hello all, i am writing this for a work colleague who is having this problem with his local renault dealer / brakes, on his car so please bear with me if i get a few details wrong,
he has asked me to point out that he is not out to rip-off the dealer, more so he wants to avoid being ripped off by the dealer for what could be un-neccessary work,
his wife had a minor fender-bender (ran into back of another car) resulting in some minor insurance claim work being undertaken at his local dealrership. as far as i can remember the work was around the bumper and cooling fan bearing, but i'm not 100% positive on that.
the dealership repairing the car had it for over a month and have said that the master cylinder and soemthing else brake related (cant quite remember at the mo) has gone and they want £1000 to repair, having had the car MOT'd less than 2months before the accident, he had noticed nothing wrong with the brakes what-so-ever, so he as surprised to get this news from the dealer. he has said no to the repairs for now on the car, signed a waiver that says the dealer has infomed him the brakes are dangerous and the car should not be driven, and tested the car in a secure car park, needless to say the brakes were not working as they had been prior to the car being taken away (he described it as like driving his work's transit van with 6 elepahants in the back, it just kept going and going).
the person at the dealers he spoke to when he was told about the brake problem said (quote) "you wouldn't normally notice it in day-to-day driving, only in stop start town traffic" (un-quote), normal day to day driving for the car involves 4miles through rush hour traffic to get home from work in the morning (varies between 7.45am and 8.30am), 2miles for the morning school run, 2miles for the afternoon school run, aswell as the shopping run on a saturday, as the car was collected and returned on a flatbed lorry, they only time it was driven after the accident was to get it onto the lorry and on the test-drive by the dealer,
he has been back to the garage that MOT'd the vehicle and has asked if there any cause for concern regarding the brake's master cylinder (ie they passed MOT but might not be in 100% working condition) but the mechanic was non-commital,
in short, what are his options..?
can the master cylinder fail "just like that" either to causes the accident, or while it was at the dealers..? or is there a more sinister plot by the dealer to make themselves a bit of work...?
any advice on what he can do is greatly appreciated...
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"his wife had a minor fender-bender (ran into back of another car) "
He then complains that the garage have found a brake problem...
Does he not think they could just just just be related?
That's all I can say.
His options are get it repaired.. or not drive it.
Full stop.
It's 8 years old.
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madf, how about you read all the post, then try a smart-ass comment, for example the last paragraph. "can the master cylinder fail "just like that" either to causes the accident...."
yes it is 8years old, and no he isn't driving it anywhere, but at the same time he wonders how come the last time he drove the car the brakes felt fine (he drove it home from the accident as his wife was understandably shaken), then it goes to the garage and all of a sudden they're knackered,
Edited by andy-gear on 06/02/2008 at 21:07
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andy
Could you find out what the pedal felt like when he tried it? Was it long and soft, or rock-hard? [No tittering...!]
This could be a servo fault.
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screwloose, as far as i know the test-driver only reported the problem to the mechanics, who then investigated to find the problem, when andy drove the car after getting it back, he said the pedal had a long push before it felt like it was doing something not softer or spongy, just slacker.
like i said in first post, it's a workmates car and problem, i'm merely helping him out by asking about here, but i'll get some more info from andy tonight at work, jot down a few more notes
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