Vauxhall Puretech 1.2 belt failure - Known design fault - What can I do?

Funqi

I have a 2019 Vauxhall Combo 1.2 Petrol. It refused to start yesterday, RAC man came and told me the timing belt has failed. Apparently it's a known fault with this particular engine, for which the parent company Stellantis recalled cars with these engines to change the timing belts, updated service recommendations and extended the warranty to 10 years / 175km.
Since I bought the car used in 2022, I never received any notification of any recall.
Looking around on the net today, I've seen absolutely tons of examples of people with cars with these engines reporting issues with the timing belt disintegrating, guzzling excessive oil and many resulting in a destroyed engine.
Sod's law, I have the worst case scenario.

I have made sure to service it, altho by a mechanic at a garage I've known and trusted since we were young lads. It has a full service history, but since I have owned it, not by the main dealer. 
According to THIS ARTICLE they require full service history by authorised repairer in order to honour their extended warranty.

I still owe around £8k on this car, so I will have to pay that no matter what. Therefore, I guess I will have no choice now but to get a new engine, for which I'll now go even further into debt. Even worse, I will still have a car that is almost guaranteed another untimely failure.

It's only 5 years old and has 68k miles. This is clearly a manufacturing defect that they have even acknowledged, but realistically, what chance do I have?

Stubod

..5 years old, 68k miles, no main dealer history ....realistically.....Bob hope and no hope???

Mildly_Miffed

Funqi said:

Apparently it's a known fault with this particular engine, for which the parent company Stellantis recalled cars with these engines to change the timing belts

No, there was a recall to check the belt wasn't obviously delaminating.

updated service recommendations

Yes, the belt is now due for renewal at 6yr, not 10yr.

and extended the warranty to 10 years / 175km.

Subject to conditions.

Since I bought the car used in 2022, I never received any notification of any recall.

Check your car here: https://www.vauxhall.co.uk/owners/maintenance-and-repair/Vehicle-recall-check.html But the recall was issued in 2021.

https://www.peugeotforums.com/threads/jzr-puretech-110-130-recall-campaign-in-the-uk.352192/

Looking around on the net today, I've seen absolutely tons of examples of people with cars with these engines reporting issues with the timing belt disintegrating, guzzling excessive oil and many resulting in a destroyed engine.

Down to inadequate maintenance.

I have made sure to service it, altho by a mechanic at a garage I've known and trusted since we were young lads. It has a full service history, but since I have owned it, not by the main dealer.

And before you bought it? Is the service history documented as using the correct oil?

This is clearly a manufacturing defect

It's not. It's a maintenance problem.

that they have even acknowledged

Read the link you provided - it's down to the belt being attacked by oil that's deteriorated by the interval between services having been extended too far (or the wrong oil).

There are three types of belt.
The originals should all have been changed by now. This is the worst affected, by a long way.
Your car will have had the second type from new. These do not seem to have anywhere near as many problems.
All belts going in for the last year or two should be the third type.

We've had a lot of these threads here. Data is not the plural of anecdote, but my mother has a 1.2 Puretech in a 2018 Cactus. The belt was changed earlier this year, at six years old. It was like new. It's low mileage, yes - and the oil has been changed annually, well within mileage.

Funqi

It has full dealer history from the previous owner, I'll have to check the documentation when I get back home about oil etc. I have always put my cars in like clockwork, well within time for a service. I've been no different with this one, I have all the documents for that. I do that precisely so as not to have such problems.
I didn't take it to a dealer, I take it to the same garage I've been going to for about 25 years now. I think that is really the only thing I may have done that could be considered "my fault".

The fact that Stellantis has updated the service recommendation, specifically almost halving the lifespan of the wet belt, changed the spec of the belt 3 times, has a large group taking legal action for this very problem in Europe and have now made an exceptional warranty extended to 10 years and 175k km because the wet belt is known to disintegrate and clog the oil & brake system, strongly suggests it's likely to be a manufacturing defect.

Mildly_Miffed

Funqi said:

The fact that Stellantis has updated the service recommendation, specifically almost halving the lifespan of the wet belt

Yet yours was within the revised, shorter time.

changed the spec of the belt 3 times

Twice. Once since your car was built.

has a large group taking legal action for this very problem in Europe

It really doesn't set a high bar to have a bunch of ambulance chasers riling people up.

and have now made an exceptional warranty extended to 10 years and 175k km because the wet belt is known to disintegrate and clog the oil & brake system, strongly suggests it's likely to be a manufacturing defect.

Except for the minor detail that that warranty includes maintenance requirements that you don't meet, since the belt failure is regarded as collateral damage from poor maintenance practices. Stellantis didn't engineer and don't make the belt. Dayco do, one of the world's largest tier-one component suppliers. Wet belts have been surprisingly common for oil pumps - with no change schedule - for a couple of decades now. Using them for timing belts is still relatively unusual, but the Puretech was launched a decade ago.

Funqi

I'm sure Stellantis group would appreciate all this effort you make to defend their product and discredit all those people who are experiencing all these problems with it. I actually wish you were right, because I have no choice now but to pay off the car and get a new engine.
Even a quick look on youtube, you'll see countless garages and car dealers documenting the terrible state of these engines, unreasonable maintenance requirements, oil consumption problems, worn piston rings, regardless of how well it's maintained and to forget the manufacturer's recommendations about the belt and just check it as often as possible. Also car dealers saying they will not touch cars with this engine because they're so unreliable.
I do hope your mother has some good luck with hers, she's going to need it.

morgx

I realise I'm a bit late to respond to this but I had a very similar experience a few years ago with a DS3. DS ended up paying for all of the repairs, hire cars and then some, despite me having service history from a non-approved repairer, so there is precedent.

If you still have the car and need more info, feel free to drop me a message

paul_c123

The problem is this car/engine needs the correct specification oil, otherwise some other oil will degrade the belt (then cause all the onwards issues, eg oil starvation, blockages due to particles of belt in the oil, and of course ultimately the valve/piston damage from a snapped belt). And the inspection of the belt should have been done regularly, ie at each service (there is a tool to measure it, and its observable through the oil filler).

I am not surprised Stellantis aren't honouring the warranty when its not been serviced by a main dealer, since those above two items are somewhat pivotal in the early demise of the belt, and are often not done right by non-main dealers.

Ibrahim5

If you take your car to a main dealer for servicing a stamp or the modern equivalent is often all you get. They often don't change the oil. Main dealers have never been shown to be better than independents. I don't think legally they can insist on that. I think you just need a VAT registered garage to state that they have used the right parts. It's obviously a rubbish design and the customer is expected to pay for the consequence.

Betterthanlife

Mildly_Miffed said:

Funqi said:

The fact that Stellantis has updated the service recommendation, specifically almost halving the lifespan of the wet belt

Yet yours was within the revised, shorter time.

changed the spec of the belt 3 times

Twice. Once since your car was built.

has a large group taking legal action for this very problem in Europe

It really doesn't set a high bar to have a bunch of ambulance chasers riling people up. and have now made an exceptional warranty extended to 10 years and 175k km because the wet belt is known to disintegrate and clog the oil & brake system, strongly suggests it's likely to be a manufacturing defect.

Except for the minor detail that that warranty includes maintenance requirements that you don't meet, since the belt failure is regarded as collateral damage from poor maintenance practices. Stellantis didn't engineer and don't make the belt. Dayco do, one of the world's largest tier-one component suppliers. Wet belts have been surprisingly common for oil pumps - with no change schedule - for a couple of decades now. Using them for timing belts is still relatively unusual, but the Puretech was launched a decade ago.  

Dayco are quite small in the automotive tier 1 world, definitely not in the top 50, probably not in the top 75