Rust/warranty advice please

[corned]

Today's update:

Just received the call to say that the car is ready. It has to be taken to Mercedes Nottingham (why?) and then back to me. It is being driven all the way as no transporter is available.

What a great result. Not.

Final (hopefully) update once I have it back...

 

[corned]

Final update

The car is finally back in my possession! The tailgate and rear arches look fine. The whole car smells of underseal but that will go in time.

The mileage has increased by 47, so I take what I said earlier back.

The only gripes I have are minor ones:

1. There are a couple of small pieces of what looks like masking tape caught between the rear bumper and wing - on both sides.

2. One of the previously-mentioned chrome trims doesn't seem to want to sit quite right in the rear bumper moulding.

3. When I removed the paper mat from the driver's footwell I discovered that the (light grey) velour overmat underneath it was marked in several places with sticky black sealant or underseal. Fortunately I spotted this before the driver left, so he has taken it back with him for cleaning/replacement.

Apart from that, the job looks to be a good one.

A bit happier now - although I will take the car down to the dealers in the next couple of days to see if they can get the points above addressed.

P.S. Purely by coincidence I received today in the post an invitation to M-B Nottingham's E-Class launch 'party' next week, so that cheered me up a bit as well.

 

[evdok]

Anybody worried that the rust is just going to keep coming back after these repairs? I keep hearing the only way to permanently remove rust is to replace the panel.

Andy_Cyp had a touch of rust on his C32 bonnet hinge!! they replaced the whole bonnet.

 

[corned]

OK, so not quite finished yet.

Sorry to keep resurrecting this tired old thread, but I wanted to post my experiences with this job for the benefit of anyone who may find themselves in the same hole one day.

I have a number of snags with this work, which again the dealer was completely uninterested in on Saturday when I took the car for them to see. I naively thought they might be interested in the quality of the work they were farming out to third parties. Clearly not!

Anyway...

The snag list is as follows:

1. Something is caught in between the rear bumper moulding and the rear wing, just forward of the rear lamp unit. This is on BOTH sides. Looks like a fillet of masking tape which has been sprayed with the body.
2. Small piece of masking tape stuck in the tailgate aperture just above the rear bumper moulding.
3. Rear o/s chrome finisher strip does not locate properly in the bumper moulding.
4. The underside of the boot - both exhaust rear boxes and the large black plastic boot tub have been covered in overspray.
5. I have noticed a gouge in the front n/s lower valance which I do not believe was there when the car was collected. Their collection guy and I had a good look round the car before he took it away, and neither of us noticed this at point of collection. It is fairly obvious when you look from the front n/s. It looks to be consistent with having glanced a low wall - too high for a kerb. Unfortunately I cannot say absoluteoy that this was not done beforehand, but if that was the case, why did neither of us spot it?
6. The rear arch liners have not been fitted quite properly, and there is now a gap of 1cm or so at the bottom where they don't meet the lip at the bottom of the rear bumper moulding.
6. Finally, the drivers' side velour footwell mat was covered in sticky black underseal!

I probably sound like a real whinge, but the fact of the matter is that the car did not have these 'features' when they took the car away. And now it does.

To top it all off, I phoned Clarkes this morning to discuss this with them, and the person I originally dealt with is on holiday this week, but someone was going to call me back to discuss. Guess what?

 

[A-AvantGarde]

Sorry that you've had problems corned. Collected our C320 this morning, only noticed these issues after collecting the car:

1. mis-badged as a C 32 with a big space between the C and the 3 (not C320 as it should have been). I've since removed the badges but have noticed:
2. a couple of areas of paint inconsistency not quite 'orange peel' but certainly not smooth aound the ridge of the boot.
3. sticky substance around rear number plate plinth, third brake light, around door rubbing strips and rear lights (suspect residue of masking tape)
4. a couple of areas with what appears to be a fine hair stuck in the paintwork (i. at the rear boot in one of the segments of the Mercedes star and ii. on off-side rear door)
5. a few raised specks of paint what I assume was dust on one of the rear wings.
6. small amount of overspray on rubbers inside engine bay

Will be calling them tomorrow, like yourself I hope this gets resolved - I don't believe I'm unreasoble but it certainly wasn't like that before it went in. This is why I didn't want to take it in for the rust repair

What type of quality control gets carried out - surely the work should be signed off by someone??? I'm not happy...

 

[corned]

It's not just me then

In a sense I'm glad it's not just me, although in another sense it is saddening/maddening to see that this is clearly not uncommon.

My reckoning is that these accident repair centres, whilst being 'approved' for M-B warranty work, also deal with most other marques, and thus standards and customer expectations come from completely different perspectives. While you and I would note every minor blemish, and know our cars better than the backs of our own hands, most other customers would barely notice if they got their cars back in a completely different colour!

'It will do' syndrome. This job probably would have 'done' if it was a cheap car or someone's jalopy, but I am happy to say that I am rather more discerning, as indeed you are too A-AG. And there is nothing wrong with that!

Please keep posting your updates. And anyone else too!

 

[welland99]

The paint man at the dealers put the depth gauge across almost every part of every panel to test paint depth

How do they test the paint depth?

Do they only test it in the vicinity of the rust, or do they also take random measurements anywhere on the car? I have been considering getting my dealer to look at some rusty spots on the tops of doors on my 9yr old W210, but I know that one of the front wheel arches was done by an indie before I purchased the car earlier this year.

 

[welland99]

Checked service requirements in handbook etc,no mention of requirement for MB only service in warranty period (fairly sure this is now illegal anyway) also service book has no requirement for checking finish on wheels in items list.

Is it really illegal for a corrosion warranty to specify that a main dealer has to service the car? What about an older car that might have this in the warranty conditions? Would this clause no longer apply?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Take care to distinguish goodwill repairs versus Mobilo.

For goodwill there are no terms and conditions, and therefore up to MB to do as they choose.

 

[corned]

How do they test the paint depth?

They have a small hand-held device which they put on the surface of the panel. It uses microwaves or something to get a 'reflection' off the metalwork underneath the paint. This way the device calculates the gap between the two surfaces, i.e. the depth of the paint.

When the bloke assessed my car, he did this almost everywhere on the car, and several readings on each panel, roof included...

 

[welland99]

They have a small hand-held device which they put on the surface of the panel. It uses microwaves or something to get a 'reflection' off the metalwork underneath the paint. This way the device calculates the gap between the two surfaces, i.e. the depth of the paint.

When the bloke assessed my car, he did this almost everywhere on the car, and several readings on each panel, roof included...

OO, so they tested the paint depth in panels that you were not asking for warranty repairs on? Nasty.

So ifyou had a repair on a front wing, say, that had a thin coat of paint, then they might refuse a warranty repair on, say a door? They are totally unrelated aren't they?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

OO, so they tested the paint depth in panels that you were not asking for warranty repairs on? Nasty.

So ifyou had a repair on a front wing, say, that had a thin coat of paint, then they might refuse a warranty repair on, say a door? They are totally unrelated aren't they?

No, if the panel in question hasn't received paint - or that specific area - then it shouldn't affect your likelihood of receiving goodwill gesture.

Likely to have been getting a sense for the typical paint depth on the car, and checking to see if it has received paint elsewhere at some time.

 

[corned]

This thread raises it's ugly head again.

This time, it needs reading with this thread in mind.

Although the above-mentioned electrical nonsense seems to have gone away on its own, there is a far more worrying symptom which has appeared in the recent prolonged crappy weather.

The tailgate latch on the bottom of the tailgate has been wet for a while now. The sprung-loaded cover on the kick plate just above the bumper is also wet. A couple of days ago, when I raised the tailgate to get a load of stuff out, water was actually dribbling down out of the interior handle in the middle of the tailgate door card.

This cannot be a good thing. And I bet it is related to the recent electrical nonsense. I can only assume that the tailgate repairs did not run to properly sealing either the rear window, or some other external tailgate fittings.

I remember when my dad was my age, and he always said that a car was never quite the same again once it had required a repair. You would have thought that in this day and age, things might have improved. Clearly not.

The local dealer has a Thursday bodywork surgery (they contract out their bodywork...) so I will be taking it down there. I am not happy about the same company taking the car back to Leicester (probably at my fuel expense, like last time) as it's already been back to them following the 'repair' as it is. But, on the other hand, they will probably have no choice.

I want to insist that they strip down the tailgate at the surgery session, right in front of me, so I can see for myself what the inside of the tailgate and the whole rear panel area look like after being full of water. Do you think this is reasonable?

Also, do you think it is reasonable to insist that they replace every electrical item in the tailgate, and possibly anything electrical in the rear panelwork too? In short - anything which has been exposed to moisture because of the water ingress?

 

[corned]

Just got back from meeting the bodywork people.

They have agreed to take the car back in for investigation. We have ascertained that the wet is not screenwash. It is slightly salty to the taste (yes I tasted it to find out) and there is a lot more of it than I thought. We had the spare wheel out and the wheel/battery well is, quite literally, awash.

I have pointed out all the electrical maladies, including the Parktronic which has now packed up completely (the red light on the switch is permanently on, and it makes no attempt to work when getting in the car for the first time). Given the amount of water sloshing around in the back, this is hardly a surprise. In fact, I'm surprised the electrical problems are not worse than they already are.

I just hope is gets sorted sooner rather than later.

Not happy.

 

[chiefski26]

keep us posted

 

[corned]

Will do.

Booked in for 1 March as we are going to be away for half of February. They want it for three days to investigate where the water is coming in.

Interestingly, at the weekend we went up to Sheffield and the weather was awful - loads of rain and spray. Got back and the tailgate latch was dry.

It then rained overnight with the car sat on the driveway, and in the morning the tailgate latch was wet.

I don't know if that offers any great clues, but I shall tell them in case it helps. I'm going to place a bet that the rear window is not properly sealed. It was removed for the work, although the bloke at Clarks tried to say that it wouldn't have been removed for the work done. The window fitting bloke not arriving when he should have was one of the reasons originally cited for not getting the car back to be on time!

 

[corned]

Bet you don't want to buy it now, do you?

 

[ringway]

Bet you don't want to buy it now, do you?

I'm sure if you can get it to a competent repairer it will be as good as new but there will always be that nagging doubt in the back of your mind after such a display of crap workmanship.

I used to use the best bodyshop I can imagine "Males Garage" based at Manchester airport. I know the owner and the bodyshop manager and I could visit the workshop and talk to them before and midway through the repair if I wanted to. This was priceless and that garage never failed to excel in everything they did for me and countless other I recommended to them.

They sold out to Manchester airport for the land they occupied (they also did very private airport parking) and I have missed their services and used some absolute t*ssers since then.

If can't get any joy with the current shower I would advocate getting to know a small bodyshop where you can talk with the gaffer and have a good look around at their work and working practices.

 

[corned]

The car is away right now. They picked it up on Thursday. I have a lovely base-spec 1.25 Fiesta as exchange for as long as it takes.

We'll see what happens when it comes back.

My Dad suggested I write to the repairers when it comes back to notify them that I will hold them responsible for any further issues arising over the next nn months. I know there are formats for writing such letters in these circumstances. The only thing I am pondering is whether the repairers should get the letter or M-B Nottingham. After all, the repair was their responsibility to sort, being a factory warranty repair. They chose to farm the work out.

Having thought about it recently, I think it may be a good idea to phone and ask to see the dealer principal to discuss the problems directly with him. That way, he will be in no doubt as to what has gone on. I would impress on him that it was, and still is, his responsibility to effect authorised factory warranty repairs professionally. Maybe then, he will take more interest in the repairs - in my case at least.

What do you guys think?

 

[ringway]

I have a lovely base-spec 1.25 Fiesta as exchange for as long as it takes.

I too have the base spec Fiesta, the car with seatbelts that only a gibbon can reach - I can't reach the seat belts and I sit a long way back.


I would consider joining Which? personal service who have a huge team of expert lawyers at their disposal. It's not expensive and I'm sure you can get representation even for cases that arose before joining the service.

I once had a nightmare with a Vauxhall Omega - took it 4-5 times to a Vx main dealer a week after puchase (18months old) complaining that engine was vibrating at 2500 -3000 revs. After countless tests in house and hooked up out on the open road (over a 4-5 month period) the 24v V6 engine snuffed it the day after the latest all clear.

I bought it from Fords of Winsford with a top of the range warranty.

Fords of Winsford, Drive Assured Warranty (I think) and the Vauhall main dealer all refused to help and I ended up with a bill for £4k. All the above companies were adamant they would give nothing.

I contacted What Car? Magazine and was lead story and a centre-fold I might add.

When told the story would be printed all three companies suddenly bent over backwards and couldn't do enough to help!

Oh, and whilst the engine was being re-built they crashed the car when on road test and tried to disguise the fact. My car was dark green and they hurriedly used parts from a car they had on the forecourt. The stock car was gold and the painters failed to hide this with shoddy workmanship.

You could also go to the Citizens Advice Bureau (or claim to have been there) and see what how they react to this.

I'd tell the dealer principle that if they can't sort it this time, to perfection, you'll find a company that can at their expense.