shoddy chevvy garage. help!

RandyRos

rev_henry wrote: »

Maybe get him to have a look at the car for you as well, if TN try to bs you...

yes, the C.A. woman suggested that.

i phoned the garage today. they want to see us in person to talk about the car. they wont tell me anything over the phone. hubbys at work and the little works van (which only he can drive) is a 2 seater, so theres no chance of getting the boyfriend up there with us

ive written everything down, ive printed off the motor industrys codes of conduct & i'll go up there with a folder full of papers. hopefully that'll give them a kick up the bum

RandyRos

LandyAndy wrote: »

I don't understand why main dealers, particularly, baulk at sorting out things like this. Even if they have to rebuild the cylinder head the cost to them is tiny compared to their overall income and the adverse publicity that can come about through internet publicity like this thread must be more damaging.

thats exactly what the bloke at Smiths garage said. once i go up there and make it clear im not going to "roll over", hopefully they will do the right thing

mikey72

RandyRos wrote: »

TN have it and as started work quickly on it yday. 2 hrs after it left Smiths, TN phoned to ask my permission to take the cylinder head off, so they cud "see the extent of the damage". not heard from them since, but i'll be ringing them this avo.

my daughters boyfriend who is an apprentice mechanic also got me the phone number of the OWNER of all the TN garages in the area lol seems his boss has a pal who knows him. so i can threaten them with that mwahaha

That sounds like they may try to charge you.
The answer should have been you expect them to do what they need to to repair the damage they caused, as you won't be paying anything towards it.

RandyRos

unfortunately I'm not usually a quick thinker, mikey. i will try and make this as concise as poss.

we went up there and saw the manager. he got B (the bloke i deal with on the phone) to sit in with us.

firstly manager said about the tensioner/pully. he said when it was checked it was spinning freely and the outer casing had no cracks in it, so it was considered to be ok, so not replaced. he showed us our broken pully and a normal one for comparison. he said the car overheated, which caused the pully plastic to overheat, which made it break off and fall into the back cam cover and get stuck there, causing the cambelt to slip. He also said there were traces of coolant on the engine block, on the middle and below.

we told him that at no time did our car overheat. there were no warning lights, no abnormal readings on the heating guage etc. i told him that any time a light comes on, i book it in for work, and B agreed that I do.

hubby went and had a look at the engine, which has extensive damage and will need all new valves and maybe the valve seats etc, and the head might be a bit warped too.

manager insisted that all chevvy garages just replace the cambelt, but i told him that 2 i spoke to in Ipswich & Corby advised me that they replace the whole kit as standard. He said he will phone Head office on monday and ask them if it IS policy to replace the whole kit, or just the cambelt, as they do.

In the meantime, my daughters bf says that of course there would be traces of coolant on the engine block, that would have happened when the head gasket went (or someonething, dont quote me lol). He also said that when he's at work on monday, he will go to a site called auto-somthing, which he thinks is only for people in the trade, not public, and he will check out the manufacturers policy for servicing a Tacuma. apparently they have all types of cars on there. he will print that off and if the pullys should have been replaced, i will have ammunition if the manager says head office says no.

mikey72

He's not exactly making sense here.
It must have got hot to melt the tensioner pulley off!
Ask him to point out all the other melted plastic parts, including the new belt that must have got equally as hot!
(Auto-data probably)

Homersimpson

An engine would have to get very hot to melt a tensioner pully, sounds like they are trying to blagg their way out of it to me.

If you can find out the manufacturers recommendations for changing the tensioner (can you ring chevrolet direct?) then that will help.

Depends on how you feel but if it were me and I could prove that they should have changed the tensioner then I would want one of the following:-

1 A new engine
2 The garage to confirm in writing that any major failure of the engine in future linked to this incident would be paid for by them for a period of what ever.

They are unlikey to want to do either of the above but look at it like this, bits of the engine have come into contact with other bits of the engine at speed causing who knows what damage. It can be rebuilt and it should be ok (i've rebuilt loads of different engines due to snapped cam belts and other such problems) but if in 6 months time a serious problem occurs such as a broken piston, conrod etc. why should you bear the cost? (I know that its unlikely but you never know)

It would also be worth involving the manufacturer if the dealer won't play ball as its not good for the brands reputation.

Best of luck!

RandyRos

mikey72 wrote: »

He's not exactly making sense here.
It must have got hot to melt the tensioner pulley off!
Ask him to point out all the other melted plastic parts, including the new belt that must have got equally as hot!
(Auto-data probably)

he showed us the back cam cover where the hot plastic from the pulley had fallen and melted it. he said the tensioner pulley plastic cracked and fell off.

just phoned head office who put me thru to customer aftercare. they said the pulleys etc are normally only inspected, but most chev garages will replace the whole lot as "good practice"

RandyRos

Homersimpson wrote: »

An engine would have to get very hot to melt a tensioner pully, sounds like they are trying to blagg their way out of it to me.

If you can find out the manufacturers recommendations for changing the tensioner (can you ring chevrolet direct?) then that will help.

Depends on how you feel but if it were me and I could prove that they should have changed the tensioner then I would want one of the following:-

1 A new engine
2 The garage to confirm in writing that any major failure of the engine in future linked to this incident would be paid for by them for a period of what ever.

They are unlikey to want to do either of the above but look at it like this, bits of the engine have come into contact with other bits of the engine at speed causing who knows what damage. It can be rebuilt and it should be ok (i've rebuilt loads of different engines due to snapped cam belts and other such problems) but if in 6 months time a serious problem occurs such as a broken piston, conrod etc. why should you bear the cost? (I know that its unlikely but you never know)

It would also be worth involving the manufacturer if the dealer won't play ball as its not good for the brands reputation.

Best of luck!

i have thought about it and i think you're right. the damage to our engine is extensive, so i wouldnt be happy with it being fixed (they admitted its only a possibility of fixing it, theyve done it to one car before and it smoked) so a new engine is in order.

i phoned chev customer care (see previous post). i cannot phone CAB until tomorrow (only open tues & thurs) so i cannot do anything till then, though i think i will check out trading standards, see what they say.

RandyRos

manager just phoned and read me the email their mechanic sent to head office & the reply.
basically, this customer had a 45000 service and cambelt change. idler was inspected. subsequently it failed and caused engine damage, were we supposed to replace the idler/pulleys
head office said no, just the cambelt.

but im not liking the way they asked. of course head office was gonna say no, they know theres a big bill in it for them if they say yes, cos the question was loaded. anyway, manager asked for my persmission to evaluate the damage to the engine and prepare a quote. i agreed to the evaluation.

bigjl

The only dealer that doesn't replace the tensioner and water pump when they do a cambelt is mad, the extra tension caused by a new belt is normally enough to cause problems.

Though if the car is a 2008 then surely it is still under warranty, let the dealer pay for everything then.


NB I haven't read the entire thread so I retain the right to be repeating what somebody else said.