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Don't believe main dealer diagnosis - DME controller needs replacing mate

5K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Macguyvic 
#1 ·
Dear all

Just to let people know not to take main dealers diagnostics as gospel. Their mechanics are apparently always being pressured to fix the next car like a production line.

My battery light kept coming on and then it died. So it went to a main dealer thinking it would be new battery or worst case a new alternator and new battery. So when they said that the DME main controller had gone and that a new one would be £1200 + labour. I nearly collapsed.

I started looking for a reconditioned one and I stumbled across Mini spares in Bury. He was admant it wasn't the DME So he took it away, put in a new DME, just to test it and it still had the fault. So he spent a day going through all the wiring looms and found a broken wire behind the glove box. Unfortuntely it had taken out the alternator with it. But he's still only charged me £288 as opposed to £1200 + labour, which wouldn't of fixed the problem
 
#3 ·
I cant really see how they could say it was the DME, fit a new one, find out its not and then say you owe us 1200 quid for fitting something that wasnt needed, oh and your cars still broken by the way.
Im sure there must be some legal get out there somewhere?
Probably most folk just accept the fact and pay up, quite easy money really.

Its getting to be a bit of a problem these days where garages just go about replacing things until they find the bit thats wrong, in theory using that approach they could renew the whole car before its running again, and merrily bill you for each item thats not needed as they go, and that will cost you 10 times more than buying another new car in the end. :rolleyes:
 
#4 ·
Mechanics use to trouble shoot & fix cars. Now troubleshooting is hooking up a computer and reading codes. Computers don't use common sense. Took mine in and first they said it was all coked up. Then they said the fuel injectors and spark plugs needed to be replaced. When that didn't fix it it was narrowed down to the fuel pump. That's after I paid for coke clean up, fuel injectors and spark plugs. They didn't dare hand me an invoice for the fuel pump. So far so good.
 
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