Van Warranty

arcon5

So what exactly have they done to it to incur charges of £600?

I remember a couple of years ago when I had a cambelt snap on a Vectra, it took the garage no more than 15 minutes to assess the level of damage. I know you using a van so it would be harder to check, but £600 worth?

I'd ask them to halt any further work for the tiime being, have them provide the information in writing, then discuss the issue with the other garage and see what they say.

The problem is if the other garage agree to repair it they should be liable for reasonable costs suchas recovery ect, but i'm not sure they would (or should) agree to cover the massive bill you have currently incurred.

If the other garage refuse to help, then have them tell you this in writing -- then you would be in a stronger position in reclaiming your costs via the courts.

lauraeast23

They said that to repair the damage done by the cam belt they had to drop the engine out, which they have done, cost so far £600.

They have then told the warranty company that the cam belt broke due to the tensioner being incorrectly fitted by the last garage and on this basis the warranty company have now decided that they will not pay out.

We are being told by another opinion that it is not possible to fit a tensioner incorrectly, and that the part must have just failed... trouble is we are not mechanics and we are stuck in a sticky situation.

This is the stage that we are at, having told the current garage to not do anything else.

I just want to add here that we are not trying to screw anyone over but if the previous garage wa at fault then they need to accept come responsibility and if they are not and it is simply a parts failure then the warranty company should be accepting their part of the responsibilty. We knew the job was going to come to more than the £1,000 cap the warranty compnay would pay but I don't see why we should have to be at a disadvantage here

arcon5

I'm confused....

why have they dropped the engine if they've not been instructed to do anything other than diagnose? Surely they would inspect it and give you a quote of all the work required? (and perhaps charge a fee for the inspection/quote..)

If you've not yet agreed to further work though you would be in a position to negotiate a better (or fixed) rate from them. (once you've discussed the issues with the other garage that is)

alwal0307

I would say go to the first garage with the information given to you by the warranty company, and see what there reply is.

lauraeast23

I have spoken to may partner again ans it looks like this is where the mis-communcation has come in

Afirst the warranty company were not going to pay out due to classing it as wear and tear, we provided proof of last fitting only 26k ish miles ago (2 years) so could hardly be wear and tear given the recomendation is every 90k miles or 5 years.

The company have then agreed that proof was sufficient so were told to go ahead, then the garage told them that following further investigation the tensioner had been misfitted and now they are refusing again, by which time the engine was out and this was when they called my partner to tell him.

So am I right now in saying that the garage did not need to drop the engine out before "this further investigation" ..?

As that is how this is now looking, we would never have given them the go ahead to do this if we though the warranty company were not going to pay out, we would have taken it somwhere else and def not this mainstreet garage that is clearly trying their luck..

thanks alwal0307 - I have their details and will be dropping them a call

bris

I can't see the other garage playing ball, the van has done 26k and it's been what 2 years? The warranty company will do anything to get out of paying so the garage will have a vested interest in blaming some one else.
I can't see a claim against the other garage winning tbh, your effort should be against the warranty and forcing them to provide the service you paid for.

lauraeast23

Have had the quote faxed over it's actually 85+vat an hour labour charge !

This is an absolute joke

lauraeast23

Basically everyone we talk to, the previous garage, mechanic friends, and independant mechanics all say that a. the engine did not need to be stripped to find the fault and that the reason they are giving for misfitting is rubbish.

We are currently getting hild of the part number that was fitted to the van to check if what they are saying is true, they are talking about plus and minus marks on the tensioner and that it was set incorrectly to minus. We have been told there are no minus and plus marks on the tensioners... ?

We have already been in touch with the AA baout having an independant engineers report and this will be our next step

Flyboy152

bod1467 wrote: »

If you can get a written report confirming the cause of failure then you may have a claim against the people who fitted the cam belt at the last change. Would probably mean a Small Claims though.

Edit: SNAP! :rotfl:

The only person who can claim against them is the person they had a contract with, surely. If there is any suing needed to be done, it would be to the dealer who sold the van to the OP's partner.

Flyboy152

lauraeast23 wrote: »

Just had a thought actually, should the warranty company not have had the van checked over before issuing it and subsequently any repairs done before we paid for the warranty shouldn't they have to take it up with the previous garage and not us?

Probably just clutching at straws here but I am so mad about it all...

The selling dealer would be under an obligation to ensure the vehicle is of merchantable quality, including checking that its service history etc. is up to date. They would not, however, be required to strip down the engine to make sure that the timing belt tensioner was fitted correctly.