Wet timing belts

Joyfullife

I’ve only had the car since Mar/Apr 2024, bought from BCC Hyundai who have since stopped trading. After we broke down on the motorway and then discovered this wetbelt scenario I contacted Hyundai Finance but they weren’t interested. No one wanted to take responsibility and I was without a car for 3 months. Eventually, I contacted the financial ombudsman and they found in my favour. At this point I’d paid Vauxhall to do the wetbelt replacement. The financial ombudsman recovered all my costs and thought I’d at least have a car which would last until the PCP was due to end…not looking so good now

Funqi

Well, good for you going the financial ombudsman route! I was in almost identical situation, except I didn't just need a new belt, I just had to pay off the finance AND the huge bill to repair the engine. It fell 5 months short of the finance period.

Unfortunately I suspect you're in for some pretty bad news today. 

facade

Joyfullife said:

I’ve just collected my car. Vauxhall have said that it’s not the wetbelt but it is burning oil. If the oil light comes on, I’ve not to top it up but I have to ring them. 

Have you got that in writing on Vauxhall headed paper or an official e-mail from a Vauxhall e-mail address?

The oil light comes on when it has no oil pressure and has suffered internal engine damage.

The trick with an oil burner is to keep it topped up so that the oil light never comes on when the engine is running.

Run it until the oil light comes on and they will blame all the engine wear and problems on you not topping the oil up!

Joyfullife

I’ve not got it in writing, no. Just what the girl in the service desk told me when I collected the car. Rang them this morning to ascertain what the issue actually is and was told I could only be put through to the service desk. Not helpful, as I wanted to speak to a mechanic who should be able to tell me more about the problem. It’s an absolute shambles of a situation. I don’t trust the car, as I don’t believe it’s fit for purpose 

facade

Joyfullife said:

I’ve not got it in writing, no. Just what the girl in the service desk told me when I collected the car. 

Then don't run it out of oil!

She will either deny saying it, or claim that she clearly said until the "oil LEVEL low" light comes on. (Some cars have them, or a level indicator when you first turn them on- I've no idea if yours has)

Keep it topped up, and keep a note of how much oil you have to put in, then go back and say that it used 5 litres in 500 miles or whatever.

They will try and claim that 1000 miles to a litre is "perfectly normal" (well it is for one of those, but not normal compared to any other car except VWs & early BMW minis).

BlueHarbourBouy

There is a major issue with 'wet belt' engines . Ford owners with the 1 litre Eco Boost engines are having to scrap 16 & 17 Reg cars as they would be uneconomical to repair. This has occurred even if the cars have been  serviced correctly. There is a Facebook group Ecoboom

Funqi

Mine is using 1 litre of oil every 600 - 700 miles. I will keep it running like this for as long as I have to and despite already having paid almost £3k for repairs already, it'll still probably make more sense to rebuild it now, because it's worthless otherwise. I wish I had just done that in the first place.

As mentioned above, please do make sure to carry oil with you. I would suggest to check it every few hundred miles at this point just so you can get an idea of how much it is burning before it gets too low. Unfortunately it will likely continue to get worse, as mine is. 

Joyfullife

Thank you, think carrying the oil is a good plan

Joyfullife

Funnily enough, allowing the car to run out of oil isn’t on my list of things to happen. I don’t trust the car, as far as I’m concerned it’s not fit for purpose. It still hasn’t done 50k miles and it’s on its second (at least) wetbelt. Car was a motability car previously, so will have been serviced regularly by main dealer. I’ve literally driven around 2000 miles since the oil change in August. Will contact the garage on Monday for more info regarding the current situation