The shops business is to fix vehicles. With that there comes the resposibility to have do the repair correclty.

Mistakes will be made over time, its just how it goes. Do something enough times you may get it wrong now and again. The better a tech you are, the fewer mistakes you make.

Now here is the big question who pays for the mistake? I really dont think that it should be the customer, but many shops depend on being able to BS people so they dont have to eat an expensive repair that was not needed.

If you were told up front, its a crap shoot , may be this, may be that: would you put $500 on a 50 -50 shot with no pay back if your right? I think you would go for another shop that could tell you for sure what the problem was , even if it cost a bit more.

That said there are a few scenerios that are possible:

1: You had a bad dist and the replacment is bad as well( intermitant).

2: You had a bad dist and a bad ECU ( shops claim). Not the most likely scenerio, but possible.

3: Your dist was fine and you have some other component that is intermitant.

Option 1, they should make good on their repair

Option 2, they need to finish the job and you are responsible of the ECU repair.

Option 3 say the shop messed up its diagnonis and should credit you for the dist repair.

Thats how it should work at least. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />

My question is how can they tell what the problem is? They really need to be able to check the signals on a scope. If they dont have a scope or know how to use one then they are just guessing.

I would make sure that the old part is availible for a retest to make sure its really bad.

A reasonalbe question is how did they test the system to find the bad component? If (according to them) the ECU is bad and killing the distributor does that mean your new dist is now bad or damaged?


IMHO they are feeding you FUD... For fun you can fight FUD with more FUD:

How about they put in a defective dist in that blew up your good ECU?

Serioulsy, this type of negotiation can be tricky and depends on the integrity of the person you are dealing with. A second opinion of what is wrong from a shop that is good at electrical may be needed.

Kevin