New turbo failed... need help/advice on getting refund :(

tahrey

vaio wrote: »

... can be verified by someone independent if the garage don't play ball...

... examined by an independent expert...

Would "my uncle's mate who works as a mechanic and had a look at it as a returned favour" count? Because that's already happened, and his opinion was also that it had blown and took the rest of the engine with it.

spacey2012

tahrey wrote: »

I know diesels are supposed to run on for ages, but that's a reputation born from old non-turbo behemoths and the earlier lower pressure, still quite large displacement TDs, like the 1.9 VWs that only made about 75hp themselves. In this case, we're dragging 80hp (and 185NM) out of a 1.45 - and the newer models are tuned even higher. Time was when I would have been impressed by that from a (NA) petrol of the same size, god knows I've driven more gutless 1.6's. So they're rather more stressed than their older counterparts..

Very true, some still beleive the miff diesels run forever.
Those days are well over.

vaio

tahrey wrote: »

Would "my uncle's mate who works as a mechanic and had a look at it as a returned favour" count? Because that's already happened, and his opinion was also that it had blown and took the rest of the engine with it.

better than nothing and tells you the cause so you can progress it but for a court you could really do with someone more demonstrably independent (and maybe more provably expert)

A turbo re-builder might be a good choice

tahrey

Brilliant. Found the receipt. Not only does it not say anything about the promised warranty (though it notes the turbo is a "new unit"), they've put the wrong date on... it says 2010 not 2013! (Handwritten, not printed)

Things were a bit stressed at the point I was sorting out the payment so I guess I slipped up on the former point (didn't get any kind of warranty document either... I mean, you usually don't with car parts though, other than a sheet of generic boilerplate from a chain garage?), but I never even thought to check the latter, you kind of expect it to be correct!

And my name isn't on there anywhere...

There's an invoice serial number on there which would have been pre-embossed into the carbon paper pad the receipt was written on (which would tie it down datewise within their own records, so long as I wasn't given one on a deliberately held-back pad), and I can bring out a credit card statement with a matching amount paid to their named account, as well as other circumstantial evidence tying that particular job of work to myself at that particular time, but I doubt there's anything absolutely solid.

(In addition, it turns out to be rather earlier than I thought - 9th of April - with the failure taking longer to manifest, all the way through to very late May or possibly the 1st of June; I have a document related to it posted to me from the AA which is dated as the latter*. I'm still pretty certain I didn't burn much more than a single tank of diesel, if even that much, so I must not have been using the car ever so much, maybe relying more on the bike. After all, a couple weeks back I managed to burn through that much in four days by driving to a campsite in SW Wales, leaving the car stationary for 72 hours, then driving back home... could well have had it changed the day before I set off, and had it fail on the return leg... still, is 6-7 weeks too long to leave it before a checkup? I was literally going to book it in that following week.)

*I do also have the at-the-scene documentation their recovery driver filled out, which will have the exact date (and "suspect head gasket or turbo failure"), but as I sit here typing it's in a folder at the back of a packed filing cabinet.

So... just how screwed am I now?

arcon5

The date showing 3 years ago isn't really a biggie. Your CC statements and other documentation would well and truly tie them together. Small claims is all about balance of probabilities, your 'evidence' would be fine.


I did once read about Turbo issues on the MK4 Mondeos (although they seem to cause problems on the mk3 aswell), some guy didn't know whether to have it repaired or not as all the garages was refusing to warrant it or anything as it was known that the engine can cause recurring failures of turbos, so doesn't matter how good the turbo is, the engine can damage it.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

arcon5 wrote: »

The date showing 3 years ago isn't really a biggie. Your CC statements and other documentation would well and truly tie them together. Small claims is all about balance of probabilities, your 'evidence' would be fine.


I did once read about Turbo issues on the MK4 Mondeos (although they seem to cause problems on the mk3 aswell), some guy didn't know whether to have it repaired or not as all the garages was refusing to warrant it or anything as it was known that the engine can cause recurring failures of turbos, so doesn't matter how good the turbo is, the engine can damage it.

this.

the focus diesel 1.6 as it stands has a tech data bulletin on turbo's from all turbo suppliers to all garages fitting the turbo, unless the cause to the problem of the failure is rectified on the 1.6 engine low oil pressure causing sludging of oil to the turbo and other internal parts to the engine (basically modified engine has to be fitted), there will be no labour and failure (unless its unrelated to bulletin failure documented) warranty.

tahrey

Hmm, there might be hope yet...

And thanks for the warning, but I'm not aware of anything like that for the Renaults. Particularly, in this case, I was replacing a turbo that was well-worn, but still quite functional. The seals were starting to leak a little oil (enough to consume about a litre every 500 miles at the end), making a bit of smoke on full throttle, and it was whirring like crazy - but that's why I had it replaced. It had been getting steadily worse over the course of at least 6 months if not longer whilst I scraped the money together for the replacement (it's equal to basically a month's take-home pay after deducting the mortgage payment)...

...but it still probably would have lasted longer than the new one did. If something went wrong in the engine itself to kill the turbo, it happened during or after the replacement itself.

The other entries on the receipt, btw, are "new EGR" and "oil and filter change". So whatever the state of the oil in there when I dropped it off (hadn't been changed since the issue started to manifest, as I was sticking in basically a whole 4-litre change every 2 to 3 months), or that of the filter, it would have been far from sludgy or badly filtered at the time it went pop. The oil pressure is certainly enough to push enough of it through the seals into the intake manifold after all.

And I did always take care to give the engine enough time to bring up the pressure before setting off, and to let the turbo settle before turning off, instead of my old petrol car habit of pushing it into gear, pushing the pedals to the floor and turning the key in one fluid movement, pulling the door to as the wheels being to spin, then turning the ignition off whilst still turning 3000 revs coming off 2nd gear ... After all, I had quite a bit of trepidation about joining the diesel gang anyway, and had been given plenty of warnings about what to and not do... but the serious mileage savings made it somewhat essential to at least give it a try (as in, 50% further per pound, when given equal treatment - when I was burning more than a grand a year in petrol and needed a new car anyway after the old one got written off, that's a very compelling argument). If the old one hadn't started to leak, and moreover the new one hadn't gone bang, everything would have been peachy.