UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Well, yesterday i bit the bullet and did as my dad said and took my car to the local VW garage to get my ABS light sorted out.

When i booked it in, i was told of the £40+vat for diagnostics which i was alright about. Anyways, i dropped my car off at 8am and was told i'd get a call at lunch time updating me on progress. With no call, i ring them to find diagnostics is still being done. So i go to work and arrange my mum to pick up my car on her way home from work. With it now approaching 4.45 my mum is just about to set off to pick the car up and still i don't know if the car is ready yet so call them to hear this.

"Hi Mr Turner. Your car has been such a trouble sorting it out. First of all we did the diagnostics check which goes through all your electrical systems and check everything is working. This takes about 3 hours. With no obvious faults showing, it was then a case of checking some things manually which eventually sourced the problem. We traced it back to your fuse box above your battery. The contacts in there had corroded and thus caused a couple of fuses to blow. So we've cleaned up the contacts and replaced the fuses and thats cured the problem. The mechanic has been working on your car for 5 hours though but we're only going to charge you for 2 hours labour"

"right so how much is that then"

"In total that will be £189. However your fuse box could corrode again in which case you may want to replace it but we'll do that free of charge"

"£189 right, well my mum is picking up the car so i'll let her know! Whilst your on the phone though, how much would this new fuse board cost?"

"That would be £150+vat"



I can't believe that its cost so much just because of a sodding fuse and corroded contacts. Its a bloody joke the amount they charge for labour! I know one thing though.........if i can source a fuse box, i'm sure i could get one and get it fitted for half the price of what they want!!!

Sorry for the rant but just wanted to share my pain aswell as my new knowledge on the ABS light situation i know a couple of other people have had!

RANT OVER

Mat

They are taking the p*ss, 3 hours to do the electronic test more like 5mins and 3 off them is getting into the car and plugging the computer into it !!

Next thing that sounds wrong is that if you ABS light was on there will be a fault logged for it, the light doesn't just pop on there is always a error code behind it that either has to be cleared or the fault resolved however the code would still show on a vagcom check until its cleared but the light would go out.

VW Garages = tossers!

The light only ever came on once you'd gone over 20mph. It then stayed on until you turned the ignition off. So if i just started the car and drove around at 10mph, no light would come on.

Before i took it to the Dealers, i took it too a small garage who plugged in there computer and no fault came up on theres' either. The guy even drove the car over 20mph to get the light to come on, but still no fault showed.

I know it only takes 2 minutes to do i diagnostics check for faults, but they had to scan through all the electrical stuff which i believe took the time!

I'm a little pissed at myself aswell though as checking fuses and contacts is such a simple thing to do and one of the first things to check with electrical stuff.

Mat

they are a bunch of tossers

iam soo luky i have a mate that works 4 vw that helps me out

To scan all the modules is the same as scanning for codes takes 5mins tops ! I've seen the VW system a very smart looking tablet pc scanned every module in my Golf in under 3mins. Using a old laptop it took me about 5mins to scan the modules in my old Polo. Surprised it didn't log a fault for the light however as the light pops on depending on the codes sent by each module.

I've not heard of the fuse holder corroding on Polos before a common fault on the Mk3 Ibiza however and the part was around £50 I wouldn't be surprised if its the same part !

That's terrible. The VW dealer I go to in Loughborough would never treat their customers like that! I would strongly complain to the service manager if I were you.

That's terrible. The VW dealer I go to in Loughborough would never treat their customers like that! I would strongly complain to the service manager if I were you.

wat is it with VW garages?! i done an inspection with them recently and they gave me a long list of problems with my car.. ok i was happy that they found them as you would expect them to, just wasnt happy at the stupid prices they were quoting to fix them! some of the problems being cracked driveshaft gaitor £257, airbag light £70 and brake light switch £89!? the total sum came to over a grand!! so i said thanks but no thanks.. went and got ALL the parts myself for £70, the gaitor was only £15 and the brake light switch a measely fiver!? got mercedes specialist mechanic to fix it all for a nice round figure of 100 quid!

Thats shocking Mat

My ABS light is intermittently coming on but if I give the old girl a sharp tap on the brakes (when there is no other traffic around) it clears! VW want in the region of £35-45 to investigate.

that is bang out of order. The diagnostics as people have already said will take less than 5 minutes - it's very similar to Vag-com. I'd definately complain about this to their customer services department. 3 hours to do a scan - total Boswolox if you ask me.

vw stealers!!!!
hollies mk4 has got only one window working at the mo so i said take it to vw for them to check it over as the window had fallen in2 the door!!
they charged her £50 to determine the fault (regulator) and to wedge the window up!
then they quoted £150 for a new regulator and fitting
and then they said that her motor was on the way out aswell which would be another £250ish fitted!!!!!

are they trying to make u go elsewhere??

Im stuck for words, worst customer service ever from VW!

Ive never used them for any work done on my car, I'm lucky to have a bloke who can work on my car for a much less fee.

The prices are stupid, surely they can't be justified to a certain extent

Can you download the VAG software and search for faults yourself? If so where do I get this software and cable from? Cheers peeps