UKC

Hi

It's a fairly minor fault but an annoyance, the ventilation fan intermittently works only on two speeds and the lighting on that part of the dash works intermittently - try clearing the windscreen at night without the lights on, you'll see how dangerous that could be.

I've had the van for two months and didn't notice that on the test drive but as I say it is an intermittent fault

Anyway, the van sales place is happy to 'take a look' but the problem is they are 240 miles away - they are not interested in me getting the work done locally. Before I traveled to look at the van I called the sales office and asked if there were any problems with the van, anything not working etc before I made the journey.

They insist that I travel to them to 'take a look' am I able to insist that it is repaired locally or get them to pay for fuel/accommodation if required?

If it helps I paid a hefty deposit on my credit card.

Thanks for any advice/experience shared

In reply to Edd Reed:
My Land Rover demisting fan is utterly useless. Tesco £1.59 plastic squeegee and my demisting is now instant and completely failsafe.

I'd find a nice local auto electrician and put the rest down to experience

In reply to Edd Reed:

Depends on the T+Cs of the sale, many second hand dealers sell "Sold as seen" so you get what you pay for, others offer a warranty. If it were any other item they would expect you to return it to the supplier for any warranty issues and there would likely be a clause in the terms and conditions that they are not liable for any consequential costs or damages.

I can understand they want to look at the problem themselves, would you trust some random punter 250 miles away with a load of your cash?

In reply to woolsack:

Fair point

In reply to gethin_allen:

Thank you

The van is a 59 plate with just under 500000 miles, the 3 month warranty will only cover complete failure of the ventilation fan itself.

If I had bought something 15 years old (like the car I part ex'ed) then I would expect and may accept such a fault.

I have had my regular garage write me an estimate, I am about to send it to the sales place, it's nearly £300 parts and labour. If I went main dealer then the labour rate doubles.

In reply to Edd Reed:

Woo 500k miles no wonder there is the odd gremlin. You might just have to chalk it up to experience but there is no harm in pushing the dealership to see if they are prepared to sort it out for you.

In reply to Edd Reed:

Oops 50000 miles

In reply to Edd Reed:

bump

In reply to Edd Reed:


£300 parts and labour!

Have they already investigated and identified the fault?

If they haven't someone is taking the piss over a fault that could be as simple as a dodgy earth.

In reply to timjones:
The mechanic is family and owns a Trafic himself, the point is, 500 miles for the salesman to 'take a look', rather than just authorise me to let a mechanic here do it.

The fan speed thing is a common fault and is the resistor pack (£70), the intermittent panel lighting could be the switch pack (£120) and about £40 labour plus VAT on all of the above.

If a part does not need fitting it wont get fitted and will be returned.

I will quite happily get other quote but they will cost, for instance the local Renault dealer will charge £80 plus VAT to just take a look.

In reply to Edd Reed:






It's a tough call, but if I had sold a van is be nervous of deferring the diagnosis to a friend of the purchaser who was submitting guessed at quotes based on common problems they know of.

I can see why they might want to do the job themselves and wonder if this was a choice you made when you purchased from someone so distant.

Could you get them to nominate someone that they would trust to do the work closer to home for you?

Personally I've always worked on the theory that such electrical glitches are a fact of vehicle ownership and if the fault wasn't apparent until several months after purchase I just get on and fix it myself.

In reply to Edd Reed:

Search youtube for a video showing how to fix it, it'll probably be trivial or horrendous. If it's trivial, fix it, if it's difficult get it fixed and take it on the chin, these things happen, if it's horrendous use a towel to wipe the screen. At least that's what I'd do and I'm in the same position with my de-mist blower and dash lights.

jk

In reply to Edd Reed:

If the fan acting up, and the lighting failing on that part of the dash, both fail / work at the same time, then it is almost certain that you have a single fault causing both symptoms. If not then you have two separate faults. If a single fault then it sounds like a simple dodgy connection. The next step would be to get a wiring diagram for the vehicle and check that both fan and lighting do share a single supply at some point in the circuit. It may be that they have separate live supplies but a single earth, in which case you know where your fault is (I'm with Tim Jones on this one). You say it's a renault van & sounds like you have already been looking at the forums. Hardest bit may be actually getting at the offending bit whatever it is.

Good luck

Paul

In reply to Edd Reed:

Thanks everyone. I'll let you know how I get on