Breakdown - New Fuel Sender Required.

[kenl]

I posted recently about the fuel gauge in our Aygo (Sep 06) stopping working and then coming back to life.

Well today, the car broke down on my wife. No warning, it just conked out whilst in neutral at a set of lights and would not re-start. Green Flag could not get it going and said it looked like it was not getting fuel.

So, it was taken to the dealer which was only a mile away. They charge a total rip-off £52 to diagnose the fault.

Seems the car needs a new fuel sender unit (a fuel pump I think). Total bill to repair the car £187!

I will be writing to Toyota to ask for them to make a contribution to the cost. A part like this should last longer than just over 3 years and 32k miles, should it not.

Anyone else heard of this happening? Dealer said this was the first Aygo that had just stopped working like this.

[ihpj]

The concept of charging for diagnosis is pretty much standard across the industry. Count yourself lucky as BMW/Audi/MB charge circa £90 for the same service!

But I think you stand a good chance of getting the cost refunded by writing to Toyota. Just be polite ;)

[kenl]

Just had another call from the dealer.

Turns out the car needs a fuel sender and pump. Total cost to me will be £290, the dealer has already secured a contribution of £150 from Toyota.

I imagine the sender is the fuel gauge part, the fuel gauge stopped working recently.

The broken fuel pump must be what caused the breakdown.

Toyota's reliability really is taking a kicking in my view now!

[daveyjp]

The fuel sender failed on my Focus after about 12 months.

There's no such thing as a car brand which doesn't suffer problems. You may be lucky and get a particular car which never has a problem, but there'll be someone else who isn't so lucky.

[kenl]

There's no such thing as a car brand which doesn't suffer problems. You may be lucky and get a particular car which never has a problem, but there'll be someone else who isn't so lucky.

I know, but such a hefty bill on a car just out of warranty is not something to be pleased about.

[Angryhatter]

There's no such thing as a car brand which doesn't suffer problems. You may be lucky and get a particular car which never has a problem, but there'll be someone else who isn't so lucky.

I know, but such a hefty bill on a car just out of warranty is not something to be pleased about.

Its a shame that you got a car that had these issues, but from my experience with Aygos (know a few people who have owned old and new ones) they dont suffer this as part of the course of ownership of the car.

Cant put the whole box in the bin because of one bad egg.

[daveyjp]

There's no such thing as a car brand which doesn't suffer problems. You may be lucky and get a particular car which never has a problem, but there'll be someone else who isn't so lucky.

I know, but such a hefty bill on a car just out of warranty is not something to be pleased about.

But Toyota are paying £150 towards it - most mainstream manufacturers wouldn't entertain your claim.

[kenl]

There's no such thing as a car brand which doesn't suffer problems. You may be lucky and get a particular car which never has a problem, but there'll be someone else who isn't so lucky.

I know, but such a hefty bill on a car just out of warranty is not something to be pleased about.

But Toyota are paying £150 towards it - most mainstream manufacturers wouldn't entertain your claim.

Not true. Dealers regularly ask manufacturers to contribute towards "unusual" failures.

[ihpj]

I know, but such a hefty bill on a car just out of warranty is not something to be pleased about.

You do get some cars that should be reliable and sometimes you get a bad'un. However, if you have owned that car since it was <3 years old - then you would have had the opportunity to buy an extended warranty. Clearly in this case you did not and decided to take the gamble that the car would continue to be reliable outside of the provided warranty period. You may not be pleased at the hefty bill you have been landed with, but at the end of the day, you chose not to take the warranty and accepted the risk. Why is it Toyota's fault?

[manalishi]

Same/similar fault hit my '09 Aygo at just 1000m (earlier this year, haven't logged in for a while).

One day it was hard to start on a couple of trips. Next day it just would not start at all. RAC was called out and the chap lifted the rear seat and did something to the fuel thingy at the top of the tank which allowed the car to start. That got me to Toyota where some integrated fuel pump/etc was diagnosed and replaced - naturally that was done under warranty.

Toyota (Ipswich) seemed genuinely surprised about it.

[kenl]

I know, but such a hefty bill on a car just out of warranty is not something to be pleased about.

You do get some cars that should be reliable and sometimes you get a bad'un. However, if you have owned that car since it was <3 years old - then you would have had the opportunity to buy an extended warranty. Clearly in this case you did not and decided to take the gamble that the car would continue to be reliable outside of the provided warranty period. You may not be pleased at the hefty bill you have been landed with, but at the end of the day, you chose not to take the warranty and accepted the risk. Why is it Toyota's fault?

Actually, I was not offered an extended warranty by the dealer.

Also, FYI the Sale of Goods Act says:

"Q3. Are all goods supposed to last six (or five) years?

No, that is the limit for bringing a court case in England and Wales (five years from the time of discovery in Scotland's case). An item only needs to last as long as it is reasonable to expect it to, taking into account all the factors. An oil filter would usually not last longer than a year but that would not mean it was unsatisfactory.

I think it is reasonable to expect the fuel pump in a car to last longer than 3 years and 4 months and have detailed this in my letter to Toyota.

We'll see what they say.

BTW, thanks for your support :P

[another_pleb]

My car car was involved in a prang just before Christmas and wouldn't start and had to be pushed away from the scene of the accident. When the dealer group's accident repair centre fixed the damaged bodywork (paid for by the insurance), they couldn't start the car and it took them a few days to figure out that it was the fuel pump that had been damaged. They replaced the unit under warranty, I think they argued that it was on its way out before the crash as it wouldn't normally have been affected by a fairly minor accident.

[kenl]

My car car was involved in a prang just before Christmas and wouldn't start and had to be pushed away from the scene of the accident. When the dealer group's accident repair centre fixed the damaged bodywork (paid for by the insurance), they couldn't start the car and it took them a few days to figure out that it was the fuel pump that had been damaged. They replaced the unit under warranty, I think they argued that it was on its way out before the crash as it wouldn't normally have been affected by a fairly minor accident.

So, that's three out of the fairly small community on here that had had a fuel pump failure.

This will help my claim for compensation with Toyota if they refuse when/if they reply to my current letter.

Thank for your post "pleb".