Mechanic caused more problems

[Snoozie]

I think an AA mechanic has caused more problems and your opinions and/or advice would be appreciated.

I’ll try to be brief, but should give you all facts so please bear with me

Yesterday I went to put up the driver’s window (electric) but it went down and would not come up. The switch felt different and I thought it must be broken (the passenger door switch felt normal and was working).

I called into the next garage but it was just before 5pm and the mechanics had gone, except for one who said he switch had gone, as I thought, and that it should be fine if I bought a replacement switch. I do not have a private drive and have to park on a road in a busy tourist town so could not leave the car as it was because the contents would inevitably be stolen. I'm supposed to be at a festival this weekend but couldn't go with a window jammed down. So, I called the AA and explained that the vehicle was not broken down but that the window was stuck down and asked if they could retrieve it.

He pulled out all the fuses and replaced them saying all were OK, and he poked a piece of wire into the connectors on the window switch and said something to the effect there was no connection. I asked if we could take out the door trim and get the window back up somehow as a temporary measure until I got to a garage. He said it could be a nightmare getting it back together but that he would try.

After he had taken the trim off I was round the back of the van and I smelled burning. It happened again so I went round to the passenger side to see what was going on. He was poking a piece of wire into (I think) the window motor that is normally hidden inside the door. I heard a fizzle and crack and I'm sure I saw a puff of smoke, but anyway there was a definite burning smell. This worried me and I didn't feel able to challenge him - AA mechanics should know what they are doing I thought, but I hoped that if he had damaged the motor I would be able to get a replacement motor when I found a garage to fix it properly.

We pulled the window up after he dismantled the window mechanism, and after some difficulty getting the trim back on until he had bent the metal underneath all the way along with his screwdriver, he then wedged the window tight at the bottom with bits of rubber tubing to help stop it falling down if I went over a bump. I set off and noticed immediately that the coil warning light was flashing (it wasn't when I called them), so I stopped and told him but he said something to the effect that it was not surprising since the window electrics weren’t working, to the effect of saying not to worry.

When I got home I taped the window with Gorilla tape to make it more secure. As it was dark by then I put on the internal lights but none of them worked, neither did the stereo work and since then I have not dared try the AFT.

So I went from having a faulty window switch to now having a burned out motor switch, no interior lights and no stereo, and a flashing warning light that wasn’t there before I called the AA.

1) Surely he should not have been sticking wire into things, making burning smells and shorting things out?
2) Any ideas as to how the interior lights and stereo could also be damaged by his activities with the window motor, and why the coil warning light is flashing now? Would the lack of interior lights and radio do this? Could his actions have blown other fuses? I haven't yet checked them but will once I have bought some spares.

I feel I need to report this to the AA because I don’t think these other faults should have happened when the job was just to retrieve the window.

These days you get no paperwork from them to see what the AA man writes, he just directed me to a box on his tablet to sign. I don’t even have a job number from him.

Any comments or advice gratefully received, thank you.

[Snoozie]

Could have sworn I saw a reply from Rita about internal fuse -thanks - but now I've logged in again it's not there! Maybe it was another thread.

Anyway, just to say that I am off to the local festival that I was going to yesterday, so wont be able to thank people for their replies until Monday.

Hopefully it is just a fuse problem and i will look at them but I am curious to know if there is nothing odd about an AA mechanic poking wires into things and burning something out?! As you can tell I'm no mechanic!

[Bob]

Oh dear.

I'd certainly report to the AA exactly what you've told us and see what they say, but I have a feeling their response might be that they diagnosed a broken switch but you insisted the chap took the trim off and did more, in spite of being warned of the difficulties.

This is not what you need to hear, I just get a feeling that may be their answer, but let's hope for a good result.

Since it will need fixing perhaps the garage you use would write a report on the cause of the problems, at least tell them before they start work what has happened.

[g8dhe]

Replace the top left Fuse in the interior fuse ox down by the drivers knee, this covers all the permanent powered circuits like internal lights, radio backup and ECU backup, it sounds like it will have blown whilst he was fiddling.