20-05-2020, 09:10 AM
Hi There,
I live in Oslo Norway, my Berlingo is an early 2002 multispace non AC with 1.4 i engine. Although i`m an amateur Vintage car owner with good mechanical skills, i`ve never done any work on the Berlingo and have relied on professional garages to carry out the maintenance work for me.
Last year I realized that after 350,000 Km the car was really due for replacement but decided that as I love the car, I would spend some money on it to bring it back into first class condition mechanically. The problem is that the Citroen garage that I use has not been performing well lately!
Recently they have carried out two expensive operations on the car. the first was to change the heater radiator which entailed a new matrix and new supply and return hoses. This cost over 10,000 NOK (1000 GBP). The second was to have the cam belt and water pump replaced and the belts for the alternator and power steering as well. The Garage did not carry out this task properly resulting in the power steering belt breaking on the motorway which shut down the engine, leaving me stranded in peak traffic conditions. ( I did not know about the restart button under the bonnet). I was able to prove that the problem was due to the mechanic having changed the belt by forcing it over the pulleys without tensioning it. This was because the tensioner was seized up and the mechanic did not report this and risked it! I was able to work this out and the service manager when confronted with their mistake, put this right and paid the tow truck bill. Now I have another problem that will cost a lot, the car was driving perfectly when suddenly the temperature gauge went into the danger zone and the warning peep sounded as I was pulling into a car park! I waited till the engine cooled down and added water to the radiator and drove to the garage which was quite near, the service manager took the car into the workshop and after about an hour, said the car was ready and presented me with a bill for almost 2000 NOK. (200 GBP). When I checked the bill, all that they had done was to top up the radiator and check the fan operation and had not done a pressure check on the coolant system. The next day the same thing happened, so after topping up the water, I left the car in my garage and after a couple of days topped up the radiator and drove to the shops about 1 Km away. When parked in the supermarket parking area, I noticed coolant under the car and lifted the bonnet to discover that there was a leak coming from behind the block, over the clutch housing and dripping onto the floor.
Thinking about the situation, I realized that this leak was the original cause of the problem and that the garage had not discovered this! The earlier work that the garage had done on the car, replacing the heater radiator and changing the water pump could have been the cause due to bad workmanship.
Now here is my dilemma, the garage had hinted that the head gasket may have been the problem but another garage had replaced this only 100,000 Km ago. if I presented the car to the garage they could easily have covered up their poor workmanship by saying that the head gasket needed to be changed and I would be none the wiser and be presented with a bill of 15,000 NOK (1500 GBP). In order to make sure before taking the car back to the garage, I looked everywhere for a diagram of the cooling system so that I could present an argument to the service manager. I have found no information, even in the Haynes Manual which I purchased that would help me visualize the system.
If anybody could suggest a solution to this problem, I would be grateful to hear it.
Thank you,
Alan
I live in Oslo Norway, my Berlingo is an early 2002 multispace non AC with 1.4 i engine. Although i`m an amateur Vintage car owner with good mechanical skills, i`ve never done any work on the Berlingo and have relied on professional garages to carry out the maintenance work for me.
Last year I realized that after 350,000 Km the car was really due for replacement but decided that as I love the car, I would spend some money on it to bring it back into first class condition mechanically. The problem is that the Citroen garage that I use has not been performing well lately!
Recently they have carried out two expensive operations on the car. the first was to change the heater radiator which entailed a new matrix and new supply and return hoses. This cost over 10,000 NOK (1000 GBP). The second was to have the cam belt and water pump replaced and the belts for the alternator and power steering as well. The Garage did not carry out this task properly resulting in the power steering belt breaking on the motorway which shut down the engine, leaving me stranded in peak traffic conditions. ( I did not know about the restart button under the bonnet). I was able to prove that the problem was due to the mechanic having changed the belt by forcing it over the pulleys without tensioning it. This was because the tensioner was seized up and the mechanic did not report this and risked it! I was able to work this out and the service manager when confronted with their mistake, put this right and paid the tow truck bill. Now I have another problem that will cost a lot, the car was driving perfectly when suddenly the temperature gauge went into the danger zone and the warning peep sounded as I was pulling into a car park! I waited till the engine cooled down and added water to the radiator and drove to the garage which was quite near, the service manager took the car into the workshop and after about an hour, said the car was ready and presented me with a bill for almost 2000 NOK. (200 GBP). When I checked the bill, all that they had done was to top up the radiator and check the fan operation and had not done a pressure check on the coolant system. The next day the same thing happened, so after topping up the water, I left the car in my garage and after a couple of days topped up the radiator and drove to the shops about 1 Km away. When parked in the supermarket parking area, I noticed coolant under the car and lifted the bonnet to discover that there was a leak coming from behind the block, over the clutch housing and dripping onto the floor.
Thinking about the situation, I realized that this leak was the original cause of the problem and that the garage had not discovered this! The earlier work that the garage had done on the car, replacing the heater radiator and changing the water pump could have been the cause due to bad workmanship.
Now here is my dilemma, the garage had hinted that the head gasket may have been the problem but another garage had replaced this only 100,000 Km ago. if I presented the car to the garage they could easily have covered up their poor workmanship by saying that the head gasket needed to be changed and I would be none the wiser and be presented with a bill of 15,000 NOK (1500 GBP). In order to make sure before taking the car back to the garage, I looked everywhere for a diagram of the cooling system so that I could present an argument to the service manager. I have found no information, even in the Haynes Manual which I purchased that would help me visualize the system.
If anybody could suggest a solution to this problem, I would be grateful to hear it.
Thank you,
Alan
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