I need some rough straw poll information

[Rafezetter]

I would like to ask for some rough numbers regarding a situation I recently had.

Last year I had my horn fail MOT - a known problem with Berlingo's so I'm led to believe - garage informed me it was the slip ring and the whole steering binnacle with the stalks needed to be replaced at a cost of £500 parts and £250 labour.  Then they came back and said they couldn't find a new supplier, so I looked around and found new old stock on ebay from a proper parts dealer (I did some background checking).

Roll on a few months and the horn is intermittent again - though I rarely use it so no biggie - BUT as my MOT was due soon I figured I'd take it back to the garage and.... they claimed it was the binnacle again and "it must have been faulty" - I reminded them it came in a sealed box with factory markings and basically got the brush off - so went for a second opinion to a vehicle electrical specialist (which I didn't know existed the first time) - they did some tests and lo and behold - Horn is faulty, signs of corrosion and water ingress.

They replaced it at a further cost of £137 mostly for labour as I sourced a replacement horn for £20 when the OEM Citroen horn they wanted £80 !!!!

Long story short I plan on taking small claims action against the first garage, armed with the report from the electrical specialist, for a misdiagnosis, the £600 it cost (the ebay part was still £300) and the TWO DAYS it was off the road while they did the work when the specialist did it in less than 3 hours. £600 isn't a sum I can just walk away from, quite apart from the whole "getting shafted by a garage" bad taste this leaves.  My vehicle is also my work vehicle as a handyman - so 2 days off work for a problem that SHOULD have been diagnosed in about an hour (removal of the front bumper to get at the horn) and then another hour and change to swap it out and put it all back together.

It's absolutely clear to me the first garage didn't do a horn inspection - I actually have the old horn and the terminals are corroded and the metal back plate also has corrosion on it and when attached to a battery - it only works...... intermittently.  It looks exactly like they went for the most expensive repair option - I had used this garage before for MOT's with no issues.

But I figured some backup info wouldn't hurt so I'd like to ask if 2009 ish Berlingo owners would be willing to tell me the age and mileage of their vehicle and if they have had to replace the slip ring (the bit with the signal  / wiper stalks) on their Berlingo.

I'm trying to take the temperature of just how often this part fails as a backup alongside the written report I have from the specialist that specifically states the horn was the fault and the rest of the electrical to the horn was just fine, as I'm expecting the first garage to claim it was BOTH, the horn AND the slip ring - though I will ask them why they didn't tell me that the first time and replace it then AND why they didn't diagnose that the second time I took it to them.

Replies woudl be appreciated - thanks for reading.

[evdama]

Mine is 2012 with 60 ish on the clock
The horn became intermittent last year.
It was a corroded fuse that caused the problem.
Simply running a piece of wire from the metal steering column to a chassis point will diagnose any issue in the steering wheel
I sincerely wish you all the luck in the world with this one as I rate the entire motor industry like they were putin.

[magoo1]

just had to replace the stalks assembly, genuine citroen part as lights, indicators were playing silly buggers, the price was as you have quoted but horn was ok.

[Rafezetter]

Is there no-one else that can throw any information on this - or even just post "car is X years old, x mileage and I've not had the slip ring fail".

I'm sure the more testimonies I can get - which will be printed out anonymously obviously - the higher my chances of getting a positive result.

Would really appreciate more feedback.

[GladiatorCleaning]

I've got a 2006 Berlingo, so a Mk1, but it's never had any horn issues. 90k.

[shawstvs1]

My B9 2008 has 78000 on clock and never had horn issues or slip ring stalk replaced

[Multispacer]

I would like to ask for some rough numbers regarding a situation I recently had.

Last year I had my horn fail MOT - a known problem with Berlingo's so I'm led to believe - garage informed me it was the slip ring and the whole steering binnacle with the stalks needed to be replaced at a cost of £500 parts and £250 labour.  Then they came back and said they couldn't find a new supplier, so I looked around and found new old stock on ebay from a proper parts dealer (I did some background checking).

Roll on a few months and the horn is intermittent again - though I rarely use it so no biggie - BUT as my MOT was due soon I figured I'd take it back to the garage and.... they claimed it was the binnacle again and "it must have been faulty" - I reminded them it came in a sealed box with factory markings and basically got the brush off - so went for a second opinion to a vehicle electrical specialist (which I didn't know existed the first time) - they did some tests and lo and behold - Horn is faulty, signs of corrosion and water ingress.

They replaced it at a further cost of £137 mostly for labour as I sourced a replacement horn for £20 when the OEM Citroen horn they wanted £80 !!!!

Long story short I plan on taking small claims action against the first garage, armed with the report from the electrical specialist, for a misdiagnosis, the £600 it cost (the ebay part was still £300) and the TWO DAYS it was off the road while they did the work when the specialist did it in less than 3 hours. £600 isn't a sum I can just walk away from, quite apart from the whole "getting shafted by a garage" bad taste this leaves.  My vehicle is also my work vehicle as a handyman - so 2 days off work for a problem that SHOULD have been diagnosed in about an hour (removal of the front bumper to get at the horn) and then another hour and change to swap it out and put it all back together.

It's absolutely clear to me the first garage didn't do a horn inspection - I actually have the old horn and the terminals are corroded and the metal back plate also has corrosion on it and when attached to a battery - it only works...... intermittently.  It looks exactly like they went for the most expensive repair option - I had used this garage before for MOT's with no issues.

But I figured some backup info wouldn't hurt so I'd like to ask if 2009 ish Berlingo owners would be willing to tell me the age and mileage of their vehicle and if they have had to replace the slip ring (the bit with the signal  / wiper stalks) on their Berlingo.

I'm trying to take the temperature of just how often this part fails as a backup alongside the written report I have from the specialist that specifically states the horn was the fault and the rest of the electrical to the horn was just fine, as I'm expecting the first garage to claim it was BOTH, the horn AND the slip ring - though I will ask them why they didn't tell me that the first time and replace it then AND why they didn't diagnose that the second time I took it to them.

Replies would be appreciated - thanks for reading.

I'm assuming from your post of the vehicle being a 2009 model it was a B9 model Berlingo? [rather than the earlier M59 shape?]

There is a reason I ask this, as you'll see in my answer.

I owned a 2008 Berlingo B9 Multispace between 2016-2024 [when sold on it had approx 120k on clock] and never had any horn issues with the vehicle but before that I also owned a previous generation 2007 Multispace M59 model and that model did have the horn earthing fault problem which I rectified not by changing the clock-spring assembly but by simply attaching a braided wire around the steering column and attaching to an earth point. 

The fact that your original garage 'diagnosed' the fault as the clock spring assembly is I suspect due to someone looking on-line about Berlingo horn problems and finding a whole load of information about the clock spring type fault but not realising that was only really a big issue with the previous M59 model. 

The problem I think you are going to encounter when taking out a case, is that the garage will argue is that after the horn was originally fixed [by the clock spring assembly] it did work for a while and if the horn was the original [only] fault it wouldn't have worked at all after the original work was carried out.