does my mate have a leg to stand on regarding broken engine

arcon5

Seems a 50:50 gamble as to which way this could go if it reached court - but for what it's worth i'd expect a cambelt kit rather than just the cambelt itself.

I guess you could argue that a reasonable person would expect the tensioner to be replaced at the same time as it and the cambelt are effectively one unit. If you could persuade a judge of this then you should win.

smashingyour...

londonTiger wrote: »

what does the receipt say? if it's a major timing belt change the whole kit needs to change, not just the belt itself.

The belt doesn;t usually snap by itself, usually the components wear out and their bearings give way, then they sping rough and get snagged which wears down the belt. so just changing the belt alone is not wise at all

So what does an interim belt change consist of?

Hintza

What is the ratio of cambelts failing versus tensioners and pulleys?

My understanding is it is normally the latter anyway.

colino

Complain to them in writing and tell them you will, and do, complain to Honda HQ. Any decent tech changing a belt on any car should check the complementary parts involved and advise on condition. In fact a main dealer shouldn't allow one of their techs to proceed if any part of the parts chain isn't up to spec., capable of lasting until next inspection/change. Sound like more of a malfitted/damaged new belt causing a problem than one of these engines simply giving up the ghost.

Exemplar

My BIL has a 1998 VW Golf. Always been maintained at a main dealer. December last year went in for timing belt (how many twerps put timming?). They didn't do the water pump. Car blew head gasket due to water pump failure. He complained, they fixed FOC. Reason? It was part of the schedule to replace the water pump, they didn't do it or quote for it. The out there was it was PART of the schedule to do it. As a consumer it was not for him to check whether it was or was not part of the schedule and his assumption as a consumer was that a VW main dealer should adhere to their best practise.

Get your friend to check the schedule, if it is part of it then he should be covered.

forgotmyname

Since they started making the pulleys from plastic i have always changed the whole kit.

About 5 years? Didnt they stop the 1.6 engine in 2005? So its more like 8 years old? And long overdue a belt change.

The dealer may have thought after such a short time from when it should have been done only a belt was required.

photome

forgotmyname wrote: »

Since they started making the pulleys from plastic i have always changed the whole kit.

About 5 years? Didnt they stop the 1.6 engine in 2005? So its more like 8 years old? And long overdue a belt change.

The dealer may have thought after such a short time from when it should have been done only a belt was required.

Whatever the dealer thought, they should have communicated with the owner.

Tilt

Couple of years ago I had my cam belt changed on my Punto HGT at the main dealer. As far as I am concerned, they used a kit which comprises of the associated tensioner/pulleys.

A couple of weeks later the auxiliary belt snapped. Called the dealer and they came out, recovered the car and fitted a new belt free of charge. They actually admitted that they should of advised me whether I wanted the aux belt replaced at the same time (tricky job on a Punto HGT apparently).

That's the kind of service I would expect from a main dealer and I would think a judge would agree.

thefishdude

thanks for replies i thiought the same as most of you.

1) they should of done the tensioner as everyone knows you allways do both especially a main dealer

or

2) they should of at least advised him of the need for a tensioner and given him the option of cost cutting or doing it properly.

Joe_Horner

Contrary to "everyone knows", you don't necessarily need to do tensioners as well as the belt. Most do, but some engines are specified for tensioners "on condition". That doesn't make any difference in this case but it does make a difference in how he should approach them.

If Honda specify for tensioners on that engine to be assessed and changed if needed, rather than as an automatic part of the belt change, then he's immediately losing ground if he goes in saying that they "should always be changed".

Either way he's got a good claim unless they advised him that the tensioners should be changed and he refused:

If Honda specify that they should be changed as a matter of course then they're in the wrong by not changing them.

If Honda specify to inspect and replace if required then they're in the wrong because they didn't spot the imminent failure when inspecting. Tensioners don't fail suddenly - it may seem that way when they're installed and running, but when the belt's out a worn tensioner will show signs in its bearings and / or running surfaces.

So his approach should be to check (with them and eslewhere) whether Honda specify an automatic change and, if they don't, ask why their service department decided the faulty tensioner was still servicable.