Rant alert!

Jo took her car in today for the oxygen sensor to be replaced. This is the follow up to the last visit, a couple of weeks ago. OK, so Steven Eagell Toyota didn’t manage to resolve it before the end of the summer holidays, but they did provide a courtesy car.

On the way home this evening, the engine management light came back on. Wow, that £300 resolution lasted a long time.

I rang the dealer to let them know that the light had come back on. Jo can take it back in tomorrow for them to reset the sensor and check that one of the other sensors hasn’t failed. Evidently once a sensor has failed, it puts additional strain on the remaining sensors which could cause them to fail.

Now, I know I’m not a car mechanic, but a sensor is just a measuring device and it either returns a signal or it doesn’t. If it were some kind of filter that had failed, I could understand the sensors behind it becoming overloaded, but with a sensor, the others will measure what is there regardless of if the first is working or not. If however, contrary to what Jo was told, there is a detrimental effect from driving the car while the sensor has failed, then its a whole different matter.

Jo is fuming. It’s not just the cost, but the inconvenience of having to take it back and wondering what will have ‘failed’ this time.