I am conscious that this is a public forum and do not want to prejudice any future actions by being too specific about make and model - it's not relevant to the question anyway.

A car belonging to a member of my family was involved in a minor damage-only accident requiring it to be repaired at the other driver's insurance company's expense. The bodyshop specified was not a marque specific company so it was decided that it should go to a main dealer's bodyshop instead. The repairs, involving cooling system draining, were carried out and the car returned a day before the owner was due to travel to the continent on holiday in the car.

After a few hundred miles the valvegear started to become noisy. On arrival at the destination a local dealership found that one or more cam lobes were worn and damaged; new camshafts and followers were needed. This was impossible in the place where the car was located so either repatriation or a gentle drive home were the choice.

The car was driven home maintaining sub-3000 revs and the noise did not worsen significantly. A local independent dealer expert in the marque looked at the engine and agreed that new cams and followers were required. Due to a world-wide shortage of the followers the repairs were not started for several weeks after the trip and, therefore, after the body shop work.

At this point there was no reason to link the body shop with the engine problem. When the independent workshop drained the cooling system to carry out the work they discovered that "only about a cupful" was in the engine. No evidence of external leakage was found nor any of coolant in the oil - the expansion tank was still full which meant that the low-coolant warning system had not tripped. A massive airlock in the cooling system had allowed the engine oil to overheat to the point of degradation thus leading to camshaft damage.

The independent workshop recommends that the big end bearings are examined for shell damage whilst the car is in the workshop. The bill for all this work might easily top £3,000 and my family member is understandably aggrieved. How, with the difficulty of proof and the elapsed time between the body shop removing the radiator and the ultimate diagnosis, can we proceed to obtain recompense for the loss?

Edited by Avant on 25/10/2011 at 00:20