Wish I'd never bought it!

Well, I hope this doesn't bore you all but bought a P38 back in Dec 2008 - was in a bit of a rush (bad move) as the old much loved classic VM had a few things fall off, like the exhaust, and the drivers window decided to stay down. Needed to get back to work in Greece so bought this good looking P38 (1999) which seemed ok. Took it for test drive and was happy. Got us to Corfu with all our junk but a couple of weeks later it wouldn't start. Turned over but wouldn't fire up and only the drivers' door would open. Fortunately we had breakdown cover and this Greek guy came out with his computer and was there all morning twiddling but he couldn't get it going either even after we gave him the emergency key code. They then towed it off to a garage where they said they had the necessary equipment to deal with the fault. Ha, three weeks later we were still without a car and to cut a long story short the breakdown company shipped it back to UK where, allegedly, the garage we bought it off had it running the same day? We have just returned to UK and went to pick up the car and lo and behold, was told the same fault had happened again only this time they couldn't fix it and it had to be taken to another garage to be fixed. It turns out the problem was a sensor in the drivers' door I'm pretty good with the mechanics but not very hot on electronics and the morals of the story are do not buy when in a hurry and don't break down in Greece.

the sensor within the door is the door latch/mechanism at is about 120quid and 30 mins to replace it can in some instances be repaired and it only adds about 15 minutes to the above time and involves a posi drive and a bit of twiddling!!!!!

i think you have been ripped off by these people and would have quite easily fixed it yourself with just the basic mechaniking knowledge!!!

live and learn!!

Thanks for info. Yes, we've lived and learned expensively!

Wao but how can a problem in the latch will prevent the car from starting?

jlsplinter said:

Wao but how can a problem in the latch will prevent the car from starting?

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prolly wont make it malfunction in the first place but if for some reason the car requires the eka code and it can be put in the door theres no way of telling the car it's not been stolen and it can turn off the imobiliser!!!

and to be honest, anything is possible on these things!!

gavbriggs said:

prolly wont make it malfunction in the first place but if for some reason the car requires the eka code and it can be put in the door theres no way of telling the car it's not been stolen and it can turn off the imobiliser!!!

and to be honest, anything is possible on these things!!

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have to take a look to the manuals that came with the one I got to see if there are those codes. Hope I never need them.