Garage covered up warning lights, engine blew

Flyboy152

arcon5 wrote: »

no, shockingly the best reply in that thread though :shocked:

But, fundamentally wrong. Time, not mileage, in this case, is the determining factor in changing the belt.

arcon5

Flyboy152 wrote: »

But, fundamentally wrong. Time, not mileage, in this case, is the determining factor in changing the belt.

Aren't belts usually changed based on both mileage and time? Last car I had was 40k or 4 years(I think), whichever came sooner....

I made the mistake of putting it off and it broke at 83k miles and cost £700 to repair (after being heavily discounted)

Flyboy152

arcon5 wrote: »

Aren't belts usually changed based on both mileage and time? Last car I had was 40k or 4 years(I think), whichever came sooner....

I made the mistake of putting it off and it broke at 83k miles and cost £700 to repair (after being heavily discounted)

It is often between seventy and ninety thousand miles and between four and seven years, depending the car, model, engine, etc. But seeing as the OP's car is nine years old and just over eighty thousand miles I would guess that it would have been an age-determined belt change, rather than a mileage one. If the belt hadn't been changed at five/six/seven years, then it would not have been the OP's fault that it hadn't been changed.

ETA:

Don't most Corollas have chains anyway?

scheming_gypsy

Ash132 wrote: »

I am currently driving my bosses old MR-2 from 1989 with 120000 miles on the clock, has seen better days but it hasn't missed a beat and he is allowing me to pay it up when I can, can't thank him enough for that.

Nothing wrong with an old MR2, MK1 or MK2? i don't know a lot about the MK1 but if you're in a MK2 120k is nothing! just don't pay over the odds for the car.

scheming_gypsy

89 was the change over year so you can get both MK1 and MK2 on a G plate.... although they might all be imports that early.

Ash132

It is indeed a chain not a belt on the 2ZZ-GE engine, apologies my brain is mush tonight after dealing with this all weekend and took a sec for that to be remembered.

Its a MK1, proper boxy 80's car which is either cool or rubbish depending on the person!

Can any garage do a failure report? I know my local garage is very trustworthy but maybe a conflict of interest because I know them by name?

pendulum

Of the three lights that illuminated:
The Traction control is irrelevant to the blown engine.
The Stability control is irrelevant to the blown engine.
The Check Engine light is probably irrelevant to the blown engine. (Probably just an O2 sensor or something equally minor!)

In my opinion you will need to prove that the garage's bodge to any of these three lights caused the engine to go boom. They could be, and probably are, completely unrelated. Or, you would need to prove that the problem with the engine existed at the time of purchase (because you are well over the 6 month limit, so the burden of proof is on you). This will be very hard, if not impossible.

Used cars do not last forever and the law acknowledges this. A new engine after 9 months of use is unlucky, but the buck probably does stop with you.

I am surprised a new engine is £1,500 to £2,000. I am sure you could find one for a lot less than that, then perhaps fit it yourself, as you are handy enough with spanners to start taking the car apart to sell the parts.

Flyboy152

My feelings would be that a District Judge would decide, that as the garage committed a fraud in the first place, he will put the onus upon them to prove the damage wasn't caused by the OP being unaware that the car needed attention. DJs don't like businesses taking the pee out of consumers.

Ash132

Would I need to prove that the blocked lights are relevant to the engine failure? I would have hoped that the very fact they blocked them off at all would be enough that a judge would decide I should get my money back like Flyboy says!?

These engines are that expensive I assure you. There are two on ebay at the moment both at £1650 and both are for other cars that use the same engine (Celica t-sport and lotus Elise)

arcon5

Ash132 wrote: »

Would I need to prove that the blocked lights are relevant to the engine failure? I would have hoped that the very fact they blocked them off at all would be enough that a judge would decide I should get my money back like Flyboy says!?

These engines are that expensive I assure you. There are two on ebay at the moment both at £1650 and both are for other cars that use the same engine (Celica t-sport and lotus Elise)

IMO yes.

If the lights was to warn you of this problem and could have therefore prevented it I think you would have a case for reimbursement because of their negligence.

But if the lights played no roll or could not have helped prevent subsequent failures then the actions of the garage (although fraudulent/negligent depending on how you look at it) have not been of detriment to you.

If the former was the case then you wouldn't automatically be entitled to a full refund either.... they would have to put you in the same position of before which would mean paying for repair -- or issuing a refund less an amount for the use you have had from the vehicle.

Until you can determine the fault then you don't have much of a case imo.