Help with cam belt please

Harvey64

Hello. I hope you may be able to help me. I bought a car last week from a dealer. Took it for a long test drive and it purred! On the drive home (motorway down to one lane and no hard shoulder), the oil light came on but I could not stop but pulled off at the first turning (which was for a garage). As I did so, terrible clanking from the engine.

I topped up the oil - which went straight through!! I called the AA. In the meantime, the mechanic from the garage said the cam belt had gone and split the engine. AA eventually came and towed the car home. He said it could be the cam belt or the oil.

I called the dealer as soon as I got home. He would not take my calls for a couple of days. When I did get through to him, he refused to do anything and said I had no hope of a claim against him.

It will cost me a couple of thousand pounds to have the engine changed. I think I should be able to claim this from the dealer as either the oil wasn't even at minimum, the oil valve was damage and/or the cam belt should have been changed. (The service history said the cam belt would be due to be changed at the next service which is next month.)

What do people think? I'd be grateful for advice. Thanks.

jonathon

if you could still drive then it wasnt the cam belt, did you have any sort of warrenty with the garage ?

jeannieblue

Dealer is an ar5ehole for not servicing it and doing cam belt before selling it to you - but not sure he should have done.. depends on what he offered you in terms of warranty.

Ok. Lets be practical.. What car, year, and as much info as poss re the car and we can try and work out for you a 'vague costing' and if it is viable. Oil if low, would not make the cam belt fail.

Meanwhile, did you get a warranty off of the seller/dealer? If it was sold as seen, then you could be, er, stuffed...

Give us the car details - not reg obviously.

jeannieblue

Roughly, no need to go into details, what is your location?

jeannieblue

jonathon wrote: »

if you could still drive then it wasnt the cam belt, did you have any sort of warrenty with the garage ?

The AA got them home, they didn't drive it..

Conor_3

Definitely got a case for a claim against them although I suspect you're probably going to have to start a claim in the small claims court to get things moving.

thescouselander

Harvey64 wrote: »

Hello. I hope you may be able to help me. I bought a car last week from a dealer. Took it for a long test drive and it purred! On the drive home (motorway down to one lane and no hard shoulder), the oil light came on but I could not stop but pulled off at the first turning (which was for a garage). As I did so, terrible clanking from the engine.

I topped up the oil - which went straight through!! I called the AA. In the meantime, the mechanic from the garage said the cam belt had gone and split the engine. AA eventually came and towed the car home. He said it could be the cam belt or the oil.

I called the dealer as soon as I got home. He would not take my calls for a couple of days. When I did get through to him, he refused to do anything and said I had no hope of a claim against him.

It will cost me a couple of thousand pounds to have the engine changed. I think I should be able to claim this from the dealer as either the oil wasn't even at minimum, the oil valve was damage and/or the cam belt should have been changed. (The service history said the cam belt would be due to be changed at the next service which is next month.)

What do people think? I'd be grateful for advice. Thanks.

If you bought it from a dealer they have to provide you with a warrantee (3 months I believe). This should be covered.

Motmac

I'd threaten them with trading standards wether you have a case or not,it sometimes works.i know i wouldnt want them at my garage but i think it all depends on how much money was involved and how it was advertised.
Trading standards are pretty good at what they do and will chase them to the bitter end.
With this limited information its hard to tell but it sounds like the engine wasnt in very good shape to start with to be honest.

Harvey64

Dear everyone,

Thanks for all your responses. Well, the seller is trying to be tricky. When the car was bought, he filled our the trade part of the V5 but when I called he denied he was a trader! I have the advert (Auto Trader), and he is. He offered no warranty. Do I get this as a matter of law? It is 2000 Corsa 1.4 automatic. It cost £2.5k. The new engine (with guarantee) will cost another £2k to supply and fit.

He is saying I shouldn't have driven with the oil light on and it's my fault. I really had no choice (and I've been told by a policeman friend of mine that I would have been charged had I stopped for an oil light and frozen the traffic!). If I could have stopped, I would have, and did as soon as I safely could (remember, no hard shoulder and one lane on the motorway). Now that the mechanic has looked at the car, he says there's a hole in the oil pipe but he doesn't know whether it's old or happened when the cam belt and engine went - kinda chicken or egg?!

Trading Standards sounds like a good idea as well. I think I will start a small claim too.

Any more useful advice really appreciated?

Harvey64

Oh - and not "sold as seen".

kaya

if the car was short of oil when you brought it then the oil light would have been on all the time and not just when things went wrong, it sounds as if the cambelt has gone and the engine has thrown a conrod through the side of the engine block/sump. Im not sure about the legality of it all but it doesnt sound like the dealers fault, cambelts go without any warning if they are not changed when they should be, and he has brought the car to sell it on in good faith, you have just been very unlucky indeed and he has behaved very inapropriatley, i cant comment on wheather you have a legal case for a warranty claim or not but maybe looking at some second hand engines from scrapyards would be a lot cheaper? or buying a written off corsa with a good engine and paying somebody to change it for you?