A single dashboard light in my car revealed awful dealer scam – it ruined my motor and cost thousands to fix
A MECHANIC has revealed how a single dashboard light uncovered an awful dealer scam that left his customer shelling out thousands on repairs.
The second-hand VW Passat was effectively dead before it even rolled off the dealer’s forecourt.
David Long, known as The Car Wizard, examined the car and documented his findings on his YouTube channel.
He explained that it had come into his shop really only as a result of a check engine light illuminated on the dashboard.
When trying to identify what was causing the light, his team found that a computer node that monitors the engine temperature was warning that it was running too hot.
A road test then revealed that, even when the engine got up to temperature, the heater would only blow cold air.
They carried out an air con service to try and fix this, only for it to unmask the much larger problem.
When the heater continued to blow cold, it led David and his team to pull out the heater core and examine it, which revealed that it was badly clogged with unpleasant brown sludge.
The distinctive smell led David to identify what had really happened – that the heater core was full of anti-leak spray which, as it is supposed to, had solidified over time.
The spray is legitimately used by mechanics in small quantities to address leaks in the short-term until they can be repaired properly.
But David claimed that the amount in the heater system would suggest that it was the result of a bodged quick fix.
He said: “The customer said ‘when we bought it the dealer that sold it said it did have a heater core leak, but they fixed it’.
“As easy as it is to do, the dealer didn’t replace the heater core.
“They put probably two or three bottles of Stop Leak in it.
“The stop leak is working, it’s blocking things up, but it’s blocking things that shouldn’t be blocked.
“This entire cooling system is compromised.”
Fortunately for the customer, the Passat’s heater core is easily accessed in the driver footwell and the dash doesn’t have to be removed to get at it.
If it had been basically any other model, this would likely have taken the repair cost beyond the actual value of the vehicle, causing it to be written off.
As it is, David explained that they would have to flush out the cooling system completely and replace large sections of it, with the costs running into the thousands.
It comes after a woman revealed how she lives off-grid in her campervan for months on end while enjoying instant hot water and total mobile signal.