Garage ruined engine when car took in for MOT

Wait and see what the manager says, but as I understand it, the testing station has to rev the engine to relatively high speeds for the emissions test. When submitting the car for the test, you implicitly agree to the test being carried out. A car with an old engine, an engine that hasn't been maintained correctly, a worn part or just bad luck, can mean damage as a result but there's nothing the garage can do, it has to carry out the test properly.

Unless your friend can prove the garage was negligent or carried out the test incorrectly, she's relying upon the garage offering to help as much as it wants to.

As above, it's better for something to fail at the MOT than fail while you're driving. I know that's not very comforting. See what they say though.

Whilst "asking nicely" doesn't seem a good option, you need to consider the alternative. If you want the garage to accept responsibility (assuming it doesn't confess that the trainee was drag racing it down the nearest dual carriage way!) you will need to prove (not suggest) that they've done something wrong in the process. That will most likely involve you paying for an expert independent motor engineer to examine the car and report that the likely cause of failure was what happened in the MOT testing not a pre-existing weakness in a component etc. I suspect proving that will be very hard - looking at say a snapped cam belt isn't easily going to say whether that snap was due to a one off testing procedure or a manufacturing flaw that has gone un-noticed up to now but cause premature failure or just wear and tear due to the driving methods used. You could easily end up spending more than the cost of a repair on that report only to find it doesn't help you.


I'd start with a charm/sob story approach - the fact that the garage is wanting to discuss things hints that they might just be willing to be helpful and sympathetic rather than just pushing the smoking wreck outside and saying "tough". See where that gets you before starting being too assertive about rights etc. A decent person running a garage will not want an unhappy customer even if the problem wasn't really their fault - and I suspect they don't like seeing cars "blow up" on their watch either.

Few scenarios I could see happening.

Scenario 1.
Your friend hasn't been checking their levels regularly and the oil level has dropped. Friend then presents car for Service and MOT, garage decide to do MOT first and engine blows during the test /driving into the garage = not the garages fault.

Scenario 2.
Engine was on it's way out anyway and it just happened to have blown when the garage have had it = not the garages fault

Scenario 3.
Garage carry our service first and forget to put in oil/put to little oil in/don't recheck oil level after service. Garage then carry out MOT/road test and engine blows = garages fault.

How you figure out/prove which it is I don't know.

sartois wrote: »

Thanks for your response. Just a few more details although from the sounds of things its not going to make a lot of difference.

So her car is a Fiat 500, 8 years old and has done 55,000 miles, full service history, no warning lights or anything.

She basically took a working car in excellent condition (as far as I can tell) to the garage for a service and MOT and now the engine has (from the sounds of it) blown, and there is nothing she can do apart from ask nicely? Ouch.

Timing belt may have snapped.

Was the timing belt changed in accordance with manufacturers schedule?