A mate's taken a 1.8 VVC to his local Dealer to have two cam belts replaced.
They called him at work to tell him the thread on the engine mount is unusable due to 'previous damage'.
£21.76 +VAT for the part + £23 more labour.
He asked if it was removed as part of 12 or 24 000 mile service seeing as that's the only work it's had and they said no but it could've been removed for 'some other reason and put back too tight'.
Now this is simply a lie. They've stripped it.
What can he do? He had to agree to the 50 quid on the 'phone 'cos the cars in bit's in their workshop.
Has he got *any* way of getting the cash back?
We could have done this job between us in a morning. Now he out of pocket *and* had a component knackered.
Short of staying away from garages has anyone got any other advice?.
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Call the Service Manager direct and complain.
Other than getting him to treat it as a "Customer Service" issue, there isn't much you can do for that sort of money.
Sorry.
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If this is as simple as you say can't think what they're up to. If I broke a part costing £25 on a job worth £200+ gross I'd be really pleased to have the part in stock, pop it on and say/charge nothing.
The loss of goodwill over this amount is daft.
There is no real way to prove it, however much in the right your mate is, just try consumer pressure as Mark says.
David
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David Woollard wrote:
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> If this is as simple as you say can't think what they're up
> to.
It is as simple as I say.
However, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. According to the mate in question their "somebody else crossthreaded it before us" story is so laughably unconvincing that he's begining to wonder if simply querying it with the service manager when he go's in may get results.
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Was the car only ever serviced by the same garage?
If this is the case then the damage was either caused during the cambelt replacement, during previous servicing, or was faulty from manufacture.
For all cases refer to the service manager, to whom can be left the task
of apportioning blame between them and the manufacturer.
(probably being too naive here)
/john
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John Kenyon wrote:
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> Was the car only ever serviced by the same garage?
Sadly not. But it's stretching imagination to think that someone else cross threaded the engine mount on a low mileage car. Why would anyone touch the engine mount until it was ready for a cam...
Unless there was a cambelt related recall in the very late 90's...
> If this is the case then the damage was either caused during
> the cambelt replacement, during previous servicing, or was
> faulty from manufacture.
There's no service item that requires it to have been touched except the cam belt replacement it had today. As I say it's possible that there was 'some other reason' for someone to play with engine mounts...
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Blood's just run cold.
One reason that it might have had a stripped damaged engine mount would be if the cam belt *had* been replaced before. The car is not quite 4 years old.
I wonder if it had done a *lot* of mileage got clocked and provided with a false service history by the orignal dealer...
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Dave,
I "know" things about some cars it is better never to mention to customers. One (sorry not fair to give any more details) has a "believed" low mileage despite missing service book...... and was purchased at an accordingly high price.
I'd seen some clues before but when I did the "first" cambelt change the other day I found the paint marks where it had been changed before and the belt wasn't OE.
As you say there are possible reasons for this (warranty work etc) but you have to think of clocking.
David
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is you were more certain that it was their fault, for instance if you had owned the car since new you could
i) complain, but if that gets you nowhere
ii) pay up, but dont sign anything, take car away
iii) write a letter giving them 10 days to repay you else you'll issue a small claims summons and go to the press
iv) after 10 days do issue a small claims summons, it'll only cost 10 % of the value of the claim
after summons they will almost certainly pay up for such a small amount, cos it would cost them a lot of hassle/time/money to defend this action
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The voice of reason returns......
The alloy/steel engine mouting brackets on these engines can be a little fragile.
Sometimes, whilst unscrewing the long bolts which hold the mountings together, the alloy thread section of the lower mounting half can come out with the bolt. I suppose it might be due to over-liberal use of locitite compounds at manufacture.
This is why we keep a set of M10*1.50 helicoils in the stores for this eventuality. No need for a new mounting, then - just a £9 insert.
There was a recall on these VVC engines due to the inlet camwheel coming loose - this mounting would have had to have been removed at this time. Perhaps it was overtightened/loctited during this check?
Did your friend have the inlet camshaft centre bolt replaced & loctited up at the same time? (Hope so for his sake! - they have a nasty habit of coming loose!)
Rgds
David
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David Lacey wrote:
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[snip excellent suggestions advice]
Thanks!
I haven't heard back from him yet. I've passed on all comments.
I reckon this might get resolved peacefully. It'll only cost them 23 quid to save a £220 customer 50 quid *plus* VAT.
If my mate is true to form he'll make a calm and well constructed case for forgetting the 23 quid which will hopefully be sensibly considered...
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It's all academic. Rover UK don't have the required part.
The dealer are going to helicoil it but *won't* gaurentee it.
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That's it.
Yet another fresh member initiated into the DL fan club. ;-)
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