Reply to: Eye watering car repair

[VectraMan]

Yes diesels are a completely different kettle of fish due to the much higher pressures involved.

If you get your diesel injectors or fuel pump tested it might be on a rig that uses some software I worked on.

[Lightwave]

Ok, so I had a problem with the EGR valve on my Rav4 & got a warning on the dashboard.

Took it the dealer & they said that the particular fault code indicated that I need 4 new fuel injectors, among other things. All to the tune of £2250. They arrived at this by following some diagnostic flow chart & took them 4 hours to reach that conclusion.

What are you supposed to do when these sorts of things happen? Take their word for it? Go elsewhere to get it done?

The simple solution would be to buy a new car but I'm moving house & that's the last thing I want to be doing at the moment. I'll just probably keep driving and face the music if it happens again.

Is that petrol or diesel?
diesel injectors are more expensive, petrol ones can be refurbed for about £15 to £25 each.
I got some spare injectors for my bike a while back, they went very cheaply due to being listed as obscure Maserati spares instead of much more in demand Ducati parts!
Get the EGR valve cleaned (maybe swapped out for a recon?), clear the codes and take it from there.

[Fandango]

Modern EGR valves are notorious for coking up and stopping the valve from opening properly, usually you can get away with taking EGR off and giving a good clean with brake cleaner and all is well again

Its weird that for an EGR fault they say you need to fix your injectors! unless its a completely separate fault

Injectors can be refurbished at around a £100/injector and its usually no more than an hour or 2 to get the injectors out depending on how much crap they have to pull out of the way to get to them. But Injector faults usually manifest themselves as the car won't start as they are leaking back and can't maintain a high enough pressure required by the modern common rail diesels in order to start.

As mentioned previously have a look on The Good Garage Scheme: Good Garage Scheme for a recommended independent in your area and get a 2nd opinion

[vetran]

My EGR valve went on the mighty Mondeo. Dreadful quotes and sucking of teeth, after spending £7 on a OBDII reader I got the fault codes. Ten minutes with the hose off and my fingers moving the valve back & forward like I was getting NLYUK started up and it was all fixed. Many thanks to the ford forums.

so spend time or money.

[Troll]

The injectors themselves would cost about £800 roughly, so seems excessive, but they'll be charging dealer prices for parts and dealer labour.

Yep, 2 days labour needed.

I got quoted £38 + per injector for my 4x4 as an exchange & Diesel Bob is well known in the industry

[TestMangler]

Yep, 2 days labour needed.

To change injectors ? Where are they ? On the moon ?

[Troll]

They even give me the mileage on each tyre.

You sure they didn't give you the tread depth dear?

[Gumbo Robot]

The injectors themselves would cost about £800 roughly, so seems excessive, but they'll be charging dealer prices for parts and dealer labour.

Yep, 2 days labour needed.

[TestMangler]

The injectors themselves would cost about £800 roughly, so seems excessive, but they'll be charging dealer prices for parts and dealer labour.

[FatLazyContractor]

FLC went to the same garage and asked for the mileage and a quote for everyone of his tyres. Looked him up and down and advised him they don't the time to provide that...

Muahahahahha boom boom... Geddit.. His tyres!! Damn I'm good.

A real contractor never visits garages. The area manager for Pirelli Yorkshire sent a lady mechanic to quote and sort my tyres. All while I was smoking a cigar in my canopy watching her do the job

I took a pic for you lesser NCOTBAC souls

[northernladuk]

Mine is exactly the same.

They even give me the mileage on each tyre. Oddly they don't need to advertise unlike a couple of the other garages.........

FLC went to the same garage and asked for the mileage and a quote for everyone of his tyres. Looked him up and down and advised him they don't the time to provide that...

Muahahahahha boom boom... Geddit.. His tyres!! Damn I'm good.

[SueEllen]

I love my indy garage (so far), you tell them to do extra bits with MOT and they will tell you to sod off. Will only do minimum. Example: Brakes needed replacement, Halfords said brake pads and discs needed changing. They said, you "just" need brakepads for the front, and don't even think about buying pads for the rear. I said, "yes sir!".

Mine is exactly the same.

They even give me the mileage on each tyre. Oddly they don't need to advertise unlike a couple of the other garages.........

[SueEllen]

90k 2008. Probably worth about £4k.

Once your car is worth less than 10K take it to an independent garage. If you don't know one ask people around you. Most people will only happily refer you on if they trust the garage.

[mdhd]

I love my indy garage (so far), you tell them to do extra bits with MOT and they will tell you to sod off. Will only do minimum. Example: Brakes needed replacement, Halfords said brake pads and discs needed changing. They said, you "just" need brakepads for the front, and don't even think about buying pads for the rear. I said, "yes sir!".

[rl4engc]

If you wanted to do a bit of tinkering, you can buy (I think they're called ODBC-II) devices that you plug in and an app on your phone will show you the exact diagnosis code, look this code up (Rav4 owners club type forums will help) and it will tell you the cause.

Or as others have said if you can find/know a good independent who's honest they'll do this for you.

I tend to go in in scruffy clothes, and have an air of "If it's like £2-300 or summat then fair enough, if it's gonna cost £1000 or summat daft I might as well get shut.." so they know you're not going to be spending loads. I've got an old Toyota and the only time I go to the main dealer is if I have to buy a genuine Toyota part.