New car - timing belt failure

kellynoelle

I purchased an 08 Zafira 1.8 petrol with 74k miles on 29th June. The service history showed the timing belt was replaced in April 2015. On Monday (27th June), we were driving on the motorway when the car quit. Cut a long story short, the guy (a dealer) got a mechanic to look at it he has told us the timing belt has went. He says he is replacing it, the water pump and the belt tensioner. He says theyve removed the head and there may be damage so hes replacing it aswell. Do I ask him now for a new warranty? He only give 1 month to start which technically is up now. What if there any further probelms a few months down the line??

ChumLee

A new warranty won't help and you're unlikely to get one. Sale of goods act will give you better protection.

forgotmyname

Used car warranties are usually not worth the paper they are printed on.

As above the dealer giving a 1 month warrant doesnt mean a lot. If the car is not fit for its purpose then he is liable, within 6 months its easier to claim the fault was there when he sold it. After that its harder.

Check a used warranty for subsequent damage, if your belt snapped they would replace the belt but may not fix the engine which maybe unserviceable.

colino

Why would you need a new warranty? The car is now in better order than when you bought it!

facade

Sale of Goods Act aside (I'm not sure if one months warranty means they can avoid fixing a major problem after 6 weeks), whenever you paid for say 12 months warranty on a something, eg aTV, 12months is what you get, from the original purchase date. If you get the TV replaced with a brand new one after 354 days, then lucky you, but the new TV is only warranteed for 1 more day, not another 12 months.

If they really have done all that work on it, then you have been very well looked after, some garages would just slap a new timing belt on and whatever failed to drop the belt off, then hope it runs well enough to get you off the premises.

bigjl

You can't just chuck a timing belt in that engine after a belt snaps as I am pretty sure that is a 16v.

There will be damage to the valves and possibly valve guides.

The old 8V lumps were non interference and you could run them till they snapped then just chuck on a new belt and carry on as normal, I knew a bloke that did that twice with his 2.0 Carlton.

ess0two

bigjl wrote: »

You can't just chuck a timing belt in that engine after a belt snaps as I am pretty sure that is a 16v.

There will be damage to the valves and possibly valve guides.

The old 8V lumps were non interference and you could run them till they snapped then just chuck on a new belt and carry on as normal, I knew a bloke that did that twice with his 2.0 Carlton.

Re - read the original post

patman99

As the dealer has to offer a 3 month warranty when selling a car, just count your lucky stars the belt snapped when it did and not a few weeks later when you would be picking-up the cost.

At a guess, I'd say the belt was changed at a main dealer. They will only change the belt and not the tensioner or water pump as they know the new belt will only last a few thousand miles and you will be back for a major repair. At which point, they quote such a high price for repairs to 'encourage' you to buy a new vehicle.

ChumLee

patman99 wrote: »

As the dealer has to offer a 3 month warranty when selling a car, just count your lucky stars the belt snapped when it did and not a few weeks later when you would be picking-up the cost.

At a guess, I'd say the belt was changed at a main dealer. They will only change the belt and not the tensioner or water pump as they know the new belt will only last a few thousand miles and you will be back for a major repair. At which point, they quote such a high price for repairs to 'encourage' you to buy a new vehicle.

Do they, since when?

bigjl

ess0two wrote: »

Re - read the original post

Read the post above mine which I was replying to.