Aware before buying

[Dennis K]

I just bought my "dream car" from private seller. I thought so.... 

Straight away sorry for my bad English, i just learning it.
I bought Audi a4 b6 convertible 2005 for very nice price. 
I found some issues in it... heater wont work (thought it is just a thermostat issue) and a climate control  windscreen heating switch wont work (issue with motor) and with boot sensor problem.
With thermostat issue i tough i will have to spend about 200-300 pounds and that's it and I have my "dream car" nice and smooth in my garage.
NO!
Problems started when I tried to resolve my problems with thermostat. I bough a genuine thermostat from eurocarparts and gave it to local garage to replace it.
After 2-3 hours I received a call from garage with bad news.
And here is some pictures what's wrong... 
As you see on old part have been taken out thermostat from pipes and a sensor installed incorrectly to give a way to oxigen to go out from cooling system without overheating.
This work have been done specially to hide dead head or dead head gasket to sell this car.
I think it is fraud and I will make a report to police and citizen advice about this seller if seller will not accept full repair or full refund.
Be aware when you buying a car with not working heater because it is impassible to spot this head or head gaskit problem without thermostat remove.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Dennis K
not full

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum nDennis, you'll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch 🙂

Sorry to hear of your situation and I hope it gets sorted soon. You may find the seller may deny all knowledge of the repair. Is there anything in the service history? 

[Dennis K]

No service history and i thought that is why this car have been under priced (Priced lower then a same cars on the market). As I aiming to buy this car for just 1 year and then to buy something newer... it was alright for me.
At this moment seller saying that he never knew about this problem and as I understood will pay for my car repairs, but I'm not sure..... In case if he will disappear I will report to Police and citizen advice. 
I will reply here when I will have any updates.

[Magnet]

Hello Dennis,

Congratulations on your english. Sorry to hear of your problem, but I wonder if you could let us have the wording of the advert for this car.

I think this would be helpful to be able to give you the best advice.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Dennis K]

I don't want to publish name and advert while seller still accept car repairs if he will disappear I will publish everything straight away.
At this moment I can say only I found this car on facebook and it has cat D,  but seller described in advert that a car is in full working condition. Also I have official conclusion from my local garage, that this part have been specially modified to hide engine damage.

[Magnet]

Hello Dennis,

Well, the plot unfortunately thickens, and you say you bought this cheap because it didn't have any service history , but it's also a beyond-economical - repair insurance total loss (write off) car. I guess the seller stated this in the advert and you therefore knew what you were buying into. 

If I'm reading it righIt, it seems as if you knew there was a heater problem yet you went ahead and bought it, so I wonder if you now have to accept whatever the cause of that issue is and the potential of that problem to influence other problems. 

How long had the seller owned this car? Not long? There are all sorts of issues here which may hamper any claim you think you may have against a private seller. If he is agreeing to settle a repair bill then personally I'm surprised, since he does not have any legal commitment to do so unless he grossly mis described this 12 year old car, and it would not surprise me that even then you might have to prove he knew of these faults - that's why I asked you if he had had it long enough to know of the faults.

Involving the Police? I could be wrong, but I doubt if they would be at all interested unless this was considered to be a deliberate fraud. Citizens Advice may be your only hope.

Let's  hope this gets settled, and if it were me, I would be a bit wary of getting this car repaired by your garage before you have the promised funds from the seller. If you don't, you might find your only route is via the Small Claims Court and the court may well declare that you went into this deal for a car which was an insurance total loss, didn't have any history of service, had a fault which you knew about and accepted and the car was bought cheaply. Don't know Dennis, but all I can do is to wish you good luck in the outcome of this.

Kind regards, 

Gareth. 

 

[Dennis K]

Seller stated in his advert - "Nice drive and everything working as it should be ". From my side I bought broken car from him and a head gasket problem have been SPECIALLY hidden. There was even hole in sensor, to give oxygen to go outside to prevent overheating. Everything have been spotted by garage and is visible in official conclusion and signed by head of this garage. I owning this car less than 14 days. My opinion that this is a fraud case, because this damage have been professionally hided to sell this car by professional who know A LOTS in audi systems. Court I think can't really help here. And also I came here not to discuss this problem or ask for advice. I just wanted to show to every Audi lover, that they must be aware from buying cars with broken heater, and I hope I will help someone who only thinking about such of purchase. I did knew about a broken heater, and with this problem is possible to spot ONLY thermostat problem and not gasket or head damage.

[Magnet]

Hello Dennis,

Having re-read your original post, I feel I did miss your point that you were indeed simply advising buyers not to buy a car with a heater problem, and as such the post did not require any further input from members on here, but just to follow your advice. 

Please accept my apologies for pointing out the surrounding detail of the deal with this purchase, but perhaps some of this detail as well, may avoid others falling into the trap that you did by buying a car cheaply. 

What I'm not sure about Dennis is if your garage has put a new quality thermostat in this car, bled the system, and road tested the car. 

I still repeat that I genuinely hope that things work out for you.

Perhaps you could let us know how you get on.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[GrahamS4]

As you say this post is only for advice but just so you're aware in order for the police to take action regarding an offence of fraud you would need proof that he has committed an offence under one of the first two sections of the fraud act, I very much doubt that the third heading applies - see here http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/notes.

Citizens advice bureau will undoubtedly direct you towards Trading Standards so I wouldn't bother to contact them as Trading Standards would be your best bet, it may be that if the seller is willing to pay for the repairs he doesn't want any attention, or he could just be a thoroughly nice bloke, so here's hoping that he's true to his word. I hope you get it sorted out quickly so you have your dream car up and running properly, spring is just around the corner.

[Magnet]

Hello Dennis,

Wondered how you were getting along with sorting out your problem.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Dennis K]

On 07.03.2018 at 9:03 AM, Magnet said:

Hello Dennis,

Wondered how you were getting along with sorting out your problem.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

Hi Gareth,

I decided to do all repairs by myself. Seller gave me only £200 cashback (Better than nothing).

At this moment I have done - Head skim, thermostat, water pump, cam belt, oil, oil filter change and also turbocharger have been changed by the way. 

Now I having a problem with oil pressure. Oil pressure light comes up on 90 deg and 1300-1600rpm. Made pressure test, it was 1.8bar on 2000rpm (Looks it is slightly under of minimum, i guess it should be 2.0 bar minimum...). Oil in my car is 5w-30 at this moment and I'm not sure about oil quality. I'd like to change it to Mobil1 5w-40 oil and check if oil pressure light will appear again. If this action will be unsuccessful, then I will do oil pump and oil intake pipe check.

So, this is how I sorting out my problem 

[Steve Q]

Wow that's alot of work Dennis! I do hope you get all the issues sorted soon :) 

Cheers

Steve