mechanics broke fuel gauge pointer

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rustychevy

New member
The crew working on my car broke the fuel gauge pointer. Can the pointer itself be replaced or does the entire gauge need to be replaced, and am I expected to pay for the parts or labor? Thank you.
 
Rustychevy- Depend on the gauge/cluster...some can be fixed but others can`t. IMO it shouldn`t be your problem.

Cant you just tell him "you broke it, you fix it...for free, and without messing up anything else this time"? I`d be all about holding him responsible, kinda surprised there`s any thought of *you* footing the bill, none of the shops I patronize would ever expect me to pay for their "oops!"
 
As a tech that’s worked at both a dealership and now an independent shop, any time anything has been damaged during a repair the shop has taken care of the costs for fixing it.

Generally the only time it would be on the customer to pay for it would be circumstances where you’re dealing with older cars and certain parts may not be as serviceable as they were before (read: brittle old stuff). But: in those situations, a conversation would be had with the customer before proceeding. Example: An older 3 series has a window regulator fail. To access the regulator, the inner door panel has to come off, but they’re known to separate at their glue points. So, before starting the repair, we’d inform the client of this and let them know we’ll take all steps possible to avoid it, but there could be an additional charge to repair the door panel.

What’s your car / what repair was being done?
 
The car is an 84 Chevy Caprice Classic. The red indicator that moves with the gearstick was broken (the little plastic strip that lets you know what gear you`re in). No price was discussed yet, or who is to pay. I assumed it would be the owner of the garage, but just checking here to make sure.
 
rustychevy- Ah, I always like those! Nice, clean three-box lines. I never had the column apart on one of those, not sure whether it`s all that reparable or not...sorry. I`d *tend* to think that it is, even if a new indicator has to be fabbed out of some other gauge needle or somesuch.

Noting that I`d be *VERY* polite about it, I`d approach this whole thing confidently from the perspective of "hey, it`s too bad, but yeah [stuff] happens on older cars...of course, I always knew you`d fix it free-of-charge, all I care about is that the repair looks oe and doesn`t take too long." IME if you have that viewpoint firmly in mind it`ll come across the right way as long as you don`t call `em stupid or anything like that (and it sure doesn`t sound like you would).

Just don`t go into it with any uncertainty about who`s responsible....they are. Period. Even if you signed off on some fine print that says they get a pass on any damage they do (sure hope they`re not that kind of shop), remember that *somebody*...the owner at least...can do what we`re discussing *if* he wants to. There`s no "hey, we CAN`T fix every little thing.." Sure they can, they can give the store away if they want to, and responsible people would want to make this right.
 
On a newer car I would say the shop that broke it pays for it, but on an older car where the parts are brittle it’s a toss up on who should pay for the replacement. Unless it was broken through negligence, then it’s the shop 100%.
 
The work being done was replacing the red indicator strip that moves with the gearstick. I will be calling next Monday to see when he will fix the fuel gauge. I took a look at Advance Auto, the pointer is not sold separately. I though it would be as simple as replacing the pointer, but it seems as if the entire gauge has to be replaced.
 
The owner of the garage is going to the junkyards looking for the part, so it might be next week or even later. No problem, the pointer is one quarter the length it is supposed to be, but it still works. I just have to take a good look at it to determine when I need gas. He priced the replacement part at $10 dollars.
 
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