Can someone please help and advise?

[cadgaboo]

I have a 2006 ford focus c-max on motability and is my first car. I have a problem with a ford dealership garage, I think whatever they did to my car caused a steering problem to occur.
It went in for it’s service on 9th Dec, (this being the annual service under warranty at my local dealership in Cornwall) all was ok with the car before it went in apart from a sort of ping noise when changing between 1st and 2nd gear, I told the dealership doing the service about this ping noise several times but they reckon that it wasn’t possible for there to be a ping noise.
That aside on 19th Dec I drove up country and whilst driving on the motorway almost reaching 60mph I started to get rather violent steering wheel shuddering, this didn’t happen when I stayed at 50mph so continued at that speed until I got to my destination, Derby.
On 22nd Dec I took the car to the local Derby ford dealership, explained that it had had the service and what happened when I attempted to drive at 60mph, they took the car into their service area, took the front wheels off, hammered some areas on the car placed the wheels back on and said that they had sorted it and if I had any further problems to go back.
I didn’t use the car much over the next few days but whilst driving to Burton on boxing day and was in a queue, started to get this steering wheel shuddering whilst driving between 15 and 25mph but at higher speed it was ok.
I discovered that the garage was closed for several days, so when it was open I rang and booked the car back in to be looked at again, (same garage) they couldn’t fit it in until the Wednesday of the following week.
The Friday before it was due to go into the garage my son drove the car to work (I was passenger) whilst driving around a very sharp bend between 5 and 10mph he was steering the car to go right (had the steering wheel on full lock to go right) but the car just carried on going left, and hit a bedding kerb. This really shook us both up, and we don’t understand why the car veered to the left when it was steered to the right.
I called out the RAC (who are the recovery agent for motability vehicles)
The car was taken to the same ford dealership garage that had done whatever they did to it on 22nd Dec.
I went over to the garage and asked what they did to my car when we had taken it into them on 22nd Dec and that we were now getting the same problem but at low speed and what had occurred with the steering an hour earlier.
The garage said that they never did anything to my car they categorically denied it having been there on 22nd Dec, nothing was showing on their system.
I told them that it was there and what I saw them do to the car and that it took them 40 mins to do it whilst I waited in their viewing waiting room.
They still denied that the car had been taken there, and that I would now have to pay for the damaged wheel a new trim and tyre.
I got onto motability and explained the situation, they said that it sounded like a steering problem, and they contacted the garage, later that day I then got a call from motability telling me that the garage could find no fault with the steering and that I would have to pay for a new wheel and trim, but motability would pay for the new tyre. I voiced my concerns about the garage doing whatever they did to the car on 22nd Ded and then denying the car had been taken to them, motability said that they had requested that the steering be looked at and were satisfied with what the garage had told them.
As you can imagine I was really rather perturbed so went to the garage and demanded to know what on earth was going on.
One of the desk operatives said that he would look into as to why the car was not showing on the system, (I pointed out the young man who had dealt with me on the 22nd Dec) A few days later I went into the garage again, Spoke with the desk operative and was told that he had made extensive enquiries and that he had spoken with the engineers and they said that yes they did remember the car being there and had had a look at it but had only checked the tyre pressures and did nothing else. Well I went ballistic! And have now put in a formal complaint.
Can whatever they did to my car on 22nd Dec have any bearing on the steering ability of the car?

[maxwedge]

Due respect here we don't even know what is wrong with the steering to comment on what they could have done, someone has to investigate your claim of loss of control and determine what if anything is wrong, based on those findings we may be able to express some thoughts on what they could have done. Meanwhile I would insist someone in the facilty drive with you to see if the car is safe.

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by cadgaboo

.
Can whatever they did to my car on 22nd Dec have any bearing on the steering ability of the car?

Welcome to AF.
I am sorry to read about the trouble you are having.

I think you are doing the right thing by pursuing this to try and get the dealership to cover some of the repair.

Back in my mechanic days, we always provided work orders or receipts, for warranty work for any work or inspection that was done, regardless of whether the customer was charged or not.
I recommend that anyone collect such records so you and they have a written record for what was done to your car. It protects the customer in circumstances like yours.

In this case, it's obvious that you had a loose/worn part (ie: tie rod end) that produced a 'shimmy' (sympathetic vibration) of a wheel at certain speeds.

(BTW You had a 'warning' that something was wrong. Often, steering and suspension parts give ample warning of wear etc with looseness/vibration/noise. If such warnings are repeatedly ignored, the parts can let go with catastrophic results. )

It is also obvious that, for whatever reason the shop did not fix it the first time around, so they are partly responsible for the accident you had.

However, imho you are also partly responsible because you continued to drive the car after you knew the problem was still there. For this reason, I do not think the garage should be held completely responsible for the repair cost.

As for the dealer's 'hammering' making the situation worse....... it's possible but unlikely. Any inspection of steering and suspension components involves some prying/wiggling/tapping to find looseness. However, such efforts typically produce less stress and strain than occurs during ordinary driving. Unless you saw them take a massive sledgehammer to your car, you realistically cannot hold them responsible for the failure of an already worn part.

[cadgaboo]

Sorry I thought I had made the problem clear enough, My son was driving the car, I was a passenger. Whilst going around a sharp bend in a car park between 5 and 10 mpr (right hand bend) my son had steered to go right on negotiating the bend but the car veered to the left instead of right and the front passenger wheel hit a garden bedding kerb. My son said he had the steering wheel on full lock to go right. what I'm trying to find out is whether whatever the garage could possibly have done to my car on 22nd Dec have any bearing on this steering problem?

[cadgaboo]

Thank you for your input MagicRat
May I just say that never having had a car before and not knowing anything about cars how was I to know if it was a warning or not (I presume you mean the steering wheel shuddering was a warning) When I was learning to drive my driving instructor told me that if the car veers to one side to get the car looked at pronto, he never said about any other warnings.