Halfords Autocentre Ceased my Engine

Karthikeyan

AdrianC wrote: »

Sorry, you bought the plugs from ECP and took them to Halfords to fit...?

No, Halfords bought it from ECP and they fixed it. They just charged me with the invoice amount of £500

AdrianC

Halfords would not have bought plugs from ECP.

n217970

Has anybody actually looked at the water pump? I would suggest given the overheating history that the pump has seized, leading to the timing chain failure leading to a knackered engine. The retaining bolt being broken could by symptomatic of that rather then the cause.

Nissan will be quick to jump on the spark plugs as a get out as even out of warranty a 2013 car shouldn't have timing chain/water pump issues unless its on mega mileage.

Edit: Just seen the mileage on the Nissan report - 53,000 miles so should definately not have a problem with timing - well within the intervals you would expect these components to last.

Karthikeyan

AdrianC wrote: »

Halfords would not have bought plugs from ECP.

oh ok. But I definitely did not buy it and give it to them. But this is what the email from Halfords says that they bought it from ECP.

marlot

AdrianC wrote: »

Halfords would not have bought plugs from ECP.

Why not? If they have a car on the ramp and need some it might be the quickest supplier.

Karthikeyan

1) I have a invoice from Halfords saying that they fixed the Spark Plug on 08-Sep-17
2) I have the Nissan report saying incorrect spark plug caused engine damage


Can I go to claims court with this. I have already spent a lot of money and my car is gone. Just wanted advice as to if it makes sense to go to claims court.

TheMoonandBack

A quick google search reveals there are many mechanical problems with Qashqai engines, including overheating and timing chain failures.
Unfortunately you are in a bit of a hole which will cost money to get of.
If your car has a full service history (preferably with Nissan) you might have half a chance of some goodwill from Nissan.
In order to get any practical advise on here you will need to clearly describe the timeline of events from the initial faults your car experienced to its ultimate demise.
I can’t tell reading this thread what the initial fault was, why Halfords fitted plugs and coils, how the car ran after that and how far it went after the plug change.
It sounds to me that
1: the car wasn’t running right -this was probably the timing chain mechanism beginning to fail.
2: you took it Halfords and they fitted plugs and coils either at your request or an attempt by them to guess the possible cause.
3: You drove it away and the timing mechanism eventually failed
4: Nissan dealer looked at the failed engine spotted non genuine plugs fitted and blamed the failure on that to deflect you away from any possible warranty or goodwill claim from Nissan.
5 : Halfords looked at the engine again and described the fact that the timing chain mechanism has failed and it isn’tanything to do with them.

Unless my take on it is wrong, I would agree with the final Halfords report -it isn’t their fault. Your mistake, as pointed out earlier in the thread, was taking a complex car to a bike shop.
I think you’ll have to get another engine fitted now. The way to try and get some cost back would be to get an engineers report on the old engine then commence legal proceedings against Nissan.

AdrianC

You can go to court, absolutely.

Will you win? Probably not. Because Halfords will produce their report that says it wasn't the plugs, and that even if the plugs had been wrong, it'd have not lasted three weeks before spitting the dummy. The Nissan "report" is so poor as to be pretty useless.

Even if you do win, it's unlikely you'll get anything more than the cost of the plug change refunded.

I s'pose it's feasible that Halfords could have found they had no plugs in stock - although I'd have thought a more likely solution would be to put the old ones back in, move it off the ramp, and leave it until the plugs are delivered from the Halfords warehouse. Even if they did have some kind of VOR stock-transfer deal set up with ECP (which would have to be national - no way would a store manager have that kind of authority individually), I'd be surprised if they owned up to that so readily.

molerat

AdrianC wrote: »

Halfords would not have bought plugs from ECP.

Yes they would have. Non stocked service parts are supplied by ECP. Not only that, Google maps has a ECP van parked outside the Halfords Auto Centre Halfords Auto Centres will only use a Halfords store for parts if they are attached, this one is a stand alone unit.

esmerobbo

At a guess I would suggest a "technician" at Nissan has been asked to look at the engine to diagnose it. Having removed a plug has seen that said plug has damage to the tip and jumped to a somewhat embarrassing diagnosis that the plug caused the damage, whereas it would no doubt be the damage the snapped off free valve heads thrashing around in the bores that will have damaged the plug.

I would also hazard a guess that the problem all along would have been the valve timing, or timing chain this engine has variable valve timing, problems with this cause poor idle and low power.

I have also seen problems with this engine because when changing the plugs you have to remove the inlet manifold, have seen engines damaged when items have fallen into the inlet ports if they are not sealed while working on them. Head cracks around the plug threads are common too which can cause coolant lose.