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firstly thanks to everyone for all help thus far. hope you dont mind my asking another question as i am worried it may be something serious. if i have the lights on and the car stationary with the engine idling, the brightness of the lit milometer varies with engine speed. i.e. if i rev the engine it gets brighter. is this normal or does it indicate nasty (expensive?) electrical problem? grateful for any help. robertbaker1962@hotmail.com . thanks
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Rob,
What in $#%'s name have you bought ? I am assuming that you have counted the wheels and arrived at something around 4 ?
You need to get shot of this car. And preferably back to where you bought it. I've paid 50 quid and had less faults on a car.
M.
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I presume you assume Green Flag failed to spot the missing spare tyre
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I infer that you refer to me counting 4, not 5.
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Rob:
I am no expert on the legal front, but I did once foolishly buy an awful car and wished I had got rid of it very quickly rather than hanging on and hoping that each problem was the last.
If the car is half as bad as you are making it sound I would suggest firstly going back to the garage with a written list of the faults and demanding to see the general manager, or whatever he is called. Reject the car. As advised by others, stop being nice, make a noise if you have to, don't go until you are happy. Get a decent courtesy car and don't give it back until yours is fixed to your satisfaction (this worked for my Dad when Audi sold him a lemon - they gave up and told him to keep the courtesy car)
Secondly, if the garage gets unhelpful, look what recourse you have against Green Flag. And again don't accept no for an answer. Get them to inspect the car again if you have to. FOC of course.
This is going to be unpleasant but you need to face it or you will never be happy with the car.
Good luck
Andy
ps. I suppose the other less scrupulous option open to you is to put the thing through an auction and hope you don't lose too much.
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I agree - and the quicker the better. The longer you delay in returning the car the more chance you give the dealer to try to get out of putting these problems right.
I also do not understand why the Gren Flag check did not pick up any of these faults - have they all occured since you took delivery?
Take action now!
M
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Rob,
I assume the brightness increases only slightly? The battery and the rest of the system should be nominally 12 volts and the alternator should have an output of around 14 volts so as to 'push' a charge into the battery. If the system is providing less than 12 volts to the lights, they are likely to brighten a fraction when the alternator comes on stream. This may be normal (there will always be a certain level of voltage drop) or it may indicate a low battery charge, faulty battery or bad connection.
Alternatively, if you have other high electrical loads on at the same time (e.g. heated screen), it could be normal for the lights to dim slightly at tick-over anyway on a car having what might be called 'economies in electrical equipment specification'. I don't know if this applies to the Focus but I can't imagine Ford over-specifying on the electrics.
Whether or not there is a problem is difficult to say from here but it might be worth getting a quick voltage check carried out to reassure you.
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Sorry Rob, I just realised that you said it was the mileometer that brightened up, not the rest of the car lights. If it is that light alone that brightens up it does look like something is not quite right (a resistor problem?).
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