[greenhorn]

Related thread for salesmen - link.

For the past one year, I was not able to pour water into my wiper tank as it would immediately start leaking. My workshop said the issue was because of a broken water tank, and since my indica has a rear wiper, it needs a different sort of tank. For the past 3 services, I have been told each time that they are still waiting for a tank, as the DLX tank is in short supply. I started following up more closely, and for a month now, every two days, was being told that the items should come in two days.

After being caught in the wake of a truck in the rain yesterday, i got fed up, and decided to go to a nearby workshop. the guy there was adamant that both types of indicas share the same tank, to which i said, give me the tank so i can get a sample for a replacement. The guy opens it up, and finds that its the pipe thats damaged, not the tank. I am sure the other guys would have spotted it - that side of the fender was removed at least once. In the end it was just a 250rs pipe, and that too the standard item. I was shocked - I had been driving around with a semi functional wiper because of this workshops laziness to do a proper diagnosis mixed with some creative storytelling.


I faced a similar issue (but not entirely car related) where i had a 2.1 sub go bad(it literally went up in smoke). anyway its a fairly well known system, with plenty of its guts photos online- it basically uses 4 chip amps, with one pair bridged for the sub, and one pair running stereo for the sattelites. the guy first tells me that the chip amp IC's are not available, and only fakes are there - the TDA7294 is a relatively current chip amp, and fakes are not that prevalent ( not as bad as, say an STK series amp module). but he tells me that they do have a full amp board with the same chip - he can swap in the same - provided i pay up advance for the board. he asks for 2k advance (what i would expect an indian local shop to charge for a 2.1 TDA 7294 board given its chinese price)
he proceeds to take another 2 months, and then says that he is moving his shop, that he is at his native etc. after a bunch of stories and persistent follow up, he finally lets me pick it up from a random location without letting me test. When I come home and open it up, I see that one of the stereo sattelite amp channels is missing an IC, and both channels have been connected to the remaining working channel so that both speakers work ( I have seen this hack before, in a tape deck i once bought).

I understand that salesfolk may not have the technical background, and may come up with cock and bull stories, but mechanics saying this- is unpardonable. Suffice to say I will not be going to either of these places again. Please do share your experiences!

[jayantvs]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

....I understand that salesfolk may not have the technical background, and may come up with cock and bull stories, but mechanics saying this- is unpardonable. Suffice to say I will not be going to either of these places again. Please do share your experiences!

Interesting thread, I have 2 such instances one of which is still unresolved

1. The central locking was not working on the passenger door for my Punto. The door would always remain unlocked. I got it checked at a nearby workshop where the mechanic told me that the door handle needs to be changed, luckily for me the workshop could not procure the same color door handle so I had to go to the authorized service center where the problem was diagnosed to be simple mechanical issue for which they even did not charge me.

2. The USB port does not work on the Blue & Me (ICE) on my Punto. The CD player and radio work fine only issue is with USB port. The service center has asked me to replace the complete Blue & Me for 14K as they are unable to diagnose the problem. I am pretty much sure it is just some wiring problem and nothing else.

[Leoshashi]

Interesting thread, thanks for sharing!

Being a part of the Indian Auto industry, and not hearing such tales from mechanics and SVC is next to impossible. I am listing out some of the major ones I can remember at this point of time.

Case 1: My 16 year old Maruti 800 was facing major drifting issue to the left, and none of the SVC's were able to pinpoint the issue. So I was taking my chances and showing my car to every one of them.

SVC 1: Saar, these things happen in such an old car. Other than the drifting issue, you car is driving beautifully. Kindly ignore.

SVC 2: To show any kind of drifting, one has to leave the steering for a moment or two. The SA here exclaimed: Saar, don't you know, steering should be held with both hands while driving. See, when you hold with two hands, its going straight. He didn't even acknowledge that I had to struggle with the steering to prevent the car from going left.

SVC 3: The experience at this MASS was hilarious. At this point, I was tired of the SA's of not being able to pin point the issue. The SA at this SVC lifted up the car, went around it and exclaimed," Oh Sir, found your issue". I was finally relieved, at least the reason was found. He said: A part of your chassis has rusted and fallen down somewhere. There are two lateral sway bars at the rear, one of which has fallen down.

Hearing the word rust gave me a shock instantly, he explained: See, it has to be symmetrical. Your car has one panel missing on the LHS, which explains why your car is going towards left.

He was referring to this:



The SA was so confident that he even gave me an estimate of the job: 15k. This came from the largest workshop of my city(M/s Premsons Motor), who claims to have latest equipments, etc. Kindly have some sensible guys too, please?!

The problem was however something else, and was resolved at another MASS: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-a...ml#post3625371

Case 2: I needed an ashtray, and my MGP store said: Saar, govt has banned cigarettes, hence Maruti also isn't making ashtrays. I fell for this logic, and believed them.

Case 3: I was checking out some tyre inflators at the MGA section of the dealer workshop. There were two models on offer, one priced Rs. 1,400 and another worth Rs. 1,990. I asked the difference and he said: Saar, cheaper one gives normal air, the other fills nitrogen.

Case 4: I needed some spares for my 800. The MGP chap again gave some BS saying that this car was discontinued in 2003, you cannot get these spares. This time, it was enough, and I wrote a strong worded mail to MSIL. The next day, the owner of the store called me and the rest is history. Today, he is one of the closest buddies I have, and he gets me almost all the spares. My knowledge about spares is the outcome of this friendship.

Regards,
Shashi

[jayded]

Few interesting bits from my ownership of the Figo.

1. Back in 2012, I had faced the infamous stalling issue that plagued the first batch of Figos. While I took it to the Service Center, the service advisor just popped open the fuel line, took couple of drops of fuel in his hand, smelled it using his high-tech nose and concluded that the entire problem was due to Kerosene mixed in fuel. Shocked by the new info, I went to the petrol pump, which is one of the most reputed pump in Trivandrum, and mentioned about Ford's claim. The manager at the pump connected me to the Regional Manager of Bharath Petroleum, who went on to explain their quality control measures at that particular pump. He asked me to get an official written statement from the Ford Service Center mentioning that the fuel was adulterated and said they would sue Ford for such a false claim. I went back to the ASS to get the letter stating the same. Job card opened immediately for further diagnosis.

2. The same issue kept reappearing in my car after couple of part changes. The car would abruptly stall while driving. It was so random that it could never be replicated at will. Every time I take it to the ASS, they would take me on a long test drive, but the issue wouldn't crop. They refused to take in the car and diagnose further citing "We can't work on the issue unless we really see it". After 5-6 excruciating drives over couple of weeks, I talked to the customer relations manager who said the same. "We can't take the car in unless we see the issue". I lost it then and asked him, "Do you go to church on Sundays". He nodded positively. I asked him, "Have you seen God?". Got a negative nod. I asked him "Why do you go to church when you have not seen God?". Job card opened immediately for further diagnosis.

3. My Figo, during the last phase of ownership, was plagued with issues like Injector pressure drop, steering rack oil leak, idler pully noises and what not. I took in the car to the ASS and the service advisor felt pity on me and asked me to ditch the Figo for the all new Endeavor!! i told him what I earn monthly. Job card opened immediately for repair.

[vigsom]

Case1
I had an issue with my Corolla's AC in Surat in 2011 and the first "expert" I was referred to said the blower wasn't throwing enough air and the compressor also needed to be checked.

I fished out my old known technician whom I had lost touch with, took the car there, and it turned out to be just a case of a leaking evaporator.

Case2

My second Corolla in Chennai had a poorly functional rear right window.

The "door" mechanic wanted 2500 bucks for rectification stating that the motor had gone weak.

I know for a fact that PW motors are rarely used and this one, a Denso cannot fail.So I said thank you to the expert, went to my regular mechanic, got the window guide rubbers cleaned with plain water, and all was well.

All maintenance is performed in my presence after I figure out what needs to be done, so haven't had too many conning experiences.

[pkulkarni.2106]

I had one such incident with my Santro's AC. The problem is explained here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post4149625

I'll put it in short here: AC used to trip and it wouldn't come back for few minutes. I always believed it had something to do with the fuse or the relay.

The local AC expert told me that they would need to do complete overhaul and I gave go ahead. Even after doing so, there wasn't any improvement.
So I went to the same guy again, and this time he correctly diagnosed it to the faulty fuse. The main issue was that the place where the fuse sits was molten (it melted a few months back when the compressor clutch went bad and was drawing more current). He did some jugaad and fixed it in place and all is well since then.

But initially when he diagnosed it incorrectly, I had to shell around 3000 Rs unnecessarily.

[glenmz]

Friend of mine upgraded from a Santro to an Innova Crysta. So the mileage gauge, MID etc were new to him.
So he tells me that he gets very good mileage in city but drops down while driving in highways. Thats, MID shows 10 in city but drops to 8-ish while driving in the highways. I was puzzled. The next day, the vehicle was schedule for the first inspection. He tells the same at the Toyota SC. The SA checks, then the mechanic comes in, all puzzled. Finally, they say, sir, things will become alright after the first service.

We meet the next day at office and he has brought the car in then. I kinda got a hunch on what it might be. So we go down to parking and check this.
So the MID was set to display Liters per 100 KM. Changed it to KM/L and things started looking good!

[DuHasstMich]

Puncture Mechanics at their best:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-a...ml#post4147156

[Ry_der]

Not a mechanic but a car audio guy :

When I Bought my preworshipped Hyundai Accent 2 years back. I didnt give attention to minute electrical niggle including car audio as the engine and body of the car was in the perfect condition.

One day the stereo of the car died. I consulted an audio guy regarding the issue. He asked for 400 Rs. for complete checkup of wiring of the stereo. I gave him a nod but asked him to start from the fuse itself and then proceed to complete checkup, but he was too confident to follow my suggestion. He started all this disassembling, checking each and every connection with a multimeter and so many other things. At last when he couldn't find any problem, he resorted to the fuse. And guess what !! It was a simple case of blown fuse.

Than I started bashing him(verbally) for practicing unfair business tactics and what not. Didnt pay the agreed amount as he didn't follow my instruction but paid him Rs. 150 including new fuse price.

[vinit.merchant]

The problems areas are the following 2
1. Lack of knowledge: This can range from slight to complete lack of knowledge, which is fine till the time the guy is frank enough to admit it and consult someone knowledgeable. Problem starts when the last part is lacking

2. Lack of intent: or rather lets say lack of willingness. People do not want to go that extra mile to know the exact problem and its source. They just want to quickly diagnose and replace whatever they feel the problem is, and this trial and error does not cost them as the customer has to bear the cost. So why put in the extra effort.

And according to me, this is only going to get worse with time.

I too faced an issue of incorrect diagnosis by not one but 3 different guys. An A.S.S., a neighborhood garage and a so called expert on Fiats in my city.

There was a clak clak noise coming from the front right whenever the car went over a small pot hole or a speed breaker.
A.S.S. was hopleless in diagnosis.
The neighborhood guy diagnosed the noise to a faulty bushing that needed replacement. Took me a lot of time to source the bushing. Got it replaced from him. But it did not solve the issue. The noise continued.
Then I heard about this Fiat expert. Took the car to him. He suggested replacing both sets of lower arms. I agreed. A few k's paid. But the problem continues. The car goes to him again. Now he says front shocks are gone. I agreed again. Shocks were replaced and a test drive later, we realised problem continues. Then he realised the noise was actually coming from a loose rubber covering on the shocks.
There was no problem whatsoever with the bushing, or the lower arms or the shocks.
By this time I was totally pissed. I asked him to remove the new shocks, put back in the old one's and get it over with.
Thankfully I did not have to bear the cost of the shocks, which were quite expensive.

[greenhorn]

hey, My intent was not to bash the incompetence of mechanics - nobody is perfect, and a lot of us expect a mech to spit out a diagnosis by simply looking at a car, and obviously the results of that method are not that great

The intent of the thread here is to share stories where mechanics willingly mislead customers by cooking up fake stories/excuses

[vasist]

I had a similar experience with Tata when they were looking after the sales and service of Fiat. I had hit a boulder and as a result had lost some fluids. Towed my Palio to Tata to get it fixed. The service assistant told me the car had lost engine oil and I ran the engine without oil, and had damaged the engine block . He also said they have to completely rebuild the engine and gave me an estimate of 60k. Not convinced I towed my car to Bosch service outlet. Turns out the only fluid lost was coolant. They plugged the leak and topped up the coolant, the car has been running fine from the last 7 years

[T-Bone]

This I faced with my Nano 2012.

90% of the time I use my Nano to travel on weekends to visit my parents who stay about 40km away. All was fine and suddenly on such trip I could feel my right side rear wheels wobbling. I didn't give it much thought initially but as weeks passed the wobbling got worse. Car would drive fine until I touched 60 kmph and post that wobble increases as I pickup speed so can't go beyond 60 kmph. It was so bad that the wheel would actually touch the upper part of the strut assembly. Took it to Tata service center for my regular service and had them check the issue. Was told that the axle was bent and so the entire swing arm needs to be replaced. Was also told that left & right swing arms needs to be replaced as they come in pairs. Estimated cost 15k. Told them I would have it done at a later point of time.

Once back home I put all my mental efforts trying to recollect what would have caused the axle to be bent. I never do rash driving or remember hitting any ditch or bump. Forget car, in Bangalore traffic even a cyclist can't do circus then how on earth did axle get bent? Meanwhile, the rear tires were in very bad shape. So decided to change all four tires before I can give it for the swing arm replacement.

Now comes the best part, no prizes for guessing. After the tire change and wheel balancing the car drove like as if it had no issues at all. I was like as I drove back home. That's when I realized that it was just a matter of wheel balancing and not the axle bend issue as diagnosed by the service center.

Next question: Could wheel balancing go so bad that wheel start wobbling??
Answer: Sometime before the wobbling started, my right side rear tire had a small tear so the local puncture shop guy suggested me to use a tube in a tubeless tire as the tires were still good. Owing to my limited running the treads were still good condition hence the suggestion. So after I agreed he put a tube and I was able to run the car even with the torn tire. Due to the added weight (tube) the balancing was messed up and hence the wobbling issue. Once the new tire was put and balancing done, wobbling was gone for good.

Was thinking what if I had done the swing arm replacement and then still the wobbling had not gone?

[gostel]

When my Maruti car was new, it went for service at MAS Prabhadevi. Throttle body cleaning and Injector cleaning was always on the list as highly recommended items. In the last 5 years, I have been getting the car serviced at other MAS centers and never once have the Throttle body and Injectors been cleaned and the car runs smoothly with good acceleration and very low PUC values. No more fat bills for me.

[motorguy]

Here's one.

I had a Ford Ikon a couple of years back. The Ford was in Kottayam (I live in Bangalore). On one of my trips to our house in Kerala (when the Ikon was around 12 years old), the exhaust system was making sputtering noises. The obvious reason was a hole in the silencer or one of the connecting pipes of the exhaust system. At that point since I didn't know any FNG in Kottayam, I brought it to Kairali Ford. Upon seeing the car the SA immediately said "Sir - the entire exhaust system has to be changed". I asked him, why cant you raise the car and check if its just a hole in the pipe that has to be welded. He said "Sir, the Ikon's exhaust is very complex and you will need to change the entire system". He then gave me a quote of Rs.32,000/-. After recovering from the shock, I said forget it. Rode around the town for an hour or so and found an FNG. Showed it to the owner, and he fixed it for Rs.800/-.

Just for kicks, I called the SA and told him this. After that, he was always careful in giving me any advice. Prior to this, by the way, he also recommended an ECU replacement of Rs.40,000/- when it was only the EGR valve that required replacement (less than Rs.10,000/-).