Very Poor Service

My son had a bad diesel leak on his van he went to Avary James in Basingstoke who replaced a bad leak on no 1 fuel injector (apparently cracked) great service so far. Two days later the engine management light came on he also noticed the temperature gauge would go up and down and cooling fans wasn’t coming on, he explained the above when he went back to Avary James who said the fault code and diagnosis was low fuel pressure and all the fuel injectors need removing and sending away for testing and the 3 others could need replacing (not cheap) this did not make sense to me as the faults had only appeared after the bad leak. I’ve worked for VW as a lead tec, The AA as a Patrol training officer and lead patrol for the RAC so have a pretty good idea when something a garage says does not sound correct. I rang Avary James and to be honest I have never heard so much rubbish and mis diagnosis. He agreed to look at the van again on Saturday as I explained to him that the fuel rail pressure sensor and temperature sensors which are near injector 1 would have been covered in diesel from the leak which could be sending incorrect readings to the ECU and this would explain the fault code/ temperature gauge/cooling fans issues and could he check this before going down a very costly route, Van goes in all day Saturday I received a call from James stating diagnostic machine said low fuel pressure (yes, we know that that’s what you claimed last time) and they would need van in again, I asked James if the so-called mechanic had carried out the very basic checks I had asked for which would eliminate a sensor issues and fault codes, again complete rubbish and amateur diagnosis from the so-called mechanic I even had to ask if they had checked the fans where working which they claim there diagnostic machine is uncapable of doing again complete rubbish a £2,50p app on a phone can do this test or just leave the van running. I suspect the van wasn’t even taken into the workshop or even the bonnet lifted. At this point I had lost any trust so jumped in the car for the 6 hrs round trip to my sons, I disconnected the fuel pressure sensor cleaned the connector as I suspected it was contaminated with diesel from the fuel leak (low fuel pressure fixed engine light now off) the temperature sensor connector wire was lose and contaminated with diesel again quick clean and temperature gauge working and cooling fans running as per spec, it took no longer than 10 mins to fix the issues. The van has now done over 700 miles with no issues or fault codes. Is it down to very poor diagnostics skills from the so-called mechanic who is only capable of plugging a machine in and can’t think for himself with very poor diagnostic skills or is it Avary James trying to create unnecessary work that is not needed, either way I wouldn’t recommend or trust Avary James with basic fault finding or you could end up paying £1000s for unneeded parts and labour costs that the average motorist wouldn’t question.

Richard Adam - 27/08/2021 | report this review