CEL on pickup for an oil change, not sure what to think
2019 VW petrol Golf R w/39K miles
CEL = Check Engine Light
tl;dr Started with a car with no CEL. After oil change, CEL. Another shop discovers it is due to an electrical connection to a part of my turbo assembly not being securely plugged in. Do I tell the garage owners?
Prior to drop off no CEL, ~3 hours later, after they have closed, I turn on the car and immediately get a CEL.
Verified I didn't have a lake of expensive oil under my car and the oil was in fact in the engine. My road side emergency bargain basement odb2 reader wasn't showing any codes and trying to clear/reset did nothing.
Garage responded the next morning and explains they forgot to clear something in the VW computer and its just a 2 second fix. Unfortunately I am gone for the next month. The car is parked the entire time and no one drives it.
Month and change later, I finally get home, get the car to the garage, and they say "Oh actually it's P033, your waste gate actuator." As someone who has owned more than one VW, I am unfortunately familiar with that code. Except this car only has 39K miles and those are NOT redlining on the track miles.
So I take my car to another garage and repeat verbatim the above. I told them to treat this like a crime scene and take their time. Five minutes into the diagnostics check they discovered the electrical connector to the DV (diverter valve, basically the uncool ninja alternative to a blow off valve) wasn't properly/completely plugged in. After reseating that connector the CEL didn't come back. I never felt any turbo lag nor heard or felt anything to suggest the DV wasn't working, I am guessing the connector was just loose enough to freak out the ECM.
This is the problem. I have used that first garage for over 10 years and got on well with the owners. Unfortunately a new guy to the company is the only person who touched the car from oil change onward. I've gone over my maintenance records and I just don't see why anyone was messing with the DV or anything over there on my engine bay in over two years. Also I have a hard time imagining the connector magically jiggling loose in the hour or so after the new guy parked it outside for pickup.
I don't have the energy to scooby doo this shit and piss the ECM off so it throws the same code and then take it to them to see what they would do. So I will never know.
Do I tell the garage owners? I don't see how there is anyway to make this right that I am comfortable trusting them with my car.
What would you do?
