Help, problems with mechanic!

Chell_b

Hi all,

I used my boyfriends mechanic to change my cam belt, he works for himself and comes and does the work at your house, while he was doing so he claims before he turned on the engine a valve went, he took my cylinder head to get checked and said now 4 valves have gone and 7 springs are weak. Not knowing much about cars i contacted 3 garages who all said there is NO way valves can just go without timing the cam belt wrong, i spoke to the mechanic and he said well im telling you thats what happened?
It could cost me up to £800 to fix with another garage but if he cause the damage surely he should have to pay for it.
Any ideas of what i can do?

Thanks

muddyl

If there was nothing wrong with the engine before the belt was done then the garages are correct. The valve's only get cent when a timing belt snaps or is fitted incorrectly.
Is this mechanic legitimate? If so he should have insurance against this line of thing.
If he is a member of a trade association. You can contact them. You can also contact consumer direct for advice on how to deal with this.

bengalknights

Sounds like he may not actually be a professional mechanic or has seriously messed up the timing, provide your findings to him and request he pay for the repairs.

Chell_b

Thanks for your help ill be calling consumer direct tomorrow. He has done all the work on my boyfriends car and have never had trouble before so used him, i know he used to work for a main dealer as a mechanic but now does it himself so am starting to wonder if he is legit.
Where do i stand if he isn't legit?

adonis

I have had a couple of cambelts replaced by a mobile cambelt specialist, the first thing he does is to start the car before he touches it.
As has been said if the car was running before before he worked on it then he caused it, if it was a non runner due to a broken belt and he came to sort that out then it is not his fault.

Chell_b

The Car was working fine before he changed the belt, so a valve cannot just break? Hes claiming it to be weak springs.

forgotmyname

Thing is did he tell you this BEFORE he had fitted the new belt and fired the engine up or after?

I presume he is doing this as a sideline and not through any books? If thats the case you will need to take
him to the small claims court and prove he did the damage.

I did some welding many moons ago, BIL's brother. Said its a little hole about the size of his finger.

Wire brush in the drill.. 10 seconds later the hole was big enough to put your head through. He nearly passed out
when he spotted the hole. I said i cannot weld to rust.

forgotmyname

Weak springs cause the valves to bounce when revved. A piston could clip them.

try pushing them down with your hands/fingers. You shouldn't get them to move.

What car? How old? How many miles?

Chell_b

He said it happened after he fitted it but claims he did not start the engine up.

Chell_b

He took me over to the car and showed me, i could push one valve down but it was after he fitted it and apparently before he started up the engine but it wasn't like that prior.
Ford Fiesta, 53 plate, think 58,000 miles ish.

TrickyWicky

It happened after he fitted but he never started the engine? - Then there is no way for him to know that any damage has happened without starting the engine.

Chell_b wrote: »

he claims before he turned on the engine a valve went, he took my cylinder head to get checked and said now 4 valves have gone and 7 springs are weak.

But yet he did start the engine? - Which is it really?

Either way it sounds to me like he got out of his depth with your car and didn't know what he was doing. Some renault engines are !!!!!!s to do cambelts on, you can take the belt off and the timing slips internally but you can't see it (had it happen on a 1.6 megane me and the neighbour were doing). If he didn't have the correct timing tools then the odds are he's made a pigs ear of the job and instead of accepting this, is trying to pass the cost on to you for his balls up.

Loose springs could potentially cause a valve to clip a piston but I done the belt on a 2.4 volvo lump recently without the correct tool. It was at least 15 degrees out and never started. Bought the tool, found my error, realigned the timing and the engine started up fine. No compression loss at all.

I know you probably think he's ok as your BF has never had any problems with him but mechies tend to see women as easy cash. As I said earlier, it would appear that he's cocked up the timing, damaged your valves (and the head) and now wants you to foot the bill so he still gets his pay. It's quite common in the mechanic industry. No requirement for qualifications means anyone can be a mechanic and do repairs.. and if you don't know anything about cars its your word against theirs.

Also if he does agree to rectify this there will be shortcuts. He's taken the head away for testing you say? Well thats a new head gasket, the head will potentially need skimming, new head bolts etc otherwise your engine probably won't live longer than a year if he doesn't give it the full monty. To be honest it might now be better to find another engine and get someone competent to fit it and change the cambelt.

Chell_b wrote: »

He took me over to the car and showed me, i could push one valve down but it was after he fitted it and apparently before he started up the engine but it wasn't like that prior.
Ford Fiesta, 53 plate, think 58,000 miles ish.

So why did he even have the rocker cover off? - It's a cambelt change not a head rebuild. He shouldn't of even needed to take off the rocker box cover. 58k miles on a ford fiesta... Ford engines are pretty bullet proof and at that mileage its probably the first cambelt change its had. I hope he's proud of himself as he's just fubarred a good engine.