Recently Purchased Car Broken Down, Plz Help!

[Faraz]

I purchased Ford Fiesta Ghia Auto 1.4 2004 couple of weeks ago and this morning while driving the gear got dis-engaged and i got broken-down on the middle of busy junction. Car just not starting and showing 0 or blank on the screen where it normally shows N or gear number. Recovery towed me away to a mechanic and he straight away said that Actuator is gone and it'll be repaired. He said he'll send it to some company in Nottinghamshire it could take 3 weeks and there's no guarantee that the repair would work. He said just the repair is gonna cost me £350 plus £120 labour charges. I asked him what about installing the new one, he said he can't as when you install the new one it has to be reprogrammed and only Ford can do it.

I've two questions:

1) Is he correct or just making it up?

2) What could be the reason of this failure, i mean what's the chance of this happening again after i get it sorted? have i been ripped-off by the previous owner?

I don't have that much money to spend on this, please help!

Regards,

Faraz

[stef123]

Hello and welcome to the forum Faraz,

hopefully someone will be able to help you

[gregers]

did you buy this from a dealer or privatley?

i think??? even privatley you do have some kind of come back,do check on the internet for

your rights in buying cars 2nd hand.

[Faraz]

I bought it privately, not sure its gonna be easy as its been driven fine from past two weeks.

Any idea on the solution to fix the problem?

[gregers]

im afraid i have nothing to add about your problem with the car,but surely its worth going down the advice route to save you your hard earned cash?

i know i would.

[stef123]

the biggest problem is proving the last owner knew there was a fault?

unfortunately i dont know anything about auto boxes so i cant help you.

[Faraz]

I saw some threads here on similar problems in ford fiesta, so i thought someone would be able to help me.

I've no idea what I can do in this situation :(

[Danny87]

It seems that as the car was bought privately there's probably little that you can do, even if you decided to 'chase' them like others have said you would have to prove they sold the car knowing there was a fault with the gearbox. There's a good chance it's happened at the wrong time and you've just been really unlucky, but I suppose there's probably equally a chance they knew there was a fault with the gearbox (considering the majority of people seem to be out for themselves in this day and age!)

That seems like quite a lot of money to lay out, you've been quoted that price even though the repair 'might not work'... I would personally try a different garage, and you may find it's something a Ford dealer can fix for less money. I would be really carefull spending this amount of money for a repair that might not even fix the problem!

My father has a Colt and it has a 6-speed semi-auto gearbox, he was stranded when the car wouldn't engage reverse gear (he was stuck in somebody's driveway and couldn't drive out forwards). The AA mechanic told him it would need a new gearbox, and towed him out of the drive and to the nearest Mitsubishi agent. Once my father arrived he was on his way in an hour, it turned out to be a lead connecting to one of the sensors, we don't know why but it had got pulled out, possibly a stone chip/rock! I suppose the moral of the story is, with such complicated modern automatic gearboxes and their components it's best to let the approriately trained mechanics (or technicians) look.

Keep us posted and good luck! :)

[chrsmi]

Take it to a dealer.

[Faraz]

I spent all yesterday looking for a mechanic who can diagnose ford in detail i.e. the one with full ford software/equiment and i was lucky to find one within 10 miles. I spoke to them and it looks like they're auto gear specialist, so i'll get my car towed to them on Tuesday. Here's their website:

http://www.automaticman.co.uk/

I also spoke to Ford Dealer and they've also advised that this kind of problem can cost you from £200 to £1500, but they can only tell after proper diagnose but i can't afford to take the car to that many places as towing also costs a lot.

I hope that it will be some minor issue, fingers crossed.

[Danny87]

Nicely done! I would think that would be a better bet, their website looks professional and they have the right equipment from what I can see in the pictures. I would think at the very least they'll be able to give you a reliable price and more promises on whether the fault will actually be fixed!

Best of luck and keep us posted :)

Dan

[Faraz]

I did all the hard-work of taking car to this garage yesterday and today they've come back to me with £2400 bill which is exactly the same amount I paid for the car.

The distribution is: Actuator £600, Control Unit £1200, Labour £300 + VAT. When i asked him is it possible if i can get these parts from scrapyard he said no it has to be a new one as old one can't be re-programmed, is that true?

It looks like the only option I've is to scrap the car! :(

[Danny87]

Oh mate! That's really terrible, I really do feel for you buddy!

Did they tell you why the control module needed replacing too? I think your only option now would be to pursue the seller of the vehicle, but you would probably need to prove the vehicle was at fault when they sold it to you, this could be difficult and even once you know how to prove it I don't entirely know how you would persue them.

Let's hope someone else can come along who can help you on where you could go from here with chasing the previous owner.

Dan

[btmaldon]

Im sure you can get a reconditioned gearbox for half that price fitted. That is an astonishing quote for repair and would put anyone in two minds as to what to do with the car next.

Phone around some auto gearbox specialists to see if you can replace the whole thing.

Good luck

[Faraz]

you're right btmaldon but the problem is in the electronic components not the gear box and as per mechanic any used part can't be re-programmed.

After searching whole day i managed to find just one auto-gear specialist so don't know where else should i look now.

[rojariggs]

Your rights when buying a car privately are very limited.

If you buy a second hand car from a private seller you have fewer rights than if you buy from a dealer - That's the main reason why privately bought cars are cheaper. Key parts of the Sale of Goods Act simply don’t apply!

There is no legal requirement that a car is of satisfactory quality or fit for its purpose.

A private seller's only legal obligations are:

1. They must accurately describe the second hand car (for example, an advert must not say ‘one owner’, when the car has had several)

2. Not misrepresent the second hand car (tell you something about the car which isn’t true – so, for example, if you ask whether the car has ever been in an accident, the owner must answer truthfully)

3. Must have the legal right to sell the car (eg They own it).

I'm afraid that's it as far as pursuing the seller is concerned. Even if they knew it had a fault they have no legal obligation to disclose it. They would only commit an offence if you asked them specifically about faults and they then lied.

Even if this was the case and they did lie, this car has worked for some time after buying it, so you would have an incredibly difficult time proving that they did in fact lie about any faults.

Cheers

Rog

[stef123]

£2400 to repair, sorry to hear this mate :(

[Faraz]

You guys won't believe I got my car fix without spending penny, for details follow this post:

Good luck!

[Frederick Smith]

Hi Faraz

If the problem with your car is the gear shift actuator,this can be reconditioned we actually recon these units and they are just bolt on and drive away,however if it is the clutch actuator then this has to be reprogrammed .