Advice required - Car blew up at garage

Toldedo88

Folks I'm going to keep this simple but basically I'm looking for advice on an issue regarding a car I left with my mechanic. I'll lay it out in a time line format to cut the smalltalk.

7th November I purchase a car privately totalling £1650. Receipt to prove.

A week later I leave it in with my mechanic as I was noticing a slight loss of power

A few days later I get the diagnosis from my mechanic that the car has difficulties breathing ie an air intake or carbon build up issue, but he said that the engine is in pretty decent shape, messages to confirm.

Fast forward to today, I get a message from him saying bad news, I worked on your car and took it out for a test run and you need a new engine.

I called straight round to see him in person and he said he fitted a blanking plate over the egr valve (illegal?) and removed the dpf and egr software from the on board electric software. My car was laying in his street with oil dripping everywhere. He refused to accept any responsibility and advised me it would be over £1000 for a replacement engine plus labour. None of which he was going to contribute to.

Now is this an open and shut case or am I missing something? He's a nice guy but I'm out of pocket for a mistake he could have caused if not created.

Thoughts please?
I do apologise I'm not usually this on edge but I want to know where I stand.

Regards,

Tahlullah

Did you ask him to undertake this illegal work? It would mean the car would never pass an MOT if the DPS was removed.

Toldedo88

No this was not agreed. He was to strip down some engine components, clean them of carbon deposits and reassemble.

Tahlullah

Don't suppose you have this in writing? You were messaging him and you just might have the instruction in your texts.

AndyMc.....

Time for an LBA then.

Toldedo88

I've read over our conversation a few times and in writing the only thing I asked for was a service for peace of mind and to have a look for any other issues, I knew it was lacking power slightly so that's when he diagnosed it with a carbon build up issue, to which he then explained the problem is most likely a carbon build up that would need cleaned. I've known the guy 2 or 3 years and he's always served me well.

Toldedo88

What is LBA?

Tahlullah

If you have a string of emails showing you required a service and parts to be cleaned, then I would begin as AndyMc says, with a Letter Before Action. A quick shot across the bow to say you want it repaired and back on the road or you will be taking court action for the cost of the car. Plus cost for having to use public transport etc.

System

I would mention that as well as fixing the engine he possibly blew up by doing unauthorised work you want the DPF filter which was working fine put back to a fully working state (which is most likely going to mean a new one if he's gutted it) as well as a car with a DPF delete or a gutted DPF filter will now fail the new MOT, you want the EGR blanking removing and the DPF/EGR delete in the engine management undoing.

It would be cheaper for him to buy the car off you for what you paid for it than undo the stuff he's done and repair the damage he caused from the unauthorised work.

Le_Kirk

Toldedo88 wrote: »

What is LBA?

LBA = Letter Before Action, the precursor to taking someone to the Small Claims Court

Stoke

He sounds a bit cowboy..... when he says the car was struggling to breath? The car sucks air through the air intake. If this is partially blocked, the car usually runs rich and that can result in carbon build up within the cylinders and manifold etc and foul spark plugs etc.

However there's also what is known as a breather system. Google PCV if you want to know more. This can also get blocked (especially if it's over engineered like the Audi 1.8T Breather system) and if blocked will result in the crankcase not venting correctly and usually blowing your rocker gasket. Neither of these two issues would cause your engine to blow up, however the second would indeed result in oil spillage normally down the side of the engine. Is the car completely immobilised? Can it be started? It sounds like he's drip feeding you the minimum amount of information.

I would be very suspicious for two reasons:

Blanking an EGR won't cause an engine to blow. The whole point of blanking the EGR is to prevent the carbon rich gasses from being recirculated into the crankcase. Google it..... dead common and quite a desirable mod I would say. Sending gas-laden crap back into the air intake was a bad idea for reducing emissions. Of course the damage to the engine will be far worse from an environment perspective.

Furthermore, I can't see how gutting a DPF would cause it to blow either. If anything, removing a DPF will be better for the car. DPF's get blocked and therefore this is restricting the exhaust pathway.

If he told you there's a build up of carbon in the engine, neither of those would decarb an engine either. They might slow the build-up, but if it needs a decarb, it needed something else. If you went the professional route, you're talking stripping down the engine.

However, I think in his attempt to decarb your engine on the cheap/quick, he's done something else and I can think of one that will 100% decarb an engine.......it'll also blow an engine, if done wrong.