Hi Simon, Thats exactly the sort of job that i was thinking about, and for anyone thinking that these types of jobs are rare then they need to get into the real world,

The Peugeot that I mentioned ( not booked in, just arrived as we had been reccomended by another garage or in other words the other garages dont want to know so take it to Seftons cos hes daft enough to work on any old shit )

We code read it and got crank sensor, Coolant sensor, air con?? sensor and clutch switch.

I asked the customer what the complaint was and she said that last winter it was bad at starting and she wanted it checking out so that it wasn't the same this year.....

She then ran the car for a week and brought it in saying that it had been checked previously and was causing problems again so one of the lads told her to bring it in if we had worked on it previously, thinking that it might be a warranty job. ( not realising that it was only code read and should have been booked in properly when we had more time to work on it )

We code read it again and got Clutch switch, Coolant sensor, Rail pressure monitoring and Low rail pressure, ( no rail pressure codes the first time, no crank sensor this time )

Due to the codes, we replaced the CTS and found a leaking diesel pipe under the plastic inlet housing which we repaired due to a new one costing £101 + vat as you have to buy 3 pipes.


The customer collected the car and it broke down the day after with the recovery firm saying that it might still have air in the system from when we repaired it, they pumped the primer and it started.

The car then broke down again and the recovery firm could not get it started so they booked it back in as broken down, dead as a dodo, non runner, The Bloody thing Drove in on monday morning as though there was nothing wrong with it.

We code read it and it had one fault code CLUTCH SWITCH.

We Test drove the car for 30 miles before it caused a single problem and it misfired once for a split second.

We then code read it again and it had logged Crank sensor. W.T.F did it not log crank sensor when it broke down twice and they flattened the battery trying to get it running. ???

We also then checked battery, charging. starting etc and found the battery at only 255 CCA instead of 480CCA, (we had previously informed customer of lazy battery and noisy starter),

During the test drive, we noticed the car pulling to the right and the steering wheel was not set straight ahead, the clutch only gripped at the top, the suspension rattled and bumped, and we found a Bald tyre which the customer asked us to get swapped, The tyre company found a nail in the other front tyre, 10 psi in one of the rear tyres, 2 x worn drop links and worn anti roll bar bushes.


Now that the car is something like Legal to be on the Road, One of my staff has gone home in the car to give it another 20 mile test drive.


My Question is How better could I have approached a job like this. ?? How do we Know what is going to happen. ?? How do we Explain to customers how long we need the vehicle for, how much it is likely to cost etc, when they nearly all expect the car to be fixed the same day and with a small budget . etc etc etc. ??

My new theory after believing that we shouldn't replace parts on Code reads alone, is that if the Code read comes up with CTS or Crank sensor or any item that can cause a non start situation, then it should be changed as a matter of course and then if the fault re-occurs then we should go deeper and check wiring, ecu's etc. but then you get the whingers that Blame you for fitting parts that weren't required.

Thanks Tony Sefton.