I wish I could get one for that much!

Ah there's the rub.

Go to an independent garage for a second opinion.

Hi,

Long story short.....my mum's W reg 306 developed a fault with the rear
wind screeen wiper (kept blowing fuses in the main fuse box). She took
the the car a local Peugeot garage, who carried out a "dignostic check"
and said the motor in the wiper had gone and needed replacing. Nearly 5
weeks later, they are now saying the wiring loom is fried and that they
are suprised that there has not been an electrical fire before today.
The repair estimate has gone from £80, to £200 for a replacement
wiper unit, up to £400 for part of the wiring loom to be replaced to
an estimate of £1300 to fix all the problems they've now found.
They've estimated that the car, W reg perfect nick 46,000 miles, is
worh £1500 and that the repair is not worth doing. They have said that
they "won't see my mum without a car" and if she goes in they'll sort
out a deal with a new car.

The car has not had any probs, electrical or otherwise, indeed the only
fault that has developed since she had it is the blown fuse for the
rear wiper. 5 weeks seems to be an inordinate amount of time to find
the fault and since they've had it, they have dragged their heels
diagnosing/fixing it. I'm starting to wonder if these more serious
problems actually existed prior to them starting the repairs. Any
advice on how to proceed? Anyone else had a similar problem?

If their valuation is as good as there work then you should certainly get a
second opinion.  Parkers value the lowest spec 306 (LX, 1.4, 5 door) at
£2,270 part exchange value and over £3,000 if bought from a dealer.   You
definitely want to get another opinion (ideally an autoelectrics
specialist).   If your mother trades it in on their valuation they stand to
make a killing.

"mdw@liv.ac.uk" <mdw@liv.ac.uk> wrote in news:1138010315.353114.44600
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I had the same fault, and it cost me about £15 to fix myself.

The rear-wiper usually blows fuses because there's water-ingress to the
rear wiper-motor relay through the wiper aperture: it shorts it, and
blows a fuse.  For a Phase III, this is also on the same circuit as the
alternator and electric windows.  I think it's fuse 26 or 28.

You do not need a new car (or a new wiper, I suspect).

Keep your 306 as long as possible because the 307 is a massive
disappointment.

My advice is to get the car back, fit another relay and fuse, step away
from the main dealer (your car is no longer under its original 3-year
warranty, so why bother?) and take it to an good independent, if the
relay and fuse fails to fix the fault.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

--
sA