Car Warrentywas

Hello guys, I have today had my Vauxhall Zafira serviced and it's first MOT the garage had to change the windscreen washer pump which was not working properly to satisfy the MOT (must say I never noticed) the cost of the Pump fitted was £25.00, my question is this, the service and MOT was not due for about 6 weeks so the car is still under manufacturers warrenty, I have the paperwork from the garage and a genuine Vauxhall part was fitted. This was not a Vauxhall dealership I wanted to get the service done now as in a couple of weeks we are touring in the south.

So does anyone think I may be able to claim for the pump from Vauxhall? And is this a wearable part that's not covered anyway.

 

Don't know where that "was" come from in the title, tried to edit it but it won't let me

 

I doubt it. If you'd have gone to a dealer and made a claim, asking them to fix it, maybe. However now you've done the work its too late I think

 

No harm in trying, but expect a 'no'.

Which they are perfectly entitled to say.

As Jonathan says, any repairs/replacements under warranty has to be via an 'approved' service agent.

 

Not even worth the phone call.

You didnt even give them a chance to sort it, you cant expect them to pay somebody elses labour and parts without them having a chance.

 

Thanks for the replies, I thought as much can't be bothered to wast my time being bounced around customer service people for £25.00, the cost of the service was less than the main dealership so it more than covers the cost of the pump,

As an aside the service I had a year ago which was at a main dealership advised me to let them change the 2 front tyres, the car had done less than 10,000 miles, when I queried this they said they were legal but might not make the next service I told them to let me worry about that, a year on and 11,000 miles more on the clock and it's just passed it's MOT without a mention of the tyres,

I much prefer to give my business to a small local garage.

 

Thanks for imparting your knowledge jack, if I'd have known of the fault I would have dealt with it before sending it for the MOT but I was not prepared to let it fail the MOT to take it to a dealership for them to perhaps wriggle out of it quoting some obscure small print for £25.00

 

I might have sounded blunt, it wasnt meant to be.

But it is how it is.

 

To my knowledge the pump was working, having said that if my memory serves me correctly it wasn't the best water spray, so perhaps it wasn't goosed just faulty, on the other hand I'm not sure but it may be like a lot of electrical faults as in one minute it's working and then it's not, can't remember when I last used the water pump perhaps it just gave up when the garage tried it, I have no reason to doubt the garage it is well thought of in my area, only a couple of weeks ago they helped my daughter out with a problem on her car foc

Astramax I never considered it may be software related, didn't think for a minute that a water pump requires software updates

 

Just an add on to the thread, a word of caution to anyone who has a Vauxhall and has the lifetime warranty, every year you have to present it to a main dealership to inspect this keeps the warranty in force, if you should have your car serviced at an independent garage make sure the parts used are genuine Vauxhall parts or parts that are of at least equal quality and the garage will need to supply you with all the relevant part numbers from the main supplier of said parts, the small garage that did the service was a tad reluctant to give me their invoice from the suppliers of the parts as it had the costings on it, they did eventually give me some paper work with part numbers but it was so faded it was barely legible, the dealership refused this so I called at the spares distributors that supplied the garage, they were brilliant and gave me everything I needed parts used with all the part numbers it also had my registration on it,

They told me they have had this issue before so they also gave me a letter of conformity from some high up guy in the EEU (please let's leave Brexit out of it)

I have now been able to book my car in for the warranty reactivation inspection


Basically the main dealers don't want you to take your service business elsewhere and if you do they make you jump through hoops to maintain your warranty

 

Well done for tackling them.

I have a similarish situation at the moment - my C3 Picasso has developed faulty power steering at 49k miles (6 years old), and I've found that this is a common problem with these models.

Citroen seemingly have, in most cases, acknowledged that there is an issue, and the dealer who originally sold the car new (not to me) was happy to say that they sort it on cars up to 80k miles and 8 years old, and said to come in so that it could be diagnosed as being the PS motor. Unfortunately I'm nowhere near them, and my local authorised dealer - who have diagnosed it as being the motor - is being evasive. Why? Because it doesn't have an authorised dealer service history.

I'm about to ask them what difference their servicing would have made to a prematurely-failed PS motor.

 

Yes DA in my experience authorised dealers can be a nightmare, I do believe in some cases the profit made on a new car is sometimes little and the big bucks is in the continued servicing of the vehicle ( well over £100.00 ph labour) so when the car is serviced elsewhere they are not happy bunnies, however as you will be aware you can have your car serviced wherever you like, the only comeback is if you require a warranty repair they usually request sight of the service booklet and proof that parts used were of the required quality,


In your case you will not have this info, but as far as I am aware the ps motor would not require servicing or the fitting of parts during an annual service so I would have thought in your case if you stick at it they should cave in,


If you reach the end of the line with the dealers and they will not sort it try contacting Citroen customer service, it would be handy if you could collect some evidence of this being a known fault.


I would say I have had 3 or 4 Vauxhalls from new over the past 25 years or so, the first authorised dealer was a family run business and the after sales service was first class and I did not consider having the car serviced elsewhere the company was called Grimshaws at Prestwich, they have now ceased trading, since then have bought new from 2 large countrywide authorised dealers and the after sales were abysmal, I would source well recommended small independent garages for my services, recent events though have made me realise it is vital to make sure you have written confirmation that any parts used in the service are of equal quality or genuine parts in my case Vauxhall, I guess as a car becomes older this is not so important, but if the car is still in its warranty years and you have a problem if you have no main dealer stamps on the service booklet make sure you have proof of all the parts and part numbers and who supplied them to the garage and that they conform to the minimum requirement laid down by the car manufacturer


Good luck keep us informed

 

Thanks Facs.

I'm waiting for them to come back and say 'Non' - and then I ask what possible difference it could have made to that Power Steering motor where the car was serviced.