Seeking advice - reputable dealer cannot fix a fault in car. What next?

tothemoon

Hi,

Looking for some advice on an issue I'm currently having. I bought a second hand VW Golf (152 reg) from a reputable dealer in Galway in the last week of July 2022. The garage provided me with 1 year warranty. In October 2022 I noticed a humming sound coming from the engine area as I was driving. The humming noise only starts once I drive over 40kmph, but gets louder and louder as the car gets faster. When going above 100kmph, the noise is very loud. I contacted the sales rep who I bought from and they advised me to send an email over to them with a video attached showing the noise. I took a video on my phone with the phone left face down on the dashboard of the car and sent it off. This email was sent on the 5th of October. This week, the garage had the car for the FOURTH time, and are telling me they still cannot fix it and do not know where the noise is coming from. They told me they even gave the car to another garage in Galway in the hope that they could figure out where the noise is coming from but they can't either. Apparently they have checked everywhere it could possibly be coming from and changed the bearings in the gearbox, checked all wheel bearings (which seem fine), and changed all four wheels on the car, but none of these worked and the noise is still there.

It's five months since the problem started and I have missed many days in the office in Dublin where I was supposed to be there but I couldn't travel up as I had no car. To be honest I'm lucky that my manager is so understanding about the whole situation and I'm lucky that I work in a job that has allowed me to travel in and out to the garage when needed over the past few months but I'm so sick of it now and just want it to be over with.

I'm looking for some advice on how to approach the next steps/wondering what would people do in my situation? I've read on citizens information that I have the right to a refund or partial refund and I think I might just go down this route if possible but I can just imagine the garage not giving me a sufficient refund or trying to take a large sum off me because of depreciation or something. I've driven circa 10000km since I bought the car at the end of July but other than the noise it's in perfect condition.

If a used car you bought develops a fault, you have the right to ask the garage or car dealer to fix the problem by:

• Repairing the faulty part(s) for free, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you
• Providing a replacement part or a car of similar quality or value
• Giving you a refund of the full price paid or a partial refund with a deduction for use (also known as recission)

Thx in advance

Henry Ford III

Get an independent motor assessor sit in your car and experience the issue.

Get their report and give a copy to the garage.

zg3409

I suppose you are reaching a crunch point. If you are still driving the car and have not handed keys back to the garage then you still have use of the car. As suggested get an independent report and try get garage to fix it or give you partial or full refund. This may be a hard fight. Try video the noise clearly and keep video. If you go to small claims court you may win, but then the garage gets your old car.

How much money are we talking? Do you think a local garage could diagnose it? If it's gearbox can whole gearbox be replaced?

Personally I would try find local specialist and see if they can identify gearbox or engine, and see if it's worth fixing. If not then small claims court. Try keep all correspondence, texts, dates, evidence, ask them for written summary of what was done at what their plans are. Ask for full refund in writing. Consider getting another car on loan or short term to keep you going should they take your car. Ask for replacement car if they take yours.

Ask quickly as when time passes you may find it harder. Apply for small claims soon as there may be backlog and first stage is online and they write to garage for their statement etc.

tothemoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305386#Comment_120305386

Thanks for response. Since yesterday, the garage have my car and they've given me a replacement. The mechanic told me their next step is to have the servicing manager drive the car and see what they think. Once they come to a conclusion they are going to ring me and we will go through next steps. As of now I'm leaning towards trying to get a full or partial refund as I'm fed up of the back and forth but as you mentioned, this could be difficult.

I'm not sure a local garage could fix it, either. The dealership I bought it from gave the car to another VW dealership in the hope that they could diagnose the problem since they would deal with VW Golfs a lot but they weren't able to. This makes me feel it would be a pointless expense asking another local garage to try to diagnose the problem.

I'll make a log of all dates/correspondence since the first contact back in October just in case I need it. I'll ask them to write a report with everything they have done and outline their next steps as well.

Thanks again for the response, it's much appreciated.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305386#Comment_120305386

Small claims court can only reward a maximum of €2,000

Kimbot

A forum like this may have your answer: https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/index.php?threads/solved-buzzing-humming-noise-on-acceleration.412612/

tothemoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305882#Comment_120305882

Thanks for this. I've had a look at that discussion and it seems my humming noise is a bit different as there is no noise at all until I reach around 40kmph, then it gets louder as the car gets faster. Their noise also goes away when their foot is off the accelerator whereas mine actually gets louder when I take my foot off the accelerator. It is interesting though, and if I do get my car back off the garage and get an independent assessment, I'll be sure to mention this to them to see what they think.

wotzgoingon

You can buy sound devices that you stick to different parts of the car and wear a head set to pin point where the sound is coming from. I would have thought a garage would have this equipment. They aren't even expensive.

goochy

a its straight forward , you allowed the dealer to try and fix fault on a number of occasions but with no success. You are legally entitled to reject the car now

ratracer

If they have already carried out all those repairs, they obviously believe you that the problem exists, so much so that they even sent it to another garage for a second opinion.

If they accept that there is a fault they can’t rectify, I’d be looking for a replacement car. Now it’s easy for me to just type that, in reality it’s much more difficult to get to that stage, but the facts and attempts at rectifying are in your favour. See what they say/ offer you, but don’t be afraid to get sound legal advice if you feel it necessary.

goochy

its actually consumer law

User1998

To be fair OP has driven 10,000km so the car is clearly functioning fine just with a small noise. So it might not be that easy to reject the car

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305747#Comment_120305747

Without getting into the wider issue, the bit about the service manager driving the car is either funny or a sign that they are spoofing you around.

6 months in and he is only going for a spin in it now? That is the next step after 6 months and multiple mechanics working on the car? Changing gearbox bearings is the step before letting the lad in the office go for a drive? What exactly is he going to hear that multiple mechanics could not?

And why are you talking to the mechanic and not the service manager anyway? What sort of mickey mouse dealer is it?

I am 20 years running main dealer workshops and something about this seems off to me. Please tell me that when you say they don't know where the noise is from they mean the specific component, but that they know at least know which end its coming from....

Henry Ford III

Just for clarity. Is it :-

1/. Garage cannot hear the noise.

2/. They can hear the noise but cannot pinpoint it.

tothemoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307157#Comment_120307157

I believe his reasoning behind having servicing manager drive the car now is so that they can see/hear the sound for themselves, as the servicing manager will be the person who decides the next steps. I think this because when I asked the mechanic about a refund the other day he said 'that's above my pay grade, but it's definitely something we will need to consider, as ultimately we want to ensure you are happy at the end of the day'.

They are a pretty big dealership to be honest, with various other locations in Ireland too. I'd prefer not to doxx them yet just in case it all does end up alright in the end. And yes they mean specific component, they can hear the noise and know that it's coming from under the dash/front of the car area but just can't find exactly what it is.

tothemoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120309271#Comment_120309271

Garage can hear the noise but cannot pinpoint it.

tothemoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307070#Comment_120307070

Exactly my thoughts too, I've driven about 6000km since the noise started, many times going from Galway to Dublin and back to Galway again and it drives fine (bar needing to turn the radio up very loud to mask the humming sound). It's probably something ridiculous that doesn't actually affect the performance of the car in any way.. I actually do really like the car too, and would love to hold onto it, but what if I try to sell down the line and nobody will buy it from me at its market value due to the humming noise? Then I am goosed altogether.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120310334#Comment_120310334

So the mechanic is speaking to the customer and making comments that can leave the company liable, while the service manager has not spoken to the customer but is going to drive the car to hear the noise that they already confirmed exists but could not pinpoint.

This is all completely backwards, why are you speaking to the mechanic at all? How are you speaking to him? Service advisors and managers are there for a reason, in any competently run dealership you would not be able to get near the mechanic and damn sure they would be warned not to say anything such as you describe. As somebody in the industry this is triggering me to be honest, if it were one of my dealers I would be putting my boot through somebody.

Regardless, the only advice I can offer is to stop speaking to the mechanic, start speaking to the person who will actually be responsible for this issue should it go legal. Anything else is wasting your time, and frankly if you had done that from the start you may have had a fix by now, because it sounds like the service manager hasn't even had to make this his priority yet.

Could you not have put the video up here in the hope someone here has any ideas?

tothemoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120310506#Comment_120310506

I've spoken to the mechanic three times in person at the dealership. Thanks for the advice, this car is my second car and my first time ever dealing with any sort of dealership/warranty after buying a car from them, so all very new to me. I would've assumed since they are such a well known dealer that everything would be done properly and by the book, but clearly that hasn't happened. I'm taking all of the advice given to me here onboard and all I can do now is wait for them to give me a call once the service manager has driven my car and see what they are planning to do next. I'm actually a bit surprised I haven't got a call from them yet tbh, as he was supposed to drive it on Wednesday...

tothemoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120310517#Comment_120310517

I could, but boards only supports videos embedded from youtube, is that right? So I would need to create a youtube account first and upload the video there and then share here? Or is there an easier way for me to share?>

I'm on the phone now, and there is a paper clip icon at the bottom of the "Leave a Comment" box.

You should be able to upload the video file from there.

colm_mcm

I’ll eat my hat if they actually replaced gearbox bearings.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120310790#Comment_120310790

This is the problem with an ad-hoc process within the workshop, or what happens when there is a process but people step outside of it.

A mechanic (who shouldn't be speaking to you) tells you the manager is going to take the car for a drive, but did the manager actually know that? Did the manager know it was priority? Or was there actually just a comment made in passing that he might take it for a spin, which the mechanic has now reported to you as fact because you were standing in front of him and he needed something to say?

And if the manager had other things to do and so didn't bring the car home, is the mechanic going to give him grief about it? Or is he going to move on to the next job and not worry about it at all because it isn't a mechanics to manage the workshop or give orders to his boss?

Maybe the mechanic is well known in the area and often speaks to customers, and maybe the service manager is actually a qualified master tech who is their best man for diagnostics.

If so then the two of them should switch roles, but to me the whole test drive story is a spoof and I am not surprised you haven't heard anything because even if he did drive it he was never going to find anything that wouldn't have been found by all those different mechanics in the past 6 months. If that story is true of course.

Go in on Monday, go to the service managers office, politely tell him that they have had 3+ opportunities to rectify the fault and haven't done so, and that you know that that now gives you grounds to return the vehicle. Say that you would prefer not to go down that route but enough is enough, they now have a week to put up or shut up.

mk7r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311350#Comment_120311350

This, they hear the noise but they just want you to go away rather than fix it

hoodie6029

Any chance it’s just crap tyres making the noise?

Muppet Man

Maddening to think they're still mucking around with it. My spidey sense tells me they havent done as much as they are saying.

All that being said I wouldn't rule out an independent specialist to be honest. If it's a VW golf then maybe daltons in portlaoise might be an option. There's not a whole lot they dont know about vw golf's. the owner (george) is a Really nice guy who will spend time explaining things and a great setup down there. people travel from all over the country for him to work on stuff.

Good luck!

tothemoon

Right, so I have an update. After bucketybuck's last comment I decided to send a pretty irate email to the service advisor that I had been dealing with since October. Basically just said the whole thing has been a mess, they've had the car 5 times and still haven't figured out what it is, I missed countless days in the office in Dublin because of the issue and also spent hours on the road during work hours driving in and out to them whenever I've had to drop in/collect my car, that I was just sick of the whole ordeal at this stage and wanted it to end and that I knew I had grounds to return the vehicle since they haven't been able to rectify the issue. I asked them to forward on my email to whoever can deal with me returning the car and getting a refund.

Fast forward to today at around 12pm and I get a phone call from the mechanic who I had been speaking to a few times who told me he couldn't figure it out... He begins by saying he has 'royally fucked up' and 'is very embarrassed'. He gave the car to his servicing manager who drove the car, and as soon as he heard the humming noise, he said it was the front right wheel bearing and voila - that was exactly what was causing the noise. They changed the wheel bearing, I picked up the car this evening and drove to Dublin and the noise is completely gone.

Funnily enough when I first heard the noise back in October, the first thing I did was google something like 'VW Golf humming noise' and it brought me to a youtube video of a guy showing you what a bad wheel bearing sounds like and I said to myself 'that's it!!!' Unfortunately the mechanic didn't google 'VW Golf humming noise' though and it took them 5 months to fix it.

Just want to say thanks for everyone that chimed in on this thread, glad to see the back of the whole issue and fingers crossed nothing else goes wrong with the car anytime soon.

bazz26

So the service manager could tell it was a wheel bearing from a test drive but the mechanic couldn't? lol, those guys needs to swap jobs.

waterwelly

I'm shocked.

And then they got the mechanic to phone you as some form of punishment.

Hardly professional.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323370#Comment_120323370

And the other garage in Galway that they got to look at it, they couldn't find the noise either, despite it supposedly being a wheel bearing, otherwise known as the first thing to check...

And the OP states that they had checked the wheel bearings already...

And the service manager was able to find the fault immediately, but up to now was never interested in who was paying for the four previous visits or the cost for the other garage in Galway to look at the vehicle?

They are either useless or liars, take your pick. Glad to hear it is sorted though.

Whatwicklow

Changed the gearbox bearings before looking at a wheel bearing 😂😂😂

Pull the other one!

cml387

I just cannot understand ow a wheel bearing would not have been the first port of call. After all it's a relatively straightforward fix. I still can't figure out either how the mechanic got such a prominent role in the saga. Anyway it's sorted now.