Zafira -Engine Cooked after Coolant system Failure

mark55man

For me it doesnt matter so much that its 12 years old, its that the dealer sold it to me 2 months ago. Thats when the sales of good act kicks in.

in terms of preventing worse damage do we all really need to be a trained mechanic capable of diagnosing systemic faults from a ambiguous clue - I am not sure that I would have put 2 and 2 together inthe circumstances

motorguy

mark88man wrote: »

For me it doesnt matter so much that its 12 years old,

Well, unfortunately for you, the law doesnt work like that.

mark88man wrote: »

its that the dealer sold it to me 2 months ago. Thats when the sales of good act kicks in.

Yes. And the sale of goods act covers FAULTS that were present at the time of sale , not wear and tear OR damage to the part. Chances are what is a very old pipe burst OR a stone hit the radiator or a pipe at speed and split it. Either way, thats not a FAULT.

mark88man wrote: »

in terms of preventing worse damage do we all really need to be a trained mechanic capable of diagnosing systemic faults from a ambiguous clue - I am not sure that I would have put 2 and 2 together inthe circumstances

No, but what you need to do is perform simple preventative maintenance checks and read the signs of impending failure. It is not up to the dealer to pay for your neglect.

If, on my 2012 Golf i got a puncture while driving along, either chose to ignore the signs of that or didnt know what the signs meant and continued to drive until the tyre broke up and the rim cracked, would i be able to claim for a new rim and tyre from VW?

arcon5

As above, the law considers "any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances."

Relevant facts of course being its age

mark55man

I think we will have to disagree on this. In my book if it broke after 2 months it was a fault that was there at the beginning.

I also think that your example is irrelevant it doesnt require a lot of sense to detect a flat tyre and stop driving, but no warning other than a cold blowing fan - I don't think thats negligent

Anyway I got this link from another thread and that's what I am going to push forward on - but I thank everyone for giving me a clear idea of what I'm going to be up against at the sellers garage - http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/car-buyers-guide/cbg_legalrights.html

enfield_freddy

the reason for the "catastrophic loss of coolant




repeating the question on page one


what was the reason for the failure , water loss elephant in No 1 cyl ?


don,t say water leak WHAT cased the failure ?

Westmead_Fan

mark88man wrote: »

For me it doesnt matter so much that its 12 years old, its that the dealer sold it to me 2 months ago. Thats when the sales of good act kicks in.

in terms of preventing worse damage do we all really need to be a trained mechanic capable of diagnosing systemic faults from a ambiguous clue - I am not sure that I would have put 2 and 2 together inthe circumstances

as people had said the law does not work like that

If, on my 2012 Golf i got a puncture while driving along, either chose to ignore the signs of that or didnt know what the signs meant and continued to drive until the tyre broke up and the rim cracked, would i be able to claim for a new rim and tyre from VW?

spot on & in this case find out what happened from the garage.

forgotmyname

Heater going cold was an early warning that either the waterpump has given up pumping the water or there is no water to pump around.

Quite likely it would have started spluttering or not running as well as it normally did at this point also.

nicholaswitchell

forgotmyname wrote: »

Heater going cold was an early warning that either the waterpump has given up pumping the water or there is no water to pump around.

Quite likely it would have started spluttering or not running as well as it normally did at this point also.

Correct.

For a heater to go cold it means there is no water, and your woman clearly continued to drive the car after this happened, so I am afraid she was negligent in doing so.

Its obvious, of course, that she didn't mean to do it - but the fact remains that she DID do it, and unfortunately on this occasion killed the car.

Time to place the blame squarely where it belongs and not try to foist the cost off onto someone who is not at fault.

scotsbob

Unless the temperature gauge has failed, then the driver is at fault for ignoring the warning that it would have given.

arcon5

I agree, the dealer is potentially liable for fixing the coolant leak. (Although there's some debate to be had there even).

But as for the "cooked" engine - this is caused by overheating. It'll be difficult to persuade anybody driving a vehicle overheating is a reasonable action.