Garage dispute ford mondeo 08

Ginno19

Hi before I start I need to say I'm not the brightest when it comes to mechanics.
I have a 2008 mondeo mk4 which has done 210 k miles.
It's serviced ever 6 months and MOT 'd.
In Dec I had a MOT done which only failed on tyres and bulbs .also have a full service and a CAM belt as last 1 was fitted 90k ago.
Total cost was 665

Day after car loses power and conks out .
Towed back to garage who look at it and tell me that (here's were I'm not technical) a chain which is located near cam belt (2 small ones that looked like a bicycle chain) wasn't functioning the other 1 .

They fixed after Xmas and Said I was lucky as car nearly died .
On leaving garage engine light on plus smoke coming from engine which was due to massive diesel spill coming from a pipe under bonnetbwhich wasn't connected properly.

I got towed by AA back to garage where they said pipe had slipped .

They then fixed later that day but car still had engine light on.
They hooked it up and abd said they couldn't find the fault showing (turbosubmission I think ) so saidvdrivevand fingers crossed.

Day after car loses power on dangerous road .plus battery died
AA again called could charge battery and tried to start engine manually using wrench to no avail. Was toldvengine had seized.
He's towed he back to garage.

I'm waiting to see what they say tomorrow but would like advice where I stand .

forgotmyname

So several items failed, most of which were nothing to do with jobs they did?

Nice to know you take the safety of your vehicle seriously though.

thescouselander

With so many issues I have to wonder if that car is ready for the scrap heap.

motorguy

Ginno19 wrote: »

Hi before I start I need to say I'm not the brightest when it comes to mechanics.
I have a 2008 mondeo mk4 which has done 210 k miles.
It's serviced ever 6 months and MOT 'd.
In Dec I had a MOT done which only failed on tyres and bulbs .also have a full service and a CAM belt as last 1 was fitted 90k ago.
Total cost was 665

Day after car loses power and conks out .
Towed back to garage who look at it and tell me that (here's were I'm not technical) a chain which is located near cam belt (2 small ones that looked like a bicycle chain) wasn't functioning the other 1 .

They fixed after Xmas and Said I was lucky as car nearly died .
On leaving garage engine light on plus smoke coming from engine which was due to massive diesel spill coming from a pipe under bonnetbwhich wasn't connected properly.

I got towed by AA back to garage where they said pipe had slipped .

They then fixed later that day but car still had engine light on.
They hooked it up and abd said they couldn't find the fault showing (turbosubmission I think ) so saidvdrivevand fingers crossed.

Day after car loses power on dangerous road .plus battery died
AA again called could charge battery and tried to start engine manually using wrench to no avail. Was toldvengine had seized.
He's towed he back to garage.

I'm waiting to see what they say tomorrow but would like advice where I stand .

Id doesnt sound immediately like the work was related to the timing belt change.

As has been said, sounds like it might be time to get a new car....

Alfrescodave

If the car was a person it would be showing a flat line on a monitor and a single note sound. Time to say goodbye to an old friend. R.I.P

wgl2014

Sounds unfortunate that after spending a decent amount on preventative maintenance the engine has basically become scrap. That's the risk of running an older car, it's not always worth fixing.

Unless you can show the work the garage did was substandard and caused the subsequent problems you have nothing to dispute.

System

90k was a bit early to be changing the cambelt given they're on 125,000 mile intervals. Did you also have the tensioner and water pump changed at the same time? Cost to do the job properly should be around £350.

forgotmyname

125k cambelt changes shudders

eeeehhh i remember when they were 32,000 miles and recommended much sooner

Wet belts and dry belts and sometimes both or with added chains. I like my chain driven engine

peter12345678910

Perhaps you can spend too much on preventative maintenance, there is only so much you can do....you also need some luck with old cars

seatbeltnoob

dont know about this specific cambelt but i do know that a lot of cambelt jobs require all sorts of hoses and mounts to be moved out th way to access the cambelt.

fred246

Realistically the car has had it. It is probably the garage's fault but proving what went wrong and going to court would probably involve paying an engineer. You could lose more. I had a relative who bought a brand new Peugeot 406 diesel. Beautiful car. He took it to a main dealer for a new cambelt. The day after it broke and the engine was trashed. Someone gave him £500 for it. They were going to fit a new engine. He probably lost at least £5K. I spoke to him months later. "It was all my fault. I asked for a new cambelt. They fitted a new cambelt. The cambelt didn't break. It was a tensioner that failed. I hadn't asked them to fit new tensioners so it was all my fault." I couldn't believe he let the garage get away with that.