Cam failed after 10 months 4200 miles

Bedsdriver

Yesterday my cam belt failed and i need some advice please.

The car is a Renault Scenic 7 years old this month, the belt was replaced by a local garage end July 2009, just 4198 miles ago.

Obviously i would have expected the belt to have lasted longer than that and now it has broken there will be possibly about £1500 damage to the engine.

I really would like some advice on how to proceed. I am tempted to put a letter to the garage asking them for their views but I am worried that if they start to poke around the engine, it may weaken my position in some way.

What do you think? How would you proceed?

Alias_Omega

Was both belts, and tensioners replaced.

As the Aux belt can be known to bring the cambelt off.

somech

the garage would need to investigate the cause of failure
if its the garages fault the will repair the engine under warranty if its a dodgy belt the garage will claim from their suppliers.

as already asked did they fit a cam belt kit as opposed to just a belt?

Bedsdriver

I remember them telling me that the kit had to be ordered rather than the cheaper option because otherwise it could still be damaged by the auxilary belt and the kit came to around £49.

Will get the car recovered to the garage to see what happened, wasn't sure whether it would be better to have had an independent mechanic to check it over or whether the convention was that the first garage should be the one to go in and investigate.

I will post and let you know what transpires.

TiTheRev

£49 is still cheap for a kit. Sound like the two belts, or cambelt and tensioner at best.

Either way, it's entirely the fitting garages issue. Let them haggle with their supplier to get warranty claims etc. You may even get a new engine out of it

vaio

Problem you are going to have is that unless they replaced everything the belt touches (tensioner, idlers & water pump on mine) if it fails then what caused the failure is going to determine the outcome.

If something they did fit has failed then you have no problem, but if say the original water pump has failed almost a year later and taken the belt (& engine) with it then you are going to struggle as the water pump could well have been perfectly serviceable way back when they changed the belt.

Would I get an independent to look before I took it back to the garage? Yep, unless I really really trusted the garage as if they are at fault then they are in for quite a financial hit which they may (or may not) get back from the parts manufacturer so the temptation to try and shift the cost on to the customer would be high

I think your guess of £1500 could well be on the light side, when the 2.2l Vauxhall engine was breaking/slipping cam chains the general consensus was that repair/risk was more expensive than replacement and bills were in the £3k+ range.

spaceman5

TiTheRev wrote: »

£49 is still cheap for a kit. Sound like the two belts, or cambelt and tensioner at best.

Either way, it's entirely the fitting garages issue. Let them haggle with their supplier to get warranty claims etc. You may even get a new engine out of it

you have probably hit the nail on the head, as i have just had the timing belt and water pump changed on my renault scenic, the cost for just the parts were as follows:-

Timing Belt Kit £81.66 + 17.5% vat, so total of £95.95
Water Pump £55.62 + 17.5% vat, so total of £65.35

i realise when op had it done vat was 15%, but 2.5% would not have made that much difference, and mine was done by the garage i always use, and my brother in laws best mate is top man there and always does me at a good price, so i know they not ripped me off on parts prices, so i paid more than £100 more for my parts than op did, so something dont add up

vaio

Yep, euro carparts quote £160 for the kit inc water pump or £30 for the belt alone

mikey72

£52 for the kit on BuyPartsBy

Deepmistrust

Bedsdriver wrote: »

Yesterday my cam belt failed and i need some advice please.

The car is a Renault Scenic 7 years old this month, the belt was replaced by a local garage end July 2009, just 4198 miles ago.

Obviously i would have expected the belt to have lasted longer than that and now it has broken there will be possibly about £1500 damage to the engine.

I really would like some advice on how to proceed. I am tempted to put a letter to the garage asking them for their views but I am worried that if they start to poke around the engine, it may weaken my position in some way.

What do you think? How would you proceed?

You expected the cambelt to last a reasonable time, it didn't.
There is a case to take to trading standards, if the garage can't shed any light as to an alternative cause.

vaio

mikey72 wrote: »

£52 for the kit on BuyPartsBy

Wouldn't have thought that would include the water pump