This diagnostics fee seems very common at some garages.

When we had the Micra the starter made noises on occasions so when we went shopping we popped into the Nissan dealer next door for their advice. The dolls head on reception said it would have to be booked in for diagnostics costing ££££'s before they could say what it was, when I said all it needed was a Mk 1 human hear she looked confused, left the garage.

Eventually we popped into our local Nissan garage as we passed, the chap on the service desk said that many did it, many did not. They had replaced some for owners who were concerned it may let them down but he said that they had never actually had one fail. Had car almost 8 years, still doing it on occasions when we sold it, did it on the test drive for the chap who came to look at it. Pointed out the noise to him and he had said he had heard it but was not worried since his previous Micra had always made the same noise, thought it was normal, bought car.

Then when we had the Note the front antiroll bar bushes began to make a noise that was well discussed on the forum. They were covered by warranty but many on the forum said there would be a diagnostics fee (non refundable) before the work could be booked in. So off we went to the dealer we had bough the car from (the one who said not to worry about the starter) who immediately booked it for the following week. Asked about diagnostic fee and their comment was "its under warranty, we cannot charge customers". Same when a I suspected a CV joint was making a noise, mechanic went out with me and agreed with the diagnosis. Said he would order the part (new drive shaft) and call with a date. Called a few days later and part fitted the following week but he then admitted the noise was still there, it was the opposite side. Another new drive shaft later and all sorted and all for nothing.

It seems far too common for this, evidence a while back for a neighbour paying a local ford main dealer £1000 ish for a fuel pump replacement.

My recent tale of woe (what it meant to replace it) regarding a failed exhaust sensor aside, my dealership quoted me about £1k for a replacement power steering pump (about £1200 for that plus reservoir and pipes) when the steering stiffened up back in 2016.

All it needed was for the fluid (same as auto transmission type - Dexron II) to be removed (rather a brown colour than red), a cleaning fluid added, driven around for a while to let it get to all the components, sucked it out and then replaced with new PS fluid replacement. I did this myself using a bought hand pump (not too difficult) and it cost around £40 - £50 all-in. Worked much better afterwards.

Thanks goes to Scotty Kilmer on YT for the fix and what to do. I wonder how rare it is for a main dealership to know such things and to be able and willing to carry them out? I'd be telling everyone how good they were if they did.

It would have been interesting to seen the reaction of the garage mechanics who quoted the price if you told them of your "fix".

I somehow doubt if they would've taken kindly to me doing that. The days of mechanics actually 'fixing' cars are generally gone now (probably including most indie outfits too), even ones where they still can be repaired by not having to replace lots of parts.

Sadly this lack of skill / attitude is prevalent across many industries nowadays, and not just where equipment can't be taken apart and little bits changed.

Renault Captur with frozen Infotainment screen . No sat nav etc.

Been to the main dealers twice. No fault found while car was under warranty.

You Tube video showed how to reboot the screen by pressing the home button five times.

But why didn’t the Main dealer tell me this ?

I think the dealerships are justified in making an initial charge for inspection , although £180 seems a bit steep. Perhaps 15-20 mins of time . If all customers turned up with problem cars and asked the dealer to “can you just “ have a look, none of the booked in work would get done .

Sadly most charge for a full hour as a minimum, however short a time it takes. When I had my exhaust sensor changed out, the diagnostic (plugging it into their OBDII scanner presumably took a lot less than that. I was charged £60 - probably for 'half an hour's work'.