Legal Recourse against Tuner

malazn mafia · 27-01-2018, 11:50 PM

Hi all, just wondering what sort of protection there is for the consumer against shonky or incompetent tuners? Basically I have given my car to the same tuner for an LPG conversion, turbo upgrade and engine tune. He has had the car in the workshop 3 times, and I've spent in excess of 10k with him. The car has gotten worse and worse each time. It made fantastic power (360rwkw), but had serious issues during idle or warm starts, and switching between petrol and gas. Between the 2nd time he had it and the 3rd time, the car suffered a head gasket failure. After the repair ($3500) and he had given it back to me after many weeks off the road, the car ran worse than ever, and the turbo seized within 30km of driving it. He replaced it free of charge and assured me the car was now spot on. Sadly the car was not, and it was barely driveable, and as a result, in an unfortunate incident, I was involved in an accident after the car stalled at the worst time possible. What legal recourse does the consumer have ? After this incident, I was so upset that I refused to drive the car or go back to the tuner for fear I would erupt in fits of rage. I don't expect the tuner to bear the costs of the repairs from the accident or anything, but I think it's rather ridiculous that I have spent more than 10k and now can't even drive the car. Anyone had a similar experience or know who I could talk to ?

Trump · 27-01-2018, 11:58 PM

Not much unfortunately. Modifying cars outside of their factory specs (which are ADR compliant) isn't looked upon too kindly by anyone that isn't an enthusiast. There are reasons why most insurance mobs turn their nose at insuring modified cars.

noddy383 · 28-01-2018, 12:13 AM

There is a section of consumer law that covers service providers and states they they must, within reason, provide suitable service to the best of their ability. i.e. they can't do a half-****d job and charge you for it. Unfortunately, this can be really hard to prove with cars.
Maybe double-check this with someone more qualified in the legal field, but if you find another reputable tuner who can show that the original tuner provided a standard of service that was below what the average client could reasonably expect and/or what was stated would be provided, you may have a case to recoup a proportion of money you spent there and even the costs to have the problems rectified.
It's similar to having a gardener screw up your prize-winning garden or a painter painting your house the wrong colour, just harder to prove.
You may have trouble proving it and it may take more effort than it's worth, but it might be possible.

Mercury Bullet · 28-01-2018, 06:15 PM

Have a chat to a lawyer mate, first consult will be free and decide where to go from there.

I'd be upset after all the work you have done yourself too.
I was wondering what happened to it.

**aussiblue** · 28-01-2018, 06:40 PM

Did you sign any paperwork; if so I suspect the tuner will have included broad wide-reaching disclaimers protecting him/her from all liabilities.

ratter · 28-01-2018, 06:41 PM

You will need to document everything thing including what parts were used, what parts were new, what were second hand. Was the build done via your guidelines or the shops etc. you will need to be 100% accurate as anything away from the truth might hurt any ruling.

Have you given the shop enough time to sort it out? Has it gone back multiple times for the same problem? Was it running a gas only tune or dual fuel tune? Did they fit the gas system? Did the gas system get complienced?
All questions that might arise

malazn mafia · 28-01-2018, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ratter

You will need to document everything thing including what parts were used, what parts were new, what were second hand. Was the build done via your guidelines or the shops etc. you will need to be 100% accurate as anything away from the truth might hurt any ruling.

Have you given the shop enough time to sort it out? Has it gone back multiple times for the same problem? Was it running a gas only tune or dual fuel tune? Did they fit the gas system? Did the gas system get complienced?
All questions that might arise

Over 5 months seems enough time? Multiple times for stalling at random when switching to gas, they fitted the kit supplied by me, but the only thing carried over in the end was the toroid gas tank. Gas system got Complianced by them. Tuned for dual fuel, and ran like a champ when it got its act together, always had serious problems switching from petrol to gas and it would stall unless revved during changeover.

ratter · 28-01-2018, 08:59 PM

5 months seems like a long time but we have to remember that Ford haveva team working for years getting the calibration right, not saying the tuner has done as much as them so should take that long, but you have added a fuel source that the car was not designed to run on and a system with no fine tune adjustment and a tune that is supposed to run both fuels, so he may argue that he needs time.
We have done many of these systems and do not have these issues, so it can be done, but petrol injector size has an impact on some of the switch over stuff and there are combinations that make it bad or just do not work.
If you can’t sort it out with them and want to chase it, all these things may come up