Am I liable if a mechanic breaks something during repair?
Garages sometimes try to shift the blame to the customer when a part breaks during routine removal, implying the driver caused the issue on the road. They then present a massive quote for the resulting engine tear-down, claiming it is too risky to proceed otherwise. This leaves customers unsure if the mechanic lacked due care and whether they are actually on the hook for the expensive fix.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Asking the garage for a detailed written report on what actually happened with photos if available.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“They called me saying that they'd replaced 3 out of 4 of the spark plugs but the fourth one was spinning and they didn't want to remove it in case anything fell into the engine.”source ↗
“for the fourth one they think they'd need to remove the cylinder head and would get a quote on Monday and asked me how I wanted to proceed, sasying that they'd expect it to cost over £2k.”source ↗
“is it now spinning because they tried to remove it without due care?”source ↗
“I can afford the repair costs but I just want to make sure I'm not being taken advantage of - am I fully liable or did the garage make the mistake?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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