curtley

Hi

I'm hoping you can advise me here...

I live next door to a garage that specialises in tyres, brakes etc and have used them occassionally in the past... I have a 99 S and a T reg Merc for work... the last 2 times I have used them, the car has come back requiring additional work...

stupidly when I got a strange scraping noise on my brakes I put it in to them.

Initially they diagnosed the problem as needing new brakes and pads and this didn't concern me too much as in the 3 years and 40k miles I have not renewed tham and at the very first Honda service, they recommended I get them replaced.
However after fitting these, it turns out the caliper was jamming and they needed to replace this. This annoyed me and I told them so.

When I first took the car out 2 days later, there was a very bad rattling noise... which set my tempers rising adn I immediately took the car back...

I'm not even certain they have looked the car as it seems to be parked in exactly the same place I left it (can't be certain!!) but they have now informed me that the rear drop link (whatever that maybe?) need replacing and these are no where near the brake work they did, so it cannot be their responsibility. I had a drop link replaced 3 years & 40k miles ago by Honda when I first got the car serviced. I told them I was not willing to pay for this and they disputed this, giving wear & tear as the reason.

Firstly, do you think that it is reasonable for this to be just another coincidence?
What is my legal position, in so far as the fact that this rattling definitely did not exist before i dropped the car in. They are saying this is wear and tear.
If this is not neurosis, can it be proved that the drop link has been messed with? or damaged?

Any other useful advice you can provide..

I am fuming!!

PS Adrian Flux sold my email address and I get no shortage of Spam, after I requested a quote years ago... I cannot guarantee I didn't click the box to deny this.. but I do know it is the email used with them as I have my own domain and use unique email addresses for each compa ny I deal with!