3 coil packs die on customer's drive home?!

[Phil 1]

I sold an Audi TT at the weekend. I had driven it around 300 miles with no problems. Used it a couple of days before the sale taking it for an MOT and then retest. Car flew through and ran perfect. Buyer took it for a test drive, perfect. 2 days later, he came to collect the car, then drove off on a 60 mile trip home. The car had 1/3 of a tank of petrol in it when he left. He drove a few miles to the local petrol station to put more fuel in. 20 miles later, he calls to say the car is badly misfiring and engine management light on - he suggests a coil pack or possible damp in leads and says he will continue further to see if it clears. It doesn't but he manages to misfire home, engine light now flashing. He doesn't want to wait 2 days to contact my warranty company about fixing the fault so says he will take it to his local garage to take a look and see what's up and let me know. I tell him I can get coil packs for £13.99 each. Next thing I know is he's taken it to his Audi specialist and given the go ahead to fit a new coil pack, but once they've started they find 3 coil packs a at fault

Firstly: Is it possible for 3 out of 4 coil packs to suddenly go like that? I'm suspicious he put diesel in by mistake or ragged the car? Would that cause the issue?

He's got them putting a full set of coil packs in. I don't know yet his final bill but assume it might be a couple of hundred from a specialist?

I tell him I will pay £42 which is what I could have got a full set of coils for.

He's not happy and says my car should have been "fit for purpose" and that he should not be liable of the "cost to get it to the condition in which it should have been at the point of collection"

I'm going to get something drawn up on faulty cars being brought back to be fixed in house as this has happened a few times now with people buying cars from a distance away and taking them for expensive repairs without my approval. But anyway, do coils just go like this? Do you think my offer of £42 is reasonable?

Cheers Guys

 

 

Has anyone got invoice wording with Terms & Con's, perhaps with a 'returning car if faulty' clause?

[It's me 609]

3 coil packs  no

1 yes

i wouldnt fit a £13.99 one though as it sounds an internet copy

i would fit 4 oe if it had a problem back at base from my breaker from a crashed car where engine running fine beforecrash to keep cost sensible

my first thoughts were misfuel too and im still unsure

 

regarding invoice write your own i have, put down customer has to dance on one foot if you wish ,some might like it

Edited January 20, 2016 by s and b

[Jamie Edmonds 28]

I agree entirely with the above diagnosis, however it is possible that one pack was failed and two were showing issues when tested so the garage recommended they were replaced too - this is normal for a garage as the coil packs are pretty much consumable items.

A cheap coil pack on these engines is a false economy, often they don't work properly in the first place and they are likely to fail within months in any case.  We tested several different sources for VAG coil packs and only the OEM supplier made ones actually lasted any reasonable length of time, the cheap ones flew back under warranty at an alarming rate.

In summary, I don't think the garage has done anything wrong, the driver can't possibly have put diesel in the car as the pump won't physically fit in the filler neck.  It's just one of those things which can happen I guess.

[Max Branning 149]

Why on earth did he not bring the car straight back to you if he only got 20 miles down the road and it started misfiring and eml on?

As soon as he rang you i would of told him to come straight back. Anyway wait and see what the audi garage quote to repair and if its reasonable may be best to just pay it and move on (hopefully you had a decent profit in the car) Just offering 42 quid and expecting him to be happy is a long shot and more likely to wind things up.

[Wood235 36]

We never fit cheap crap coil packs. Find a branded or one equivalent to OE quality. You are wasting yr time.

Also if changing a coil pack, always change the he plugs & ht leads as more often than not it was a plug or lead that would have caused the coil pack to fail.  This is from experience and learning that cutting corners doesn't always pay!

[Wheelerdealer1 91]

Yes OE all the way or they will fail again very soon, he should have waited for the warranty company, very silly of the customer to go straight to the garage like that, but I suppose they were eager to get back on the road 

I had an m3 that had 4 of the 6 showing as weak after the customer collected of course ! So it can happen 

[Cornish Guy 45]

Which warranty company is going to pay for repairs on the day of purchase?

[Wheelerdealer1 91]

Tricky 

[Gavin@Rousdon 137]

It's seems a theme on here that dealer don't like roadside traders and how they try and get out of there responsibilities if a fault occurs with a car. 

Then we have a dealer wanting / expecting  a customer to  wait for two day for a fault to be looked at on a car he purchased that day. Then it's seems like the dealer wants the customer to foot the bill for using decent parts instead of cheap parts. 

Lets be fair, how do we think this customer is feeling at the moment about his new car and the 'experience' of buying it?? 

My advice is pay the bill and keep the customer happy, forget £13.99 coil packs and put it down to experience. If he had had the car 20 days it's different story. Once he had phoned maybe the best course of action would be to get the car back, lend him a car, sort the problem and take the car back to him. That way you are in control of the problem. 

None of us like spending money but faults occur on cars, sometimes it will happen on the day of purchase. Moaning about the less desirable elements of the motor trade and then acting like one doesn't help anyone

 

[sparky 274]

It's seems a theme on here that dealer don't like roadside traders and how they try and get out of there responsibilities if a fault occurs with a car. 

Then we have a dealer wanting / expecting  a customer to  wait for two day for a fault to be looked at on a car he purchased that day. Then it's seems like the dealer wants the customer to foot the bill for using decent parts instead of cheap parts. 

Lets be fair, how do we think this customer is feeling at the moment about his new car and the 'experience' of buying it?? 

My advice is pay the bill and keep the customer happy, forget £13.99 coil packs and put it down to experience. If he had had the car 20 days it's different story. Once he had phoned maybe the best course of action would be to get the car back, lend him a car, sort the problem and take the car back to him. That way you are in control of the problem. 

None of us like spending money but faults occur on cars, sometimes it will happen on the day of purchase. Moaning about the less desirable elements of the motor trade and then acting like one doesn't help anyone

 

Absolutely. Treat people how you would expect to be treated yourself. If I was said customer I'd think an offer of £42 was a **** take and wouldn't give me much confidence for further down the line.

[Steve92 80]

Genuine ones or at the very least Bosch, if it's got the original ones in then Audi are replacing them under warranty. Our TT had new ones fitted at the office free of charge. If the car has 1 original and 3 non Oem then they will only replace the Oem one.

I would pay for 1 coil pack and 50% contribution to the other 2, but if they refused I'd replace them all. Oh and they can go just like that, we had a 320i do the very same, except it through a few other codes up and cost £600 to sort. It failed the day it was collected when it had covered 300 miles.

[Tom 164]

The other 2 codes on the ECU might be old codes that were never cleared from previous coil problems and could of been just one coil gone down. I would of had the car back cleared down the codes and then either test drive car to see which code came back or gone into live data to see which one is at fault. It wouldn't of taken 3 coils down in one hit. 

[James Bush 95]

I'd get it fixed and pay up......a bit painful I know but it just gets the problems sorted and then move on. He's quite within his rights to reject the car, ask you to collect it and refund his all his money....

[betginge 73]

3 coil packs  no

1 yes

i wouldnt fit a £13.99 one though as it sounds an internet copy

i would fit 4 oe if it had a problem back at base from my breaker from a crashed car where engine running fine beforecrash to keep cost sensible

my first thoughts were misfuel too and im still unsure

 

regarding invoice write your own i have, put down customer has to dance on one foot if you wish ,some might like it

Have to agree.

 

if all three had failed the car wold not run. I feel the garage is taking advantage of a misdiagnosis, when they scan the vehicle you may also get faults for the other coils even tho they are fine, this would happen due to the stress they are under caused by the misfire from the faulty coil, on a long run even the slightest hesitation could of been picked up showing a fault on OBD which is not correct. Think there just selling 3 coils and fitting / labour to earn some £££'s