Long time lurker here, my friend told me to sign up here and share my experience.

Hello All,

I've got a question with regards to my car and its repairs. Basically, what happened earlier this week was I drove my car to the mechanics for him to run a full diagnostics and see whether there were any problems as the yellow light on the dashboard came on, immediately I drove it to the garage to solve the problem.

The mechanic ran a full diagnostics on the car and said my chain is showing signs of wear and tear which will need to be replaced. He also mentioned that I would need an exhaust vanos solenoid (which I purchased the part from a BMW dealership on my own accord). The mechanic said to me that the job will cost £900, I mentioned to him thats out of my price range and I said to him that I will take my car back home as I'm not willing to pay that. He then thought I would take it to someone else and quoted me £650 to complete the full job to change the chain, we both agreed and he started work on the car.

The next day, which was a Tuesday. I came out of work early to check on the status of the job and the mechanic just assured me that the job will be done soon and to be patient, they took the car apart and he said once they're done they'll put everything back together and he will call me, it could be later this evening. I called him up on Wednesday and he just said the same thing.

On Thursday, three days later to when I took it to him. I came into the garage and sat down waiting there for a few hours with no word on my car, I noticed everything was put together inside the bonnet and the owner of the garage mentioned to me, the car was starting 30 mins before you came but now its not starting so we'll check if its a problem with the battery. I had my suspicions that something was up and they were aware of it as I was sitting there for a long time but they did not want to tell me.

Just before closing time on the same day, they tried to start the vehicle to no avail. The owner of the place started mentioning to the mechanic, are you sure you put everything back together properly. Naturally, the mechanic was there defending himself. The owner of the garage then said to me, sorry mate your engine has gone, I was stood there in complete shock especially since I came into the garage with it working fine. I was really annoyed and mentioned to him what would he do about it, he backtracked a bit as he noticed I overheard his conversation where he was saying his mechanic didn't put it back together properly and he goes we're not 100% it was his fault and as its late we'll double check tomorrow.

I went back to the garage yesterday and he changed his tune completely. Straight away I got the impression, he was trying to cover his tracks and he goes I've got bad news for you, you'll have to pay £1400 to fix this job. He tried to get technical and confuse me but in turn he was actually confusing himself as he seems a very bad liar. I told him I refuse to pay the £1400 and I'll only pay the £650 in which I agreed. After he disagree and told me to look for a part on Ebay so he could do the job for £1400. I said that is not my job.

Before I left, I asked him one question in which he dodged by changing the conversation, I said - I drove into the garage and the engine was working fine, if there was a problem with the engine before I came to the garage when you ran the full diagnostics at the beginning wouldn't that have picked it up? He just left me and went to serve another customer, totally ignoring me which made me feel so small.

I've been so worried at how the whole situation has occured, one issue has become a much bigger problem. Has anyone faced this problem and could you please provide your advice even if you haven't, I would really appreciate it.

Sorry for the long post, I just feel hard done by.

Many Thanks

JW