for about £100. I don't know if there are different versions of pumps, or indeed if this is even the thing you need. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksi ... &_from=R40" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If it was me, I'd ask them if they could source and fit a reconditioned unit. If you tell them you understand it wasn't their fault, but that it did happen on their watch, they might be sympathetic.

[Sl4yer]

Citroen dealer? I think it's unlikely that they've directly damaged it, but has it been diagnosed correctly? (Not that I'd trust a Citroen dealer to do this better than anyone else).

I'd definitely get a second opinion, after trying a reset by battery disconnection (the instructions are on here somewhere). Or after a Lexia session if you're near to someone who can help.

James

[Hell Razor5543]

This is the way to do a BSi reset. I hope it helps;

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 11&t=40407" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;