I gave my car to a local garage who replaced my clutch and did a major service. When i got my car back, the reversing lights, the reversing camera and the reversing sensors no longer worked. They said they thought it was a faulty switch that was full of oil (No idea how it got full of oil, was never an issue before) they replaced the switch at their own cost, but it didn’t fix the issue. Eventually they sent it to a diagnostics company near by as they thought it was a wire issue and couldn’t fix it themselves. Turns out it was a high resistance issue in the junction box. Again, this was never an issue before they worked on my car. Money was never discussed, but when I picked my car up the garage said the bill for the work was £260 and they thought it fair that we pay 50/50. I don’t want to pay £130 as I feel they broke my car and its on them to pay the bill in full. What are peoples thoughts? Many Thanks.
How old is the car? Older vehicles can experience problems that show up during service. I see that the Ceed has been available since 2006. Oxidation of electrical contacts takes time and high resistance might be a function of age. I’ve had that occur on sensors in my cars.
Thoughts on a Forum do not mean much . Things break and sometimes the reason will not be found . They are paying half so just pay it and do not go there again . Also find out what shop they used ti solve that problem in case the problem returns.
If the shop was negligent when doing the work, then they would be responsible for the repairs. For the shop to be negligent, then they would have to make some kind of mistake during the repairs or perform the repairs in a way that is not a normally accepted method for the trade.
If there was a loose electrical connection from the factory (a factory defect), and this loose connection didn’t manifest itself until the wires were moved around during the unrelated work, then the shop is NOT negligent.
The service they performed would not adversely impact the junction box or it’s connections. The service may have uncovered the issue but it wasn’t the cause of it.
More than fair, I would be grateful for any relief they offered.
I had a friend that was going out to dinner with his inlaws. They insisted in taking their car and that he drive. Enroute to the restaurant, the exhaust fell of the car. They insisted he should pay to have it repaired as he was driving when it happened. Astoundingly, his wife was in agreement they should be financially liable for the repair because he was driving when it happened…
For a garage to pay half the cost of repairs for a problem that isn’t directly traceable to their work is pretty good and a sign of an honest shop. They could just say “tough luck, schmuck” and stick you for the whole thing. I’d say that’s a fair deal, especially after they paid for the switch they replaced on their own dime (not necessary). Sounds to me like unless they’re borderline incompetent at other tasks you should keep your business with them.
In the automotive business things happen all the time, when you remove a transmission a lot of times you have to move a wiring harness or a few plugs etc out of the way, and sometimes it disturbs a issue that otherwise would not have happened (well maybe later) and the shop is always blamed, but no matter who did the work including the dealer or yourself would have had the same outcome… I have seen cars pull in and have the oil changed and then not start… turned out the cam/crank sensor went out, luckily the customer new those vehicles had issues with them going out… I also had a Taurus dropped off for a leaking P/S hose and I heard the fuel pump was louder than normal and told the customer about it before starting work on the vehicle, well it went out while on the rack… lol
Crap happens, be glad they are helping you out…
Now if they didn’t support the engine correctly and let partly hang pulling on the harness then that would have been there fault… So like already said, if you don’t have prof of them damaging your vehicle, just be happy they are helping out and paying 1/2…
I agree with others here. Most likely just a bad coincidence. I would be happy if the shop paid half and actually use them again if they were willing to work on my car.
Junction box? Another Brit term? I assume you mean the box on top of the transmission where the stick goes. There is a switch in there that detects when reverse is selected. No doubt they dropped the transmission to replace the clutch which would have necessitated unplugging the connector. Sounds like they either forgot to reconnect the wire or they got trash in the connector. You can bet most of that 260 was for the tow and the troubleshooting. Actual work, cleaning the connector and reconnecting.
But he said junction box, not junction block. He talks in pounds and not dollars so terms in GB are not always the same as the US, so it is best to ask.
That seems like the correct solution to me as well. Glad you found a compromise everyone is at least sort of happy with. At 10 years your car is starting to show signs of aging, so this sort of problem will likely be a repeating occurrence whenever your car needs major shop work. If you find this really annoying, you’d probably be happier future-wise if you start looking for a new or at least newer car.
By way of comparison, both of my cars are much older than yours, 30 and 50 years old. I solve this problem by doing the vast majority of the maintenance and repairs myself, drive-way diy’er. If I had to use shops I’d buy newer cars.
Good for you btw for choosing a manual transmission. That’s definitely one way a car buyer can mitigate the chance of major repair bills.