Car still not starting after alternator and pulley replacement plus extra work, any advice?

[marshallzumarubble]

Looking for some mechanic advice if anyone can help.

Six weeks ago, my car went in for a routine service and MOT, they discovered it needed a new turbocharger at a cost of just over £3k, frustrating but it is 7 years old so we got it sorted and the garage reassured me that, otherwise, it was in good shape.

Fast forward to last week and I broke down on the motorway. The AA mechanic said it was the alternator, that they sometimes just go and towed me to my garage. The garage checked it over, said it was actually the belt and alternator pulley, quoted £400 to replace and said it would ready the next day. Then they called and said that the actual alternator had seized to the pulley and would in fact need to replace the alternator after all, and it would be £1200 total.

Reluctantly I agreed as I need a car.

Today they rang and said they had replaced the alternator, belt and pulley but now the car wasn't starting, there was a warning light on the dash and they thought it could be related the key and could I bring in the spare to see if it was that. I have had to get someone else to drop it in as I am working and I am now waiting to hear back from them.

I am so frustrated and exhausted by it all. I have already paid £3k, I am about to pay another £1200 and it still isn't working.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Or any insight into what could be going on?

Sounds to me like the garage is taking the bloody piss.

ExH had a similar issue once many years ago with a non-starter, the garage replaced this that and the other, and still didn't cure the problem. They finally sorted it after having charged ££££ and exH went back to the garage, demanded that they rummage through their skip for the perfectly good parts they'd taken out and replaced in error and insisted that they take the new ones off and put the old ones back on the car again. He also got a massive refund.

Thanks, reading my post back it does sound like they are. But we have used this garage for years, they've always been great - I once popped there because I was selling my car and a light had appeared on the dash two days before the exchange, they checked it out, found it was the bulb above the reg plate that had gone, replaced it and didn't charge me anything. So I am not sure why they would suddenly turn into scam artists.

Still waiting for them to call back telling me what is going on. I might ask for the error codes and copies of all the diagnostics, see how they react.

It’s a tough one. Some cases are complicated, hard to diagnose and a “fix what you find” approach is necessary. Communication with the customer is key though, I find a thorough explanation helps, explaining what we’ve found that’s faulty and that it’s A problem but might not be THE problem.

That’s possibly what’s happening here, they’ve found parts which definitely need replacing but there may be consequential failures or even coincidental ones.

Petrol or diesel ? If diesel gets it to a specialised diesel garage, I went through similar a few years ago and my usual garage didn't help much also AA said alternator when I broke down and it wasn't. Ended up being the EGR and a blocked pipe which cost about £200 to sort and ran fine ever since.