Mechanics Couldn't Spot a Blocked Air Intake, Charged 2 Hours to Inspect and Drove Home in Worse than Limp Mode

lansalot on 18/01/2019 - 22:33
Last edited 21/01/2019 - 23:16

I'm not going to name the mechanics, but it was a dealership and therefore can't name the brand of car. I'm wanting to know (hopefully from mechanics) at what point of troubleshooting a car with no power would you check the air intake and air flow sensors?

Long story short, I picked up my car that I had dropped to the dealer to diagnose a significant loss of power. I was charged an initial one hour inspection fee and followed up with a second hour before being told they had no idea what it was, I declined the third hour of diagnostics and picked the car up with little confidence in the brand and the dealership. Upon making numerous friends by driving it at 20-50km/h home late at night I went to look at it this morning. I googled a few things to look at and upon disconnecting the air flow sensor the power returned to the car, albeit with a check engine light (CEL) on the dash. To investigate further I took off the air filter housing and noticed that a portion of padding had blocked up a large amount of the intake, and was blocking the air flow sensor. I took this off and cleaned the blockage with a blower vac. The CEL disappeared and the car is now perfectly derivable. All in all, it took me no more than 10 minutes to fix (and I wish I had just done it myself in the first place).

So my question is, what were the mechanics doing with my vehicle for 2 hours? And at what point or how far in to troubleshooting would you reasonably expect them to check the air filter / intake as part of diagnosing a car low on power?

Images for reference:

https://ibb.co/PDKpTfN
https://ibb.co/XyY561Z

UPDATE 21/01/2018: I approached the service manager politely and asked for a refund. After providing my reasons in a calm manner I received a refund.

Automotive

closed Comments

  • MSG on 18/01/2019 - 22:47

    They probably did a 100 Point Safety Check twice and wanted to do it again.

  • resubaehtgnolhcs on 18/01/2019 - 22:51
    +4

    17 year old apprentices …. they would have been on their phones (not googling your problem either)!

    IANAM

  • Lexan on 18/01/2019 - 23:18

    I'm curious. How much was inspection fee?

  • Zukli on 18/01/2019 - 23:31
    +2

    Ask for a refund. Totally incompetent mechanics.

  • hashtagbargain on 19/01/2019 - 00:03
    +5

    So my question is, what were the mechanics doing with my vehicle for 2 hours?

    Maybe, just maybe - try asking them?

  • resisting the urge on 19/01/2019 - 01:30

    My question is, how did 'padding' get in your filter box, or the intake? What from? Was it debris collected during driving?

    If part of the car, who designed something that went wrong like this- and was able to make it through the filter to the air sensor? Was it a failure in the intake assembly, or did it arise from a simple mistake? If a modification… why was it not done well enough not to fail?

    • brendanm on 19/01/2019 - 09:39

      More than likely noise dampening from the air intake.

      OP you need to call them and demand a refund, that is a pathetic attempt at diagnosis, air filter would be one of the first things to check.

      • resisting the urge on 19/01/2019 - 10:19

        Maybe it wasn't visible without disassembly.

        Placing any insulation in the intake that can come off is a design failure, a manufacturing fault or negligence at some point.

        • brendanm on 19/01/2019 - 12:23

          Of course it wasn't visible, the air filter almost never is. It generally takes all of two seconds to open up the housing and look. Not necessarily.

          • resisting the urge on 19/01/2019 - 17:15

            @brendanm: Certainly. But in hindsight it is easy to say.

            I've never seen a blocked intake that wasn't on a barn-find that sat open to the elements, or containing a fair bit of someone's arm/or hand!

            Who puts stuff in an intake that will fall apart at some point and block the sensor? That is just designing a guaranteed failure into the product

            • brendanm on 19/01/2019 - 18:41

              @resisting the urge: I've seen a number of air filters that have been blocked purely due to lack of maintenance. One car literally wouldn't start after it was parked.

              • resisting the urge on 19/01/2019 - 18:48

                @brendanm: Indeed. But even the worst 'tech' would check the air filter isn't blocked. In this case, they may have loked and seen the road side of the filter was anything from new to clearly serviceable

    • lansalot on 19/01/2019 - 15:54

      This is what it looked like when I removed the air filter housing.

      https://ibb.co/XyY561Z

      Sorry if it loads it super zoomed in.

      • resisting the urge on 19/01/2019 - 17:34

        Wow. Consider removing all that foam from the part of the airbox behind the filter, or it will keep disintegrating and damage the MAF, if it hasn't already.

        Open and closed cell foams absorb sound and heat but disintegrate with time, heat, physical wear, chemical attack, and UV radiation. The same goes for other plastics, foam is just far less durable. Just like an Aldi/Bunnings barbecue cover used outdoors in the sun- parts of it fall away within months.

        For the same reasons (except sunlight), no-one would use it in an engine intake where the whole point of having an airbox is to ensure the stuff behind it never gets debris or contaminants drawn in.

        But someone that made that car thought they knew better than everyone else, and came up with this as a dodgy way to reduce the engine noise NVH measurement by a decibel or so. Sticking in a few pieces of 2c foam just added a guaranteed design failure as soon as the foam begins aging, or worse gets knocked off during routine servicing.

  • AdosHouse on 19/01/2019 - 02:17

    Jesus it's not difficult to do basic diagnostics. Hook up their computer to the car, running rich, check air intake. Running lean, check fuel delivery.

    I'm surprised it wouldn't kick up a code for MAF or AFR out of range.

    • Gronk on 19/01/2019 - 09:49

      Yeah I'm not even a mechanic and air flow / fuel delivery would have been the top 2 items on my checklist for this type of scenario.

      Perhaps it wasn't an apprentice who did the inspection, maybe it was the receptionist? :D

      • AdosHouse on 19/01/2019 - 10:12

        Definitely. Top 2 list for car not firing properly.

        1. Check error codes.
        2. Check the 3 things required for combustion, fuel, air and spark.

        Not just the receptionist, but the relief receptionist that only works a few days a year to cover leave and has never stepped in the workshop ever.

  • pegaxs on 19/01/2019 - 09:05
    +3

    It's a dealership. They were probably testing the expanse of your wallet.

  • whooah1979 on 19/01/2019 - 09:54

    How many Suzuki dealership is these in WA?

  • Amaris on 19/01/2019 - 10:28
    +1

    You should be grateful they didn’t advise you to change the brakes and discs NOW. ;-)

  • holdenmg on 19/01/2019 - 11:03
    +1

    Can't RAC WA do roadside diagnostics for significant loss of power.

  • the Unforgiven on 19/01/2019 - 19:36
    +1

    I am a mechanic & it would have taken me 10 minutes to find it

    Never go back to that place, but for one more thing, to give a letter to the manager to tell him how disappointed I am in his dealership

    If you want to, write the manufacturers head office, they will take a dim view of a dealership that charges 2 hours & they could not even diagnose a blocked air cleaner

    • lansalot on 19/01/2019 - 20:28
      +2

      Thanks for the advice, this was the approach I was considering but wanted to take 24-48 hours to consider what do to. Interestingly the service manager wasn't available on the Friday when I called to let them know.

      • the Unforgiven on 20/01/2019 - 15:36

        Your welcome

        I wonder if he was playing golf or at Head Office for a prior infringement?

        Stay focused on this. Write to the head bloke at the dealership. If un-happy with the result, write to head office trying to be nice & calm. Just tell them your car & the dealership you went to. Then explain that it took 2 hours & they could not find a fault in your car. Tell them that they are meant to be the experts. Then tell head office you found the problem yourself & why you should ever go back to that dealership again.

        Even if you are happy with the dealerships response, write to head office; just to stick it to 'em :)

  • lansalot on 21/01/2019 - 23:15
    +3

    Update: I approached the service manager politely and asked for a refund. After providing my reasons in a calm manner I received a refund.

    • the Unforgiven on 22/01/2019 - 17:25

      a win :) and you know what to do if your car plays up next time, do it yourself or go elsewhere, or do a mechanics course, even a basic course is OK

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