Hi Ian, thank you for the reply, I had a suspicion it was a common fault when I noticed bba were re-furbing them. When we originally dropped the car off at the dealers the service manager said he didn't think it was "that bad" so maybe they have to get a lot worse before they would do anything about it! Strictly speaking the car is out of warranty but expensive components like this shouldn't be failing at this age and mileage I did ask them if it was a common fault but they wouldn't say, the parts dept said they have done "some" but that was the best answer I could get out of anyone! The more I drive the other car the more they seem the same or do we have the same fault on both We have decided to let the customer try the other car and hopefully he will accept it as a characteristic of these cars