valves impacted pistons? cause?

simonwalker

Hi,

1st time poster on here

I have a problem for which i hope someone can help.
My mother is being pursued by a hire company regarding damage to a courtesy car given to her. The car wouldnt start one morning and they took it away. Months later they sent a bill of £4k!

The valves had impacted the pistons and the ECU codes apparently showed the car being driven over the limited speed. We find this very hard to believe, she is 50 years old and has been driving over 30 years.

My questions is:

[1] what other things could cause the valves to impact the pistons? [2] Also, does i've been told by a family friend (not a mechanic though) that the ECU does not record when a car has been driven over a limited speed? Does anyone know how true this is?

The car was a vauxhall astra, 1.4 petrol, just over a year old with around 14000 on the clock when we had picked it up.

Thanks in advance and any help will be appreciated.

Simon

Strider590

There's no faster car than a hire car

Probably been hammered to within an inch of it's life ever since it left the factory.

Impacted pistons....
Labouring the engine (for several thousand miles)
Poor quality fuel, like for example using 95ron instead of super in a car that needs super unleaded.
Or more likely, over heating caused by lack of coolant and/or engine oil.... = Not being maintained properly.

Besides to which, the car should still be under manufacturer warranty.

Tell them to go f*ck themselves, there's just no way they can prove who did it! Just some stupid admin type person with no common sense or technical knowledge, just blaming the previous "customer".

anotherbaldrick

simonwalker wrote: »

Hi,

1st time poster on here



My questions is:

[1] what other things could cause the valves to impact the pistons?

Simon

Broken cam belt, or more likely a belt where the tensioner has slipped and the belt has jumped a few pulley teeth. This is the scenario where the valves are still open and the piston comes up to belt them . If it happens at speed it usually wrecks the engine.

thescouselander

Sounds dodgy to me. The valves can only impact on the pistons if the timing belt/chain snaps or slips in some way so the timing of the valves is out. I'm not sure what your mother could have done to cause this but if the engine has been over reved who's to say it was her?


I agree with Strider - go and tell them to f*** themselves.

birkee

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

Broken cam belt, or more likely a belt where the tensioner has slipped and the belt has jumped a few pulley teeth. This is the scenario where the valves are still open and the piston comes up to belt them . If it happens at speed it usually wrecks the engine.

That's my opinion too.

The hire company is trying it on!

marksandsparx

Just to let you know.. vauxhall diagnostic software time stamps trouble codes and snap shoots the current engine data... so if it is showing an overspeed of the engine then they will contest. it even shows vehicle speed, etc.. so they can know pretty much exactly whats going on.

skiddlydiddly

Can she remember say going from 5th to 2nd instead of 4th when going fastish(60/70mph)?If she had done this she would remember it as it would make a right racket.Other than that I don't see how it can be anything other than the cam belt going which would be unlikely to be her fault

Gloomendoom

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

Can she remember say going from 5th to 2nd instead of 4th when going fastish(60/70mph)?

^^^^^^ This.

A friend of mine trashed a Lotus Elise engine in the same way doing just that.

hartcjhart

hire car tell the co to jog on

colino

That age and mileage, it's not one of the big hire co's as they would long ago have disposed of it. Probably has never been maintained in its life and their just trying it on. Why not claim off of them the costs of taxis etc. when their provided "courtesy" car had a hidden mechanical fault and you couldn't make use of it!

Wig

Was the reason she had the courtesy car related to an insurance claim repair?

This should act as a warning to everyone about courtesy cars - not all insurers will cover the excess on courtesy cars which can be £10000. So never take a cortesy car until you have spoken to your insurer about the excess.

If this was insurance related, then have tried passing it on to your insurers?