Timing chain gone while having MOT and wasn't made aware.

cn22

63 plate VW Polo 1.2

I took my car for an MOT in November and if failed on emissions. The garage had my car for a good week, told me it had JUST passed the MOT and they were still high and that it wouldn't pass the next MOT. As I was driving away to go to the bank my car started loosing power and about 4 lights came on the dash. I took it back to him (didn't give him the money) and explained what had happened. He wasn't keen on keeping the car as it had caused him some bother over the week but I hadn't paid him yet so he had no choice. He then drove me home (2 miles) in the car so he could get a feel of what was going on. He kept the car overnight and the next day he called to say he had drove over 20 miles and there was no problem with the car and wasn't sure why it was doing what it did the day before (the mileage reflected that he had done 20ish miles so didn't see why I should question it) so I happily gave him the money plus a £10 tip so £180 in total and went off in my car..... for all the lights to come back on and it to be losing power again.

I didn't want to take it back to him as he obviously didn't want to deal with it so the next day I drove to another garage which was less than a mile away and my car broke down a few hundred yards before the garage and wouldn't start back up. The garage towed my car and had a look and said the timing chain had gone and the repairs would be around £1200.......!!!! I told him with it being early December I would leave it until after Christmas as that's not the sort of money I want to be forking out in December. Now it has come to the time to get it sorted I'm thinking more about why the original garage didn't tell me what was wrong with it and if they had told me to start with would this have avoided this massive bill?? Also does £1200 sound reasonable??

[Deleted User]

cn22 wrote: »

63 plate VW Polo 1.2

I took my car for an MOT in November and if failed on emissions. The garage had my car for a good week, told me it had JUST passed the MOT and they were still high and that it wouldn't pass the next MOT. As I was driving away to go to the bank my car started loosing power and about 4 lights came on the dash. I took it back to him (didn't give him the money) and explained what had happened. He wasn't keen on keeping the car as it had caused him some bother over the week but I hadn't paid him yet so he had no choice. He then drove me home (2 miles) in the car so he could get a feel of what was going on. He kept the car overnight and the next day he called to say he had drove over 20 miles and there was no problem with the car and wasn't sure why it was doing what it did the day before (the mileage reflected that he had done 20ish miles so didn't see why I should question it) so I happily gave him the money plus a £10 tip so £180 in total and went off in my car..... for all the lights to come back on and it to be losing power again.

I didn't want to take it back to him as he obviously didn't want to deal with it so the next day I drove to another garage which was less than a mile away and my car broke down a few hundred yards before the garage and wouldn't start back up. The garage towed my car and had a look and said the timing chain had gone and the repairs would be around £1200.......!!!! I told him with it being early December I would leave it until after Christmas as that's not the sort of money I want to be forking out in December. Now it has come to the time to get it sorted I'm thinking more about why the original garage didn't tell me what was wrong with it and if they had told me to start with would this have avoided this massive bill?? Also does £1200 sound reasonable??

I presume you paying him just for the MOT and any necessary work to get the car through it? If so then the timing chain wouldn't have been part of the test as far as I'm aware.

£1,200 could be possible as the timing chain failure probably would have damaged all of the valves, pistons etc.

cn22

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

I presume you paying him just for the MOT and any necessary work to get the car through it? If so then the timing chain wouldn't have been part of the test as far as I'm aware.

£1,200 could be possible as the timing chain failure probably would have damaged all of the valves, pistons etc.

Yes I understand he just did an MOT and he wouldn't look into the timing chain but after taking it back to him because there was a problem why would he not look at the car to figure out what was wrong and then tell me the timing chain needed doing? Rather than just telling me he didn't know what was wrong with it and it seemed fine to him. I would of happily paid him for the extra job

mluton

Reminds me of: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5651608/garage-ruined-engine-when-car-took-in-for-mot

AdrianC

You took it for the MOT. It failed on emissions.
He had it for a week and worked on it. It passed.
You drove it away, it lost power and dash lights came on. You drove it back.
He covered 20+ miles in it, and it was fine.
The next day, you drove a mile and the camchain failed.

It's hard to see how he would have predicted the failure - unless it was making a lot of noise - and it certainly wouldn't have been able to be driven with the chain having let go.

One thing's for sure - that's not what caused the loss of power and lights coming on... That sounds more like the engine management going into "limp-home" mode. I presume he read the fault codes, nothing was present that seemed to be ongoing, so he cleared the codes and shrugged. It then covered 20 miles without issue.

I presume that engine is the EA111/03E three-cylinder? A quick google suggests they do have a certain reputation for the chains letting go.

EdGasketTheSecond

Chain can jump a tooth causing the symptoms described. Garage 1 should have checked for that.

AdrianC

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Chain can jump a tooth causing the symptoms described.

But not then cover 20+ miles without issue.

tedted

f they jump one tooth they hit the valves

EdGasketTheSecond

I tooth is normally safe but with errors and loss of power. However once its jumped one, it will quickly jump more. Some cars are particularly prone to simplex chain problems e.g. W203 Mercedes at around 70K miles.

tedted

these do hit,i have done approx 10 checked the amount jumped and all that jumped one tooth hit the ex valves

daveyjp

The VAG chain cam engine, another failed engine experiment to add to the pile. They are very good at building engines with problems and it is still ongoing with their 1.5 TSi.