Advice needed on making a Small Claim

Tony_H_3

Hi Folks,

I seem to be getting dazed & confussed by the process of making a small claim against someone for an item purchased that was not fit for purpose:

The turbo on my car failed, the reason for the failure was breakdown of my oil viscosity "Lack of proper lubrication". At the time this happened I was on my way to the Lake District on a week's holiday.

I spoke with the garage that I wanted to carry out the work for me explaining that I just wanted the turbo changed and related work carried out and nothing else. The garage carried out the work, but then spent time investigating "Other issues" as the newly fitted recon turbo didn't work correctly. "It transpires that the waste gate valve was non functioning and the supplier of the turbo provided a brand new recon turbo.

The problem is that the original garage REFUSED to carry out the warranty work & I was left to take the car elsewhere to get the work put right. I now want to claim this money back from the first garage. They had my car for 8 week's whilst I tried to negotiate with them to get the sustandard work fixed, but the whole time they didn't answer calls or reply to recorded delivery letters. They have received a final letter before claim from me, which they have not replied to.

My questions are:

STATEMENT - Does it have to be matter of fact, eg the entirity of what's happened; or does it need to be quite clinical eg A, B & C.

INCLUSIONS - Do I need to include ALL paperwork to support my case eg all of the letter's sent/received; or just invoices etc

ALL HELP gratefully received, I really don't want to make a mistake on this that may compromise my claim.

Waits patiently ;-)

alistair.long

Hi,
Was the wastegate valve not changeable on its own? was it electronic?

How was it later diagnosed that the wastegate valve was faulty?

I used to repair high performance cars and the problem you have is to diagnose the fault of the failure of the turbo when you have a faulty turbo, and it is even more difficult when you have a twin turbo system.

Tony_H_3

Thank for your reply. The garage that fitted the turbo instantly burying there head in the sand. They gave me the contact details of where they sourced the turbo from.

I spoke with the suppliers of the turbo whom advised that the turbo was faulty based on the diagnosis I gave them.

They accepted the turbo back & gave a new recon unit that was fitted by another garage. There was no second charge for the turbo, just the work by the 2nd garage to fit it, this is the money that I want to claim back from the first garage.

alistair.long

The way to take it forward in my opinion is to get a experts report based on the turbo that was removed, to see if the fault could have been found before fitting the turbo.

Was the turbo electric?

Normally a wastegate valve can be removed and replaced, or adjusted.

What car was it?

Tony_H_3

Ford Mondeo TDCI 130 2003

But the turbo suppliers took the turbo back and clarified waste gate issue. I think it was electric, although it did have vacuum pipe fitted. Adjustment of the waste gate couldn't have been done as the adjustment nut & thread had "glue" on it, if that makes sense.

It's sounding like this isn't going to be an easy or straight forward claim. Perhaps I can rely on the garage naivity to go for a default judgement.....!!!

alistair.long

see how it goes, but you havent got the turbo

What may be possible is if you issue against them, and the reason would be that the turbo failed so therefore the repair was not carried out correctly, and you had to pay for a remidy.

As you state that the turbo had a vacuum pipe, by that you mean a small pipe on the wastegate actuator. this is easy to check for failures, and they dont normally fail.

Tony_H_3

I feel like they certaintly tied my hands, the turbo they supplied hadn't even travelled a mile. They refused to do anything about it, nor would they let me have my car collected from the 2nd garage until they had been paid, so they got £891, and the other garage got £672 "Could have got a genuine new ford for that price"

It's the £672 I want them to pay as I feel it was there duty under SOGA to ensure it was fit for purpose ;-(

Tony_H_3

Well, I went ahead and filled in the information for a small claim and submitted it. I waited patiently for 7th September when I was given the opportunity to file a default judgement, and requesting that the money be paid in full.

I am currently awaiting the judgement from the court and hopefully the company in question will simply pay what they owe.

I may well be back for a little more advice if they fail to pay & what my next steps might be.

Thanks for your help.

arcon5

If the problem came down to the fact it wasn't properly lubricated, surely that would be down to poor maintenance ?:huh: